Spring has sprung...
As spring continues to make a welcomed appearance in the forest, our children have been excited about all of the different activities and chances that they have had to explore them. We have had everything from toasting marshmallows on the fire, to adventure walks and meeting horses. Our children have had a week full of exciting adventures!
On the amazing dry and sunny days earlier in the week we had the opportunity to have a fire with our Little Forest Folk-ers. The children took the time to sit around the fire circle and listen carefully to the rules. These rules explain what we need to do to stay safe at the fire and we also explain how the fire is started. We do a step-by-step explanation of how to get the fire started and exactly what equipment is needed for every step of the way. Once our fire had got going every child was lucky enough to have the chance to toast a marshmallow. They found the perfect stick, which had been whittled to form the right point, and put the marshmallow on the end. They held the stick, with a bit of adult supervision, until the marshmallow was toasted to the right amount for the child. Then they got to taste their hard work!
Having the fire is a great activity for our children to show how well they listen to our rules and how much information they take onboard during a task. We ask the children to tell us what they know about starting the fire and then they can add to their knowledge each time.
All of our children have enjoyed adventure walks this week. Going on adventure walks is a great opportunity for our children to be able to explore some different areas of the forest. One of our favourite spots is the beech forest where there are so many tall trees in such a wide-open space. There are also lots of fallen down trees which are perfect to climb on. This space also allows our children to learn how to respect the different areas of the forest as they understand that is a space that everyone shares.
We also have the chance to see so many things that we wouldn’t get to see in our own forest site, such as horses! It’s amazing to watch how gently and cautiously our children are when we see horses out in the forest. They watch as they trot past, asking questions about the horses and are sometimes even lucky enough to be allowed to carefully stroke them (under adult supervision)!
Because of the different areas in our own forest site our children are able to play in such different types of outdoor environments. We have the large open space of the meadow, the covered area of the mud kitchen which also offers the fun of a small stream, and then we have base camp which is full of trees to climb and use for the children’s imaginative play. Our children have been using the stream to their full advantage this week by making fishing rods and using nets to see what they could catch. They tied bits of string to sticks that were found and then dangled them in the water to see what they could find. Watching the children discuss what may be in the water and to see their imagination run wild is amazing!
The fantastic thing about the forest is all the different opportunities each day brings. There is always something new to do or to explore, and this is what makes it such an exciting place to visit each day! We hope you all have had lovely weeks too and have wonderful weekends all!
Little Forest Folk
Wimbledon