Santa’s secret missions
What an exciting week in has been in the Wimbledon Forest. Every morning Santa has written a letter to the children at Little Forest Folk with a secret mission that we must carry out. As the week went on the children were keen to ask in the morning if Santa had left another message and wanted to know what today’s mission was. A favourite mission for all the children was on Wednesday he needed a sleigh to be built. The children all worked together to move pallets, logs and planks as well as add ropes to create the sleigh. It is fantastic seeing the children work so well together and communicating about what must be done. They are also able to watch one another and help when they can see someone is struggling. Once the sleighs were completed it was time for role playing, some children were Santa while others were reindeers. They handed out presents and flew over the forest, how magical!
Christmas has been continued in all sorts of ways in the forest, foxes decorated their Christmas tree while bunnies created their own mini trees out of paper. The children have been inspired to draw their own trees as well as presents and Santa. Some children even had a chance to peel some carrots to leave out for the reindeers.
We have also been engaging in other activities in the forest this week. With the milder weather the children have been able to take part in painting and craft activities. Some children made and decorated glasses to wear while others painted the beautiful forest around them. Climbing has continued to be popular, and while exploring off site we found a fallen tree shaped like a rocket ship, what an excellent addition to the children’s play and imagination. The forest never fails to be the most incredible learning environment, from mushrooms to identify, slugs to build houses for and woodpeckers to listen to.
This week families have been bringing in any spare food they have to donated to Wimbledon Food Bank. This has sparked many conversations among children and practitioners about how lucky we are and what we are thankful for. Despite their young age our Little Foresters are incredibly empathetic and understanding, it is a joy to see how generous they all wanted to be. A big thank you to all our families who have donated, we are so grateful for what you have been able to give.
Little Forest Folk
Wimbledon