Frosty mornings and story making - the best autumn days!
The meadow glistened in the morning frost, the trees swayed with their last few leaves and the puddles have grown from the showers. The forest is constantly showing us something new, and this week has been no exception!
We had rain to start our Monday morning and then bright blue sky and sunshine the next day, followed by a frosty start which then swapped for a foggy morning the next day. No matter what weather we walk into the forest with, there is always so much to explore.
Our children have been able to go on a lot of adventure walks this week, each time exploring a new area of the forest. We have been able to find new climbing areas for our children to challenge themselves with. They have been excited to find different places to climb as it gives them a chance to test themselves more and work on advancing their climbing abilities. The children are very good at working out risk and talking with the educators to find out which trees are safe to climb, and this is a big part of our learning in the forest.
Our adventure walks are also a chance to let our imaginations run wild. The children love to bring a storyline along on their walks and look for things linking to stories that they know. One thing this week was finding a log pile house which the children said the snake from the Gruffalo lived in. They all then continued this story throughout their walk, looking at all the other things they could see from the Gruffalo story, luckily not the Gruffalo himself!
Our interest in stories has continued back in the forest, with the children wanting to write and act out their own stories. They have taken the time to sit and talk about different characters and storylines, whilst the educators write them down for them. The stories are written down word for word, exactly as they are said by the children, this way it is a perfect representation of our children’s imaginations. Once they are written down our children have then loved being able to act the stories out. They have been choosing which characters to be and letting their friends also be different characters. It’s such a lovely way for us to share stories and watch as the children are able to see their work come to life!
As always, balancing and climbing has been an important part of our week. The forest has so many opportunities for our children to climb, but it is even more exciting when the children can build something from scratch for them to climb. Our Little Forest Folk-ers have used logs, planks of woods and pallets to create their own climbing space, making them as high as they like and challenging their construction skills. The children have worked together to move the things to where they want them and work out the best place for different items to be placed so that they are safe and secure to climb on. Once their construction is complete the children have enjoyed being able to walk across, jump off of and balance on what they have made and share this with their friends.
Walking through our forest it is clear to see that autumn has taken its hold of everything around us. Trees are losing their leaves, if they haven’t lost them all already, holly trees have their bright red berries growing in abundance and the mornings are becoming that bit frostier. The children are constantly asking questions about why the forest changes like this, and it’s a great opportunity to talk them through the changing seasons. There is always something new to learn and some amazing knowledge to share, not only from our educators but also from our children. Children hold information that we give and love being able to pass it on to others, extending the chain of learning.
“Autumns! A time of hot chocolatey mornings, and toasty marshmallow evenings, and, best of all, leaping into leaves!"- Winnie the Pooh
We hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Little Forest Folk
Wimbledon