On Tuesday  morning The Bees had a lovely experience using the clay in the Mini Forest. They were exploring symmetry through creating faces and objects onto a tree, with the clay. They did an amazing job and they really enjoyed looking  at each others work too. A few children decided on self portraits and we had a butterfly, a rainbow, a person with no hair, a duck and a collection of 5 faces.

We also enjoyed time to play and the children choose to dig for treasure with sticks, play dinosaurs ,climb trees and use little bits of clay as marshmallows to toast. They found an orange Sainsburys bag and compared it to a glowing fire as they toasted their marshmallows. They really showed us how creative and imaginative they are. We had snack sitting together on the grass  and then it was time to return to the ECC.

Apologies photos unable to upload but will try to rectify asap.

regards Mrs Orr

Today the Badgers had great fun in the mini forest as they spent a dry bright morning looking for patterns. They explored lots of different surfaces with their magnifying glasses  and microscopes. They studied tree bark and leaves and the ground around them. They used their binoculars to hunt for patterns high above them. They had an opportunity to look at the type of patterns in nature and saw how some were symmetrical. “Look ….this is like a zebra” as they studied tree bark that had stripes. They also enjoyed climbing on trees and playing their own imaginative games. They are all extremely good at remembering the games they played last week and continuing them. Then we had a lovely snack and after a quick play once more, it was time to return to the ECC.

Well done everybody!

Mrs Orr

This morning the Bees had their time in the mini forest. Mrs Thomson had set them a task to make art to hang from the trees but they had to use their maths skills. They had to choose sticks and thread leaves through them. They chatted about the sizes of the resources they collected. They then choose how to hang them and if it was vertical or horizontal.

They had fun climbing in the trees and playing dragons. They lit   fires as they roared flames and showed us how amazing their imaginations are. They noticed how dry the ground has become and placed sticks into in cracks in the mud to see how deep they could go. Well done everybody!

This morning the Foxes had their time in the Mini Forest. Mrs Mack had set them  a task to gather their own resources and create a picture. A few had ideas of what they wanted to do and for some their designs just happened  naturally. We had a great array of Transient Art and the children enjoyed telling us about their work. We had a lighthouse, a tree, a ship, a  mini forest and a gingerbread man to name a few. See if you can spot them!

We also did a spot of litter picking today, a Spring  clean!  We filled 2 bags from the Mini Forest. . Good job everyone!

Beautiful work!

Today the Bees had their morning in the Mini Forest. Mrs Thomson had also planned an art activity in the park as its STEAM month. The children had the opportunity to take rubbings of various things in the park. They had been asked to look for things that would make a good pattern. They rubbed on tree bark, the ground, railings and a brick wall. All of these provided different surfaces and they enjoyed seeing the results. Then it was time for snack and then off to play with their friends. They found lots of branches and sticks and used them as broomsticks and wands and mark making in a muddy patch .There was also a t -rex stomping in the  bushes! It was a bit muddy today so the children  got  hosed down which they all love and was a great end to a busy morning.

This morning The Foxes had their time in the Mini Forest.  As it is STEAM month Mrs Mack had set the children a task to build a Totem Pole from natural resources . The children had a walk around the park looking for sticks to start with. We had a quick look on google to see what they looked like and then they began their designs. They had to use all their problem solving skills as for some it was quite tricky . A thin stick proved easier to manipulate while those with chunkier sticks found threading leaves over the top a real challenge .Some choose bigger leaves ,dry leaves and small leaves they all proved different to manipulate. The children had to use their fine motor skills and their engineering skills  were apparent too as they solved their design problems.

They also enjoyed time playing in the trees  and found a bungee cord which they used  repeatedly moving it from  branch to branch. They stretched it and enjoyed seeing  how many branches it could reach. They found branches with little bits it could hook onto and said it looked like a laser beam as it stretched across. They had to be careful it did not ping back and hurt themselves and they talked to each other about” standing back.” They worked well together taking time to keep each other safe.

They had a quick recall at the end of their morning and playing with friends and making their totem poles was the things they most enjoyed.

Great work everybody!

This morning The Bees took time to investigate their surroundings. They took binoculars and magnifying glasses so they could really see what is going on. They looked above at the birds and below in the ground and found worms. They looked at the bark on the trees and found tyres marks in the mud. They thought perhaps a tractor might make marks like that? They also used their imagination finding volcanoes with hot and cold lava and looking for a dinosaur nest. They went for a walk around the park still looking for things of interest and found berries starting to change colour and a Lichen on tree bark .The Bees discovered lots of new things today and had really enjoyable day too,

This morning the Badgers had a busy time in the Mini Forest. They had a task to collect natural resources that they would later take back to the ECC. They worked hard to find a variety of things  around them. Their natural curiosity was rewarded with lots of lovely finds. Leaves, various sizes of sticks, large stones, flower heads and few bugs too. As it is STEAM month we took a opportunity to create transient art as they brought over their resources and produced lovely art. They choose to use some of the curved or longer sticks as guns and swords. They used their imagination to create a house with a stable door from a large leafy bush .They found a pile of soft moss and thought moles might live under it. They ate their snack sitting on the grass together .Then it was time to gather our leaves, sticks and stones and return to the ECC.

Today the Bees went to the Mini forest and we had a lovely morning. It was a lovely sunny day and the children enjoyed looking at all the plants and shrubs that are starting to bud. They had time to play on the branches and explore their surroundings. We had snack too towards the end of our morning and then as it is STEAM month we had a science activity that the children really enjoyed!

The children had  fun  making their bird feeders with cones and seeds. They chatted about what birds might come to eat from them and as they rolled the cones into the seeds they were pleased to see how quickly it was completed .They all choose a branch and looped their feeder on .We will return to see what has happened to our feeders and watch from the ECC in interest to see if the birds really do like them!

Today we braved the wet weather and had fun in the Wee Gardens.

The children had all their outdoor suits on and this enables them to play happily regardless of the weather.

After a recap of our safety rules the children split up and all choose different thing to do.

Exploring under the trees and climbing into the tyres was popular. Some of the children continued their game of fire engines from last week. Sitting in the tyres and using their imagination  the crew took on many emergencies.

They took turns at swinging on the tyre and pushing each other too.

The children enjoyed running up and down the hill, having to use their judgement when to slow down and speed up.

We practiced returning to our special meeting point( the trolley) and the children impressed us with their good listening and prompt action.