Beach School
And with a deep breath of sunshine air – breathe in the sunshine , breathe out the sunshine – then headed off to the beach. Taking these deep breaths is an important way to learn how to be calm and also notice what is around you. One of the children requested to breathe in the grass which of course they did. One deep breath in, one deep breath out.
As they reached the pebbles and prepared for snack, they each started to make their own sounds. Using pebbles to tap together, there was a lovely sound that they could make themselves. So with Leonora, they did some pebble tapping, up, down and to the side. What other sounds were there at the beach they all wondered?
The children enjoyed scooping the stones into buckets of water once again. Some children were counting, some children were dropping the stones in taking note of the sounds they were making. And sometimes, no props were needed as a few children used parts of their body to make a sound – cue lots of tongue clicking!
The whole group moved down towards the water for some water watching and pebble throwing. The children found a spot on the groyne that allowed them to throw the pebbles across to deeper water. And what happens when you tap the groyne with the pebble? Or even a metal cup?
The sound exploration was fun and it was great to see the children tuning into what was around them even with a busy beach around them. What great focus and what super teamwork.
Forest School
The Badgers like challenges and in particular riddles. On request, there was a riddle set for the group to start them off. What has a bushy tail? What is grey? What climbs trees? Of course it was a squirrel. Last week the group saw some squirrels jumping from tree to tree. Would they see them this week?
The session started with a game of 1,2,3, Where are you? The Badgers showed an understanding of the game and its rules and were able to play it by themselves.
Guess what, Kitty had left a note in the snack bag! The Badgers were very excited indeed. They needed to decipher the clue in order to find Kitty. But where was she? It sounded like she would be in a tree so they all discussed which tree she might be in, on or under. When they did find her, there was another clue! Kitty was setting the Badgers a challenge to make a pattern. Could they follow the pattern? Could they continue it as well? The clues continued much to the Badgers’ delight (there were 4!).
Some of the children continued with this theme of pattern making for the rest of the session and went on to hunt more leaves and sticks to make the patterns. Other children took part in some team work games. Could they keep the ball on the parachute? They would have to work together to find out and make it work. Meanwhile, the tools were out and the children enjoyed a lot of drilling and sawing.
They sat under the shelter and enjoyed a story to end the session and lo and behold, they spotted not one but two squirrels. What a great session!
Kitchen Garden
The children have had a rather damper experience at the Kitchen Garden than the week before but this has of course been making everything grow like crazy. They decided to use the inspiration of lots of rain to investigate floating and sinking, and what better to use than the plot water tank. Faye and the children made boats out of different materials and watched and talked about what would happen – of cour