This week in the forest has been a mix of all weathers, and all adventures!
We had such a lovely time saying hello to our new friends for the start of term, and welcoming back old friends after the summer break! As this is a big week for all of us, we wanted to make sure our focus was on our emotional understanding and regulation - so we had the ‘inside out’ office set up as a role play space! Here, children took turns to sit around the desk and initiate different conversations around how they were feeling, with books and characters to prompt their chat. It was so lovely to see children using this space in their own ways and coming back to it through the day!
New school year brings new routines! So the Little Forest Folk-ers have been super helpful in showing our new friends the steps of each day! We have our visual time table available above our bag hooks, which we keep right next to our snack circle, so they can see it any time they need. The older children have taken great care and consideration for our new friends, talking to them about our next steps of the day, and reminding them of when they will be seeing their grownups if they are feeling a little upset. We love to see this little community of ours growing so strong!
Another great activity we had this week was helping the colour monster to find his colours! For those who don’t know - The Colour Monster is a great book which we like to read in the forest, which helps us to understand that our emotions can be hard to recognise/label sometimes, and which colours we can use to express those feelings. This painting activity which everyone was involved with initiated some lovely conversations, and encouraged our fine motor skills when we need to add detail to the picture.
Have a lovely weekend everyone! We look forward to more adventures with you next week.
Little Forest Folk
Morden