Our Week in the Forest...
What a busy week we’ve had! The mixed weather has meant we’ve had both the joy of afternoons lying under a blue sky telling stories and mornings spent splashing in puddles, whilst the high winds over the weekend delivered us a fresh supply of sticks for all sorts of games and activities. One of the children’s favourite things to do with the sticks is use our ample supply of multicoloured wool to turn them into… well, anything! This week we’ve had dinosaurs, aeroplanes, fishing rods, stick people - it’s amazing what you can do with the simple resources of a ball of wool, a stick or two and a bit of imagination!
At the beginning of the week Virginia helped us bake some delicious brown bread. Our little bakers worked in teams to measure out the ingredients, practiced their counting as they poured in the cups of flour and water, took turns stirring them in and then worked their muscles kneading the dough! Once the dough had been well kneaded (and arms were a bit tired) we rolled it into sausages and then shaped our long sausages into snail spirals ready to be baked. Freshly baked bread to go with our chickpea and mango curry was therefore on the menu that night, and the children were delighted to eat their handiwork. Lots of lucky Mums and Dads were also treated to a bread roll to enjoy at home as well, and the children were so excited to share them with their families.
During the middle of the week, playdough was the order of the day. Xiao had made a beautiful selection of different coloured doughs, giving our budding sculptors great opportunity to let loose their creative instincts. We had a number of special birthday cakes created, with some excellent stick-candles; miniature cameras, complete with shutter buttons that took photos aplenty across the site; as well as animals galore – from lions to snails and even a Spinosaurus. The children enjoyed the effect of mixing all the colours, experimenting with how to make new colours and creating beautiful marbling effects.
At the end of the week, we’ve taken our creative juices in a new direction, with the introduction of some musical instruments to the forest. The opportunity to play along to our favourite songs and even learn some new ones has been relished by the children as they’ve made a joyful noise with bells, castanets, claves, triangles, tambourines and more. One afternoon, we moved to our grassland area for a singing session and combined this with some dancing opportunities too, with an enormous game of ‘In and Out the Dusty Bluebells’ and a rousing round of ‘Rig-a-Jig-Jig’. The children loved having the space and freedom to run, jump, dance and skip to their hearts content!
We hope everyone has a lovely weekend and enjoys the outdoors as much as we do! For our sessional families we wish you all a great half-term!
Little Forest Folk
Twickenham