We have loved getting outdoors and sowing some salad crops. We mixed the peat free compost, filled the pots, sowed the seeds and gently watered them in to germinate.
Alba Mixing The Vermiculite Into The CompostEveryone Taking TurnsSowing SeedsHelping Each Other Watering The Seeds
We had fun looking around the garden for bugs, we found snails, ants, butterflies, a dragonfly, wood louse, worm and Fizzy our cat asleep in the shade. Mable and Elliott thought the yellow poppies were pretty.
ElliottMableBug HuntWashing UpOutdoor KitchenWater PlayPlaying Around
We had a lovely time in the garden, we are excited to see our seeds germinate and turn into delicious salad crops, so we can have them for lunch.
Today we had a lovely day at Stanley Park. We walked through the rose garden to the play park.
At The TopProud Of HerselfOver The BridgeSo Determined
Ayrn was so clever and determined to climb the stairs to go down the slide.
Elliott and MableConfident WeeeeeeHaving Fun
Mable and Elliott loved playing and are both confident enough to climb up and go down the slide independently.
Climbing WallDown The PoleReaching The TopRopes
Alba enjoyed using the climbing wall, pole and ropes.
After we left the play park we went for a walk to find as many different coloured plants and flowers as we can.
Yellow WhoteBluePinkPeachLottie’s Yellow
The children looked everywhere, up high, down low, near the pond, over the bridge and through the wildflower meadow. (Sounds like the makings of a brilliant book lol)These photos above are the plants we found.
Look How Far Alba Ran! These Two Needed Lots Of Encouragement Alba WonMable SecondElliott ThirdMable Was So Excited
We decided next to have a race on the playing field.
After our race we all needed to have a rest, some water and a biscuit. What a lovely sunny day out we had.
Welcome HollyLovely Dancing To DannyMableMaking MusicLovely Song ElliottLottie Joining In Martie too!This is Holly Wow!So Relaxing Holly Fell AsleepLoving The Changing ColoursLearning Patience Shapes
Holly ChillingWinter VegPhyllis and Ben SnugglesReadingHi Ruby Batty LottyTrace and LottyWelcome HollyBrothers Jack’s 3rd Birthday Sing TimeParty TimeOur Grapes Are Ready At Last! Passion FruitPlaying With The Leaking HosePartners In Crime Superhero Birthday Party Ben’s 1st Birthday Oranges Oranges Getting BigBirthday BoyProud Of His FlowersCheeky PatchesRuby On The SlideDen BuildingOutdoor NapHelping Each other Wheres Jack?Number PlayChitter ChatterSand / Shell playActivity Time
Ball PrintsLeftWigglingOur GhostsFarmer JackPoppy! Daddy And BenBenHaving FunLittle Pumpkin Ruby And Chelsea’s Pumpkin Spooky Pictures Glueing And Sticking So CuteWell Done RubyTracie And LottieSuperheroChattingWho’s Eaten Tracies Carrots? PaintingHelloo CampingMaking A DeStarting School CraftNumber Sequence
We have so much fun learning and playing in our garden at Tracie’s Treasures. I want to share some of my favourite films from the last couple of months.
In this film Jack is looking in our small barrel pond he is investigating what lives in there. He finds YUK
Jack Exploring In The Half Barrel Pond
George and the girls walk around the garden to check for bugs, George sings ‘Barbie Girl’ all the way around.
George Singing Barbie GirlMr Black Bird Having A Bath
This funny clip George is singing again as usual. This time he is singing to a Snail about being gorgeous.
George Singing ‘Your Beautiful’ To A Snail
My favourite time of day, looking in the greenhouses to see whats growing.
Elsie, Grace and Georgia Looking In The Greenhouse
Hope you enjoyed the films, the children here are amazing.
Today we have been focusing on communication, what better place to use questioning then our garden!
Walking along the path Elsie noticed some Strawberries which we had grown in one of our pots.
I asked the children “what do you think they will taste like? Else’s answer was “delicious, can I have one?” As I gave her the strawberry “ I asked “ what does it feel like?” Jack said “ yum yum” and took it out of my hand and popped it in his mouth. Else’s response was “squidgy “.
“Jack is the strawberry blue?” Jack shook his head to say no Elsie shouted from over her shoulder to me “it’s red silly”
I asked the children if they could find a flower that was red too. Elsie went one way and Jack the other.
Else’s found hers first, I asked her if she knew what it was called and she said “ it’s a Poppies, we sow the seeds yesterday! I explained “we sowed them in Springtime and it takes a long time for them to flower” I asked her if she could remember the parts of a flower she said “Petals and leaves”
When Jack found a leaf with holes in he stopped and looked at it for some time then turned to me and said “o no, o no“ I said “looks like a bug has had his dinner Jack. What type of bug could it be? Elsie thinks it’s a spider, Jack a ladybird and Tracie thinks a bee, we will have to keep watching to see if we can find the culprit. Jack then pointed at a very tall sunflower, “b, b” and signed the words ‘big Flower’ I showed Jack that the Sunflower was taller than me!
We went for a wonder, I asked the children “ how many different colours of flowers can we find in our garden? Jack found one first “blue, blue” well done Jack “ you found a blue flower” can you say flower? “Blue blue” that’s such a fantastic flower Jack can you smell it? Jack put his nose right into the flower and the pollen went on the the tip of his nose. He started wiping it saying “yuck yuck”
Forget-me-not
Else’s found yellow, orange, blue, purple, brown, pink and green flowers. “Wow Elsie well done finding all the colours of the rainbow”
I picked out a beautiful flower and asked Elsie “ how many petals does the flower have?
Elsie counted to 11 in sequence then kept missing out some numbers then said “to many!” I explained I would have trouble counting them too as there where so many. I asked Elsie what colours she could see in the flower, she said “ yellow, purple and white” I asked her what do you think the middle colour will be when it’s fully open? Elsie thinks it’s going to be Green, we will have to look again tomorrow and see.
What a lovely garden activity we had lots of new words, descriptive words, colours, conversations and fun.
George went first to find a treasure in the garden today. He ran around a few times then finally stopped at this amazing flower! He said “its a snowball!” I explained that its an Onion flower. He said “yuk I don’t like onions” then ran off to play.
Elsie chose this amazing Peony, unfortunately it had a baby spider inside one of the petals so off went Elsie in a tizzy.
Jack found this amazing Poppy he smelt it and said ‘Wow!” He loved the Ladybird crawling up the stalk and ran inside for a magnifying glass. He came back and studied the ladybird. He asked me to help him pick up the ladybird and put it in a Jar. We gave the ladybird some leaves and sticks and made him a lovely home.
Jack then went off magnifying glass in hand to find some more ladybirds to put in the jar so they could be freinds.
Jack was still on a bug hunt so Elsie decided to join in. Both of the children looked for frogs they were disappointed not to see any but overjoyed with the tadpoles.
Pool dippingTadpoles
Chloe chose this white Rose as her favourite flower of the week. Chloe also loved the pink climbing Hydrangea, it was behind the rose covering the back wall.
White RoseClimbing HydrangeaWater Canna Sweetpea
Tracie got excited about her water Canna which is starting to flower for the first time. The sweet-peas are coming on amazingly and have an amazing sent.
Can we do one wild thing everyday for the month of June! A whole 30 days? We are involving Our Childminding Family to join us in the challenge! Why don’t you join us too? Have a go be Wild for June with us and the Wild Life Trust.
Day one: Chloe Camping and making a wild 3D picture with sticks and stones.
Day 2: While out on a walk Chloe found and rescued a dragon fly
Helping A Dragon Fly
Day 3: Tracie, Chelsea, Chloe and Ruby went for an amazing walk in Snowdonia and came across a Waterfall and went Swimming.
Day 4: Elsie And Jack was looking for wildlife outside of the front window.
They saw flowers, Butterfly’s, Poppies and Incy Wincy Spider.
Going up into the tree’s
Day 5: Chloe went Tree Hopping at Zip World, she was high up in the trees and saw Birds, Rabbits, Bees, Dragon Flys and squirrels
Day 6: We found A Wasps Nest!
The nest consists of around 8,000-10,000 hexagonal (six sided) cells arranged in 8-10 tiers of about 20cm in diameter. The building material is paper-like and made of “chewed” rotting wood mixed with the wasp’s saliva. Construction is begun by a queen wasp but completed by workers (sterile females)
Six Sided CellsAmazing TextureOutside CrustCells For Laying Eggs
Day 7: watching the swifts going in and out of the barn and listening to their song was amazing.
Day 8: Identifying wild plants around our garden and looking in the barrel pool.
Fox GloveThistle PoppyFern
Day 9: Elsie planted some wildflowers in her plant pot at home. She sent me a picture to add to our blog.
Day 10: we put some crushed up crisps on the bench at the park. We sat still for a while and a Robbin and Black Bird came to have a feed.
Tracie's Treasures 