Recycling week
This week has been national recycling week! We began by introducing this topic during snack time, talking about where rubbish goes and which items we can recycle. Over the weekend some of the educators collected different items we can recycle and showed them to the children. We talked about what we could do with them and how we can reuse. For some of the items we added to our art collection and engaged in junk modelling. Over the week we created all sorts of amazing artwork including making our own faces, to a pirate ship and a house for slugs. Other items we added to our mud kitchen play equipment to ensure they were reused before needing to be thrown away. It has been a great way to practically teach our children how important the environment is and how we can do our part to look after it. We will soon be recruiting a team of little green conscious Forest Folk, who can help us on our mission to be an official green school. More of this to come!
On Monday we had a visitor, a gardener! He drove on to site on a lawn mower and began to cut back all the long grass on our meadow. It was all very exciting. We moved our play equipment off the meadow and with the pallets made a viewing platform for some of our children, there they watched in awe, loving seeing the grass being mowed. Over the week the children have loved playing with all the cut grass, collecting for adding to their constructions or to clump together to create a soft landing for jumping on. The shorter grass has also meant more opportunities to spot wildlife on our site. The children have managed to find so many frogs this week, we were even lucky enough to hold one carefully for a bit before he hopped away.
In the foxes and bunnies group this week we have loved playdough. Together with the children we mixed the ingredients all together and added the chosen food colouring. Then the children used utensils and cutters to help them make their creations. Some made animals, others made faces while some of the children simply liked the feel of the playdough in their hands. We love engaging in sensory play like this in the Wimbledon forest and it is even more satisfying when the children made the dough themselves.
Another game we have taken part in lots this week was hide and seek. Using the mud kitchen with all the tall trees provides the perfect place to hide. Taking turns, the children choose one person to count to 10 while closing their eyes. Quickly the rest of the children scatter away to find a good tree, some children love to hide as a group, while others are determined to find the most obscure tree to hide behind. The children have so much fun searching for one another and love exclaiming “I found you”! The excitement and laughter can be heard all through the forest.
What another fantastic week in the Wimbledon forest!
Little Forest Folk
Wimbledon