3,2,1, Race!
There’s been lots of focus on ‘racing’ and ‘cars’ in the forest this week! Lots of the children have been really interested in making ‘ramps’ and ‘tracks’ for the toy cars and tractors that we play with. We went exploring to find different objects in the forest which we could use in our play, like planks of wood to make ramps, and long logs to draw chalk lines on as our road. They were experimenting with where to place the planks so the cars would go down the ramp as fast as possible!
We loved this play so much, that towards the end of the week, the whole forest space was turned into a race course! We had a big ‘start’ and ‘finish’ sign, we had white flour lines along the paths to show which way to go, and flags hung in the trees to wave at us as we ran! It was awesome to see the children’s play develop so much through the week!
One afternoon this week, the children opened a hairdressers for the educators! The educators took turns to come and sit down and have their hair washed and have a ‘little trim’. They also offered to shave Otis’ beard, which started a conversation about the people they knew who have beards, and if the children would want beard themselves, ‘I think I’ll have a little beard’.
We developed our finishing activity from last week, on one of our rainy days, and submerged the magnetic letters in a muddy puddle to add a little mystery to the game! The children would dangle their fishing rod magnets in the muddy pond, and move them around to see how many they could collect, and what sounds they could make! We also enjoyed using the letters to find metal things in the forest, they helped us to figure out which water bottles were made of metal, the sink is metal, and even areas of the black board!
Our bird watching tower has been a favourite of the children this week, and we’ve added some animal spotting posters to see how many different birds and animals we’ve seen so far! We’ve loved to hear the children describing the birds they’ve seen, “This one is black and white, with a big mouth” and matching to those they see on the cards. The children will go back to the posters through the day if they see a bird in the trees to see if they’ve matched it before!
We had a wonderful time playing the ukulele this week, the children sat down to listen to some songs, before playing some sweet sounds themselves! We talked about the best way to hold the instrument, to show it respect, and to make sure we have kind and gentle hands while playing. The children would ask lots of questions about how the sound came out, and why there was a hole in the middle. We experimented with lots of different ways make sounds with the ukulele, like strumming it, tapping it, and talking into it!
We also had a Fire circle towards the end of the week, reminding the children of the fire circle rules to keep safe. The children did amazing listening, loved to watch the fire grow bigger as we put on the ‘food’, and as always, loved to join in with our songs and stories!
Have lovely weekends all!
Little Forest Folk
Morden