There may be tennis fever in the air around the rest of Wimbledon, but our forest has been full of excitement around fire making, marshmallow toasting and play dough creating! The children at Little Forest Folk Wimbledon have been so busy this week with so many amazing activities, the days have been full of fun and laughter.
This week we have made s’mores on the fire, we have made scented oil play dough, and we have been exploring feelings using The Colour Monster book and feeling jars. The forest is such a great place to try so many different things and it’s always exciting to see how interested the children are to try something new.
It doesn’t matter how many times we speak to our children about fires, they are always so thrilled at the idea of having another one. This week we have been lucky enough to have two fires meaning that our children had to help to collect lots of firewood. When we have our fires, the children are involved with the whole process, from collecting the wood to seeing it be put out at the end. It is important that they understand the whole timeline of how to create a fire and what it needs to make it grow. We always discuss the safety around fires with our children, even on the days that we don’t have a fire, as we believe it is important for them to understand the risks and rules that surround fires. Doing this means that they are very used to having to sit a distance away from the fire, they know to wait until one of our educators calls them up, and they understand why we do and don’t wear certain items of clothing when near the fire.
Toasting marshmallows was one of the highlights of the fire this week and the children all had a chance to toast their own. They put it on the stick and then stood with an educator to hold it over the fire. We also made s’mores which then made the children even happier as after all of their hard work to collect the firewood and help make the fire, who doesn’t love a little treat?!
We have been showing a real importance of talking about our children’s thoughts and feelings in the forest, and this week was no different. One of our new favourite books is ‘The Colour Monster’ which is all about a little monster whose colours are all mixed up because he doesn’t know about the different feelings inside of him. His friend in the book helps him to sort his feelings into a jar so that he knows what each colour means and then he can understand his feelings a bit more. So, we thought that this would be the perfect activity for the forest! With the help of one of the educators each child was given a feelings jar and some colour monsters to colour in. They chose which ever colour they wanted and then spoke about what that colour represented. Some chose yellow for happy, some had blue for sad and then we had red for angry. There were also some children who drew lots of colours on their Colour Monster because they were feeling lots of different things. This activity showed just how aware our children are, despite their young age, and how much they think about the feelings of those around them. It also made them realise that it is okay to feel different emotions to their friends, and that sharing how we feel can make us feel a bit better.
After talking about feelings more recently, we also wanted to find things for the children to do that would help bring a calming energy to the forest and one of the ideas was to make sensory scented play dough. The children all got to make their own play dough from scratch, measuring out each ingredient and mixing it together to form their dough. Then, after a lot of smelling, they added in their chosen essential oil. They could either have lavender or tea tree, both of which the children loved and also made them feel calmer. Adding these to playdough, which can already be a very calming activity, made them sit and use their sense of touch and smell to create a very soothing atmosphere.
The forest has been a hive of activity this week and it has been so lovely to watch as each child run around the forest with a smile on their face. Our forest environment really is such an amazing place for each child to feel valued and listened to as they begin their path in life, and no matter what the weather we can always hear laughter echoing through the trees at Wimbledon.
Little Forest Folk
Wimbledon