Campfire, play and stories under the trees in the forest
Yet another gorgeous week in the forest. We've had some glorious sunny days with a crisp chill in the air to really feel like winter.
We began the week by extending the children's fascination last week with science experiments with the ice and brought in some ice packages for examination and play. We had frozen sticks and leaves, frozen paint, other frozen natural materials and some frozen oranges. Lots of sensory play, experimentation and excavation was enjoyed by all.
We spent a bit of time this week constructing a fabulous story corner from sticks and tarps. The children enjoyed enhancing our structure then loved the base for lovely cuddly stories.
We also spent some time enjoying story time under the trees with our friends. On one day after reading some alien stories we decided to listen to our stories and spend a not insignificant amount of time wearing tin foil alien style hats! A surprise hit!
It's been a busy week for construction as we've built our story corner, we've built dens and we've also tried our hand at building boats. Then have had great fun working out which materials will ensure our boat floats or sinks, which materials allow us to propel the boat by blowing it and lots more fun boat activities. Water play is always fun.
We've climbed, we've run, we've chased (there have been a few little 'sharks' in the forest this week keeping the children entertained), we've jumped, we've balanced and we've hopped. Always fun to keep on the move keeping us warm and keeping us healthy.
Climbing, running, playing in the forest and cooking
With our new children on the whole settling beautifully into our routines, we've managed to have a few fires this week, delighting both our older children (who know that where there's a fire there's usually a toasted marshmallow) and also our newer children who can't believe their eyes that we are building a fire and allowed to approach it to cook our very own marshmallows. We had some very proud little ones this week who felt very empowered to have such responsibility and trust placed in them.
Finally for our cookery lesson this week the children baked stuffed mushrooms with streaky bacon, breadcrumbs, garlic, mature cheddar and parsley....and they made an incredible croissant and blueberry pudding which it was very difficult not to eat up ourselves!
In the news
Some interesting articles in the news this week, including this very interesting Daily Telegraph piece 'iPad generation' means nine in 10 toddlers live couch potato lives'. It makes us very proud of our setting and of all of our children who throw themselves into physical activity every day that we are leading the way in giving our children the childhood many experts are realising is essential.
Next week in the forest
For the next 2 weeks in the forest we are going to be discussing risk, risk management & how to keep safe in the forest, at home & when out & about. Rather than dictating to the children the different types of danger we will be involving the children in discussions about what constitutes danger & what we can do to manage risk. We shall be encouraging the children to help us complete our risk assessments next week so we shall be interested to see how diligent they are ;-). There are few better ways to ensure children stay safe than to empower them with the ability to independently assess risk. Apologies in advance if they come home & boss you about regarding safety!
Menu
Our children have this week devoured... see our menu
Enjoy your weekend and we look forward to lots more fun next week!
Read more about our concept and the benefits of outdoor play