It’s been holiday camp this week, and we have joyfully welcomed back children who left in August as well as children new to the forest experience, and boy have we all had a great time! The weather has been autumnally changeable with bright sunshine, gentle breezes, pouring rain and crisp chill temperatures, but as usual both the holiday campers and the full timers have played, built, created new games and explored their beautiful forest. At the beginning of the week, we learnt how to hammer nails safely into bits of wood. Listening attentively, following the instructions carefully and wearing protective gloves, we hammered nails through beautiful material scraps which had been cut into a myriad of shapes. Miranda invented a nail holder which kept our fingers safe as we hammered the nails. “It’s just a peg” said a few of the children, “It’s more than that” Miranda said, “It’s a peg with elastic bands incorporated into the peg thus creating a nail holder” … “oh yes!” they all responded. The children were excited to learn how to hammer, and nearly all of them commented on how heavy the hammer was. The delight shone in their eyes when they held up their works of art and they were so happy to have accomplished new carpentry skills.
Sensory play was a super popular activity all week, as children created waterfalls on wetter days by propping up trays, pots and boxes, pouring water down their elaborate chutes. Soapy water play drew the children in as they cleaned tabletops and mud kitchen pots and pans, squishing bubble filled sponges with great delight and sliding their hands and fingers through the slippery, watery, soap. The material from the hammering activity was stroked and talked about as being soft, smooth, bumpy and shiny and the various colours were favourites of many of the children. On the wetter days the children delighted in splashing in and out of puddles and racing around the forest pretending they were chocolate covered children. Many of the children ended up with mud splashed faces, with bright shiny eyes and rosy noses. Finding our mirrors, we inspected our faces and some children chose to wipe their faces, others just ran off to jump in more puddles, splashing their waterproofs and boots and squealing in delight as the muddy water splashed up and out of the puddled filled hole in the ground.
With Halloween on the horizon the children have delighted in “hairy scary castle” songs and stories, and ghosts going boo have resounded around the forest. Some of the children have been incredibly creative with pipe cleaners and clay, and other children enjoyed making a skeleton out of leaves and sticks. Ghosts made from cotton wool balls and tissue paper hug from branches and wafted in the breeze and a gorgeous cardboard junk castle has been glued together, painted and imaginary horses, princesses and ghosts have populated the edifice. Spiders webs found sparkling between branches have captured the children’s attention, so they asked to make some. Dexterously manoeuvring multi strands of bright coloured wool around the sticks of their choice creating intricate webs, the children then drew, cut out and placed carefully all manner of insects and creatures within their webs. “I’m catching dreams with my web” announced one child passing his web through the air above his head.
Thank you for all for coming to the forest this week, we have loved having you all with us. Have a lovely weekend and see you next time!
Little Forest Folk
Twickenham