One afternoon, a group of several children enjoyed stealthily stalking several squirrels as they appeared around our forest site. We crouched, crawled, and communicated our plans as we slowly approached to make our observations of the lovely little creatures busying themselves amongst the crunchy leaves. Here, pretend binoculars shaped from hands helped the adventure, as well as prized telescopes crafted from card earlier that day. Sam led the squirrel searching squad and supported children to act out impressions of some of the squirrel’s own movements which was all jolly good fun.
Soon after, a second-hand impressively tough sports net, sourced by Dan, was suspended just off the floor from trees and bushes in a way that was meant to replicate a squirrel’s nest. The nest was gleefully filled with “one hundred thousand leaves” and children loved climbing into it and getting under the cosy leafy blanket too, with some highly convincing pretend sleeping and snoring ensuing! We talked about the best ways for animals to keep warm in a way that helped children to recognise and value some of the ways humans need to keep warm too. These chats encompassed all the other things animals need to keep going; by helping children to think about the base of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, we are actively giving them the tools to confidently know how to look after themselves on a physiological level. It has been recognisably much warmer this week and we have been impressed by the children’s ability to self-regulate, and take off extra layers appropriately, working on all those fiddly zip and Velcro fastenings effectively.
The aforementioned sports net continued to be fun all week, being used as a ginormous net to catch fish. This was hurled by children out of boats shaped from logs and branches and dragged back in, with dozens of leaves being the hauled prize! The net was also used by Jemima as the Fisherwoman to catch all the fishy little children running and darting around the site, but eventually only caught Sam, who the children felt resembled a “slippery silver fish”!
This week, supported by Vanessa, Katie and Jemima the children have also kept exceptionally busy in our arts and craft areas, with hearts and cards being designed in a variety of ways for parents, so we hope that some of you do get to see some of these creations.
The weather has been great this week, and Saturday looks to be semi sunny too, so we hope you are able to enjoy some of the great outdoors as much as we have. We’re looking forward to hearing about your weekend soon.
Little Forest Folk
Wandsworth