We’ve had an exciting week in the forest, bringing stories to life with engaging nature walks and live action story re-enactments!
This week we rounded up our focus on The Gruffalo and discussed how we care for the animals around us. Children were faced with a big pile of logs and had time to consider what they wanted to create. One child had the fabulous idea of creating a “log-pile house” for the Snake (a character in the Gruffalo tale). They used wooden tools to pretend to cut and saw the logs, before working together to move the heavy logs into what resembled a room. They lay some blankets for ultimate comfort. But where is the snake? Our afternoon adventure walk led us to stumble upon a large bendy branch, the spitting image of a snake! But we ran into a problem… the branch was far too heavy! So, one Little Forest Folk-er took charge of the situation, helping everyone crouch and grasp onto sections of the log, before raising the log in unison. She then led the group to camp, carefully dodging obstacles and crouching to duck under the rainbow ribbons. The educators witnessed impressive spatial awareness, teamwork, cooperation and communication skills - great job team! The snake was brought over to its bed where it was tucked in ready for a good night’s sleep
We have continued to explore the Zones of Regulation within the camp, a great colour-based system to support emotional regulation and articulation of thoughts and feelings. This week we have had child-led and adult-led activities, as well as morning check ins, which have given our little ones lots of opportunities to discuss emotions, why they might occur, and some emotional techniques to try once they do. Our favourite story ‘Pete the Cat and his Four Groovy Buttons’ have helped our younger children engage with these conversations, as we’ve used familiar colourful buttons as props to represent the colours (feelings).
On a rainy day we headed to a shaded area near the Bishops Tree where the rain wasn’t as heavy, to do some tree hugging and to listen to the pitter patter of the rain through the leaves
Educator Claudia helped us commence our Chinese New Year Celebrations by giving us a show-and-tell of a traditional outfit she would wear in her hometown in China. She dressed in the traditional gown she wore in her hometown and gave the children a run down of all things Chinese New Year, what it represents and what the two week celebration entails
A wonderful week, we can’t wait for more exciting adventures next week!
Little Forest Folk
Fulham