Our Week in the Forest...
What a week we have had in the forest. The children have continued to welcome new faces and have been keen to show them all their favourite places to play in our two settings.
The children have experienced days of 30 degree heat, and on Thursday it rained the entire time we spent in the forest and his has brought about lots of interesting discussion about the weather and about seasons. Before Alice left on maternity leave, her parting gift was a paddling pool and the children have had such fun with this. What started off as a little splishing and splashing, soon evolved into children pouring buckets of water over themselves. As we want the children to be independent decision makers, we let them know that if they want to do this that’s okay, but when you’re finished you will need to change all your clothes and that will mean missing out on time you could be playing. Some children didn’t mind spending time changing into dry clothes, other may think twice before covering themselves in water again!
This week the children have also been not only writing and telling their own stories, but creating illustrations to go with them. The children have clearly taken pride in being authors and illustrators, often exclaiming they want to take their stories home to show families. This interest may have stemmed from the introduction of helicopter stories, where children narrate a story and a teacher writes it down as they are doing so. Once we have a collection of stories told by the children and written down by the adults, we act them out at the end of the day.
As well as developing Oscar winners, we have also been nurturing explorers. This week the children decided to go to the big lake, the little lake and ‘the dinosaur bones’ on our morning adventures. The children love being the ones to decide where to go and although some don’t enjoy when we don’t get to go where they suggest, other children are beginning to understand democracy and how everyone can vote, and the most popular option will be chosen. Something that is not always easy for adults, never mind 2 year olds! On our adventure to the big lake the children enjoyed observing the cygnets. They are now as big as their parents but still grey and fluffy.
When all the adventures, climbing, running and splashing in puddles all became too much, children have enjoyed nothing more than lying down with a book or to get their faces painted in the shade – some so relaxed, they even fell asleep in the process!
Little Forest Folk
Wandsworth