As the winter draws in and the days get a bit colder, we like to find lots of different activities to keep our children at Wimbledon busy and engaged. There is always the chance to warm up on adventure walks or take some time out to make some nice warm tea, and these are both great ways for our little explorers to experience new things around the forest.
With colder, wetter days we like to make sure our children at Wimbledon are constantly moving and engaged in physical activity. We find one of the best ways to do this is adventure walks. Often the educators have planned places they would like to reach on the walk, but the children make the decisions on where they would like to go. Many times, the children do not make it very far, but along the way they find hills to climb, sticks to collect and branches to turn to houses. Their imagination and natural curiosity always amaze us as educators. We also use these adventure walks to spot the incredible wildlife around us and this week we have been lucky enough to see the buzzard flying around as well as the heron. Our children have become so familiar with these birds that they are now able to spot them before the adults do. They can recognise the colours of their wings and look at the sizes of the birds to determine which breed they are. The children also discussed why the buzzard was flying so low and so often around us and they concluded that there must be a nest nearby, and then that is something else to look for on our walks. These adventure walks are always an exciting part of our day in the forest no matter what the weather!
The excitement of Christmas is going round the forest now and the children have taken any chance to make decorations or anything Christmassy. We have been using wood cookies to make decorations by putting glue on them and then adding different spices and lentils. The children have been able to choose between cinnamon, cloves and star anise and then have added the lentils for colour. We have also spent time writing our letters to Santa! The children sat with our educators and told them what they wanted to say to Santa, and we wrote it down word for word. A lot of the things that our children said got them on the nice list were related to their time in the forest. They said that they had followed the kind and gentle rule and had been playing nicely with their friends. They also said they listened to the walk around the edge rule and stayed safe with the fire. This shows what a big impact their time in the forest has on our children, and that they are proud of what they achieve each day, so much so that they need to tell Santa!
As educators in the forest, we love to see how much the children enjoy engaging in the wide variety of activities that we have available to them. It’s amazing watching them use their own ideas to create things to do throughout the day and sharing this with others. The forest makes such an impact on their lives, and we think it is such an important time for them to have the chance to learn and explore in a way that they enjoy. Let’s see what these next few weeks leading up to Christmas bring and we will watch as the excitement levels continue to rise!
Little Forest Folk
Wimbledon