The consistently good weather called for the start of some face painting this week! Courtesy of some deft paintbrush artistry by Nicol and the wonderful playworker Katie, several children chose from a selection of examples and had their own ideas about what they wanted to be too. Several loved being butterflies, others beamed with rainbows and clouds, and there was a group of creative pirates that decided on having two eyepatches! Our sites are always brimming full of imagination play and the painted faces absolutely amplified this. We can’t physically get round to all children everyday with the sponges and brushes, but we guarantee everyone will have a chance if they chose to, over the next few weeks.
As well as these spectacular butterflies on faces we have been graced by a growing spectrum of mini beasts all around us. This week heralded the start of an abundance of the highly peculiar Green Oak Tortrix Moth caterpillar that the children keep on spotting swinging great arcs on silk lines from above. In the canopy there must be at least tens of thousands of these little caterpillars, and as they munch through the fresh young leaves their falling droppings sound like a soft rain; it really is very strange for the senses to compute! Please do look up the Green Oak Tortrix Moth with your children to solidify some fun new knowledge.
We have all also enjoyed observing the Black headed Cardinal beetles which are absolutely stunning in their vivacity. These investigations are all supported with a swathe of bug books, sheets, and pamphlets which everyone loves pouring over with great questions and theories.
In the creative corners Abbie and Nicol have supported children to enjoy a variety of crafts and this week children enjoyed mixing coffee, cinnamon and turmeric with water to create watercolours. Swirls, splodges, shapes and even some excellent letters and names too graced paper and card. The smells and colourful brown tones have been most interesting over here! Children have also been busy making butterfly collages with plenty of colourful paper snipping and tearing, then gluing down onto templates drawn by educators.
Music also filled the air this week as Dan brought in a ukulele and everyone has been having a go at strumming, prodding, picking, and tapping the strings and parts. It’s been wonderful to see the little ones strolling around with the guitar tucked under their arms, singing happy songs constructed of words and sentences that are special to them!
Have a great sunny weekend everyone. Looking forward to seeing you all soon and hearing all about adventures and all-important good rest too!
Little Forest Folk
Wandsworth