Tag Archives: outdoor learning

Baking, Creative movement, Creativity, Expressive Arts, Froebel, Imaginative thinking, Literacy, music, nature, Outdoor Learning, Snack, Social Studies

What have we been doing at Cart Mill this week?

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This week at Cart Mill we have been taking part in a wide variety of learning experiences across each of our playrooms and our garden.
In our Discovery room we have continued along our Jack and the Beanstalk learning journey by investigating “forces” and “travel”. Our mission was to find a way for Jack to get to and from the castle without the giant seeing!  To do this we decided to fill the balloon with air and let it go to see how far it would travel towards the castle. It’s been so much fun seeing how much air we need to make the balloon go fast or slow.

In our Studio we have shown an interest in diggers and have been using the water tray as our construction site. We used dried rice to represent the dirt and had great fun using the construction toys to fill, empty and transport the rice.  We used our technology skills to look at videos of real construction vehicles on our smart board. This experience had such a great level of engagement from all our children, especially our younger ones. We even found a Danny go video called “digging in the dirt” to all join in with, incorporating our health, well-being and movements skills.

In our Home room we have continued to develop our baking skills by researching recipes, measuring ingredients and making yummy vegan treats for our afternoon snack!  The best part was taste testing our baking!
In our playdough area  we have been experimenting by adding different scents to our playdough. We’ve tried peppermint, lemon and orange extracts. We even tried chocolate powder to make chocolate playdough. It smelt so good and looked just like chocolate. This week we decided to wander out to the the planting area to choose herbs and flowers to introduce some different scents. We picked basil, thyme, garlic and some flowers. As we grow in confidence, we are able to make our playdough independently using our self serve playdough station.  It has been lots of fun choosing loose parts to add to our playdough and creating  wonderful models.
Between the smells of playdough and daily home baking our home room smells delightful.

And finally our garden! The weather has been a little varied this week with showers of rain in between the sunshine.  As usual, we didn’t let that stop our fun!  We have used the gross motor rollers to mark make, played role play games using the play house and even took part in music and movement games such as head shoulders knees and toes. We extended our muddy movers skills by playing catch with the sticky ball and catching mitts. It was lots of fun taking turns with catching and throwing.

We all love learning through our play at Cart Mill! I wonder what we will do next week during our summer adventures?

UNCRC article 28- we have the right to play.

Outdoor Learning

A peek at what’s been happening in our Cart Mill garden this week 😍

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Whilst helping to water the plants in the greenhouse the children noticed that some of the plants were getting tall.  We decided to repot the peas and the sunflowers and put them outside.

“ I’m helping the peas to grow by watering them”

“ I don’t want the peas to fall down with the wind so I’m tying a cane onto the pea plant, but I might need some help to tie a knot”

The children noticed that the sunflowers were all different heights and  asked to measure them. “That one’s really tall it’s bigger than all the rest”


“That’s two number 4s 44 “

After a few days our pea plants had some nasty looking holes in their leaves the children quickly realised that slugs were the culprit. They researched human slug traps online and found out that slugs love citrus fruit so we promptly cut some orange up and arranged them around the peas.

The children seen that the spring onions had also grown and looked ready to pull out. The salad leaves in the greenhouse were around the same stage and looked ready to sample to. The children thought they could make a nice salad with the leaves spring onion and we could add some parsley from our herb garden.  We set about making our salad cutting chopping washing and we even managed to make a little dressing using orange juice a squeeze of lemon and lime.


“ It’s really hard to pull the spring onions out”

” I don’t think these leaves will taste nice” “ they smell yucky”

“ I like the taste of the parsley and the onions but not the lettuce “ The lettuce was the least popular ingredient of our salad. We can’t wait to try our peppers and tomatoes when they are ripe. Do you grow any fruit and vegetables in your garden? Do you have any suggestions to what other tasty things  we could grow in our garden? probably not salad 😂

Article 28 Every child has the right to an education

 

life cycles, nature, Outdoor Learning

Mondays garden fun including Releasing our beautiful butterflies🐛🦋

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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, Imaginative thinking, Outdoor Learning

Forest fun

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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!

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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

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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. 

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Shapes are all around

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Our learning today consisted of shapes, shapes and more shapes! We started by using chalk to draw all the shapes we knew.

Then we used the balance beams to make a shape obstacle course. The children had to work out how many sides the shapes have and then collect the corresponding amount of beams. They did a fantastic job of creating a square, a rectangle, a triangle, a circle and even a star.


“The triangle looks like a tent.”

Then we took our learning indoors and went on a shape hunt inside the nursery. We used our worksheets to record each time we spotted a shape.

After all our hard work, we let loose by having a dance party. Check out those moves 😎💃🕺

UNCRC 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
people’s rights and values and to respect the
environment.

Outdoor Learning

The Bug Collectors

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The children have noticed that when it is raining we find more worms in the garden. Today we decided to go on a bug hunt to discover what other bugs live in our garden. We started by reading the story of The Bug Collector.

We talked about all the different bugs in the story and which ones we though we might find today. The children also shared stories of their own bug hunts..

“I have a frog in my garden and one time a bee landed on my nose.”

“I saw a frog in the fountain at Greenbank Gardens.”

Next we got our magnifying glasses and our bug catchers and set off round the garden. The children said we need to look under things because the bugs like living underground. Look at all the worms we found…

We  decided to move them somewhere safe so “the birds can’t get them.”

Then we discovered lots of spider webs but we didn’t see any spiders! We thought they must be hiding from the rain so we decided to make our own. We looked at the story of ‘Aargh Spider’ to see what the webs and the spiders look like then created some beautiful bug artwork…

“I made a bed for my spider to sleep in.”

What can you find in your garden? Please share with us @cartmillcentre

Article 13- Every child must be free to express their
thoughts and opinions and to access all
kinds of information.

Expressive Arts, Literacy, Outdoor Learning

Muddy Masterpiece

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Today in our mud kitchen we were busy using some new tools to aid us with our muddy masterpiece.
But first before we start, we used our independence skills to locate our welly boots from the shed and our puddle suit from the trolly. We put them on ourselves but Emma was on hand to help us if it got a bit tricky.

Now that we are suited and booted it was time for messy fun. We collected our mud and used some of our new tools. We used the rolling pin to roll out the mud to make mud pancakes.

We used the wooden masher, to mash up our mud and make it like mud pies.

We found a little worm who had sneaked into  in our mud, but we put him back home again. We didn’t think he would want to be in our mud pie.

We mixed it up and added in some leaves, water and grass and finally it was ready to be served.

We had such fun in the mud kitchen today, exploring our creative thinking, drama skills, and gross and fine motor skills.
After such a wet weekend it left lots of muddy puddles we couldn’t  pass by the opportunity to jump in them.

I wonder what we will create in our mud kitchen tomorrow?

Expressive Arts, Outdoor Learning

Splat!!!

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Today we have enjoyed using our gross motor skills to explore how far we can make paint travel. We filled bowls with paint and whisked it up with a little bit of water. Then we had a brilliant, if a little messy, time bouncing balls into the paint and watching how far it spread.

We needed to step back when we made a huge splash!


“It went off the paper!”

We discovered that the heavier the ball and the harder you throw it, the bigger the splash. This lead to some of the boys taking a run up before throwing to get more force. Great thinking!

All this splashing created some beautiful pictures, well done boys and girls!

One of the children even decided to experiment with using the whisk to splat the paint rather than the balls. It made a lovely pattern on the paper, “like rain.”

Next week we will continue to experiment with more ways to combine using our gross motor skills with our creative skills.