An Ocean of words and stories
Welcome back to our forest. We have had a wonderful week of oceans, sea creatures, associated literature and songs. Star fish, octopi and other fish, we learned are masters at camouflage and with our new knowledge and a huge variety of paints we painted some cardboard star fish and stuck on sparkles and shiny bits too.
Our tiny forest chefs spent many an hour in the mud kitchen preparing food for the sea creatures and learning what each animal might like to eat. We were fascinated to learn that Octopi have 9 brains and love to eat crabs, sea snails and small fish. Crabs like to eat seaweed, worms, shrimps and algae and have very strong pincers. Tuna fish eat other fish and squid and is one of the fastest fish in the ocean. Ask your little ones to sing you the slippery fish song - watch out for the burp at the end!
Our loose parts zone became an ocean and our building crates became boats as our sailors sailed the sea with fishing rods on board. Small fish made of cardboard and pegs were caught using the magnetic fishing rods. As the play changed, our sailors turned into pirates as the small boats were reconfigured and turned into a ship. “Watch out everyone there are pirates everywhere.”
One day all our small world animals were requested by the children and so out they came; giraffes, elephants, cheetahs, whales, turtles, fish, donkeys, the octopus and many others! Suddenly we had all the animals in the sea and walking on land, we learnt that octopi can wiggle on land and so can some fish. Tigers like water and all animals can swim but the giraffe and elephant didn’t like the ocean at all. The paints came out once again and the animals and sea creatures were all painted and camouflaged before needing a bath in a cool bowl of water.
What a great week - we hope everyone has a lovely restful weekend!
Little Forest Folk
Twickenham