Wimbledon Welcomes the New Year!
At Wimbledon, we’ve been feeling so lucky this week to be back in the forest together, it’s been so lovely to talk to our friends about all the lovely treats we’ve had over Christmas, and wonderful for the children to see our forest again after their time away! Our full day children have adjusted so well to having a little more time in the day being outdoors and are also adjusting brilliantly to the colder temperatures. We have loved seeing the magical frost, and even a little snow as we walk into the forest in the mornings! Some of the children in fox group have been transforming our walk-ins into a train route, naming stops along the way, and even doing some train announcements! “The next stop will be the yellow gate, doors closing!”.
Fox group have been getting creative with building their own houses, we have collected branches to make our own shelter, and the children love to invite their friends and educators in to have some dinner.
We have really enjoyed spotting wildlife around our forest, we follow the squirrels who run and jump along the meadow, we’ve been making friends with the robins that sit next to us while we’re eating our snack. We’ve also been lucky enough to hear some woodpeckers pecking away at the trees, and the bunny group even spotted a grey heron at the border of our base camp!
Bunny group have been keeping their muscles strong with lots of tree climbing, keeping their balance and using their ever-growing communication skills to make sure they’re keeping themselves and their friends safe. The bunnies have been really enjoying their books, and the stories are sparking some beautiful conversations from the children.
Fox group have been super busy using tools this week. Our children have practiced some whittling, using vegetable peelers to look at the changes of colour as they remove the bark, and practiced writing their name on the wood when they’d finished. The children are growing a fantastic understanding of safe tool use and respecting the boundaries we have to keep us safe. We’ve also been practicing lighting our own fires using flint lighters! Their grip and fine motor skills are used to strike the flint to make a spark and light a piece of cotton wool to see how quickly it burns, it’s amazing to watch the children independently make sparks, and some even lighting the cotton wool themselves!
We can’t wait to see the children’s independence grow in our forest activities through 2021!
Little Forest Folk
Wimbledon