This week we made sure to keep ourselves really cool and safe in the forest in this glorious sunshine. We are very lucky here at Twickenham to have access to the River Crane, so we put on our wellies and went for a few lovely walks upstream this week. The children took their nets to do some litter picking along the way. We also noticed that some blackberries were starting to ripen along the riverbank, and the butterflies and damselflies loved dancing above our heads.
Our educators decided to freeze some of our dinosaur friends in water overnight so we could play with them the next day. We worked out ways to free our dinosaurs, using sticks and hammers. The children also noticed that the ice was very slippery, so we decided to make a waterslide for the frozen dinosaurs and took it in turns to push the dinosaurs down the slide.
Our children also spent some time painting rocks and stones this week. We decided that some looked like ladybirds, so the children painted the stones red and black and then decided to use the other end of the paintbrush to add some spots. They were great at counting the spots and on each wing with their friends.
When the afternoons got quite warm, we spent some time being mindful in the forest, lying in the shade of the plane tree listening to the sounds around us and some relaxing music. We had some group stories and spoke about all the ways we can stay cool in the forest. We even treated ourselves to some fresh fruit ice lollies that really helped!
One of our forest school trained educators did some amazing tool work with the children this week – sawing and hammering pieces of wood which some of the children then decided to make into medals and even a wooden car.
We were also looking out for our forest insects and bugs this week too. The children noticed a few thirsty looking bees in the mud kitchen and so we made a place for them to go and get a drink, ensuring to find big stones for them to land on, so the bees didn’t get too wet whilst trying to stay hydrated. The Little Forest Folk-ers also had a great time making a bug hotel out of old cardboard, bark, sticks and grass! We are hoping to get some guests checking in soon.
The Three Little Pigs is one of our favourite stories here at Little Forest Folk, Twickenham and this week some of our children wanted to make each house from the story. We searched around the forest floor for sticks, hay and bricks. Some of the children made some great houses and even decided to become the big bad wolf and try and blow them all down!
Some of our forest friends are getting ready to leave us for the summer before starting their big schools in September and our children have been making goodbye cards for their friends. The Little Forest Folk-ers decided this week that we should create a post box in our forest out of cardboard box. A hole was carefully cut out and letters and cards were made for family members, teachers and friends and then posted and delivered around the forest.
The eco school council were very impressed with the amount of rubbish we managed to remove from the River Crane this week. We took all the bottles and plastic that we had found to our onsite recycling bin and spoke about where each piece could end up next.
Little Forest Folk
Twickenham