The natural world provides so many opportunities for our Little Forest Folk-ers to explore concepts about the world; to practice their gross and fine motor skills, and to develop their social skills, such as building relationships, in a fun yet challenging way. This week in the forest was no exception.
We had a super windy day on Monday, Green Group used this as a chance to discuss adverse weather, and the damage it can cause to houses and buildings. In Red Group they used this opportunity to explain the importance of the “Whistle Rule”. This is one of our Forest School safety rules and it means that if the children should hear the whistle, they know they need to run to their nearest educator because it’s an emergency and to await further instruction. The children always enjoy making a game of practicing the ‘Whistle Rule’. However more importantly, this allows us to have an age-appropriate conversation about emergencies, enabling them to feel secure and to know the procedure if anything like a blustery windy day should ever interrupt their play.
This week Red Group found a new leafy hill to run, roll and slide down. The children’s enthusiasm for the hill didn’t waver throughout and they enjoyed making trails in the fallen leaves, moving down it repeatedly in different ways. In the Green Group they have been developing their gross motor skills through balance on their tree swing and along the slacklines. The Red Group have enjoyed the addition of a Hammock at basecamp and have been doing great turn taking in swinging each other and having a turn at being swung. The motion of rocking back and forth can be very comforting to young children, some preferring to swing high others low and them communicating with one another if they wanted to go faster or to be rocked more gently.
The addition of the chalk boards at the Bowling Club site, have further encouraged the children to practice their fine motor skills and to get to grips with gripping! Green Group have been doing some fantastic chalk drawings on their converted chalkboard cable reel. Red Group have been wiping away leaves and using sticks to draw in the rich earth of the forest floor. Using the natural world as an inspirational resource, not only supports learning, but also imaginative play.
Back at the Bowling Club Red Group have enjoyed learning about camouflage, this has been reflected in their role play which has involved pretending to be chameleons who blend in with their surroundings. There has been a wonderful exploration of movement and colour, bringing the natural world inside. Green Group have been enjoying role playing being turtles and tortoises which has led to discussions on how turtles swim. Conversations like these give great opportunities to talk about the concept of similarities and differences, which helps young minds to further make sense of the world. Making groupings in this way such as animals with shells but noting the differences between them helps them to define different species, i.e., how one swims and the other one doesn't. This encourages the children's curiosity and powers of observation through using examples found in the natural world, this transferable skill can further be applied to reading, maths and problem solving also.
It’s been another fun filled week at the forest, and we hope that the fun continues into the weekend for you!
Little Forest Folk
Wandsworth