From the hot plains of Africa to the misty cloudy forests of Costa Rica, the children have enjoyed some wonderful tropical heat this week!
With so much heat throughout the whole week, the children have embraced water play in many different forms! They have created magic potions using a wonderful concoction of different ingredients. Some used mashed up leaves, dirt and water with acorns and long grass stirred in at the end. Once the potions were created our Little Forest Folkers fed them to us and turned us into frogs!
Other children mashed up blackberries with water to make some wonderful purple watercolour paints! The children used these paints to make their own pictures using paintbrushes, sticks and long grasses to make marks on paper and cardboard squares! This activity became very tactile as the children explored different ways of mashing the blackberries. Some children used specially chosen sticks or mini logs with a flat surface to squish the blackberries against the bottom of the pot! Others preferred to squeeze the blackberries between their fingers. They discussed the pros of each method explaining why their chosen way would produce the best ‘slime’, ‘juice’, ‘paint’ or ‘wine’!
Water fun on the hottest days also included a lovely cooling off under a spray from the hose on the cricket pitch. The children ran around under the spray cooling off and excitedly jumped in the muddy puddles that formed around them! We noticed rainbows refracting around us in the misty spray and stopped to look as we got wetter and wetter!
After the stormy weather later in the week, the forest became all misty and you could smell the water in the air. It really did smell like a tropical rainforest! The sounds of the forest became heightened as the air blocked out external sounds and a cool air flowed around us. The children went off on a listening walk trying to identify different sounds. We heard some different birds, a squirrel, a mouse rustling, and our own footsteps pattering along the paths.
We have also loved doing lots of balancing this week and the children have done this in different ways! They have enjoyed crossing a rope bridge, an extra thin balancing beam, super long obstacle courses and a rolling log with planks to surf on! We even had more jumping games with children trying to 360 degree spins as they jumped off!
Next week we start to welcome lots of new faces into the forest. We are all super excited to meet the new Little Forest Folkers, welcome them and forge some new friendships!
We hope you have a wonderful weekend!!
Little Forest Folk
Putney Heath