This week in the forest we have been looking at emotions and how we show them to each other using our faces, this is to help the children understand when their play is bringing pleasure to their friends or making them uncomfortable. This was a fun activity at snack time where Dan put a bucket on his head with labelled emoji’s attached around it, such as; anger, sadness, happiness and anxiety. He then revealed his facial expression. We will be using books and other activities in the future to support this social development. This is typical learning for little ones at this age, brought about by children’s interest in another complex issue - goodies and baddies.
This week we had prospective new children and their parents visit the site to have a look around, and experience a slice of forest life. One of the main queries we have from prospective parents is how we keep little ones safe without walls as boundaries, and our little ones are always great at highlighting our rainbow ribbons and explaining to their friends why we need to stay within them - potentially we may have more new starters soon!
We had a great woodwork activity, led by Sam our Forest School Leader. It’s wonderful to see the children proud of their achievements and working so hard at being respectful of others and their increasing confidence with risk management. Our Little Forest Folk-ers also enjoyed making face collages whilst focusing especially on eye colours, this was very popular and shall be returned to in relation to emotions.
Our little adventurers’ play this week included a fun activity which involved wrapping string around trees to explore area and containment (for safety this was reset by the adults in a controlled area as our little ones had their snack). This was great practice for the children to figure out how they could manoeuvre over and through with balance and also explore tension whilst standing on the ropes - a great training aid for when we go off the beaten track on our adventure walks and encounter brambles, to avoid stumbles or trips.
The children still have a strong passion for ‘The Bear Hunt’ as they have been singing and acting out the story - this was extended by Sam, who encouraged them to decide their own animals and obstacles to face. The children enjoyed climbing up on tall sawn logs to balance and jump, and one of our little adventurers extended this activity by having the others copy her as she led an exercise class; the children balanced on their bellies and stretched whilst leaning against the log.
One of our adventure walks this week had us hunting for hills to roll down, inspired by the full day childrens excitement at rolling down a hill on our afternoon walks back to our indoor space. Our little ones all showed confidence in this activity, one child who was anxious bravely explored shuffling down the hill on his bottom instead. Everyone showed their developing safety awareness too as we discussed routes to take coming down and walking up the hill. A greatly enjoyed activity that will be returned to with signs for literacy, timing for maths as well as extra words for vocabulary.
The children enjoyed an educator-initiated activity with Simon, inspired by an activity that they regularly enjoy. They climbed into a 'cooking pot' made out of logs, with a log rolling pin on top. Their friend then helped take over the task of covering each other with leaves. Mathematical talk flowed about depth and weight to transport, and of space for fitting them in the ‘pot’ as well as more balance with bellies on the rolling pin.
All in all, a great week of enjoyment for the children, who have provided many options for expansion in the future.
Little Forest Folk
Wandsworth