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.

A Lovely Surprise!

After their first day at school all 6 of the boys who have just left us to go to Overbury school came back, looking all grown up, in their uniforms, with their parents to deliver a hand made bird table (made by a very talented dad) and a bird bath.

We have since assembled the bird bath and positioned it next to the bird table,we have put out food and are waiting for our first feathered visitors.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank those parents involved. At Grasshoppers we

Grasshoppers' Creature Feature

The children are always keen to explore outdoors and living things are of extra interest.

Last week we found 8 snails under the tractor tyre in the digging pit so we brought them inside to have a close look, even try some races!

They took a long time to venture out of their shells but eventually our patience was rewarded!

However the race didn't really work out - snails don't seem to be good navigators, and wouldn't go over the starting line!

The previous week Farmer Jake gave us a snake skin he had found on the farm. We took out the magnifying glasses and microscopes to have a really close look.

This led to our getting out some of the other interesting things we have found while 'out and about'. The snake skin now has a permanent home on our nature table, with the antlers and sheep's skull and the magnifying glasses , microscopes and reference books, for the children to examine at their leisure.

Another creature found it's way under one of our climbing tractor tyres. The little toad was quite an attraction, I had to stop making the playdough to take a look (hence the glitter on the hands holding him!)

Please don't worry no living creatures were harmed in the making of this blog!

In fact the children gave the snails a lovely new home amongst the spinach we had not eaten in the vegetable patch. The toad was released next to school's nature area, (the other side of our fence), where there is a pond the children thought he might like!!

Digging pit tidy up!

Through the summer the weeds had taken over.... so, last week we gave our digging pit an overhaul! The children really enjoyed helping, lots of willing volunteers also learning to take care of precious resources.

While digging and clearing we found....

....weeds and seeds....

....and bugs and slugs!!

We were very proud of our morning's work, but needed a little rest from all our exertions.

This week there has been renewed interest in the rejuvenated digging pit!!!