This week we have been greeted by warmer weather and some lovely sunshine in the forest at Wimbledon, and our children have been enjoying every minute of it! We have spent lots of time on adventure walks and exploring different areas of the forest, as well as taking part in a variety of activities back on site. It has been a week full of fun and excitement.
Our children have loved the new brightly coloured yarn that we have had in the forest this week, and we have been finding different ways to use it. On one of our walk ins we noticed some caterpillars hanging from the tree on silk threads and some amazing spider webs. This then led to conversations with our educators about what the webs are made from and the patterns that we could see. From this we decided to use sticks and yarn to make our own webs. Each child chose which colours they wanted and, once they were tied on with the help of an educator, they then moved them across the sticks to make a pattern.
This idea then turned into a conversation about dream catchers and some of the children decided to make those instead. We went on the hunt for some feathers or leaves that could be added on to the dream catcher and we spoke about where they could be placed at home. The children decided that by their bed was best so that their dreams were close by when they slept. It was great so see how the children used their own thoughts to expand on the activity and led it with their friends to put their ideas into reality.
We have also been so happy to go on more adventure walks this week, and we have been hit by a sea of bluebells just outside of our forest site. The children have been looking carefully at the new flowers that have grown, inspecting any little creature that appears on them and seeing how many they can count. We have also noticed a carpet of buttercups on our meadow which, yet again, have been a great place to sit and watch as the bees find new places to eat and rest on.
These adventure walks also led to another idea of making our own binoculars. We taped together two insides of a toilet roll, added string, and then decorated them in any way each child wanted. We then used them on our walks to see what incredible sights we could spot. Each child looked like a real explorer as they stomped through the woods, looking closely at every little insect or flower they encountered.
This week has really shown how the weather makes such an impact on our forest, with the leaves looking greener than ever and the grass growing each day. It creates such wonderful conversations between our friends because they can talk about everything new that they have witnessed. This then leads to ideas about what activities they might want to do and how they want to spend their day outside.
It is a never-ending world of possibilities in the forest, and we love finding something new each time we step outside!
Little Forest Folk
Wimbledon