This week, the mornings started with ice on the ground and a little bit of fog but as soon as we were ready to play, the sun started shining through the trees and warming up the forest!
This week has been Children's Mental Health week and so alongside our usual fun activities we’ve tried to allow our Little Forest Folk-ers lots of opportunities to relax, talk about their feelings and included some fun sensory activities!
Being in the forest all day gives us the opportunity to relax in lots of unique ways, ranging from sitting quietly and listening out for the birds or lying on the forest floor and cloud watching, to some mindful adventure walks. We’ve also made time for open air yoga sessions which the children loved - they enjoyed figuring out all the poses and finding out which animals they could be next!
The Mud Kitchen turned into the ‘Mud Café’, serving up a wonderful range of healthy meals; the children swapped out their usual ‘mud’ cakes for some tasty cucumber salads and warm peppermint tea which they enjoyed brewing and smelling. The bakery was set up alongside the cafe serving delicious homemade bread with some added forest flavours.
We’ve had plenty of sensory fun, making cloud dough and coloured rice, using foam, and getting messy with clay! The craft area has been a hub for mark making, we’ve used lots of different materials for the children to paint and draw on using chalk, pens, pencils or some lovely mud. The children decided that the final project in the craft area had to be a birthday card for Miranda, this was a lovely surprise along with her birthday feast they created in the mud kitchen!
This week we said a sad goodbye to our student educator Chloe, she’s been with us for three weeks and already the children adore her and will miss her dearly. She has been an absolute joy to have in the forest and helped to create some brilliant set ups. We hope to see you soon Chloe!
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
Little Forest Folk
Twickenham