HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! We’ve been excited to see all the children again and have been enthralled with wonderful stories about Christmas adventures, good times, and presents.
This week Green Team welcomed two new friends, and everyone has been having excellent fun together already. This term we have introduced hot chocolate and warmed fruit drinks to help keep the children cosy in the mornings which has been a great new shared group experience that has created a lot of smiles all round. Green team were even able to have their hot drinks by the “muddy valley” on one of their many adventure walks this week which was a much enjoyed pitstop. On the way back children collected plenty of sticks to take back for camp too which enabled great mathematical language about size and quantity. Some of these sticks were soon being used to create an intricate house for ants which was very kind and considerate of the children given the plunging temperatures we are experiencing.
On Tuesday we celebrated a friends third birthday and in the afternoon one child expressed a desire to kindly make them a birthday card. This evolved into a child led session of making birthday cards for each other and even cards for future selves to celebrate their next birthday with! This developed into a creative hub of imagination with all involved and the designs were all fabulous. Throughout the day, the language was rich in number as children proudly explained their ages to each other and what happened on previous birthdays as well as excitedly describing future party ideas.
A dusting of snowy “dots” that “look like daisies” greeted the children on Thursday morning and even before we entered our forest site, plenty of great moments of learning arose. Puddles usually mean awesome muddy splashes but instead the children enjoyed the “crunchy” ice underfoot, some slowly walking over to appreciate the feel whilst others stomped for spectacular cracking noises. Churned mud, usually deliciously squishy, has now taken on a rock-solid peaked chocolate mousse appearance that is most strange to stand which children have found very funny. Children also picked up leaves and were fascinated in the variety of ice crystals and “dust” that had formed. Everyone made brilliant personal observations and educators supported the children to answer their excellent questions like why the ice disappeared and the leaves went soft when touched.
This week has also seen all the educators and children commit to several hundred meters worth of “What’s the time Mr.Wolf” pacing, counting, running, catching and chomping! Games like these are the perfect antidote to these chilly times and also help children to think about the importance of recognising and understanding the patterns that help move play along that are not dissimilar to the routines we all need to commit to in other areas of life.
All the children have been their typical wonderful selves this week and we consider ourselves very lucky to be able to continue to have such fun outdoors amongst good friends. We hope you have a lovely weekend and we can’t wait to hear about it all next week!
Little Forest Folk
Wandsworth