Our Week in the Forest...
Our week started with lots of excitement as a digger arrived at Paradise to help repair the pond. As the news spread around the forest that a digger would be arriving in the afternoon, the children could hardly contain their delight. When we were finally told it was at the gate, the children all lined up and we watched as it arrived. The children were told that this was an ‘excavator’ and it was going to help scoop out lots of mud from the pond, before it would be filled with water. The children got to watch a little demonstration of how it worked, and for the rest of the afternoon they pretended to be builders or diggers fixing all manner of things.
When we have holiday campers, they always bring lots of new ideas with them to the forest and this half term was no different. It ended up being a week where we had lots of arts and crafts and forest fairies visiting the forest. The children enjoyed creating their own fairies by using a template to help them cut out the initial shape, they then scavenged for leaves and sticks that they could use for wings, legs, arms and wands. Some of the children decided their fairies looked more like forest ghosts and once they had added a stick to make them into puppets, they loved acting out stories in our forest theatre. It’s been so enjoyable to watch how some of our more timid Little Forest Folk-ers can completely come out of their shell and own the stage when they are behind a puppet.
The children have also enjoyed looking at skeletons this week. Some children have made human skeletons on the ground with sticks and stones, while others have more ambitiously attempted to build 3D dinosaur skeletons. The children have been so enthusiastic talking about the different body parts they know, and the holidays campers have loved showing off the names of the organs that they know! Each day this week we have also had a different type of spider’s web or rope ladder and the children have loved the physical challenge this has provided. Some of the older children were quickly able to scale their way to the top, but what has then been lovely to observe is how they have helped and coached the younger children, offering advice with where to put their feet and hands.
We’ve had a lovely week in the forest where the children have enjoyed lots of different activities, all whilst spending time in the magical forest setting that is their classroom. We hope you all have lovely weekend!
Little Forest Folk
Wandsworth