The week began with forest-folkers’ and educators alike, excited by the added layer of fun an Easter weekend typically brings, filling the air with the chatter of chocolate-based adventures. It was lovely to hear about the egg hunts that they went on, and especially wonderful to hear that time was also found for some celebratory seasonal arts and crafts too…so we applaud you all for the wonderful memories you continue to create for your children, particularly since things are a little harder than usual again this year.
A new book was introduced this week called “Meet the parents” by Peter Bentley and distinctly illustrated by Sara Ogilvie. In its own special way, this book comically helps children think about how brilliant parents and carers are. Educators have been able to use this book to help children think about their place in their world and that whilst it may seem like parents/carers might always ask them to do things, it’s really because they love them dearly! We’d recommend this book and if you like a story with rich imagery, we’d also suggest “The Detective Dog” and “The Hospital Dog” by the same illustrator with words by the rhyming legend that is Julia Donaldson!
The egg theme continued on from the long weekend into our forest site and as soon as children set foot into the space, stones were hurriedly being collected up. Educators were called over to share the wonder of these findings and supported the children to look closer at the details, which expands on the moment where active learning can take place. Here, we identified veins, marbling, cuts, cracks, and peppered pitting amongst a mixed variety of colours beyond those the children already know so well. Everyone was also very interested to hear that flint is the fossil of sea sponges, which helps us to understand that everything around us used to be underwater many millions of years ago.
Green team took the stone collecting a step further and asked if they could decorate their new treasures to be like Easter eggs. Educators quickly enabled an environment where children could use colourful electrical tape to do this. This activity saw some excellent determination cutting through the reinforced tape, and a can-do-attitude also helped negotiate the fiddly way that tape always seems to stick to itself, no matter how old you are! The children invested a great amount of care and time into their creations and a variety of stripes, zig zags and criss crossed bits made for some electrifying patterns. The child led play continued as the children then wanted to recreate an Easter egg hunt for each other and the educators and having scattered their own “eggs” everyone then set about the place looking for these treasures.
We imagine the Easter theme will continue for a few more days and long into the incoming weekend too given that the children are so fond of the memories made and experiences they’ve had around it. We hope you have a good weekend and we look forward to hearing all about it next week.
Little Forest Folk
Wandsworth