After ending last week with some Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations, we welcomed the warmer weather back this week. We were also very happy to welcome back some Little Forest Folk Putney Heath Alumni for our Holiday Camp!
We started off our week with a day on the meadow playing lots of chasing games and clay modelling. This activity accompanied the children throughout our week in the forest. It was amazing to observe how each child would come up with their individual idea on what to build and how they integrated objects that they found around them to make their piece unique. On Tuesday (Pancake Day) many clay models became pancakes and the children turned our clay corner into a pancake kitchen where they were happy to serve the hungry customers. All this was accompanied by some good rhythm coming from our mud kitchen area.
Lots of role-play happened also this week. The children built a pirate ship and sailed off on adventures. Once arrived on an island the pirates discovered a treasure hunt that involved finding the five words of the week: whiskers, stripes, teeth, fur and paws. All words connected to a big cat that is always really popular between the Little Forest Folkers of Putney Heath. On the following days the children learned interesting facts about these words. Did you know that no tiger has the same stripes pattern as another?
In the evenings, the children of the woodpecker group really enjoyed playing with our big colourful parachute. It gave them many opportunities to play collaboratively as well as offering them shelter. Children enjoyed experimenting with new ways to move the parachute and once happy with the result, they loved showing it to the others and then see their friends copying them. On one occasion the parachute was also transformed into a horse carriage! The children loved sitting on the parachute while an educator would pull them around the room. But they had to be careful, depending on how sharp a turn was, they could slide out of the carriage.
We wish you all a wonderful weekend and look forward to more forest adventures next week!
Little Forest Folk
Putney Heath