Our Week in the Forest...
Once upon a time there was a young child known near and far for his love of sticks. On every stroll he took, he found a new and exciting branch, log or twig to take home to show his family. This child also had a magnificent imagination. He, with the help of his friends, could tell stories from dawn until dusk. The children told tales of great wingless dragons who became trapped in a garden. The children told yarns of sleeping tigers that couldn’t stay on their logs. Those that listened were entranced by the vivid storytelling (adult and child alike), and those that delivered the great epics did so with emphatic embellishments and a flare for the dramatic!
Dramatic! Books are all well and good to get the creative juices flowing but this week saw our library gathering dust to make way for storytelling of a more improvised and natural bent. The imaginations of our children are wonderful and getting them to share with their peers is a fantastic sight to behold. Our child storytellers used props and their own movements to illustrate their stories and this drew the audience deeper into the narratives, which were far ranging in their scope and downright fabulous. One child got so engaged in the tale he was telling that at the point where the character fell from it’s perch, so too did the teller!
Impressive! Each week, each day, our little forest folk impress each other and the adults in so many different ways. This week saw different shows of physical ability that both challenged and delighted the children in equal measure. The first was the setting up of seesaws over logs that the children used as tests for their balancing and speed in trying to get over them. With different sized seesaws arranged from wide to slim, the children could choose what they felt most comfortable with and had an instant next challenge available when they were ready for it.
The children’s strength never fails to impress and this week saw them displaying their physical prowess in the construction of a great bonfire! Carrying, dragging or working together to shift fallen tree limbs and branches of all shapes and sizes. Although we could only pretend to set this alight, the children had a special treat of a real fire in the forest too!
Inquisitive! All manner of insects are flying free (or crawling) now that the warmer weather seems to be settling in at Fishpond Wood. There have been numerous insect hunts across the different habitats in the forest and the children are becoming quite familiar with the various nooks and crannies that are likely to house their favourite creepy crawlies! The children searched under logs, in nettle beds, through the trees and in the grass. Their efforts were not in vain either: they turned up spiders, slugs, centipedes, ants, flies, snails, woodlice, pill bugs and even a humble bumble bee. What made this week a little different to previous searching weeks was that the children were quite excited to carefully handle some of our insect friends. A tiny spindly spider was passed around and the children also had to gain the trust of a pill bug, otherwise it wouldn’t uncurl from it’s protective ball.
New Little Forest Folk settings
As you will have seen in our communications last week, we are delighted that Little Forest Folk Wandsworth will be opening this summer- it's been a long time in the making!
We'll be launching with sessional days only whilst we prepare for our full day offering which we hope to offer a little later in the year.
Our Little Forest Folk Wandsworth children will spend their days at two wonderful forest sites:
On Mondays and Fridays at Paradise Co-op Urban Farm.
On Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays in the wilds of Wimbledon Common.
For more details visit the Wandsworth web page here
We're so excited that Little Forest Folk Barnes is also coming soon! We'll be in touch next week to share more information with you.
Food in the forest:
Our full May menu can be found on our website HERE
We're enjoying these new Cheese and Linseed Pinwheels, our morning snack on Wednesdays.
Puff pastry, covered in lashings of mature
cheddar cheese and linseeds.
Rolled, chopped into pinwheels and baked in a hot oven...
until the cheese is golden and bubbling. YUM!
We hope you have a lovely weekend.
Little Forest Folk
Wimbledon