Remember, remember...

We try not to take for granted what we have right on our doorstep and in the build up to the 5th November our walks allowed us to carefully monitor the building of the village bonfire.

On our first visit we met our good friend Ted the gardener who had some things in his trailer to start building the bonfire, so he let the children pretend to drive his quad (strictly supervised)!!

On Thursday our 'Out and About' session took us past the site again, more logs and garden waste had been brought to the field but the bonfire had yet to be assembled so...

... was still at a good level for us to really explore!!

On Friday we watched from the nursery garden as the tractors stacked the logs. branches and garden waste to make a great big bonfire. Then in the afternoon we went have a closer look.

It was quite an impressive site to stand back and admire, but much more fun to play with the straw the tractors had left behind!

Lots of the nursery children were at the firework display and so witnessed all of that hard building work go up in flames!!

Hallowe'en Fun

During the week before hallowe'en the children enjoyed lots of related art activities and stories and some came to nursery all dressed up.

We have some very enthusiastic artists but also some real talent...

... can you believe this masterpiece was completed by someone who only celebrated their second birthday in October?!

On a quiet Friday 28th Oct, two of the nursery children put a lot of thought into the designs for their pumpkin, then really enjoyed hollowing out the HUGE pumpkin grown by our chief gardener - Christine!!

Then we had to take it to the sleep room where it was dark enough to see the full effect as a lantern.

Then on hallowe'en itself the school children designed face for to more pumpkins and did some very imaginative artwork to grace the hallway.

Lots of fun had by children young and old!!

Obstacle Course - Tues 11th Oct

Last week the nursery children of all ages really enjoyed Carolyn’s obstacle course.

It gave them the opportunity to explore their physical skills: balancing, climbing, bouncing and football, as well as getting them to wait patiently and take turns.

Afterwards they had fun exploring the equipment independently!

Independent Grasshoppers!

We like to encourage the children’s independence in all areas and they really relish opportunities to do things for themselves.

One thing they really enjoy is making their own snacks. They always pour their own milk or water and hand around the fruit or breadsticks. But also enjoy spreading topping onto toast or crackers and cutting the toast.

They often start by protesting that they are unable to do it but persevere and you can see the concentration. They are ultimately so proud of their efforts.

They also wash and cut their fruit. As well as developing their independence this also gives them an opportunity to really appreciate with their food, learning where it comes from and what goes into it's preparation

Log of our first 'out and about session' this term

We hope to have regular 'out and about' sessions for the children of 3 and over on Thursday mornings, enabling them to grasp some of Forest School rules to make the most of their explorations in the glorious countryside surrounding nursery.

Last Thursday the three year olds followed the footpath signs to the school's Forest School area.

Once there, they learned about the Base Camp area, the place they group together, learn about the rules of Forest School rules and talk about what they have seen, found and done.

Then the children had some time to do some exploring in the 'forest', they had hoped to find a wolf, but I don't think that is what lives down the hole they did find!! They were also excited to find another footpath sign...

So we followed the arrow over the stile and across the field to the orchard where there was a second stile, but this one had a dog gate, and when you are more or less dog sized you just have to try it out!!

In the orchard we found lots of things of interest, fallen branches were of great interest until we found a whole tree to explore. Ellie noticed a toadstool and showed the children and then they found the trailer (our favourite mode of transport when hooked to one of the farm's tractor).

So then... back to base camp, following the footpath way-markers to the 'forest', the children all remembered the way and congregated to dicsuss other interesting finds such as....

...pheasant feathers, twigs, acorns and the conkers we used later the same day for painting.

If you have a child of 3 and over (able to learn some of the rules of Forest School) who attends Grasshoppers on Thursday mornings, please try to ensure that they have wellies, waterproofs and a change of clothes, so that we are able to make the most of subsequent, regular 'out and about' sessions.

(Please note that due to our ties with the farm and estate we are able to take the children of all ages out to explore their surroundings, a glance back through some of our previous blogs will show both planned and spontaneous outings).

We went on a Bear Hunt

One of our favourite books at the moment is Michael Rosen's 'We're going on a Bear Hunt' and the children recently enjoyed a number of craft activities to create props to re-enact the story.

"Uh-uh! A river!..."

"Splash splosh

Splash splosh"

(mixing colours to paint

water)

"We can't go over it..."

"Thick oozing mud

Squelch squerch

Squelch squerch"

(sticking sand for texture, then adding paint for colour)

"We can't go under it..."

"A swirling, whirling snowstorm

Hoooo woooo!

Hoooo woooo!'"

(We made papier mache snowballs,

then painted them white when they were dry)

"We've got to go through it!"

So, acting out the story, Carolyn and the children went through the tunnel into the forest (the digginng pit before we weeded it!) on their bear hunt. Then seeing the 'shiny wet nose,big furry ears and goggly eyes' rushed back through the 'cave, snowstorm, forest, mud, river and grass' props they had enjoyed making so much!!

And I am sure we WILL go on a bear hunt over and over again!!

A Village Wedding

Last Friday as we set out on our walk, we heard the church bells ringing, so we took all of the children (including 3 buggies) to investigate!!

At the church we took time to decide

on the best positions for viewing and waited patiently.

First we watched the bridesmaids arrive.

Then came the bride.

We watched her go all the way into the church...

some of the children wanted to follow her in, but instead, we headed back to nursery to tell everyone about what we had seen.