Our Week in the Forest...
We’ve had such a lovely Stay and Play week, even the sun was in its happiest of moods! We hope for those of you who have been able to make it that the forest has been a magical oasis in a week of looking after other children, or work, or whatever other ‘boring’ things adults have to do. As practitioners, we often have to step back to remind ourselves how lucky we are to be out in the forest each day, and of course to be spending it with your little ones. We feel privileged as we get to glimpse into their magical world in the forest each day they come to nursery.
The dynamic always changes slightly when parents are on site, but we love that you get the opportunity to see your children being the kind, creative, problem solving little people they can be in an environment I have no doubt they class solely as their own.
This week we’ve been on many adventure walks to many different parts of the common. The children are confident in choosing where to go and some can navigate their way to different areas better than the educators! We hope we instil important values in the children throughout the time they’re with us so we will often decide where our adventure goes by a vote. Leave or remain is always a sticking point but we want only happy campers so quite often our group will split, with some choosing to venture out into the unknown, while others stick to the safety of what they know and play around base camp.
Mark making has been really popular this week, whether that be on paper or in the ground. At both Paradise and in the forest, the soil is at the perfect stage of having dried out on top but still being nice and soft underneath, so the children have enjoyed using sticks, their feet or their hands to create all kinds of labyrinths. Some of these turned into train tracks, some roads for vehicles, others were snail trails, while some were a maze to try and escape from. Other children enjoyed writing their names or shop menus. We had a new delicatessen open in the forest and on the menu scribed on the ground it showed a range of cheeses and meats that could be bought!
We also made origami objects, continued to build (evermore impressive) fairy houses and did lots and lots of climbing.
We hope you had a lovely week whether you’ve been able to Stay and Play with us or not, and have a wonderful sunny weekend!
Little Forest Folk
Wandsworth