Leaves and mud, what more could we need?!
This week has been full of wet puddles and showery downpours. The grey skies have been hovering over us all week, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun!
The children have found some great ways to keep warm this week now that the temperature has started to drop. Playing music on the meadow has led to our children dancing and running around, which has kept them moving and shaking. Everyone took turns to choose a song and would then take it in turns to show their friends a movement to follow. This has included balancing on one leg, jumping high in the air, and then running around twirling brightly coloured ribbons. Not only was this fun for our children, but also helped them practice some amazing skills such as their balancing and coordination. Running around with the ribbons was also such a nice sight as they glistened in the rays of sunshine that poked through the clouds.
Due to there being such a large amount of rain recently, the mud play has been amazing in the forest! The children have been using different objects to transport mud from one area to another and used it to construct things. We have been making towers and then seeing which one is the highest. We have used the mud to make different shapes and patterns in the mud, from a mud castle to mud tunnels for ants to climb through. Sticks have been used as digging instruments and then the children have been patting the mud with their hands to make it flat. It’s been amazing to watch as they work together to create things from some that is seen as so simple, mud!
Not only has the mud been used to construct, but also in the children’s imaginative play. With it been so wet and runny at the moment, the mud has been used as food and drink during certain play. We have had chocolate milkshakes mixed together with grass and leaves, and chocolate cakes cooked in a very hot oven that has been constructed with sticks. Every child that has used the mud in this way has then shown it to a friend and they have created games based around it. Luckily, we have our ‘no picking, no licking rule’ in the forest, because some of these cakes can looked suspiciously real!
The fox group were busy with Maria this week making bow and arrows. They collected sticks from around the forest and worked out which would be the best one for what they wanted to make. Once they found the perfect stick, it was then time to attach the string to it. They worked together with Maria to tie the string around the top bit of the stick, and then to the bottom. The children had to use their measuring abilities to know exactly how much string they needed to cut to fit their bow. When the string was fitted perfectly, everyone then had to find a smaller stick to use as their arrows. They all searched, looking for a stick that was strong enough not to break, but light enough that it would fly far. When they had found it, they all took it in turns to fly it across the meadow. It was fun to see the children enjoy what they had created and working out the different ways to make the arrow go further.
With Autumn showing us that it’s here now, the forest has offered some amazing sights and spectacles to explore. We are surrounded by a vast amount of different coloured leaves that now call the forest floor their home. There are reds, golds and yellows which look amazing when the sun shines down onto them. They also provide a lot of fun to kick through when walking in the forest, splashing colour in the air as the children swing their feet through them.
The children have also been using the leaves in their artwork, sticking them onto paper or even painting them and printing with them. Some of the children have found bigger leaves and used them to draw on. They have coloured the leaves and this meant the patterns showed up even more which the children enjoyed looking at.
We have had a very fun and creative week in the forest, looking at how the forest is changing around us and how we can use what the forest gives us in our play.
“Teaching children about the natural world should be treated as one of the most important events in their lives.” - Thomas Berry
We hope you all have wonderful weekends!
Little Forest Folk
Wimbledon