Our Week in the Forest...
What a lovely week we have had exploring the forest with some of our parents. It’s been a joy to see how excited the children have been when showing you around, and although there may occasionally have been tears when some of you left, it’s only because the children were having such a great time.
Not only was the forest busy with our Stay & Play families, but the addition of a BBC film crew on Tuesday created a little extra excitement (the report will be shown on BBC1 between 10-11am on Sunday so tune in to see your future movie stars in action!) We were so impressed by some of the children’s confidence when it came to talking to the reporter. They were able to talk about our forest rules and all the things they like to do in the forest. This confidence is something we love to see and something we are so keen to nurture. We want our children to always be confident enough to give an answer, regardless of whether they know it’s correct or not.
The week has been full of tool work; making tree cookies, spinning tops, minibeasts, necklaces and watches. The children have become so competent and rarely need reminding of our safety rules, often sitting down and placing their hands behind their back, waiting to be told they can join in. During the process of drilling, sawing or hammering there is so much learning happening. Whether that be discussing the number of holes drilled, the thickness of a tree cookie or discussing what it could be made into. Once finished the children would then decorate their possession with letters, numbers, or all varieties of colours. Maths, literacy, physical development, listening and understanding and more all play a vital role in a simple process.
The children have enjoyed a number of other activities too. What two weeks ago started as a child wrapping a bandage around their leg, has now turned into an obsession with all things emergency in the forest. Trees have been turned into rescue helicopters, logs turned into stretchers and the children turned into hero’s saving friends and family from disasters. The children have developed a real understanding of the world around them when it comes to professionals who help us during emergencies.
There has also been hapa zome, treasure hunts with the metal detector, dinosaur bones unearthed from underground, clay puppet shows and lots of giggles.
If you joined us for Stay & Play, we hope you had as fun a time as we did. If you didn’t make it this time round, make sure to sign up for the next one!
Little Forest Folk
Wandsworth