Our Week in the Forest...
This week resilience and resolve has been at the fore. It has been a week of tough weather that has really showed the children’s strength of character. Ranging from torrential downpours to ice and icy cold winds, we battled through to experience some glorious sunshine!
As ever our wonderful practitioners and children have used this weather to our advantage. Using the rain, we made bubble machines, a simple device made of half a bottle covered in a sock. We mixed the rain water with washing up liquid to create a bubble formula. The children dipped their bubble blowers into the mixture and after a deep breath or two blew a stream of bubbles to great delight. The children wanted to develop their bubbles further so attached pipe cleaners to sticks to make their very own bubble wands! Our little Forest Folkers also realised that the more rain we had, the muddier floor became. Noticing the consequence and subsequent change of the environment due to the rain, we scooped some up and mixed with more water to create mud paint, which we used to paint on all manner of materials.
Over at the Windmill during one of our adventure walks the children realised that the river gully was more full than usual. “The rain, it’s still here” remarked an inquisitive child. “It must have been the rain from before” responded another. This sparked an expedition of splashing and wading through the stream. The children noticed how when they moved through the river the water would move all around them. Fascinated, our 2 year olds stopped to observe for 30 minutes how the ripples would move and stop when dropping stones and sticks onto the surface. Our older children were more interested in where the river was going. Wading through the river Bear Grylls style, we followed it down through the valley. “Well the tap at the top, up there, is on. So, it will run down there until it goes through the gate.”
In the icy cold our children were not phased at all. “Ahoy, come aboard our pirate ship!” shouted the captain. All the pirates clambered aboard. All of a sudden, a Kraken came out of the sea, trying to take children for his dinner. “We’re not scared of you” they shouted. The children decided the best form of defence was attack. So, they chased the Kraken and bundled him into submission.
Cold, what cold? Have a Wonderful Weekend Everybody!
Little Forest Folk
Wandsworth