Half term was filled with bug hunts, sensory play, performances and adventure as our holiday campers joined us for the shorter week!
A highlight this week was during the sunny spells! The back of the forest is exciting for many new faces as we have our swing, climbing frame, slack line, and ladder to the trees! Many have been showing the younger Little Forest Folk-ers how we can effectively take turns by counting to 100 in between turns soaring on the swing or reaching to the top of the trees! Sharing is crucial but our adventurers are still learning; watching and observing older learners’ kindness has set a tone for our littler learners! “How many minutes until my turn?” Organising themselves to adventure to the big swing, some of the learners were heard, “You can go first, then you and I’ll go after you, okay?”
Dinosaur world! All our adventurers love animals and dinosaurs! We have discovered new dinosaur names such as therizinosaur! The children measured two cups of flour with food colouring, oil and warm water to create their own play dough! This is great at developing some finger muscles 💪🏼 Many of our learners created volcanos, lava and trees to send us back in time! Dinosaurs roamed and left footprints in the play dough. “Look I’m making a fossil!” “Can you match the footprint to the dinosaur?” “This one is a huge foot with three toes - it’s a T-Rex!” “What would happen if we put water in the volcano?” As we poured in water to our play dough volcano 🌋 it became sticky and gloopy. “How can we make it drier?” “Add water or flour?” It’s wonderful stepping back as the adventurers experiment and problem solve!
Vicky had children gathered round a sensory tray full of chia seeds. We can mark make our letter or number! After moving the chia seeds, the adventurers noticed that if they hit the tray the seeds would, “dance,” “jump,” Vicky explained they were dancing due to the vibrations. Vibrations can be heard in music due to guitar strings or in the forest from running feet and bouncing balls! Even our vocal cords vibrate to create sound!
We have had woodwork activities as Maria encouraged learners to observe and follow instructions, guiding the learners to use a saw. We could hear the voices around the forest, “To me, to you!” As Maria encouraged the back and forth motion using gross motor skills! These sawn sticks were then used to create part of our forest school boundary! Keeping us all safe within the forest 🌳
We’re looking forward to a full week next week and having our usual faces back! Thank you holiday campers for all the fun and influence brought this week! Have a great week!
Little Forest Folk
Morden