Our Week in the Forest...
When life gives you lemons…make elderflower cordial!
The forest has welcomed back some familiar faces this week as we have enjoyed the arrival of our holiday campers for a week of fun! The heady combination of warm air and occasional rain showers made the Elder trees flourish and their blooms of white flowers came out on display. Linn flipped through her spell book of forest recipes and found a recipe for Elderflower cordial and our Little Forest Folk-ers were only too happy to help with the magic!
They began by helping collect 12 clusters of the aromatic flowers and laid them out so they could count they had the correct amount. Then in order to fuel the Kelly kettle they also sourced a supply of thin dry sticks for kindling. While the water was put on to boil, the children were busy measuring out cups of sugar and slicing lemons and then it was time to mix the ingredients together. Observations were made about the sugar dissolving in the hot liquid and the wedges of lemons floating to the top. The flowers were already giving the elixir a distinctive smell and it was stored in a flask for a few days to allow the magic to do its job, only being disturbed every now and again so children could observe any changes and inhale the wonderful scent within. Finally, when the waiting had become too unbearable, the children were given the task of pouring the sweet nectar through a sieve so only a concentrated cordial remained. This was mixed with fresh cold water in a jar and served after lunch and both children and educators agreed that the taste was indeed… magical!
Den building has been a strong interest this week with children wanting to be involved in all stages of the process, from finding the perfect stick to use as a tent peg, helping to hammer them into the ground, wrapping guy ropes around the pegs and trying their hand at tying knots. These shelters have then supported children’s play as they have created role-play homes for their imaginary families. On one occasion, they even collected some cushions and blankets from the resources and made themselves a cosy area to sit and share a story with an educator. In fact, one of the lovely things about having some of our holiday camper’s return from school is that some of them were reading aloud which entertained a lot of the younger children.
We hope you all have a well deserved fun weekend, perhaps your child/ren can make you a lovely den you can crawl into with a good book and a batch of Elderflower cordial to sip!
Little Forest Folk
Wimbledon