Category Archives: Outdoor Learning

Perfectly Patterned Pictures

We have really enjoyed making patterns in our gross motor art area. We have investigated making marks with a variety of resources. We’ve used plungers to make circle prints.

We have used a selection of different types and sizes of brushes to see what marks and patterns we can create with them, such as large paint bushes, rollers, sweeping brushes and scrubbing brushes.

After we used our tyres to make large patterns  we wondered what we could use next?

Luckily we got a special delivery. A new gross motor art tool to help us further develop our gross motor art skills.
We got brand new large pattern rollers.  We couldn’t wait to get a turn of them and try them out.
First we tried putting a large sheet of paper down to see what marks we could make.

We enjoyed rolling the large rollers in the paint then pushing them over the paper, but it soon got filled up and we couldn’t see which patterns we had made. We decided to make it even more fun by taking the paper away. To have a larger area to explore our patterns and progress our skills even more.

By using the ground as our canvas, we could go further, see our marks more clearly and change direction.

We needed lots of paint to extend our marks, we rolled our roller in the paint and set off.

On one roller we had stripes.

And on the other we had spots.


We created a wonderful pattern picture in our gross motor art area for every one to admire.

We all were engaged and enjoyed this experience. Everyone was keen to have a turn. We were able to wait our turn and share.

Now that we have investigated patterns in our gross motor art area next we will be looking at “Street Art.” We have added some pictures of local murals that are around Glasgow to inspire our children to create their own.

I wonder what Street Art we will be creating next?

Goldilocks and the three bears 👩‍🦳🐻🐻🐻

Today in the garden we invited the children to read and retell the story of Goldilocks and the three bears.

“We’re going out on a walk to the woods”

“Mummy bears bowl of porridge”

“Someone been eating my porridge and they have eaten it all up”

We provided the children with some puppets and props to explore the story.  The children have been using role play to act out the characters from the familiar story recalling the main events.

“This one’s just right”

“Now the porridge is to cold”

Some children found some ice in the garden and stared to collect it in the bowl and started playing around with changing the story.

Story telling has so many learning opportunities for our children, it’s great to tell these stories in a way that captures the interests of our individual children.

World Book Day coming up on the 7th March. What book will you read?

Article 15 – You have the right to choose your own friends and join in groups

Terrific tyre treads and painty patterns in the puddles

In our gross motor art area in the garden we have been exploring art on a large scale.  So far we have used large brushes, mops, spray bottles and plungers. Today however we decided to make our art even bigger.

We decided to use the tyres to roll in the paint and see the patterns it made. We popped on our wellies and puddlesuits due to the rain showers we had this morning, and got to work creating our massive masterpiece.

It was interesting to see the different patterns the tyre made depending on where it rolled.

We had long tread marks and circles prints where it landed.

Because of the rain our patterns washed away quickly so we just had to make more.

It was a bit tricky at first to roll the tyre all the way across on our own ,we problem solved and thought,  how about making it a team effort.

So we worked together to roll the tyres back and forward to each other.  Team work made the art work!

We investigated who could push it the furthest and what kind of patterns did we make if we pushed it faster or slower.

We had so much fun with this large scale art outdoor experience. It was funny when the tyre splatted in the paint in the middle.

We tried different colours of powder paint to see which colours made the best pattern.

The rain got a little heavy at one point, but it mixed in with the powder paint and made our paint mix together and create much more paint puddles to roll our tyre into.

This was a great experience for our children of all ages to expand and inspire their creative designs, while also developing their gross motor skills.

We had our gross motor art tools beside us incase any one wanted to choose a different way to create art, but the tyre was the winner today.

Gladiators Ready 💪

The children have been talking about watching gladiators in nursery with some very enthusiastic chat about which gladiator is their favourite. Viper is definitely not popular; “He breaks all the rules!”

We decided to create our very own Eliminator course in the garden….

The children are encouraged at each stage to assess their own risk and make sure they feel safe taking part. They were given three options and it is up to them to take the option the they are most comfortable with.


Many of the children started on the lower beam but as they gained confidence progressed to the high beam and were really proud of their achievement!

Some of the children decided to play a round of power ball. This is the game where the contenders have to get past the gladiators to put the ball in the basket. The children were great at taking turns of being the contender or the gladiator, brilliant cooperative play!

“Contenders, ready? Gladiators ready? 3,2,1, go!”

“I’m going to be Giant.”  “I’m going to be Nitro.”

Who is your favourite gladiator?

 

UNCRC Article 31- You have the right to play by doing things like sports and drama.

 

 

Mud kitchen creations

It’s been a very wet week at Cart Mill but that hasn’t stopped us getting out to the gardens to explore the rain and the mud in our mud kitchen.

“Look it’s a pancake”

”I can make dinner”

Playing in the mud kitchen gives the children the opportunity to experiment with language and develop their social skills while engaging in pretend play.

“Mmm soup”

”I’m making macaroni “

With all this rain we couldn’t resist jumping in some muddy puddles. This allows us to develop our gross motor skill and spatial awareness.

Play dough patterns and Creations

This week at the play dough area we are looking at patterns we can make in the play dough using resources and natural materials. As always our children can confidently make their play dough.

The girls and boys then chose which resources they would like to use. We picked lovely patterned rolling pines, some leaves and sticks .

The boys and girls had to use all their muscles to pull off the leaves 🍃 and the break up some sticks . We made sure there was no jaggy edges on the sticks that might hurt us.

We then began to use our rolling pins across the leaves so that we could see the print  it left in the play dough. We learnt that the harder your roll the better the print.

As we have very creative children  the children started to explore what else they could do. Look my tree stands up high . Some of the children could demonstrate problem solving techniques and perseverance. “ Look I made my tree stand up using more play dough at the bottom “.

The girls and boys worked well together helping each other make their prints and admiring each other’s work.

We had great fun making prints with the leaves and rolling pin . We made holes with the sticks and of course we made chicken wraps,pancakes,plants, jack and the beanstalk.
We look forward to discovering what else we can make patterns with in our play dough.

Article – I have the right to explore my strengths and creativity .

Splish Splash 💦

Today we have been using what nature gives us for our outdoor play, we have been splashing in muddy puddles.

The children wanted to measure how high they could jump so we decided to bring some digital learning into our outdoor play to facilitate this. We used a slow motion video and then watched them back on the big screen so we could measure the size of the splashes.


“My splash is bigger then me!”

We paused the video when the splash was at its highest then the children took turns of standing next to the board to discover if it was bigger or smaller than them. The first one we looked at was bigger than all the children and came all the way up to my shoulders.

Another one was the same height as one of the boys on his top toes.

This experience has allowed us to use lots of comparative language, to measure using non standard units and best of all to have fun in the rain. There’s no such thing as bad weather at Cart Mill 🌧😄

UNCRC Article 29- education must develop every child’s personality, talents and abilities to the full.

Natures Canvas

Today in our gross motor art area, we used the translucent board to paint on.  Before we started we got some powder paint mixed with water. We chose colours that represented nature. Green for the grass and trees, blue for the sky and orange for the sunsets.
We decided to use large pots today to make it a little different learning experience than indoor art. We wanted to extend our gross motor art and take our skills we learned in our studio painting area into a larger creative environment outdoors.

Inside our pots we had a selection of gross motor art utensils to select from. We had mops, rollers and large paint bushes.

When we were making our creations we talked about what we could see in the outdoor environment and what was the inspiration for our art.

We each took a turn of painting and sometimes we worked along side our peers to create collaborative art.

We used our gross motor skills as we had to bend and stretch to dip the large brushes/rollers into the tubs and use our arms/hands  to help us control where we put the paint while using the large brushes.

Once we had got the hang of our gross motor art painting we decided we wanted an even bigger space, so we used the nursery garden as our “natures canvas”. It looked nice and bright with all the colours we used.

This is a great experience for our children to let there creativity take over with a large space and freedom to design. It is a learning experience that can be easily adapted to differentiate the learning between our 2-3 year olds and our 3-5year olds while simultaneously having fun along side each other with our older children role modelling for our younger ones.

I wonder where our creative gross motor art journey will take us tomorrow. Feel free to have a look at our floor book next time you are in to see what we have been learning in our outdoor art area.

Article 29 – “you have the right to education which tries to develop your personality and abilities as much as possible and encourages you to respect other peoples rights and values and to respect the environment.”  (UNCRC)

Grow grow let our trees grow 🌳🌳🌳

What a busy day we’ve had today, planting some baby seedling trees with the hope that they will grow and grow into big trees that we all can enjoy for many years…

We were planting a variety of different trees dogwood rose, blackthorns and elders. We could have a look at the seedlings, touch and smell the soil.

We made a hole in the ground for the seeds then the children patted it down to embed the trees into the soil.

We could share the learning that we already had on how the trees grow, they need sun, water, fresh air and love just like us and this will help the trees to grow big and strong just like us.

Isn’t it amazing to think that the children  today could visit these trees as dads and grandads and show them off  and be proud of them, providing a lifelong love of nature.

Article 29 Education must develop every child’s personality, talents and abilities to the full.

Gross motor fun

This week in the garden we have revisited the balance and coordination skills we have been practicing but also now introducing games to develop our hand/feet/eye coordination.

The children set up their own obstacle course using tyres and crates after talking about the football class they attended at the weekend.

“I was at football and made an obstacle course like nursery but we kicked a ball”

“Let’s get a ball and add X marks the spot”

They made a starting point by adding ‘X’ and drew a trail round the obstacles with chalk. They began by rolling the ball round with their hands. “It’s tricky to kick”

Then when they felt confident they began practicing kicking the ball round the objects developing their concentration as they tried to stick to the line keeping the ball under control.

“Dont go too fast or the ball will go far away”

They marked another ‘X’ at the end of the course so they knew where to stop and added a tyre “ 3 Large steps away “I’m going to throw the ball in to the tyre”.

The younger children enjoyed kicking the ball about the garden “football” so set up their goals and practiced kicking the ball.

Today we had to Improvise because of the change in weather so the children suggested we make an obstacle course inside. We practiced our balance and coordination on the balance beam, Hand/feet eye coordination by dribbling the ball and a throwing the ball in the baskets and using our large muscles to jump over obstacles.

“That was so easy, we need to make it harder next time”. The children are setting their own challenges and making new goals and targets for their learning. The next job is to sit together and make a plan on how we will make it more challenging.