Hip hip hooray - we are open!
Our first week in Chiswick
It has been a tremendous week in Chiswick Gardens, with the weather playing nicely and giving us three glorious days of sunshine to welcome all our new children to Little Forest Folk.
After successful orientations and settling in sessions over the last fortnight, the children have relaxed into the Little Forest Folk routines this week with ease.
Our focus this week has been on relationship development, both within the peer groups forming, and between children and practitioners. We have already seen foundations for some strong bonds being laid, and the children are feeling comfortable with their practitioners.
In order to set LFF up for success and give the children an opportunity to become familiar with the new environment, we have implemented routines each day. By having routines, the children fast develop a sense of security in their environment, whilst being empowered to create and apply their own ideas and activities.
Our routines are flexible, which allows for positive decision making, promotes choice, and encourages children to be active in their own play and learning throughout the day.
This week we have seen the children actively enjoying all elements of our Forest site, with a particular focussed interest on mini-beast hunts, building homes for animals and bugs, and exploring weight, scales and other maths concepts using our scales and pulley system.
We spent some time in the afternoons practicing mindfulness, discussing colours and feelings (a conversation which stemmed from reading Dr Seuss’ book ‘My Many Coloured Days’) and watching the clouds.
Busy in the forest
These afternoons were a great way for the children to regroup and relax together after a busy day in the forest.
Our cookery class with Becky on Monday was a hit! The children made mackerel pate, baked seeded bread rolls, and marinated olives! Yum!
Next week in the forest
Next week we will extend on the current interest of mini-beasts by building more worm-hotels, hedgehog apartments and beetle cafes. We will continue to learn about the environment around us, including how to look after the animals, plants and ourselves, and use the forest safely.
We will be discussing ‘home’ and families – and would love parents to send in a picture of your family for us to share at group times (this can be emailed to lil@littleforestfolk.com or a copy brought in with your child).
The topic of emotions and self-awareness will continue next week, exploring mirror play and discussing feelings and reactions.
A reminder to families
Please ensure your child does not have any food in their bags. We have children enrolled at Little Forest Folk who have allergies to a range of foods, so to prevent the risk of allergic reactions and illness, we ask families leave any food items at home. Thank you.
A dressing for the weather
A reminder to families to ensure your child has appropriate clothing – as we are not yet in Summer, layers are still recommended:
- Thermal layer - M&S have some great thermal long sleeve tops and leggings
- Fleecy trousers
- Long sleeve tshirt
- Thin jumper
- Thicker fleece/wool jumper
- Thick fleecy zip up jacket - Mini Boden have some fab warm shaggy jackets on sale
- Scarf
- Hat
- Gloves - lots of pairs of gloves to ensure when they get wet we have a replacement
- Thin cotton socks
- Thick wool socks or the horrible polyester socks they sell near the checkout at H&M which are super warm!
- Wellies/thermal boots/snow boots
Upcoming calendar events
Friday April 29th: Oxfam ‘dressed by the kids’ challenge!
Please send in your most flamboyant and eccentric, weird and wonderful outfits for the children to dress our practitioners in.
Families are encouraged to make a donation by visiting http://www.justgiving.com/leanna-barrett
All proceeds will go directly to Oxfam (for more information, visit http://www.oxfam.org.uk/ )
Monday May 2nd: Bank Holiday – LFF CLOSED
Monday May 30th: Bank Holiday – LFF CLOSED
Tuesday 31st May - Friday 3rd June: Half Term Holiday Camp.
Visit our holiday camps page for more information, or to sign up.
Monday 6th – Friday 10th June: Week of Queens
We will be celebrating the Queens birthday with a week of dressing up, tea parties and learning about our royal family history.
