It has been a very exciting couple of weeks at Stepping Stones as we have converted both the classroom and the forest area into Never Neverland. Looking at the story of Peter Pan as part of our ‘near and far’ topic, there hasn’t been any time for a dull moment. Pirates, magic pixie dust, ticking crocodiles and mermaid lagoons have completely taken over the imaginations of the little ones. It has given us masses of opportunity for both learning and play. We have walked the plank, taken flight in Peter Pan themed yoga and we have practiced our rowing skills, trying to get away from the cheeky croc.

Walking the plank…
Row row row your boat…

The children have really enjoyed our mermaid lagoon area in which we have created a blue canopy surrounding the computer with lots of shells and shiny textures. We have found that having tropical fish and relaxing music playing on the computer screen has created a really chilled out atmosphere. In contrast to this, Harriet organised an amazing Neverland Treasure hunt with clues to save Tiger Lily from the ‘misunderstood’ Captain Hook as this weeks forest school event. This was amazing. The kids bought into it so much and were so excited to follow the clues and help Tinkerbell find the way. Hats off to the Stepping Stones team for their acting skills, it was evident at one point that the children REALLY did think there was a crocodile hiding in the creek…

Mermaid Lagoon
Finding clues in Neverland…
Checking the treasure map…

The crocodile certainly has been one of the children’s favourite characters during our Neverland adventures and we have observed them over the last couple of weeks talking about him in their play constantly. It would have been such a shame not to jump on to this and bring him to life. We have to say, we think he is looking pretty fantastic, the kids have done an excellent job.

Building the Croc…
Croccy taking shape and colour…
Amazing effort!

One of the things that we have done with the children (again, in theme with Peter Pan) was to ask them to think about their happy thoughts. They have sprinkled some magic pixie dust into special little bottles, each with a name tagged attached. Each tag has the child’s happy thought written on it which they all thought about very carefully… “What makes you happy?”. It is amazing what small people come out with, we have had all sorts of answers from snooker, chocolate, Mummy & Daddy and even smiley faces. Just so cute and lovely. So on that note, have a very lovely weekend, don’t forget to think about your happy thoughts and maybe some magic will come your way! 😉

Happy Thoughts 🙂