Following the announcement of our Queen’s award in April, we are delighted to share an article written about Little Forest Folk by a journalist who visited us in May.
We’ve been bursting with excitement and now that it’s the Queen’s birthday and the official announcement day, we are absolutely delighted to finally share with you the news that Little Forest Folk has been given the royal seal of approval.
Following our being selected by Tatler as being one of the finest nurseries in the nation last month, we are now delighted to share with you an article written about Little Forest Folk by a journalist who visited us in our Wimbledon setting a few weeks ago.
Well, this weekend was the long awaited Nursery World Awards! It was a fabulous event and we were delighted to be recognised in such a large industry such as the early years to be one of the industry leaders.
So far on our walks, we’ve spotted a coot nest with spotty eggs, moorhens swimming with their funny chicken feet, and lots of mallard ducks. We talked about how we can tell the difference between the male and female ducks because they’re different colours. We especially loved the shiny green on the males’ heads. We were very lucky to spot some Canada Geese and six goslings!
This week at Little Forest Folk Morden, we have been focusing on our little ones physical development through a range of fun and engaging activities. Alongside many other experiences that supported both their fine and gross motor skills, one of our favourite activities was our threading station, which gave the children the opportunity to refine their fine motor skills. Using child-friendly needles, wool, and a variety of felt materials, they explored threading in a safe, engaging and creative way.
This week, the children explored a sensory tuff tray filled with oobleck. We mixed water and cornflour together to create a magical mixture and added blue and yellow paint, discovering that the colours mixed together to make green. The children loved squeezing, pinching and scraping the oobleck from the tray while exploring the unusual texture through sensory play.
We headed out in search of all the different bugs and beetles we could see. With some of our little explorers also bird watching using the binoculars so they could see high up in the trees. We also all enjoyed some fun and arty crafts with butterfly making as well as some caterpillar themed activities too!
we have been investigating birds this week. The binoculars and our avid birdwatchers scanned the treetops for the source of the sweet singing we hear daily in the forest. Our efforts paid off and we spotted a song thrush speeding across the path and lots of blue tits and robins! The usual visitors of magpie, parakeets, and crows were also loudly making themselves known, with our "resident" woodpigeons Mo and Flo poking around the snack circle to tidy up any fallen crumbs. 🦋🐛
Understanding the World through hands-on experiences. We explored different occupations, and the children have truly thrown themselves into every role with curiosity, teamwork and lots of imagination. From digging up dinosaurs to solving mysteries and serving up pizzas or making coffees our camp has been as busy as the beekeepers in Spring! ☀️✨🌈🐝
We have learnt about the importance of recycling and about how dangerous it is for plastics to get into the ocean. We also talked about how the birds, turtles and fish can die from either ingesting or getting tangled up in ocean plastic. Whilst focussing on this, we drew a huge whale on a sheet of cardboard and painted half of him blue. The other half we stuck on plastic rubbish, bags, cartons containers, bottle tops, plastic string etc as if he had accidentally eaten the plastic. He understandably had a very unhappy face in the painting too!
The children carefully searched the trees, spotting caterpillars dangling delicately on silky threads. They showed such kindness and respect, gently observing them before returning them safely to their homes. We also noticed tiny holes in leaves, discussing how much (or how little!) the caterpillars had been eating. Alongside this, the children enjoyed drawing their own caterpillars and butterflies and talking about the fascinating transformation into butterflies.
We spotted some beautiful lilac flowers which the children all liked the smell of. They went on to try and draw them, some wishing they could make their drawings smell as good as the real thing!
There was also some lovely role play at the teddy bears picnic. The children all sat round and fed the bears whilst discussing what we thought they might eat and what we liked to eat too.
We’ve also been looking at lifecycles, with focus on frogs and butterflies. We can’t quite get close enough to the river to see if we can spot any tadpoles
Out in the forest some of the children took part in an engaging letter activity, writing and placing letters around the forest where they were working collaboratively.
This week has been especially exciting here at Little Forest Folk Morden. Every year around this time, we receive a special delivery of chicken eggs, and for two weeks we get to watch as the chicks peck and crack their way out into the world. It’s been a wonderful experience for our adventurers. They’ve loved watching the chicks cuddle together to keep warm and seeing their feathers grow soft and fluffy. Even more special has been the opportunity to gently handle them, showing such care and using their “kind and gentle hands” when giving them cuddles. 🐣
