outdoor play – Tracie's Treasures

balancing skills, listening skills, Instructions, bug hunt, childminding, communication, conversations, Garden Classroom, greenhouse, outdoor play, Seedlings, Speach and Language , flowers, language, communication, water play, wildlife

This Week In The Garden Classroom

Posted on 10th May 2024 by Tracie Dowling

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 Compost

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.

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.

childminding, communication, conversations, Garden Classroom, outdoor play, Seedlings, Speach and Language , flowers, language, communication, Uncategorized

Stanley Park

Posted on 25th Apr 2024 by Tracie Dowling

Today we had a lovely day at Stanley Park. We walked through the rose garden to the play park.

Ayrn was so clever and determined to climb the stairs to go down the slide.

Mable and Elliott loved playing and are both confident enough to climb up and go down the slide independently.

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.

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.

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.

childminding, christmas activities, communication, conversations, Garden Classroom, outdoor play, Uncategorized

Do You Wanna Build A Snowman?

Posted on 2nd Jan 202427th Feb 2024 by Tracie Dowling

Today when we all woke up we had a lovely surprise… snow! White fluffy snow.

Poppy was not very happy because she wanted to stay home and play in the snow! She had to walk to school as the bus was cancelled, but she enjoyed walking in the snow. When she got to school there was a big fun snowball fight.

Chloe was happy because her school was closed, she went to the park with her mum and brothers. Ben loved the Canada Geese, one went up to him and ate the bread from his hand. Jack and Chloe loved snow ball fighting, but didn’t like getting so cold.

After breakfast we all got our coats, scarves and gloves on and went for a walk in the back garden.

Martie made some amazing hand prints in the snow that had settled on a toy box.

camping, childminder Drop In, childminder Network, childminding, communication, fire pit, forest school, Garden Classroom, outdoor play, Seedlings, stronger Practice Hun Everton

Christmas Festivities Week 1

Posted on 13th Dec 2023 by Tracie Dowling

We kicked off the festivities with Poppy putting up the Christmas Tree. Next was the decision of Fairy, Angel or Star, Poppy decided it was the star as she wanted ‘Bling’ this year.

Molly was excited when she saw all the decorations, I took this fabulous picture and sent it to her mum.

Our first trip out was to our Stronger Practice Hub at Everton to join in with the Forest school. We made a fire and had marshmallows, smores and lots of activities outdoors. Even Father Christened made a visit!

We started our crafts by making a Christmas wreath. All the children made green hand prints, except for Elliott, he doesn’t like getting his hands messy. Elliott painted a green picture instead and we cut out shapes to add to the plate.

Next we glued the prints onto a paper plate and added glitter, sparkly paper and various other pretty shapes. Tracie then hung them up to dry. We displayed them on the window for everyone to see.

When Molly was in she asked me what my favourite decoration was, i said the light up Robin. Mollys favourite was the glittery peacock and George’s said his was the owl twit twoo.

The children made some very pretty Stockings. painted some lovely cutouts of Father Christmas and all his Reindeer’s, Jack gave Rudolf a big red nose.

childminding, communication, conversations, healthy body and mind, language, number games, outdoor play, Seedlings, Speach and Language , flowers, language, communication, speech, Uncategorized

Posted on 24th Nov 202313th Dec 2023 by Tracie Dowling

childminding, family, Garden Classroom, greenhouse, hydroponics, outdoor play, rangers, Seedlings, Uncategorized, wanderers

Our Gardening Gallery 2023

Posted on 23rd Oct 202323rd Oct 2023 by Tracie Dowling

childminding, Garden Classroom, outdoor play, rangers, Uncategorized, wildlife

Childminding Long Weekend Away In Wales

Posted on 23rd Oct 202323rd Oct 2023 by Tracie Dowling

In the summer holidays we went on a mini break to Wales and had lots of fun.

We went in a boat through the underwater river and looked at scenes and listened to the story of King Arthur. We walked a few miles through winding caves then returned to the boat for our journey back out into the bright daylight. Fun was had by all.