Category Archives: Outdoor Learning

Mondays garden fun including Releasing our beautiful butterflies🐛🦋

June 4, 2024 Miss Mitchell Leave a comment

Today the children decided it was time to release our butterflies. The species we have are called Painted Ladies. We made sure the weather conditions were suitable for example the temperature was above 12 degrees and it wasn’t to windy. The children measured out a nectar solution of one teaspoon sugar to 100mls of water cut up some tangerines and mashed a small slice of banana to put outside in case the butterflies needed energy to look for flowers. I explained that the butterflies mouth functions like a straw to sip up the nutritious liquids and that they should live two to five weeks. Then the children unzipped the habitat and patiently waited for the butterflies to fly away.

The children were delighted to see the butterflies so close up. “ It’s got a very furry body” “It’s tickling my nose” “I think butterflies have a nice pattern on them, I like the colours on them”

In the garden today we also did a little weeding and planted some herbs to make our mud kitchen concoctions a bit more interesting. The children planted parsley coriander and basil they thought the basil had the nicest scent.

The children were very gentle while planting their herbs and knew that they would need sunshine and water to grow. It has been such a busy day, planting and releasing our butterflies. Maybe you could have a look and see what other species of butterflies you have in your garden or in the local community when you are out and about. We would love to see any pictures!

Article 28 Every Child has the right to an education.

Froebel, nature, Outdoor Learning

Farewell to our forest!

May 22, 2024 Mrs Hannah Leave a comment

We can’t quite believe that our forest school sessions have come to an end for this term!

Here’s a wee summary of our fun filled 4 weeks!
Week 1: we were introduced to our forest site where we explored how to keep ourselves safe through setting boundaries and learning how to identify hazards and assess risks. It was super muddy so we squelched in the mud and even lost our wellies! It was lots of fun to look for trees we might want to climb and to learn about plants that grow in our forest.

Week 2: As we were now experienced explorers, we recognised familiar landmarks to navigate our way to our forest and were able to remind each other of our rules and boundaries. Our bug hunt helped us discover insects and animals that might live in our forest and we learned more about what they need to survive. And who could forget that this was the week Harry Potter came to the forest with us!

Week 3: This week saw us swinging through the trees on our very own rope swing! Our confidence has grown in leaps and bounds and we led our own learning by revisiting who lives in our forest through searching for bugs and reminding each other of how we should respect the environment and look after our forest.

Week 4: cook out week – a firm favourite! We listened very carefully to our safety instructions! It was very important that we stayed outside the “green square” to make sure we “stay away from the fire so we don’t burn ourselves”. In our fire safety kit Fiona had special gloves to protect her hands, a fire blanket and lots of water in case she needed to put the fire out very quickly. We also learned that only adults should light the fire in a safe place away from “trees and houses”. The potato scones Fiona toasted on the fire were so tasty! There was a pond at our site today and we discovered it had tadpoles in it! We were very careful around the pond to keep ourselves safe and to ensure we didn’t “frighten the tadpoles”.

There was lots of time left for us to have fun and play some games! Hide and seek was a firm favourite, along with a game of football, rolling the ball to our friends, pole climbing and of course a wee impromptu dance on the stage!

As always, our last sessions are a time to come together, have some fun, reflect on our favourite moments and most importantly, celebrate the new friendships we have made.

“I liked playing hide and seek”. “I liked snack the best”. “I climbed the tree”. “I was on the rope swing”. During our time in the forest we have grown in confidence and self esteem, become independent, are able to use our problem solving skills and have learned how to care for our environment, all while creating some wonderful memories!

Article 29 – the right to an education which develops my personality, respects each other’s rights and the environment.

Outdoor Learning

Who lives in our Forest?

May 15, 2024 Mrs Hannah Leave a comment

We can’t believe it’s week 3 of our forest school experience already! Each week we have grown in confidence leading us to be independent and lead our own learning!

Today was a wet and damp day in our forest. As we came together to do our sticky toes, we immediately noticed a number of “friends” had joined us! Can you guess who they might be?

“Look what I found, it’s a baby snail”

”Look at that one up there. It’s massive”. “How did it get up there?”

There were lots of snails, we counted at least 20 of all different sizes. Using our magnifying glasses we spotted some tiny baby snails hiding on a leaf and some bigger more adventurous snails higher up in the tree! This sparked much discussion of where snails live, how they move around and how they managed to climb up trees!

It was lots of fun exploring our forest floor to see who else might live there! Looking carefully under logs and gently moving leaves we discovered a “family” of woodlouse, “a wee black beetle” and a spider who was making a web “just like Spider-Man”. Just like last week we could also hear “birdies singing in the trees”. We have been learning how to look after our forest and the wildlife who live there. With this in mind, we decided to carefully return our friends to their homes and be super careful “not to stand on them and squash them”.

Before we left there was just enough time to squeeze in a wee turn of our rope swing where we demonstrated we could assess our own risk by deciding where to place our swing, identify the rock nearby was a hazard and warn our friends to “stand back so you don’t get hurt”.

It was another action packed, fun filled forest school where we demonstrated we truly are responsible citizens!

Article 29 – the right to an education which develops my personality, respects each other’s rights and the environment

Froebel, Imaginative thinking, Outdoor Learning

Forest fun

May 9, 2024 Mrs Hannah Leave a comment

It’s been a fun filled couple of weeks for our Wednesday forest schoolers!

As we are so experienced and have demonstrated we can play safely in our forest, we decided we would like to build our own rope swing! Luckily Val was on hand to find a nice strong tree and put our swing up for us. We had so much fun taking turns to see how far we could swing!

“look at me I’m going so high!”

Climbing trees has been our favourite thing to do. After a wee bit of help and some practice, we are now able to assess our own risk and climb to a safe height by ourselves!

“Look at me, I’m swinging like a monkey”

”I’m split man because I can do the splits!”

Our imaginative thinking has shone through in our forest. With sticks as our inspiration we have built campfires to go camping, been doctors helping look after our friends, been old people using a walking stick, and have created our own X marks the spot and an equals sign!

Our Forest truly is a magical place! We wished “we could live here” “can we go camping”. We can’t wait to come back next week!

Article 12 – (respect for the views of the child)

Article 28 – (right to education)

Article 29 – (goals of education)

Article 31 – (leisure, play and culture)

Outdoor Learning

The Cart Mill Campsite!

May 3, 2024 Mr Edwards Leave a comment

This week at Cart Mill, some of the children have enjoyed building dens, sparking discussions about camping. To further explore this interest, we decided to embark on a fun learning experience by pitching a tent and creating the Cart Mill Campsite!

First, we worked together to set up the tent, following the instructions and learning about its different parts along the way. Through this activity, the children not only learned practical skills but also developed important social skills such as effective communication, sharing responsibilities, and supporting each other.

We began by carefully laying out the tent, taking our time to select the perfect spot and ensuring that it would fit just right. With teamwork in full swing, we joined the tent poles together and skilfully threaded them through the fabric, gradually bringing the tent to life

We focused on securing the tent to the ground by hammering the pegs firmly into place. Working together, we used our strength to make sure each peg was secure. One of our group stressed the importance of this, saying “It will keep it from blowing away in the wind”

One child suggested making a campfire, remembering how they had learned it at forest school by rubbing sticks together. Excited, some of the children got busy gathering sticks from the garden and creating the pretend campfire to cook on and keep warm.

The tent became a provocation for imaginative play, allowing the children to explore role play camping adventures, fostering creativity, storytelling, and role-playing skills. We even gathered around for some campfire songs, with “10 Fat Sausages Sizzling in a Pan” being a firm favourite, helping the children practice counting backwards from 10 to 0.

Some of the children gathered inside the tent for a story. The children chose a book that sparked a discussion about what jobs we could so when we grow up. Take a look below at some of the suggestions.

“I want to a builder”

“I want to be a king”

“I want to be a dragon”

“I want to a teacher”

“I want to be a builder like dad”

“I want to be a princess doctor like the story”

” I want to be a vet and look after dragons”

It was a fantastic experience that combined learning and fun, fostering a love for camping and outdoor exploration in our little Cart Mill campers. 🏕️🔥🎶

(Article 12) (respect for the views of the child)

(Article 28) (right to education)

Article 29 (goals of education)

Article 31 (leisure, play and culture)

Creative movement, Expressive Arts, Froebel, Imaginative thinking, Literacy, Outdoor Learning, Social Studies

Dandelion tea in our mud kitchen cafe

May 1, 2024 Miss Campbell Leave a comment

We have really been enjoying our mud kitchen area in our nursery garden. The children have particularly enjoyed the role play aspect of our mud kitchen.

We have been using the mud, water and utensils to create lots of wonderful muddy meals. The children have turned our mud kitchen into the “mud kitchen cafe”. The children have been taking it in turns to see who will be the cook and who will be the customer. This has been especially enjoyed by our 3-5 year old children.

This week in our mud kitchen cafe some of our children noticed there were some dandelions growing in our garden and wanted to use them as part of the ingredients for their muddy meals.

The cooks got to work mixing, whisking and cooking the delicious muddy meals and daffodil tea.

We were using so many skills during our role play, such as gross and fine motor skills, creative thinking, imaginative play, problem solving and learning new vocabulary.

Once the food was cooked at the kitchen it was time to take it to the table to serve the customer

and pour the dandelion tea.

We also used our early writing and mark making skills to create our menu board to tell the customers what they could buy and how much it was going to cost them.

Our older children have been great role models for our younger children helping them to develop new skills and guiding them how to play.

Within our mud kitchen we have noticed the enjoyment the 2-3 year old children have gained from pouring and filling using the mud kitchen utensils. We set up a pouring and filling station on our tough tray in the mud kitchen to engage our younger children and follow their interests.

The children had so much fun using the water to fill up the different sized utensils and containers pouring them from one to the other or down the plastic gutter.

Our younger children were using their pouring and filling skills while developing their curiosity.

We had so much fun mixing and whisking the water just as if we were cooking in the mud kitchen cafe as well.

We loved pouring and filling the water so much we even made a puddle to splash in.

If our hands got too muddy and we didn’t like it we used our water jugs to wash away all the mud from our hands if we wanted to continue to play before going inside to wash our hands with soap.

I wonder what we will be serving in our mud kitchen cafe tomorrow?

Article 31 – I have the right to relax and play.

Froebel, Outdoor Learning

Return to the Forest

April 17, 2024 Val MacLean Leave a comment

This week we have taken two groups to the forest to experience learning in the wild! Forest School is a fabulous experience that we run for our pre-school children which has many benefits for them. Over the past couple of days we have seen the children flourish in their new environment. As it was our introductory week, we spoke about hazards and risks and how we were going to keep safe. We set some boundaries, they were far away so we had lots of space to explore but we could always be seen by an adult!

We looked at trees that might be good to climb and then we climbed! We squelched in the mud, a lot, some of us even lost our wellies in the muddy mess!
We explored nature, there were lots of plants to look at and one in particular we could smell. Wild garlic! It was everywhere, so we felt very hungry. We stopped for some snack before going to find more to explore.

Then we went to look at the horses in the field next door. They were munching on their grass so didn’t want to come and see us.

Before we knew it, it was time to go back to Cart Mill but we can’t wait to get out again next week.

Creative movement, Creativity, Expressive Arts, Outdoor Learning

Street Art Garden. 🌼🌸🌺

April 11, 2024 Miss Campbell Leave a comment

Some of our children have been commenting on the wonderful, colourful flowers we have growing in our garden.

This was the inspiration for our next street art creation in our gross motor art area in our garden.
We chose colours that we thought were like the ones we had seen on our flowers. One of the children wanted pink. Using our colour mixing skills, we mixed our red and white to make a pastel pink colour. We also mixed red and blue together with a little white to create a wonderful deep purple colour.

We made some flowers on our ground in chalk as the start of our street art creation and got our paints and brushes ready to use. As we were using the ground as our canvas, we made sure we put on our welly boots and aprons to protect our clothes.

Now for the fun part. To get creating and using our gross motor art skills.

Some of our children wanted to use the paints to colour in the chalk outlines.

Some of our children wanted to design their own flowers using lots of different colours to create a rainbow flower.

We were enjoying having the freedom to create and use the paints in our design process on a larger scale.

We spoke about what kind of flowers we were making for our street art garden. We had Daffodils, Tulips, Sunflowers and even a Spider-Man flower.

Some children were finding their own spontaneous inspiration and created different shapes.

We even made numbers and fruits as well with one child creating a green apple and a yellow banana.

We had so much fun painting our street art garden in the sun and letting our creative thinking shine.

I think our street art garden looks as wonderful and as colourful as the real flowers in our garden.

Article 21 – “Your education should help you use and develop your talents and abilities. It should also help you to learn to live peacefully, protect the environment and respect other people.”

Baking, Outdoor Learning, Social Studies

Gardening is Great!

April 10, 2024 Val MacLean Leave a comment

We love gardening in Cart Mill and the weather never stops us getting out to see what we have growing in our garden. As it has been a little cold recently, we took a trip into the greenhouse to see if any of our seeds had popped up through the soil and they had! We checked that everything had enough water to drink and looked to see if any of the plant pots needed turned round – did you know that plants grow towards the light so sometimes they can look a little squint when they start to grow?

With everything looking okay, we thought we would test out our sense of smell. We have some herbs growing in the greenhouse at the moment so we each got to pick a small leaf and rub it around in our fingers. Then we had to take a big, deep sniff and guess what we could smell – it was mint! It was just like toothpaste.

We then moved outside to see what was growing in the planters. We have some lovely spring flowers growing but we suddenly spotted some big green leaves – is it cabbage?

No, on closer inspection, we discovered it was rhubarb. We wondered if there was anywhere we could use some rhubarb – I know, we could give it to Gail and she could help us make some rhubarb muffins! So, we decided to pick some – but not too much, to hand in to the baking area. It was quite hard to pull but we tugged and we twisted and CRACK, out the stalk of rhubarb came. After thinking about it, we decided that two stalks would be enough.

By now it was raining quite heavily so we thought we better go inside. Although, we had one last use for our rhubarb, an umbrella!

Gardening with children has so many benefits, which is why we are so fond of promoting it at Cart Mill. Benefits include: improving your mood, gardening reduces stresses and improves your overall mood; it is a great form of exercise, gardening is physical and can keep children active; understanding nature, gardening allows children to get close to worms, bees, flowers etc; stimulate senses, gardening helps us use all our senses; gardening can promote healthier eating, children also get an understanding of where food comes from and how it looks in its natural form; it is cheap, gardening is a great way to learn together with very little cost, even if you don’t have outdoor space, you can grow tomatoes or peppers from seed at your window; It is fun! The most important part of gardening, you can explore, investigate and see thing happen – sometimes you just need to be a little patient!

Creativity, Outdoor Learning

Our Local Landmarks

April 9, 2024 Miss Simms Leave a comment

Last week the children were creating bridges and castles. We looked up the squinty bridge ( Clyde Arc) and Stirling Castle. Quite a few of the children recognised the bridge.

So this week we decided we would go and explore our own local environment.
We had a think about what we needed to do to keep us safe when we are out a walk.

“ we need to hold hand & listen”

”watch the roads”

” walk nice”

” have fun”
First of all we passed the spider park and continued towards the forest where we could hear the water so we went to explore and we found our very own bridge! “can we pick up sticks and watch them go under bridge?”

The children had fun playing Pooh sticks – throwing their sticks and running to the other side to watch for their stick coming. We then walked further along and found an even bigger bridge.

“ it’s so big I can’t see over”

“The cars go over this one”

“I can hear the train”

“My house is up there and there’s another bridge”

It was now getting close to lunch time and it was time to head back the children were using great listening skills and road safety and we spotted lsome more familiar landmarks Williamwood high school and Bonnyton House. They were also intrigued by the black and white cat.

Today the children have been busy using their gross motor skills and imaginations to build bridges similar to those they have seen in our local environment. The children shared their thoughts and ideas, and used mathematical language to describe how their towers were going to look. They had great concentration and problem solving skills to ensure they would stay up and connect.

children working together as a team

“We are making the one we were on yesterday, Lots of people can walk over it .”

”mine is going to be so long”

Some of the children chose to create their own bridge.

“I am going to make a bridge for cars”

”Look how high it is”

“I have 6 cars on mine”

”“I will make one for people”

” I am putting signs on my bridge”