Our Week in the Forest...
This week has been another scorcher in the forest, but the play has remained very cool! The children’s desire to construct tools was still strong this week, so with some help from the educators, they were able to take that passion to the next step! On Monday in Paradise, after days spent observing the educators use the tools, the children got the opportunity to use them as well! With their wooden tree cookies in hand, the children put on their safety gloves and used the hand drill for the first time! They drilled holes through the wood to turn them into necklaces and watches. The children were fascinated by the activity as a whole and were ecstatic about the opportunity to decorate their creations and take them home! As reported by some parents, the children loved their accessories so much that they continued to wear them throughout the week!
The interest in tools and technology branched into the Windmill forest as well. The introduction of a metal detector was immediately adored by all! The children patiently walked around the forest waiting for the detector to beep and once it did, they shouted out excitedly, “TREASURE!” and began to dig with all of their might. Their hard work was rewarded with finding pennies, old tent pegs, and hairclips! While the treasure didn’t quite compare to the ones we read about in our pirate books, the children still looked at their found objects with pride and astonishment.
To fuel up their bodies after their hard work in the forest, the children loved mixing up delicious concoctions in the mud kitchen. They were delighted to come into the forest one day and see a campfire made of sticks with a pot hanging over the flame! The children ran around the forest collecting pinecone “eggs” and putting them into the pot to boil as a treat! Their imaginations ignited over this fiery addition to the mud kitchen and will surely become a hot topic in our future cooking endeavours in the forest.
The amazing weather doesn’t seem to be going anywhere and we can’t complain about that. We’re looking forward to sharing our new favourite activities in the forest with some parents next week during our Stay-and-Play! Until then, enjoy your wild weekends!
Little Forest Folk
Wandsworth