In the Nature Workshop this week the Badgers were super keen and excited to visit for the first real time, and discover what happens in there! The children listened carefully to the ‘tool talk’ and eagerly put on their goggles in order to start work. They learnt how to drill and we discussed the different sized drill bits. They got to choose their own drill bits and as you can imagine the biggest ones were the most popular. Well done badgers!

The hedgehogs went out for their first Forest School this week. Exciting! Kitty joined us too and the children looked after her immediately by searching for enough leaves to make her a bed to rest in while they all chose their activities to do. We looked at mirrors and tried to catch the sky in them when one of our friends noticed that ‘the ground goes up to the sky’ when he looked through it. It was really fun to see the bare trees in the reflections too.

The Badgers have been playing with magic recently and needed some wands so we went on a stick hunt to find the ones that would cast the best spells. To make the wands, they learnt how to whittle their magic sticks. Well done Hedgehogs on showing such great concentration!

Back in the workshop, the Hedgehogs were so eager to learn even more skills. They listened to the tool talk on how to use the drills and we started to make a birthday cake with candles too! What an amazing effort.

After all this hustle bustle, Leonora and the children settled in for a story and a bowl of Stone Soup – with a spoon that we had made of course!

At the Kitchen Garden the children are back and working hard already getting things ready for the growing season. Alex chopped some wood so they can make some beautiful signs for the beds next week. The children gathered all our old pots and gave them a good wash with the hose and a big bucket and learnt all about why we have to wash them and what seeds we will be starting off. They were really happy with the new shed layout – Louise spent a morning clearing and cleaning so that the children can look after their tools and know where things go – we found quite a few big spiders! The pathways are now done, so we will be turning over the beds and the children helped us lay tarps over them to stop the weeds before we start growing. Mo our friendly and supportive allotment manager donated some elephant garlic and Comfrey too. We will be using the Comfrey to make natural plant food with the children and feed it to our veggies to make them grow big and strong. The children composted their banana skins and everything else that was left over by putting them into our rather impressive big green compost barrel. Exciting times at the Kitchen Garden!