This week featured the celebration of Thanksgiving with it turning into a bit of a theme.
The groups have taken slightly elongated routes to camp to gather up leaves that they could find before using glue and paper to create their own Thanksgiving Turkeys, while others drew round their hands to create a feathered turkey shape that they could colour in. We talked to the children about being thankful and started conversations about what it is that we all feel thankful for in our own lives. It was beautiful and funny and fascinating to hear what they came up with. We had gratitude for so many things from Mummies and Daddies, sisters and families to fruits and vegetables and, my personal favourite, “Mummy and Daddy because they let me eat pasta”.
Gathering autumn leaves for art projects is such a wonderful example of how fantastic our outdoor space is as a resource in itself and, as I reflect on the week to write this newsletter, it has reminded me of just how thankful I am for our outdoor nursery environment. It’s so easy for us, as Educators, to overlook the simple fact that this ever-changing environment provides so much inspiration, detail, and opportunity for curiosity to be sparked simply through the children playing within it. In our nursery our four walls are a constantly changing mural of colour, we have a floor that is completely interactive in its texture and our ceiling changes from hour to hour! This is to say nothing of the animals and little insect creatures that come to visit us every day, the helicopters and aeroplanes that we watch passing over our heads and the excitement when the gardeners drive by, waving at the children from their tractor.
On a theme of gratitude, it would be a crime to not mention the tireless work that goes into every day in our forest by the fantastic team that I have the pleasure to lead! Heading into the winter months can be hard when you work outside all day and I am blown away by the positivity, resilience and creativity that these amazing women bring to the forest each week. No matter the weather, the team hits the ground running every day so that our brilliant kids can have a fantastic time. We often laugh at the mud ingrained on our skin, under our nails and in our hair at the end of the day and this attitude is so important for encouraging the children to embrace the mud and leaves and gain their own resilience.
The children have wowed us this week with examples of kindness and consideration being shown to their friends; from playing Doctors and Hospitals where we continued to support them in conversations about their own experiences while administering creams, medicines and plasters to their poorly patients, to simply taking the hand of a younger friend so that they can join in a race with the older kids. It is always lovely when we start to hear the children problem solve their way out of conflicting moments and offer up compromises and solutions without our support. Using tone of voice, body language, and eye contact alongside their words they are able to demonstrate fantastic social skills and our younger children are able to witness and absorb how it’s done.
Occupations have also been a popular concept this week with the children talking about the jobs their parents do as well as their knowledge of other roles. Sometimes a conversation is enough but sometimes it sparks up some role play as they take ownership of an identity and incorporate it into their play.
The team have been diligently writing up their reports for you to find out a little more about your children in a specific light and I will be sending out invites soon that will give you the opportunity to select a timeslot to have a 15minute zoom call parent’s meeting with two of our Educators during the week starting 7th December. This is a great opportunity for us to find out any specific interests your child may have at home that we can use to encourage learning and also for you to hear just what they get up to day to day!
We hope you all have had a lovely week too and hope you all have lovely weekends!
Little Forest Folk
Fulham