We’ve had another lovely week in the forest. The weather has still provided sun which has encouraged some harvesting of our vegetable patch, including potatoes and tomatoes! The wind did cause us to seek refuge indoors but we took full advantage of this, playing games such as “Sleepy bunnies” and “Animal freeze” as well as practicing our mark making and construction.
We have been enjoying construction within the forest this week. We have built many forms of transport and the forest has been full of “Vroom vroom!” “Beep beep!” “Tickets please!” “Come on my boat!”. Our Little Forest Folk-ers have been using natural materials such as planks of wood, blocks, stools and logs to arrange and plan areas of their boat, cars and rockets! “This is the driver seat, this is where you put petrol!” It’s great for encouraging communication and listening as the little ones work together to build and construct their ideas. These activities are great for forming relationships and building confidence to share their own thoughts and ideas.
We have also enjoyed educator Marlon spending some time with us at Morden, he has engaged our little adventurers in stories and tool work. We talked about health and safety when using the bow saw and everyone showed great listening and understanding as they followed instructions to safely use the saw back and forth to cut their wood ‘cookies.’ We used our gross motor skills to pull and push the saw with support from Marlon whilst two other learners helped to hold the wood still. Another great activity to ensure our settlers and Little Forest Folk-ers can work as a team and begin to form connections and relations within the forest!
We are all enjoying story time and using props to encourage role play and senses whilst listening. Using materials and characters within the books such as “The Tiger Who Came to Tea!” This is a much-loved story and even more engaging when we can sip some tea or act out scenes with our toy tiger. The learners have a chance to talk to the tiger and let him know how they’d feel if he ate all of their food and drank all of their water!
We look forward to another fun week next week, have a lovely weekend and enjoy the official beginning of Autumn!
Little Forest Folk
Morden