We’ve had another fun filled week here at Little Forest Folk Fulham. Following on with our fortnightly planning, which has currently been ‘Understanding the World’, we reflected on how engaging and successful our previous week of activities had been. Children enjoyed exploring various occupations and in doing so, strengthened so many social, imaginative play and communication skills. We decided to elongate this theme and explore some more occupations throughout this week.
Musicians 🎶
Educator Dan used his musical talents/knowledge to set up a fantastic camp inspired by all things music festivals/instruments/forest dance party! Using crates, metal bowls, old tires and large plastic water containers, he created a working drum set, even with a foot pedal! The drum set was the centre piece to a stage fashioned out of pallets and blankets (for show curtains). Our Little Forest Folk-ers loved sitting at the drum set and using wooden sticks to create a beat. We put on some backing tracks (our current forest favourites are Bruno Mars, Kate Bush and The Beach Boys) and children banged their drums in beat to the tunes. We used our percussion instruments to shake, bang and tap to the beat, and even repurposed kitchen utensils to explore their musical opportunities. Around the base of a tuff tray, we used a rope to hang pots, pans and metal utensils to explore the many different sounds they would create once hit. We used a variety of materials to explore pitch and tone, ‘If we hit the bowl with a metal rod and a wooden spoon do you think the sound would be the same?’ Of course we ended the day with musical statues, a current favourite to channel our energy into dance! 🥁
Artists 👨🎨
We arrived on camp to find an educator had gone arts & crafts mad! Camp was completely filled with crafting and mark making opportunities, with easels of differing sizes, various textures/materials to print onto and even a gallery space to place our creations once complete. Our little artists got to use their gross motor arm movements to do some expressive painting on a large scale, when we created two easels from our ‘V’ climbing frame. Children used paint pens to draw and mark make directly onto our wooden table tops, sketching shapes, flowers, their families and even their initials which so many have fantastically mastered. Children made smaller scale works with collage, scissor practice, cutting and sticking and texture rubbings. It was great to see our little explorers super proud of their creations and proudly display them on our gallery line.
Bus Drivers 🚌
All aboard the 14 to Baker Street! Our crate creation this Thursday was a big red London bus fit with rows of seats, an Oyster card tap-in system, some shiny blinkers, real wheels and even a steering wheel! Our little explorers were all given Oyster cards and explained how our bus system works! We discussed the many parts of London we knew of and added times to the bus timetable. We played a very interactive game/sing song session of ‘Wheels on the Bus’ which the children particularly loved - their favourite part is the babies “wah wah wah”! Our Little Forest Folk-ers made an orderly queue, tapping their Oyster cards before saying “thank you driver” and finding a seat- before being whisked around London Town.
What a great week, we hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Little Forest Folk
Fulham