Dinosaurs, pumpkins, and Halloween festivities!
What an exciting and spooky time we have had in the Wimbledon forest this week! With Halloween approaching we have had an abundance of pumpkin crafts, creating decorations and fancy dress.
One of the first things we did on site this week was make hanging bats. Carefully with an educator, children cut out outlines of bats and decorated how they wished, then they added string and attached to paper straws. They made perfect puppets or decorations for the trees. The children have also made their own pumpkin faces. Using paper plates with eyes and mouths cut out children have then painted them orange and added sprinkles. Further we have made floaty paper ghosts and made cobwebs out of string. The forest is well and truly ready for Halloween now!
Towards the end of the week children tried their hand at pumpkin decorating. With the educators help, we carved in the pumpkin and the children had their turn at scooping out the insides, some said “Eww” the moment they touched it, while others loved the texture and enjoyed playing with it. Our Little Forest Folk-ers then decorated the pumpkins with pens and, with plastic knives, began to do some carving (Educators helping with sharper knives when needed). It was so wonderful seeing all the teamwork and perseverance to carve the whole pumpkin!
We have also been celebrating Halloween by dressing up. We have had dinosaurs, rabbits, foxes, witches, pumpkins, cats and so much more. The children took such pride in their outfits and loved showing their friends what they were wearing. We added to some outfits by doing face paints this week. The children waited patiently for their turn before choosing what they would like. This week we saw the faces of everything from mermaids to Cat boy!
Not everything this week has been Halloween themed, we have been on adventure walks, found mud puddles to splash in and even made some honey and lemon tea using the kelly kettle. A favourite has been going on mushroom hunts. Before we start these, we make sure to remind all children of the no picking and licking rules. We talk about how mushrooms in the forest can make us sick and we should only eat those we find in shops. Then we set off on a search for mushrooms, the children carefully looked around trees and called out to one another when they found them. Using a swatch book, we then searched for the mushroom to identify it. Using the book, we could learn the name and interesting facts about the mushrooms. How lucky we are to have such amazing natural resources to learn from in the forest.
It’s been another fantastic week in the forest. We hope you have a glorious weekend!
Little Forest Folk
Wimbledon