outdoors – Page 32 – Hecklegirth Nursery

We’re All Going On A Summer Holiday

The sunny weather seems to be putting a big smile on everyone’s face this week and lots of children have chosen to play in the garden. This happy, little group spent a long time working together to make a big bus because they wanted to go on their holidays. Well done for super teamwork boys and girls. I wonder what you’ll make next?

Bye Bye Butterflies

After weeks of watching the progress of our caterpillars who slowly grew and formed their cocoons, we finally saw our beautiful butterflies emerging in their net last week. After a few days of feeding them on sugary water and slices of oranges, it seemed that they were ready to be released and we could think of no better place to set them free than in our outdoor classroom among the trees and flowers.
They seemed to be a little nervous of leaving their safe little home and Miss Kerr had to give them a helping hand to settle on the flowers which gave everyone a chance to have a close look at our little butterflies before they slowly flew off.
Click then click again for a bigger photo.

We’re Going On A Minibeast Hunt

The children have become very engaged in their learning about minibeasts over the last few weeks and have become engrossed in searching for them in the Nursery garden. As you can see, they have had the magnifying glasses and bug tubs in action and they worked well together as good detectives. The children quickly learned that underneath the alphabet stepping stones was one of the favourite homes of all sorts of minibeasts.

Medals Galore

Thank you so much to everyone who came to cheer on the children today in their Fun Activity event. We felt very proud of them all as they confidently showed off their skills in front of a large audience and hope that you enjoyed the day as much as we did. Those medals and ice lollies were certainly well deserved. Well done boys and girls – today you really were ‘confident individuals’.

Fun Activity Day

The children have been practising their running, jumping and throwing skills to prepare for our Fun Activity session on Tuesday. They have shown good teamwork and had great fun although at times, as you can see from the photos, we have had to have our coats on due to chilly weather. We are looking forward to lots of families cheering the children on as they show you what they can do. Fingers crossed that we get some sunshine on Tuesday.

Spring Weather Wear

As the weather has begun to get a little warmer, the children have enjoyed spending a lot of time in the garden although last week, despite the rain and cooler temperatures, they had great fun cleaning all the equipment from the mud kitchen and racing the tyres down the slope. When the weather gets warmer, the children get too hot in the all-in-one suits so we ask that they do not have good clothes on as we would not like anything special to be spoiled. It seems a long time since we played out without suits so let’s hope that the Spring weather continues.

Outdoor Learning Is Fun

Now that the children are well settled in after their Easter holiday, they have been spending lots of time in the Nursery garden, having fun in their learning. Many children have been enjoying searching for the flagstones with letters on to match to their alphabet notes and some have been working well in teams to plan and build dens. As you can see they are very well focussed on the task in hand and excited to learn.
Click on the photos to make them bigger.

More Growing Families

Since we returned to Nursery this week, we have noticed some exciting signs of the onions and carrots beginning to grow in our raised beds. These were planted at the end of last term by some children and their families as part of our “Growing Families” project led by Eileen, our Family Learning Co-ordinator. Today another group of children and their families took part in the growing activities so hopefully we will have a bumper crop to make our soup later in the term. One or two children have also begun to bring in the peas that they planted before the holidays so well done for looking after them so well.
Thank you to everyone who has taken part and to Eileen for organising yet another super activity. We hope that you are all going to keep an eye on the raised beds for further signs of growth.

Growing Families

Eileen, our Family Learning Co-ordinator, has left a message for our “growing families”:

“Thanks to everyone who came to the growing families session last Thursday – I hope all your seeds are sprouting at home. Don’t forget to bring your soup bowl pictures back to me after the easter holiday. Looking forward to seeing everyone who is coming to the session on 24th April. Happy Easter hope you all have a lovely holiday”

Hopefully the rain has helped the seeds you all planted in the Nursery garden. All we need now is a little sunshine.

Family Learning

Thursday saw the first activity session for the “Growing Families” project organised by Eileen, our Family Learning Co-ordinator. Children and their parents enjoyed a story about growing and investigated seeds and shoots before cutting and sticking pictures to show how vegetables grow. Then it was off to the Nursery garden to plant onions and carrots in our raised beds. I wonder if they will show any signs of growth when we return to Nursery after the holiday?
Christine from the Positive Parenting Project group joined our sessions to introduce herself as she is planning to start a project in our Nursery next term for all parents. We would like to welcome her to our Nursery and hope that she enjoys working with us all. You can see Christine enjoying the outdoor planting in our photos.
If you like the sound of the “Growing Families” activity, there are some places left for the first Thursday of next term (24.4.14). Simply add your name to the list on the Family Learning board above the blue group cloakroom area. Thank you, as always, to Eileen for organising this activity. We hope that lots more families enjoy it next term.