Our Week in the Forest...
Well, we have had another rip roaring week this week over at Wandsworth Little Forest Folk. With an emphasis on the roaring. From dinosaurs to wolves to ‘Crocodile Snakes’ it’s been a pretty wild experience.
After starting off the day by blowing seeds from the thistles growing on the site and making wishes, Paradise became a scene from Jurassic Park. We ventured back in time as dinosaurs started to creep out from the bushes. The children and adults received an important educational talk from an expert holiday camper before the games commenced. He informed us about the difference between carnivores and herbivores. On choosing the dinosaurs we would like to be he then gave us a detailed description of the foods we would enjoy eating and where to find them in Paradise. Meanwhile he would be taking on the role of that classic dinosaur favourite, the Utahraptor. Once released into the wild, the herbivores scurried around looking for some lovely grass, whilst the carnivores prowled around looking for their dinner. Namely the herbivores. The game came to a wonderful finale with all the dinosaurs working together to build a home for themselves.
The children’s confidence at climbing has really been developing and this week they enjoyed using the ladder as a prop for a firefighter game. Some poor old monkeys and cats (a well known combination), had found themselves stuck at the top of the ladder, amidst burning flames. Firefighters to the rescue! They were extremely prompt to arrive and assess the situation, and despite recent budget cuts, came well armed with long sticks for their hoses. Holding the hoses together as a team they were able to extinguish the flames and rescue the bedraggled cats and monkeys. It was brilliant to hear them shouting instructions to one another and working as a team to succeed in their rescue operation.
The children over at our Wimbledon site have also been terrific at playing together and supporting one another. The older holiday campers have really been on the look-out for our younger ones and together they discovered a mutual passion- slugs and worms! The children spent hours digging for the slippery friends and creating muddy homes for them. They gathered round to coo over their new pals. Our hearts were warmed with some of the comments the children made to one another - ‘It’s really nice and soft and wiggly!’ ‘It’s cute isn’t it? It’s quite precious, do you want to touch it?’ Just touch it!’ ‘Does it feel tickly?’ ‘Awwww!’ and finally, ‘I love the slug so much!’
The children decided they needed to create a new bridge to cross over the muddy river. Before we knew it an operation was underway with children joining forces to carry the bigger logs and a project manager organising where the logs should be delivered. Health and safety officers were on hand to test out the bridge and help decide if more support was needed at any weak spots. It was fantastic to see the children come up with this idea and then work together to create a super bridge. They had such fun crossing it when the project was completed!
You might also enjoy tuning in to our ‘Great British Mud Off’, as the children have been busy creating cake masterpieces in the mud kitchen, for a cake shop. Some set about creating the cake mixture, mixing up the thick, oozy mud and smoothing it into tins. Others were more interested in the presentation of the bakes, working on their icing finesse and creating showstopping decorations. The cakes looked absolutely incredible and we are pretty sure that the BBC would be much better off with our version over Channel 4 anyway. Our ingredients are a lot cheaper too!
Finally, one morning, when we were all oggling one of the ranger’s tractors, he came over and told us about the Wimbledon Common Open Day on Sunday 10th September. It’s up at the ranger station by the Windmill and apparently there will be tractor rides and a chance to see the ranger horses. There is more information on the Wimbledon and Putney Commons website.
Thank you everyone for another wonderful week. It was lovely to see some new holiday campers embracing the forest and making new friends too. Have a magnificent weekend and a special shout out to our Wandsworth parents getting married this weekend- WOOHOO! We can’t wait to see you all next week.
We hope you all have a wonderful weekend.
Little Forest Folk
Wandsworth