See how our forest grows!
This week our amazing children have been fascinated by how our forest constantly changes. Coming onto site on Tuesday, all our children were so wide eyed looking for anything that was different after the large downpour the day before. Of course, there were so many puddles, perfect for seeing how high we could jump and make the water splash. On the walk in we made sure to be checking around us in case there were any new dangers or exciting areas to explore. It is astonishing watching our children interact with one another and talking about all the change they can notice.
The extra rain also meant we were able to engage in more water play. This week one of the favourite resources was pipes. Working together our foresters built a pipe network placing a tray at one end to catch the excess water. Then they slowly began to pour water down from the top, fixing any pipes not properly connected. Once the network was strong, they were able to pour more water down. This took great concentration and teamwork.
The water has inspired lots of mud play from making mud handprints to creating sticky mud pies. As always, our children showed off their amazing imagination skills. One example of this was on Monday while playing a group of children turned the imagination tree into their pirate ship. All morning they played there turning the branches into cannons, creating a captain’s station from the fallen trunk and discovering the perfect hiding spot for their treasure.
Along with all the extra water we have noticed more animals this week. On the bottom of our meadow a group of children spotted a few tiny frogs jumping. We all watched in awe, being so careful not to scare them. This inspired an adventure walk to the frog pond where even more frogs were spotted. Other animals of interest have included all the slugs and snails we met on our walk in. The children were amazing at pointing them out and making sure their friends did not step on them. For such a young age, the children show such empathy and care towards all.
It has been a wonderful week and a personal highlight of ours was watching our two groups of children playing together on the meadow. Despite not knowing each other that well, they were so kind to one another and so curious about all their new friends. It was a joy to watch.
Have an excellent weekend, see you next week!
Little Forest Folk
Wimbledon