Our Week in the Forest...
The weather this week has been glorious and there have been lots of requests from children to use the tools. Sam, Emma and Spike were on hand to support children in their crafting projects. With Emma, the children were using the peelers to whittle their sticks, carefully removing the outer bark before then shaped it into their chosen creation. We saw lots of magic wands, swords and even a 'rainbow bug!'
Sam and Spike supported children in their use of the bow saws and drills as they cut lengths of logs, tree cookies and drilled holes through them to create their very own toy cars. This was an excellent opportunity to engage in problem solving and sustained shared thinking as children and educators thought and spoke about design issues "how can we attach the wheels to the body of the car?" As ideas where tried and tested it was proved that pushing sticks through the main body would provide an axle for the wheels to be placed onto. "How do we stop the wheels coming off?" was the next problem and resulted in a lot more thinking and talking. Eventually, a simple solution of bending the end of the stick at a 90 degree angle did just the trick!
With some of our children starting school in September we are being visited by some of the teachers who want to get to know the children in the forest and were completely blown away this week when a group of children were asked if they would like to sing a song while waiting for snack, instead of 'wheels on the bus' or other such nursery rhymes, the children burst out into a full rendition of George Esra's "I'll Be Riding Shotgun" followed by The Beatles "We All Live In A Yellow Submarine"
The cool climate in the mud kitchen provided a welcome relief from the sun this week and the huddles of trees that grow together provide the perfect place for children to get out the bag of ropes and build their own houses, slack lines and spider webs to climb through. Once again, the problem solving part of the brain gets lots of exercise during this activity and children have to work out how to get the rope around the tree that is twice the size of their arm span whilst not capturing themselves in their own trap. This led to some brilliant teamwork and sharing of the resources.
We hope you all have wonderful weekends and we look forward to more sunny adventures next week
Little Forest Folk
Wimbledon