The colours of Autumn…

These last few weeks in topic the children have been exploring the changing in the weather and the change in the seasons…

As the months have creeped from September to October the children have noticed the weather begin to change and the trees around them begin to adapt, preparing for the colder months!

The children in F2 have been curious about the leaves changing colour and falling to the ground, this has led to lots of leaf hunts and explorations and investigations of the colours we can see!

This week we have made some fantastic Autumn tree pictures using our fingers to paint! Outside we created our very own ‘BIG ART ATTACK‘ using sticks and fallen leaves!

We also got very creative mixing our own colours using powder paints and exploring what happens when we mix yellow with red!

Lots of fun keeping these little fingers busy and minds curious about the world all around them…

Mud Pizza!

A lovely (wet!) afternoon getting our fingers messy and muddy!

The children had great fun in the mud kitchen this afternoon and enjoyed making “pizza bases!” They sculpted the perfect circle shapes with their hands and added different toppings! Some of the children have even started mentioning the big C word, and were very busy mixing and baking a delightful Christmas cake!!!

A wonderful example of fabulous imaginative play and teamwork!

Dirty hands!

This afternoon children from F2 got busy digging and planting in our F2 flower beds! As part of Forest School we had a ‘wellness Wednesday’ out in the garden, weeding and planting some lovely flowers we were kindly donated! We had great fun using our hands to pull out the weeds and dig up and turn over the soil ready for planting. This activity made for a great opportunity to talk about plants, looking at the roots, stem and leaves, and also chat about all the things plants need to grow- soil, sun and water. We were very gentle with the plants and used our kind and caring hands to carefully plant them and nurture them into the soil!

Our F2 garden is very precious to us and we love to be out in our big outdoor space, but the maintenance of it needs a little upkeep! We make sure every week we pick up any litter that has been left from the school drop offs and pick ups, tidy leaves that have gathered and weed and water all our plant beds! I think you’ll agree that the after photo below looks marvelous and the children had a great afternoon keeping those fingers and hands busy and dirty!!!!

Busy fingers in Nature Club!

The last Nature Club of the year tonight and the children were busy practicing their fine motor skills! Tying knots is a BIG skill in forest school…and one that takes a significant amount of practice! Tonight we decided to hone in on our knot tying skills and keep those fingers busy by making and creating our very own magical forest school wands! We did so well tying, wrapping, threading and pulling and were all very meticulous in our care and concentration!

As usual this was a lovely session with lots of discussions and ‘chit chat’ in the great outdoors, with nature all around! A very calming way to end the year! And WOW look at some of those magical wands! Lots of spells were thought out after their creations and the children loved using their imaginations for what their wands were called and what powers they had!

Until next term, thank you!

Special Visitor!

A special visitor joined us in F2 today and for our afterschool Nature Club!

We were very excited to meet Dave the Horsfield tortoise and had great fun learning lots of tortoise facts!

We had lots of chats and discussions about reptiles, different types of reptiles and where they live around the world. We spoke about a tortoise diet, which lead to a fab dandelion hunt around school, and how important it is to care for their shell!

We loved comparing Dave to ourselves, pointing out his claws, beak instead of mouth, scaly skin and no eye-lashes or eyebrows!

The children were very caring and gentle with Dave and the session was very calming! The children have begged for Dave to come visit again soon and next time they’ll have strawberries waiting for him!

P.s the highlight of the session was giving Dave a toothbrush massage!!!!

 

 

Nature Crowns at Nature Club!

It’s been a hot day today, so we started our after school club off with a cool refreshing ice-lolly!

We then got straight outside into our baby woodland area and started hunting for nature around us!

Today we decided to make our very own nature crowns, this looked fabulous with an array of natural jewels!

Mud Faces!!!

Another lovely week in our after school ‘Nature Club’!

This week we had a great time exploring mud and getting our hands dirty!

We enjoyed digging and scooping and stirring and mixing with water to create the perfect muddy clay consistency!

We then used our hands to mould and flatten the mud into oval and round shapes, ready for the perfect face!

For the features we went on a nature hunt and found the perfect eyebrows, eyes, smiles, noses and lashes! We were careful not to take too much from nature, we wanted to leave enough for the bees and other insects! But learnt that it’s ok to sometimes take bits that we need as long as we put back! We were very gentle with our taking and showed great skill in cutting, getting those fingers moving and keeping busy!

The finished faces, I think you’ll agree, look super cute and lovely! We were very proud of these!!!

 

Pink Pig Farm Trip!

What an AMAZING DAY!!!!!

The children have had such a fantastic day today on our school trip!

Finishing off our topics on ‘Farms’, we had a brilliant trip to The Pink Pig Farm’ where we fed goats, donkeys; spotted pigs, ducks, chickens, turkeys, rabbits and alpacas!

We got a special tour of the farm (behind the scenes!) and learnt lots about wheat- where it is stored, how it is collected and what it is used for! We learnt about the animals on the farm and how they are looked after and cared for! We even had a chance to look at and touch some recently sheared sheep wool! And learnt lots about what this is used for!

The children then had a wonderful picnic, which they found very exciting! And the afternoon was saved for lots of physical activity and development! We have loved seeing so many smiling faces this afternoon and it has been another day declared as…

‘THE BEST DAY EVER!’

Here are a few snaps of our fabulous day! And we highly recommend taking a visit yourselves if you have the opportunity over the summer with your little ones- visit the link below for more information!

                                           https://www.pinkpigfarm.co.uk/

 

 

Nature Club-Sticky!!!

What another fabulous week in our afterschool Nature Club! 

The children loved getting up close and personal with our new class mates this Monday, meeting and greeting stick, sticky, stickman and… chicken nuggets! (All named by the children!) We spent a while researching and learning all about stick insects, where they originally come from, what they like to eat, how often they need cleaning, how to hold or pick them up and some very interesting facts about shedding and growing legs!

The children were amazed on how long our stick insects could grow and how amazing their super powers are at growing new limbs! The children were very gentle and careful at holding our pets and now know that using a painting brush gently is the best way to help support them when taking them in and out of their home!

The children were so excited by our new pets that we decided to go on a ‘stick’ hunt and make our very own stick stick insects! The children loved hunting for the perfect sticky stick and comparing the sizes of their sticks to their friends!

This was a fabulous opportunity for chat and discussion about length, nature and how to generally care and look after all creatures great and small around us!

We loved taking in the nature in our amazing spaces around our school and learning to care for our new pets!

We will keep you posted on how these sticky mates get on!!!

 

Nature Club!

Summer is here!

Even if there was a few dark clouds hanging about!!!

What a wonderful session in Nature Club this week! Enjoying and exploring the great outdoors and all that our wonderful school grounds has to offer! We loved playing hide and seek in our new forest and following the maze trail in our wildflower meadow! We researched and hunted for bugs, inspiring us to paint and even design our own bug rocks!

We had a fab time running free, chatting to our friends and getting creative! A lovely way to wind down and enjoy nature afterschool!