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Forest of surprises catches kids’ fancy

Located bang in the middle of the colourful and tactile forest, the room-sized treehouse offers four to five kids at a time the opportunity to get their faces painted, or learn how to make their own suncatcher or a variety of other things. The ‘Make Your Own Suncatcher’ workshops are among the most popular draws.

Workshop supervisors, attired in rainbow-coloured smocks, provide the children with glass suncatcher frames in a variety of sizes and images from ladybirds to animals and also with the glass paints needed to fill in the frame according to their imagination.

Once the frames are filled in, the paints have to set before the completed suncatcher can be taken home. Children can also opt for the brilliant face-painting on offer in the treehouse, or take part in the carpentry or ceramic tile workshops.

“The entire Fantasy Forest is such a resounding success with the children that it’s hard to pinpoint any one favourite place within it, but we have noticed that the treehouse is very popular,” said Hala Lootah, head of the Colour Surprises Organising Committee for the Department of Health and Medical Services.

The forest itself is an explosion of the senses, with its dreamy colours, tantalising textures, delicious aromas and soothing sounds. From golden unicorns and blue camels to trees with tiger-skin barks, volcanos spewing confetti and a strawberry-coloured waterfall that smells of strawberries, the entire zone is a rainforest of the imagination.

Entrance to the Fantasy Forest, located at Hall 6 of the Dubai World Trade Centre, is free to all comers. The forest is open from 10.00am to 10.00pm daily until tomorrow, the last day of the DSS 2004.

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