This week was another one of those weeks with all the weathers thrown into the daily melting pot of fun. 100% chance of rain kept its promises, the wind WHOOSHED, and glorious bursts of sun crept through the canopies, but the consistency we can always count on is the children’s resilience to these inclement changes and the changes in routine: well done!
Both teams began the week with some new activities and loose parts to play with. Over on Red Team, Matt introduced several dozen arm sized lengths of logs to the field, which will be alternated between the teams weekly so that all can enjoy. Firstly, children helped to peg down a long rope into a circular shape to define the area, and all experimented with a variety of techniques with hands and feet to get these into the invariably textured and dense soil surface. Support was scaffolded to think about ways to get these pegs in efficiently and safely, culminating with everyone applying even pressure in one slow movement with the underside of their wellies. Awesome constructions, designs, shapes, patterns, letters, numbers and faces were all formed inside the rope ring ranged as wide as imaginations allowed; we look forward to being able to make this a regularly set up area!
Green Team had fun constructing a scarecrow on a newly formed vegetable patch, dug and turned over by Dan. Dan has been working hard to get everything ready for a green thumbed year and has even sunk a single sized wooden bed into the ground to make an actual raised bed! This week children have been supported to plant lots of seeds in trays and we can’t wait to watch spring onions, beetroot, leeks, onions and sunflowers grow over the next few months here at the bowling field. Red team have also enjoyed some gardening and had fun repotting the Muscari plants. These were planted earlier this year as bulbs and will bloom in mid-spring. The bulbs multiply readily, so we can expect to see these return every year, and we should be able to distribute bulb clusters to families who would like to plant some of their own at the end of the year.
We continue to celebrate Women’s History Month this March, and with International Women’s Day on Monday 8th Educators have been talking with the children about the meaning of equality and learning about inspiring female figures from around the world. Educators and children have all loved the most excellent modern nursery rhyme book called “What are little girls made of” and we would highly recommend it. We have also enjoyed an Emmeline Pankhurst book from the Little People Big Dream series and have revisited the pages of “Goodnight stories for Rebel Girls”. On Monday, Cici facilitated a creative activity, expertly delivered by craft-master Karen, where children talked about important women in their lives that they wanted to have written on a paper flower, and it was rather wonderful to hear them talk about loved family members beyond the immediacy of all the brilliant mums in their lives!
The week finished with the WHOOSHING winds which meant kites were clearly a must. Children pondered positions, ran, span and jumped to find optimum ways to set tethered bin bags sailing in the winds. Smiles, happy shrieks and laughs travelled around the air and with less kites than children, educators were impressed with some quality sharing skills across both teams!
We’re looking forward to just as much fun next week but in the meantime, we hope you all have a good weekend, and we’d like to wish a Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mums for Sunday!
Little Forest Folk
Wandsworth