New friends and new discoveries all make for a fun week in the forest, welcome to September!
The forest said hello to a lot of new friends this week and our current children helped to welcome them in the best way possible, with fun and games!
The new children have enjoyed spending time exploring their new surroundings and looking at all the different things they could find with their friends. They have been shown around by our existing Forest Folk-ers and have been given little tours during the walk ins and also in the meadow. Everyone has settled in so well, and it has been lovely watching as the children become more confident, whether that is playing or exploring in their new environment.
With chillier mornings and a few showers overnight, our ground has been a bit damper recently which has made for the best digging patches. We spent a lot of time making different mixtures and potions with the mud; from mud cakes that we shaped using our mud kitchen tools, to mud ice cream with sticks as the “special treat” on the top. Whilst mixing, the children spoke about the different textures of the mud and how adding some water made it easier to pour the mud into different containers. We made different shapes with sticks in the mud and then some children went further to write some letters. We looked at different letters of each other’s names and then tried writing them down.
A lot of time this week has also been spent reading our bug books. The children have enjoyed looking at the books and then going in search for the bugs out on the meadow. There have been worms and butterflies that have taken to our green space, and everyone has been excited looking at the different colours on the butterflies and then finding out the facts about them later on. Everyone took the time to carefully make sure the bugs were safe from any predators and that they wouldn’t be near any children’s feet that were running near them. It mixed into our kind and gentle rule, because it’s not only humans that we need to be kind to.
One of the new favourite things to do is to sing songs on our new giant log at the top of the meadow. It’s been fun for the children to take it in turns to choose which song they would like and then everyone sings it together. We have added actions, which the children choose themselves, and then they find the spots on the log to sit on. We have had cheeky monkey songs, speckled frogs and sleeping bunnies, all of which were chosen by our little forest explorers.
It’s been a busy start to September, but a very exciting and fun filled one. We have made new friends, learnt new facts and discovered far more than we thought we could.
We look forward to the coming weeks and months to watch our forest change and see what else we can discover along the way!
Little Forest Folk
Wimbledon