Early in the week the children noticed some interesting sounds being played in the forest… we could hear ‘dinosaur roars’ echoing in the trees, and big tracks making their way across the paths! A big group quickly became dinosaur searchers, in charge of driving the ‘Jeep’ to escape danger, search teams for dinosaur bones, and lookouts to make sure there were no dangerous dinos coming to eat us! Having the children engage so strongly in imaginative play together creates so much magic, and the children end up talking about it for the rest of the day!
The children’s interest in maps have been growing, usually being spoken about in their imaginative play, and we love to get the chances to create our own ones using different materials. This week we’ve been making them out of watercolour paints, using the different colours to look like different landscapes! “This is the desert, and this one is the forest”! The children have also been loving our non-fiction books about the different parts of the world, and the celebrations that different countries enjoy!
The gazebo at the back of the forest was covered with knitting wool spider webs one morning this week! The children were pretending to be flies and had to make their way through the web, so they didn’t get stuck! They bent and wiggled through the small gaps and encouraged each other to the side of the webs! We love looking for the smallest creatures that live in the forest and asking questions about where they live and what they do! The children who became “stuck” in the webs were reminded by others “don’t shake! The spider will know you’re there!”
This week’s cooking activity has been used to celebrate St Patrick’s Day! We used food colouring to make green and orange pancakes, listened to some happy trad music and had a little dance at the back of the forest! We spoke about Ireland, what it looks like, and shared stories of when we’ve visited family or friends there!
Little Forest Folk
Morden