Kings and Queens of Cardboard Castle!
We've had a very short week in the forest this week, but just as fun nonetheless! Before the long weekend, we had a brilliant cooking activity using the dough we'd previously used for baking the bread sticks; this time we made Blackberry Parcels! The children helped to collect a fabulous box of blackberries, which we then wrapped in dough and cooked over the fire! The children loved watching the colour of the dough change as it cooked and were so excited to see what they looked and tasted like inside at snack time - they were delicious! It was brilliant to share the whole experience with the children, talking through each step of the making stage.
When the children arrived in the forest on Wednesday morning, we found a huge cardboard castle at the front of the hall! The children bravely entered the castle to check for 'dragons' and 'giant tigers' before deciding who would be the 'king'! We used some extra cardboard to make the crown, using their measuring skills to make the circle shape 'not too big and not too small'. The children then used their sharing and communication skills to pass the crown around when it was another child's turn to wear it! It was lovely to see the children playing so creatively in a big group!
We've been excited to develop the children's cooking skills in the forest, so we've been practicing chopping vegetables! We started practicing using plastic knives to get the children used to following the rules of keeping safe while using small tools, each child sat very safely and listened to the educators leading the activity. We had lots of fun chopping our own cucumber and practicing how to grip the tool properly. We're excited to lead this activity again in future to introduce sharper knives.
Following on from the children's car focussed play last week, we've been drawing chalk roads all over the forest! We've even drawn a little 'box junction’ and spoke about how they couldn't bump into each other or stop in the box, it was super fun to see them working out who's turn it was to drive next!
We've been loving our music in the forest, so we've decided to start our very own Forest Music Book! We've started our book by creating a page about one of our favourites, 'The Duck Song'. The children recited the words and watched as an educator wrote each word they said. The children also drew pictures of their favourite things from the song and signed their names next to their drawings. It was really lovely to see the page fill us with their additions, and they loved revisiting it later in the day to see what they had drawn with their friends!
We hope you too have had a lovely week and we hope you have wonderful weekends!
Little Forest Folk
Morden