Wow this has been a wet week. Our forest is squishy, squelchy, muddy and wet. The children are in heaven!

We've had a week in which the children have been so interested in the heavy rains 'if rain is making floods how much rain does it need?', 'is a flood bigger than that tree? is it bigger than you?', 'can we make a flood?'. It's been fascinating to see how interested the children have been in the weather this week and how they are experimenting with their knowledge and using their interest to expand their learning. We've had lots of measuring of water, depth of puddles, height of trees, speed in which rain fills containers. Wonderful to see so much every day maths through engaging play.

The mud kitchen has been incredibly popular this week with lots of scooping, digging, mud pies, mud cakes, potions and lotions being created. We've even gathered mud along with natural materials in the forest and have made some mud monsters and mud creatures to hang on the trees.

We've had lots of wildlife in the forest this week. They must enjoy the wet weather! We've seen rabbits, squirrels, robins and lots and lots of sticky slugs and worms. The children are so caring with their gentle handling of mini beasts which really enhances their nurturing sides.

With another week of minimal resources we are starting to see the children's imaginations get even more creative if that was possible! We seem to have a lot of superheroes in the forest recently and this week have also had lots of dragons and crocodiles. We've had some gorgeous faceprinting sessions and the children have loved chasing their friends around the forest pretending to be crocodiles!

We've chased, we've splashed and we've walked the plank into deep puddles. We've been climbing trees to new heights and have been practising using our bodies for balance as we sit in trees without holding on. We've chased, we've hidden and we've explored. We've had a fabulous week, ending with a gloriously fun and sunny Friday!

News

Next week we welcome Katherine into the forest. She has her first day in the forest on Monday so we are excited to welcome her to the team! Let's hope there's still lots of mud on Monday for her to splash about in.

For those children leaving us for big boy and big girl school, we would love the opportunity to show your new teachers what your learning journey has been like so far in the world. If you let us know once you've heard from school who your teachers will be, we will get in touch with them to invite them to come and spend a morning with us in the forest.

Dressing for the weather

Next week is forecast to be another wet one. We'd like to request that you check through your spare clothes as this week we've had to squeeze some children into slightly too small clothes as they've grown so much since the spare clothes were first added to the bag!

As a guideline next week the children should be wearing:

One pair of comfortable trousers (jogging bottoms or leggings)
One long sleeve t-shirt
One fleecy zip up jacket (in a backpack just in case)
One pair of socks
Wellies

Lost property

Our lost property box has now swelled to three boxes full! As a reminder, the lost property boxes are available in the foyer of the scout hall Monday to Friday from 4pm-6pm if you are missing any items you'd like to try and track down!

We hope you have a lovely weekend!

Little Forest Folk