Our Week in the Forest...
Fairies in the Wood
Fairies and fairy stories are very popular with the Little Forest Folk but these mythical creatures are rarely brought to life. This week changed all that and the children loved making their own fairies with things they found around the forest. The wings were made of leaves; the head an acorn; clothes were fashioned from strips of cloth; and the bodies were made substantial by wrapping pipe cleaners around the arms and torso which were a cross of sticks.
Every day the new fairies have arrived to engage the children with all the different natural areas that Fishpond Wood provides and seeing the depth of concentration in sourcing just the right materials was amazing. Some of the fairies were even used by one of the big forest folk to create a completely original story for the little forest folk one lunchtime with thrills, laughs and magical mishaps.
Family
“I’ll be the mummy and you be the daddy.” declared one of the Little Forest Folk. Roleplaying as a family is a very popular activity for our children but the groups are usually pretty small. Not this week, however. Often initiated by a single child with an adult, this week’s families have been huge, with lots of fun had by the new brothers, sisters, babies and pet mermaids that the children have pretended to be.
The imagination that goes into these situations never ceases to astound and some lovely new quirks to the usual role-play were included this week. One family found themselves living on a farm. Another, much extended family, went on a trip to a café on a hill where they tucked into a delightful meal of hot chocolate (the weather has certainly warranted this!) and chips. And others too made some delicious blackberry bread while one of the family members sang and danced!
Fishing
It’s incredible sometimes how one small resource can trigger lots of different ideas in the children. After taking some wool into the forest this week, the children were inspired to want to make a whole heap of different things for their play: fishing rods to catch whatever was in the forest’s puddles; bows to fire arrows at any marauding dragons that happened to stumble across the nursery; and even leads for the children to pull along their log-shaped pets – namely dogs and horses!
We hope you all have a wonderful weekend.
Little Forest Folk
Wimbledon