Our Week in the Forest...
As we begin to look ahead to the rest of the summer and with September just around the corner, the change in dynamic in the forest has been at the front of our minds; we have lots of school aged children who will be off to big school in September and their places will be filled with new excited faces. We’re so excited for a memorable last summer in the forest for many.
This week we were reminded of how independent our children are becoming, and at times all the children were completely immersed in their own play, without any need for adult intervention. This comes with not only being comfortable in their surroundings and with their peers, but they are so completely confident and sure when in role play that they are without a doubt that firefighter, police officer, PJ Masks character or Power Ranger. As it’s been unpredictable from a weather point of view this week, it has meant we haven’t set up very many resources in the forest, going for a more minimal approach. This has led to more role play type games where children have had to become the props or create the props and use their imaginations. We’re big believers in ‘when children have less set up in the forest, they get creative’, and we’ve seen that in abundance this week. Again, this comes with the majority of our children now being experienced Little Forest Folk-ers, but they are setting the examples, forging the routines and establishing styles of play for the younger children who, come September will be filling their shoes.
It’s been a learning curve for the educators this week, and everyone now feels confident that they could name all the characters in PJ Masks, The Octonauts, Go Jetters and the Power Rangers. It’s been great to hear the children talk with such passion about who their favourite characters are and which role they want to take on.
When the children haven’t been engrossed in debating their favourite TV show characters, there has been lots of other discussions and the week has heavily revolved around communication, listening and understanding and vocabulary. On Monday, despite the rain all day, the children were keen to discuss how we would make a fire, and the three things a fire needs to stay alive. At the forest, the children enjoyed discussing the swans in the lake and how they have changed from signets into beautiful white swans. This then led to some children building a nest and pretending to be a family of swans. Lastly our children have been fascinated by the books about the human body. This brought about lots of discussion around healthy eating and how we can look after our bodies.
We hope you too have had a lovely week and we cannot wait to see what adventures we will be having next week!
Little Forest Folk
Wandsworth