Category Archives: Outdoor Learning

Frosty Fun ❄️

It’s been a cold and frosty morning in our garden this week. We have wrapped up warm and have been taking a winter walk around our garden exploring the frost and ice in our garden.

We have seen some frozen spiderwebs on our play house and enjoyed looking at the patterns the spider had created in his web.

We found icicles on our bike wheel they were very cold to touch but looked really interesting with different sizes and shapes of icicles .

We listened to the sound of the ice and grit crunch under our feet as we walked.
We discovered our obstacle course was all covered in frost and had to be extra careful. We learned how to risk asses our own play.

Our water tub was full of ice chunks we could pick up and investigate.

Today we decided we wanted to play In the snow. So we made our own. We used a mixture of shaving foam and cornflour to create snow.
 
It was fun mixing the shaving foam and cornflour together but it was a little messy but we love getting messy.


When we made our snow some of our children were mark making in it, creating shapes, patterns or even making letters.

“ I can make a snowman”

”Its’s cold like real snow”

“You can make a snow storm”

Some of our children used paint brushes to create marks and patterns.

Some of our children wanted to use different shape and sized containers to try pouring and filling the snow and transporting them to different places.
It’s been a different week in our garden this week but we still had the best kind of fun.
I wonder what the weather will look like in our garden next week? Will there be real snow for us to play in?

 

Let it snow ❄️

Today in The Studio we had a discussion about the change in weather over the weekend as we noticed our garden was very icy.

“ it’s very icy and slippy, you need to be careful not to fall”

“it was snowing in my garden yesterday”

”there wasn’t enough snow to make a snowman, it was just little snow flakes”

After speaking about the snow the children decided they wanted to make their own snow flakes, so they collected the materials they needed and got started.


While we waited on our snowflakes drying we got wrapped up in our jackets, hats and scarves to go outside and explore the ice in the garden. We spoke about how slippy the ice was and how to stay safe.

”don’t run because you will fall and bump yourself”

”don’t throw the ice, it is jaggy”

We only stayed out for a short time because it was so cold 🥶 the children had a great time exploring the ice. “It sounds crunchy” “it’s freeze” They described the sounds the ice made when they walked on it and how it felt to touch.

We have Snow !

With the frosty mornings the children have been discussing how cold it has been when they arrive at nursery . Maybe it will snow today and there was a few flakes of snow today in the garden.  So let’s make our own snow !

We had some magic powder which we poured into a bowl and then gradually added cold water and stirred well and “Wow” look what’s happening the powder got bigger and bigger and turned into snow.

Our snow feels like fluff and smells like coconut and is very squishy . It feels a bit warm but real snow is cold !

I can make handprints in the snow it’s like real snow  !

The children had great fun discussing what they could make with their snow.  “ Mine is a snowball it’s like a circle” , we had some snow volcanos, snow cakes and some snow porridge.  The children took turns using the different sized scoops to help them create their snow structures.

When it was tidy up time we decided to put our tray of snow outside in the garden to discover what happens to it overnight . “ l think it will be snowy ice crystals” or  maybe turn into a snowman”. . Can’t wait for tomorrow!!

No Such Thing As Nessie!!!

Today Bookbug came to visit as it is Scottish Book week and we decided to  sing some songs…

We started with Ally Bally Bee, we were singing and clapping much to our neighbours delight

We sang Wee Willie Winkie and were laughing to think of a wee boy chapping at the windaes and crying through the locks in his nightgown!!!

A decision to be made what story would we like Skye the Puffling or No Such Thing as Nessie…..the story of Nessie won and we had lots of discussions  about monsters scaffolding our  learning from each other by sharing all the interesting facts we knew.

Can you believe we even sang about shoving our grannies aff the bus……but please nobody worry as all our children assured me they would never do this! 😉

 

What a lot of fun we had enjoying stories and songs together 😀

Firework Splat Painting!

Today In the garden we created some firework pictures in preparation for bonfire night this weekend.

The children selected some paint and resources that they could spray and splat. We picked a selection of different spray bottles and pipettes to spray at the large plastic sheet and create our firework picture.

The spray bottles and pipettes helped us to develop our fine motor skills. We demonstrated good skill when filling them up and spaying them.

We then used the paint and sponges to throw the paint at the ground to make splats that resembled fireworks. This was a good way to get our bodies moving and develop our gross motor skills while being creative.


While we were painting we talking about fireworks and how we can stay safe.  These are some of the children’s comments.
😊

“You don’t touch the fire”

“Fireworks and very hot so you need to stay away”

“They go in the sky”

“Only adults do the fireworks”

Big Wild Walk 2022

This week is the Big Wild Walk week organised by the wildlife trust. It is used to raise money and awareness of the importance of protecting our wildlife. Adults are encouraged to walk 30 km over the week and children are to walk 3km as this is the same distance a hedgehog can walk in a night. We have used this as an opportunity to highlight the importance of caring for our natural world.
We started by discussing what we know about wildlife, what animals live in the forest and how to look after them.

“We can build wee homes.”
“We can make beds with leaves.”
“We can go a walk to check on them.”

Then we spoke specifically about hedgehogs and what we know about them. We also made our own hedgehogs using pine cones.

“Hedgehogs have little feet.”
“They’re really spiky”
“Hedgehogs like chestnuts.”

Then we went for a walk to see if we could find any hedgehogs having a sleep and decided to collect leaves while we were there.

When we got back we used our Autumn leaf spotter sheet to identify the leaves and discover which types of trees are in our forests.

If you like to join in you can find more information here;

https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/bigwildwalk

Happy walking 🚶‍♀️ 😀

Leaf Man!

Today in the garden we have enjoyed reading the book Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert.

The children loved hearing about the adventures the wind took Leaf Man on in the story.

After listening to the story the children enjoyed looking through the book and making up their own adventures!

Using the leaves and conkers we have collected on our local walks we made our very own Leaf Men. The children had great fun doing this.

“Mine has a smiley face made from conkers!”

“Look, my guy has cheeks and a tummy button!”

”Mine has a big nose sticking out!”

“The wind will blow him to space!”

“Spider-Man leaf!”  “He can to big jumps and kicks!”

“I’ve made a girl called Millie all using the conkers, she has a leaf hat!”

What great stories the children made up about their Leaf Men. The next time you see leaves blowing in the wind make sure to ask the children about their adventures!

Today we had fun painting in the style of Kandinsky😁


Kandinsky was a pioneer of abstract art he is known for his inventive use of of colour and one of his most well-known images was a colour study with concentric circles. The children decided to recreate this famous piece of art work putting their own unique spin on it. First
We went on a circle hunt around the nursery to find objects we could use for our outdoor Kandinsky painting. “There’s lots of different shapes in here look here are two circles we can use” “ Look this would make a good circle shape it could also be for a robots eye” “I have shapes we could use to paint circles on my tower” “ cardboard tubes would make good circles”

We had great fun using the objects we found to make our circle designs developing our gross motor skills. The children were very creative making their painting. “ I want to use the plunger” “ I think the cardboard tube makes the best circles” “


“Im using the blue paint and the tube to make a big circle then I’m putting a smaller one inside it” “Circles, everywhere big ones small ones and tiny ones too”


The children were excited about their finished art work and we all think it looks amazing. Well done everyone great team work 🤩

Pretty Pinecones

Today  the children were interested exploring the pine cones, sticks and wooden trees. We had a discussion about what we could do with them and decided we could give them some colour by weaving and twirling using ribbon, pipe cleaners, wool and felt.

It was lovely watching the children explore different weaving options and discover different methods and techniques. The children loved mixing up the wool, pipe cleaners and felt to weave and twirl round their chosen object.

“mine is like a rainbow”

“Look it’s pretty now”

“I love pink”

”I am making one for all my family”

The children used  both their hands to grasp the pine cone and using pincer grip to weave the material. They manipulated the different materials in lots of different ways building their muscle strength and dexterity  and developing their hand and eye co-ordination.

There was lots of patience and concentration and the children shared their ideas throughout and spoke about what they were doing.

Autumn Walk!

Today we enjoyed the lovely mild weather and headed off on an Autumn walk. As soon as we left Cart Mill the children were delighted to spot a tree full of birds! There were so many and there was beautiful singing and chirping coming from them all.

“Look at the hundreds of birds!”      “They are saying cheep cheep!”

We carried on our walk and had great fun collecting leaves. We looked for different shapes, sizes and colours of leaves.

”I’ve found a yellow one!”    “Look a pretty red one!”

As we came to the bridge down at the river there was a very muddy patch blocking our path! The children thought and assessed whether they could jump over the mud!

Of course they made it over! We were very proud of ourselves! We heard there were conkers fallen off a big tree further down the road so we went to investigate. We were not disappointed! We found lots of conkers and some berries too!

”We don’t eat these berries as they are poisonous sure they are?”

There were so many piles of leaves under the trees that we couldn’t resist throwing them up in the air to make leaf showers! We had great fun doing this!

The children spotted some wild life whilst out walking! We were super excited to see a little squirrel running up a tree, we spotted a snail and a wiggly worm too!

“The worm feels all cold and squishy!”

The children enjoyed their walk back listening to the sound of the river! At the top of the path one of the children found what they called a cave! It looked like a cave and we all had a peak inside!

Once back in Cartmill we enjoyed sorting our findings into piles of different coloured leaves and conkers!

We had to take some of the conkers out of their shells!

Finally we looked at our leaf wheel which shows us all the different leaves you find. We successfully matched some of the leaves we found to the leaves on the wheel! Great job children!

We then washed our hands and had snack! What a busy fun morning!