Autumn brings a mixture of fun and what a week it has been! We have been greeted each morning with the forest showing signs of Autumn, with dewy grass and fallen leaves. All of these making for an exciting start to our day.
With our new group names of Foxes (previously green group) and Bunnies (previously red group), the children have all taken these new names as a fun way to identify their groups. They have been joining in with counting each bunny or each fox in their group and it is now even more exciting to point out when we see the animals in our forest.
Bunny group have been extra busy this week using our imagination tree as a great space to practice our climbing and building skills. Some of our children wanted to challenge themselves and make climbing a bit more exciting for themselves, so they used logs to make a pathway across to another part of the tree. They worked together to move logs across from the meadow and line them up next to each other. Then, taking it in turns, each child would make the daring cross along the logs to the base of the point where they would tackle the tree. Everyone loved working together to make something that was a bit different to normal and made it a bit more challenging for them.
The fox group have been loving the pulley systems that we have in the forest. They have been set up in the morning with the basic equipment, meaning it was down to the children to decide what they wanted to lift up and down. The children tested their strength and wanted to see what the heaviest item was that they could lift. It was exciting to see the different items that the children wanted to lift and seeing them work with each other to work out the best way to pull the items up.
Our foxes have also been taking an interest in the jobs of the educators around them. One of the main jobs that they like to know about is taking snaps. As there is a picture sent out each day, it is only fair that the child understands what this is. This week they have had the chance to take some pictures themselves and have been using different techniques to see what the most exciting picture could be. They tested taking pictures through the binoculars and using rolled up bits of paper as a tool for capturing fun looking pictures too!
The bunny group has also been very creative this week. There have been pictures created by sticking some of the fallen leaves down onto paper, along with using wooden lolly sticks to make the letters of our names. Sitting down in small groups the children spoke with each other about the letter that their name started with. We then took it in turns to make the letter and stick the sticks together. Once this was done, each child wrote their name on the sticks and showed us their amazing mark making skills. It was lovely to watch as the children then not only spoke about the letter of their name, but also those of their friends and they showed an understanding of other people around them.
The weather has been a real mixture this week, starting off very warm and sunny and then making way for a few showers later in the week. This is what makes the forest so special, being able to experience the outdoors in all weathers and showing the children the way in which our environment changes depending on the weather, but that it’s still just as fun either way!
“When life gives you rain, jump in the puddles!”- Anon
Have a lovely weekend everyone!
Little Forest Folk
Wimbledon