This week, we have all enjoyed having some “Stay and Play” parents come to visit, and it’s been great to see you get stuck into the forest way of life much like all the children do. It’s been a while since we’ve been able to do these because of covid restrictions but it’s clear to us that it’s a good experience for children, parents, and educators alike.
Monday began with a great new project to create a living roof on one of our playhouses. The roaring success of this activity means we’ll certainly be converting the other two soon. Post work, on Friday, Matt recycled some solid wood floorboards into a new roof and fixed battens to edges to create a base for all to get to work first thing Monday. Children began by filling containers with the sandy field soil, working well together to carry filled weighty basins and giant woks across the site. Children were then asked to think about how to get the earth up onto roof, and soon they scattered to find some logs. With support to make “log stairs” the roofing crew were in full-steam-ahead mode, tipping and spreading the earth into every corner of the rectangular space. We even used some of our compost, made on site, which was rich in life. Here, children were fascinated by the centipedes, woodlice, other unknown insects, and several dozen worms. We decided the worms would prefer being back in darker conditions and all the children carefully helped Matt to get them back to ground level and into our vegetable beds. Next, we separated sedums into smaller plugs and chose where to place them around the roof space, then finished off the activity with several splashing glugs of water to help them grow and spread. This roof is going to look amazing in no time; well done everyone!
The annual wildflower seed sowing also took place with some excellent turn taking to make sure that all the areas of the dug patch were filled. We can’t wait to see all the bees that come to harvest the pollen from all the flowers! There was even time for sunflower seed sowing too, and whilst some stayed here to grow in the office to plant out later, some went home to families. We look forward to hearing all about how you’ve looked after them and how tall they’ve grown too.
Have a great long bank holiday weekend everyone and we’ll see you all next week!
Little Forest Folk
Wandsworth