We had a shorter week in the forest this week due to our bank holiday and inset day, which allowed us to get ready for all our new starters. Even though it has been shorter, we’ve had an amazing time! Some of our settlers from last week are now with us all day and our Little Forest Folk-ers have made them feel so welcome. We have seen some of our younger ones from last term blossom into helpful friends, kind supporters and forest experts for those new starters that are still learning the ropes and it has been wonderful to see friendships already starting to grow.
This week Dinosaurs have been very popular indeed. We’ve had dinosaur themed stories, small world play in the jungle and dino swamps and we’ve even tried to match our dinosaurs into colours and shapes too.
Some of our Little Forest Folk-ers have also enjoyed playing with our steel drum instrument, listening, and singing along to familiar songs and even having a go at playing their favourite songs on it too. The forest has been full of song this week, with some of our new friends sharing their favourite songs and even performing on our new stage with a beautiful handmade backdrop (made by one of our lovely educators.)
We also made lots of colourful playdoh which felt lovely and squishy in our hands, we rolled it, flattened it and made round balls – working those hand and finger muscles!
A few of our Little Forest Folk-ers also went on a bear hunt to explore the forest which was still so new for some of our starting children, swishing through the long grass and pretending to splash in our river. It was a great way to take a journey around our site as well as retelling a much-loved story.
The forest café was also open this week, selling cake, biscuits and pasta. Some of our children made their own menus and sold some very expensive ‘coffees’ to our educators. “That’s £4 please” said one of children at the till point (made from planks and boxes) with pebble coins and a paper keyboard.
We have got lots of recycling to take to the community bins tomorrow, and the eco council cannot wait to show our new Forest Folk-ers, where to go and what we do with all our used cardboard, plastic bottles and paper.
We hope you all have had a lovely week too and we cannot wait to see what adventures next week brings!
Little Forest Folk
Twickenham