Hello Everyone
We are coming to the end of another wonderful week in the forest. Therefore, let me debrief you all on all the exciting fun we’ve been having together.
This week we have been particularly focused on birds, especially those found in our forest and local environment. On Tuesday we listened out to the sound of a woodpecker echoing through the trees. We discussed what woodpeckers were and how they made such a large sound. Later we looked at a book containing information and audio of the song of common British birds. The children enjoyed pointing out the pigeon, a type of bird we see an awful lot at Twickenham, usually eyeing up our tasty meals. On the art table we used empty toilet roll holders to make our very own binoculars for birdwatching. The children painted the rolls and added string and feathers (for camouflage, obviously) in order to personalise them and make them look special. After drying they used the card binoculars to watch the pretty (and very noisy) Parakeets that have made a home in our giant plane tree.
As well as birds, the children have enjoyed looking and learning from our new wildlife books. These books have lots of wonderful pictures and amazing facts for the group to see and hear. Charlie was also kind enough to bring in a selection of tiny books with some fantastic and bizarre stories. The novelty of these tiny books has made them a popular new addition to the forest.
With the wet weather, the group finally had a chance to play in large puddles again. Lots of fun was had building a slippery, slidy obstacle course with ramps, bridges, tyres and crates. This provided a great opportunity to develop the increasing ability to balance and coordinate, going over and across large hurdles. With the extra water, our mud kitchen has been exceedingly muddy with a variety of activities taking place there. Some children decided to bake ‘mud cupcakes’ of many different flavours. Others prepared food for dinosaurs and paw patrol puppies. The puppies it seems are also partial to a cupcake but not ordinary human ones but ‘dog biscuit cupcakes.’ The paw patrol gang would have been ‘barking’ mad to have turned them down.
During our morning circle time, after singing the usual welcome song and discussing the rules of the forest, one child chose a flag of the week for us to talk about. This time Fiji was chosen and after looking at the flag we learnt the common greeting used in Fiji of ‘Bula.’ Later we looked at a map to find where Fiji was located and discovered what Fijians liked to eat.
On Wednesday our group activity was to make our own colourful playdough. After mixing the flour and oil, giving it many vigorous stirs the dough was emptied out and separated into piles ready for colouring. After making pale green, pink, primrose yellow and pale orange, the children began rolling, squeezing and patting it into such a variety of creations as worms, pizzas, snakes and playdough houses for little playdough people.
A nice surprise for our Little Forest Folk-ers was the unexpected visit from our former manager, the much-loved Xiao (now Operations Manager). The children were so excited to see him, and he was nearly sent tumbling over after a crowd of little people came running towards him for big cuddles. They enjoyed telling him all about their Christmas holidays and what life was now like in the forest without him and Kelly. Thanks for coming Xiao! See you soon!
Have a nice weekend everyone!
Little Forest Folk
Twickenham