Here at Twickenham, our week has been filled with sun, rain, puddles and …penguins!
We started the week basking in the (soon to be) Spring sunshine, watching as our flowers photosynthesised and eager bees began to pollinate. These hints of spring motivated us to begin prepping our garden ready for planting and Louise and the children raked our garden and planted some bulbs, hopefully not too late to enjoy in the next month or so. Some children also enjoyed filling plant pots with mud using the shovels and adding a potato or two, developing their understanding of the way they grow. We are all looking forward to planting more seeds as the days get brighter, enthusing a love of all things green in our Little Forest Folk-ers!
Mid-week, we got some very exciting news from Xiao that we have now begun sponsoring a penguin with WWF! This sparked lots of discussions from the children about where the penguin lived and if it was going to come to the forest. We discussed penguin habitats and ventured into the South Pole with igloos and ‘snow’ making an appearance on camp.
The children enjoyed a penguin hunt, looking for numbered penguins around our forest, it was great to see the children so confident with their number recognition! The penguin pictures were then adopted as props for the children’s role play as they became the baby penguins and they were the parents, sheltering in the igloo from the Antarctic snow storms.
We also discussed what penguins like to eat, with some children saying seaweed and others remembering they eat fish. This promoted a fun game where the children had to feed our ravenous penguin with fish, well a replica penguin I should say!
We are looking forward to hearing more information over the coming days about our penguin and hopefully we will agree on a name. Some suggestions so far have been Owlette and Barney!
Towards the end of the week, the children enjoyed giving our bug hotel a bit of an upgrade, supplying the birds and squirrels with amenities such as a drinking station and a place to sleep for the night! Much to the children’s surprise their services were top quality and one of our frequent pigeon visitors was grateful for the drink. The children watched in awe as they witnessed the pigeon fill its beak up with water and swallow it down.
Little Forest Folk
Twickenham