“The Sun, with all those planets revolving and depending on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do” – Galileo Galilei (Astronomer)
The Sun also found time this week to bath our beautiful site in warmth and light – in turn making little flowers bloom on the sugar snap pea plants in the children’s vegetable garden and dragon flies hover over the river. Indeed, with the water in the river only being ankle deep, there were opportunities for children to go in small groups and take an adventure walk wading in the water.
At first there is the temptation to kick and splash, a moment of high energy that sends cooling droplets of water up to greet our hands. Then, magically, this always seems to be followed by a moment of calm as our Little Forest Folk-ers energy becomes focused on trying to spot fish, tadpoles, and treasure! As they wondered along, holding hands with educators, and listening to the swirl of water created by their footsteps, they suddenly spotted something bobbing on the river, slowly making its way towards them. It was large and round and at first it was greeted with shouts of “Dinosaur Egg!” but upon closer inspection they realised they had discovered a gigantic tennis ball. A discussion began about whether or not it belongs in the river or should be removed.
“What could happen if we leave it in the river?” asked Miranda, the educator.
“The fish can play tennis” suggested one child “the mermaid can….can make it into a bag” added another – two very good reasons to leave the tennis ball where we had found it.
“But the green stuff, this fluffy green stuff [pointing to the green felt the ball is made of] might come off and go in the water and then it will…it will go in the fishes mouth and make them sick!”
“Oh yeah! Or a bird might come and take it in its beak and then drop it and it will land on another birds head and they will be hurt” where another two suggestions from the other side of the debate. With that in mind it was decided that the ball should be removed, and we can all do our bit to remove rubbish and keep our rivers safe for the fish and the birds (even if a giant tennis ball handbag would have looked great on the mermaid…sorry!).
Back on dry land, the river wading seemed to remind some children about the recent story of the baby whale that had been discovered in the river Thames near Richmond
“But the baby died because it was too long without it’s mummy and she couldn’t give him milk” recalled one child.
“But where was the mummy?” asked another.
“Well, I imagine as the baby and mother got close to the river, they somehow got lost from each other” offered Xiao and to try and find out more, they turned to the book “The Snail and The Whale”
After discovering that the noise of speed boats had confused the whale in the Julia Donaldson story, Xiao and the children then looked at images of the Thames – “You see, the river is very busy with lots of boats – some doing important work and some to take tourists up and down the river – I can imagine it’s very noisy for a baby whale who maybe didn’t hear it’s mummy calling him back” .
Lots of water play with the toy whales then ensued and children were overheard role playing being the mummy whale saying, “Don’t go past the rainbow ribbons!” and this is a great example of children using play to piece together pieces of new and unfamiliar concepts they are coming across with the concepts they have a firm grasp of.
Musical instruments have been a firm favourite this week as children have chimed bells and demanded rounds of ‘Jingle Bells’ and Santa Claus is coming to Town’ – yes, even on one of the warmest weeks we have had in the forest this year, it never really is too early for Christmas!
When not jingling all the way, the children have also been fascinated with making newspapers this week. They have carefully folded paper into booklets and drawn detailed illustrations, text, and marks “A lightning bolt is on its way”, “Spain is winning the football” and “My cat got married” were some of the headlines that rang out as educators and Little Forest Folk-ers sat down to read the articles within and this prompted a wealth of opportunity for the children to scribe wonderful stories.
We hope you have also been enjoying the weather and we look forward to seeing you all next week for more fun in the forest!
Little Forest Folk
Twickenham