What a gloriously sunny week we have had in the forest after a lovely bank holiday weekend. The children noticed this week that some of their friends weren’t here and so when they asked where they were, we explained that they had gone on holiday. This led to everyone sharing details of all their different holidays they had been on in the past as well as talking about their day trips to the museums and beaches. The children created planes using wood and crates and used sticks as tools to screw the wings in place. The pilots boarded the plane and would announce where the plane would first be stopping and their friends climbed in and jetted off all over the world and around the country. They went to islands, beaches, deserts, swamps and even to a volcano!
Our Little Forest Folk-ers have a fascination with volcanoes and are always finding ways to incorporate them into their play as well as create their own volcanoes in different ways. This week the dinosaurs were a big interest again, and the dinosaurs were very lucky to have a wonderful swamp made for them to live in. The children collected leaves and twigs and rocks to create their dinosaur land before finding ways to transport water to where they wanted their swamp. The children had some ideas and upon some tests of using a bowl, saucepan and a bottle, the bottles were the best way to transport the water. Some paint was added to the water to create a very green swamp water that the children filled within the tray. When their bottles were really full, they noticed how they could squeeze them, and the water would shoot out the top! It was just like a volcano! So, quickly all the dinosaurs were needing rescuing from the overflowing lava that was pouring into their swamp! The love of volcanoes blossomed throughout the week as the children created multicoloured volcanoes mixing a little paint in each bottle and pouring lava into holes they had dug in the ground until they had overflowed. Soon the forest floor was covered in yellow, purple, red and green lava! The children had to quickly escape to higher ground and the firefighters and police had to rescue people using wooden planks and crates to climb up onto.
The wooden planks and crates are versatile in creating the latest idea of what our forest needs, including the planes, islands and rescue machines. Sometimes however, the children like to make something simple that everyone can be involved in and use for their play. The children decided that it was quite sunny this week and so pallets were being used with wood to create some shade for everyone. The shade of the den quickly became a house for everyone to use for their pretend cooking, a place for them to leave to go to work, a way to act out the ‘Three Little Pigs’ story and even a place for babies to sleep in crates which became beds.
Our holiday campers have been busy this week learning all about the different tools we have in the forest and how we can use them safely. They all carefully listened to the safety instructions of the different tools before using them with respect of the rules. The children enjoyed cutting branches with loppers, whittling using a peeler and how to saw tree cookies with the bow saw. Our holiday campers were also very excited as they had the first walk of the season in the river. The river was shallow from the dry days and flowing at a safe speed so that they could go into and walk up it. The children looked for fish and noticed new plants they hadn’t seen in the forest as they only grow in the river such as the algae.
With the weather being so beautifully warm and dry this week the ground was a lot drier than it has been recently. The eco-school council noticed how it was dry and that they themselves had been drinking more water as it was warmer so perhaps the plants might need some extra water too. So, each day, the children have been using their forest-made watering cans to water each of the plants, ensuring they all get plenty of water to drink. The children know that our trees we recently planted need lots more water as they will grow one day to be extra tall and big.
We hope you all have fabulous weekends!
Little Forest Folk
Twickenham