Our Week in the Forest...
With the weather being beautiful all week, the children have made full use of their adventurous spirit and went with Christie on walks to the fishpond. Some of the plants and weeds along the route had sprouted taller than the children and as our Little Forest Folk-ers weaved through them, one of them shouted “Why are you taking us through a jungle?”.
At the fishpond, a surprise awaited…tadpoles! There were so many the children couldn’t really count them all and they decided to use jugs in order to scoop a few out and gathered around to observe them, “They have no legs”, “Where is their hair?” and “I can’t see their eyes” were some of the comments the children made whilst watching them. Throughout the week, the children requested to make the trek back through the ‘jungle’ to keep visiting the tadpoles and looking at the changes that were happening. By the end of the week, we noticed that their bodies were getting bigger and their tails were getting smaller and they were not as wiggly! When one child asked, “Where are the mummy and daddy frogs?”, we tried to explain that in the animal kingdom some animals are raised and looked after by parents but others take care of themselves from the moment they hatch. The child thought about this for a moment and said, “Or the mum and dad are at the shops!”. This is a common pattern of behaviour in cognitive development as children try and assimilate experiences into what they already know and it may take visiting the concept a few times.
We had a Little Forest Folk puppet show this week, with children making a screen from a large roll of paper that they decorated with watercolours and hung between two trees. They crouched down behind it and using some laminated sea creatures, they put on an ‘under the sea’ show that involved a moody octopus who couldn’t find his book, a fish who kept bumping into things and a ‘dino-fish’ who kept trying to eat everyone. It wasn’t long before children were pulling yarn and sticks out of the resource bag to make their own characters for the show and one of them was a ‘Super Power Ranger Ninjago’ who could jump and kick…at the same time! The educators have all been thoroughly entertained.
We hope this glorious weather stays so you all have a beautiful bank holiday weekend and we look forward to more fun and adventure next week during our May holiday camp!
Little Forest Folk
Wimbledon