Circles, cycles and spheres went round and round on camp and in our conversations this week in all sorts of ways, as the children of Little Forest Folk Wimbledon Village explored different ball games, investigated the life cycle of frogs and monkeyed around on a tyre swing!
As well as playing with child-sized footballs, basketballs and rugby balls, we decided to blend in with our surroundings by engaging in a spot of golf. We had noticed that some of the children had been looking for sticks to use as golf clubs, which is a brilliant and innovative use of the natural environment in itself, but to really give them the experience of putting, driving and teeing off, we provided them with some toy clubs, balls, tees and holes to try the game that they witness every day on the walk into the forest. They very quickly picked up the routine of placing the ball and choosing their preferred club, and those who weren't as interested in the game were more than happy to caddy!
In calmer and quieter areas of the forest we talked about the journey of frogspawn to tadpole, then froglet and finally, frog. One morning we tried to make our own frogspawn using chia seeds and water, which produced some very realistic results! Getting the consistency correct took patience as the children measured out water and seeds and waited for their spawn to become sticky. We also expanded our investigations of life cycles to caterpillars and were lucky enough to spot a few of the first ‘cabbage white’ butterflies of Spring.
Flexing muscles and brain cells in all these ways can be exhausting so it was important to provide the little monkeys with ways to hang around and take a load off. We had a very exciting tyre swing available a few times this week, which was hung in different configurations. One swing relied on two or four children to balance it out and our Little Forest Folk-ers quickly figured out that if they worked together, side stepping their feet in the same direction, they could turn their swing into a whirling merry go round. They had hours of fun and practiced their turn-taking while creating their own funfair ride.
Our little community is skipping into the weekend with a lot of joy and energy, and we look forward to welcoming you back for another sunny week!
Little Forest Folk
Wimbledon Village