Our Week in the Forest...
Swish, Swash, Crunch!
As the autumn sunlight filters through the branches to the forest floor and our wellies our swish swash through the carpet of leaves the children enter the forest collecting treasures along the way. Horse chestnuts, sweet chestnuts (or spikey footballs as we like to call them) or a very special stone are gripped tightly by the little pairs of hands. This week, these precious gifts of autumn have then found their way into games throughout the day- from cooking pots to buried treasure or food for children’s forest pets! As the week has gone on we’ve talked lots about the changes we’ve observed around us in nature and had huge fun collecting big piles of leaves which we’ve then thrown up in the air! This has also then prompted discussions about safe and caring play, making sure we’re not throwing into our friend’s face or including sticks in our mix! “Do you think this stick is too big in my pile?” one of our children turned and asked another, “Do you think it will poke someone in the eye?”. They both agreed yes and dropped it down to the floor. It is these opportunities for discussion, reflection and compassion to flourish that weave their way throughout all our play, every single day in the forest.
Bug Hunters and Fact Finders!
We often look at our children in the forest and try to imagine quite what the space looks like from their eyes- the bountiful allotments at Paradise where they duck and dive during games of Hide and Seek and over at the Windmill where their eyes stretch high to the tree canopies and the forest floor offers hours of fascinating exploration. Well this week we’ve really noticed our children taking in the smaller details of the forest as well as the wide open spaces. Hunting for bugs is a serious business and the children crouch, lie, climb and clamber to get a closer look.
This week we’ve also revisited our non-fiction bug encyclopaedias again and again finding out incredible facts. Did you know that the largest butterfly in the world has a wingspan of 30cm? Did you know that bumblebees will only sting you if they are frightened or feel threatened? And did you know that centipedes don’t actually have 100 legs- they can actually have anything from between 30 to over 300! The children love to talk about these facts whilst holding the creatures gently in their hands and then running off to find a stick that is 30cm long to be their butterfly!
As our staff team grows at Wandsworth, so too do the number of children we have joining us every day. We feel incredibly privileged to work with such a fantastic bunch of children and have the families support us so strongly. We can’ wait to see you all at Stay and Play next week!
Have a lovely weekend!
Little Forest Folk
Wandsworth