We have had a marvellous week in the forest, keeping cool with chilled watermelon, ice play and running through the sprinkling water from the hosepipe. Sadly, our river was a little too low for walking in this week - we would have done too much damage to the aquatic life surviving in the warm shallow water, but we look forward to exploring the river again once the levels have picked up!

The majority of our time in the forest revolved around understanding the world and farms. We learned about dairy farms, fish farms, chicken farms, sheep farms in Scotland, pig farms, ostrich farms and Old MacDonald’s Farm. We created animal masks from paper plates, printed hoof prints with old wellies and we tied in our theme from last week of bees to highlight their importance to farms and our food supply.

Our sensory tuff tray included farm animals stuck in mud and we had to clean and wash them, which delighted our younger children. The ice play kept us cool and the straw and grass play allowed us to feel the dry and rustling texture of the hay, all whilst exploring the different smells as we sniffed them. We then had a wonderful discussion about all the animals that like to eat it, horses, goats, sheep and rabbits were the animals mentioned. The farm house had a farm shop and so sales transactions kept our children busy on the till and telephone, keeping up with orders and dealing with customers who came to the shop to buy eggs.

As part of a lovely late afternoon 'calm down' activity, we made yellow and orange play dough and then we all quietly sat together creating gorgeous little ducklings with orange beaks, yellow bodies and googly eyes.

Thanks for coming to the forest.

Little Forest Folk
Twickenham