Our Week in the Forest...
What a week we have had in the forest! It feels as though it’s been our busiest week yet - in a good way! Alongside all of our usual forest fun of climbing, running, playing, laughing and rolling around on the meadow we have had some exciting activities too, following on from the children’s interests.
Tool use:
This week we have really enjoyed stretching our Forest School muscles with some great activities using tools. On Monday, Virginia initiated an activity to slice tree cookies using a bow saw. The children took turns to visit a sectioned off area of the forest in small groups to take part. After a safety demonstration, and a chat about how to use the tools safely (and more importantly where to keep your hands when it’s not your turn!) the children were delighted to slice their very own wooden discs, which were then swiftly used in all sorts of creative ways in the forest! On Thursday, Virginia and Stephanie used hand drills with the children to create holes in the wood. Again, this was done in small groups for safety purposes and the children demonstrated real perseverance as the drill operates quite slowly and took a while to go all the way through the pieces of wood. Some children have requested this activity again so we’re sure that tool use will be something we have available every week!
Fire:
On Tuesday, Phil made a fire and gave a demonstration on the three components required to start fire, as well as ensuring all of our newer children had a good understanding of fire safety rules. This fire was perfect - a fire just for the sake of it; no treats involved and the children adored it!
On Friday, Virginia revisited the activity, only this time it was extended to demonstrate the use of a Kelly Kettle and how fire can heat water (not too hot for little ones, of course!). Sam was a hero and brought in some decaffeinated tea and biscuits so the children could enjoy the fruits of their (or should I say Virginia’s!) labour. We strongly suspect that they might be requesting this again in the future!
Bird Seeds:
Last week, we had some left-over bread from lunchtime and the children suggested that we could break it up into tiny pieces to sprinkle on the meadow for the birds. This activity was so popular that we went out to buy some birdseed. On Wednesday, the children ran around the meadow sprinkling seeds galore and the birds have been visiting us ever since! We will extend this further by creating lard balls for the children to hang up and encourage even more birds to our site.
Little Forest Folk
Wimbledon