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Our before pictures
The Garden Classroom: The Next Journey
Tag: creative activities
Soil and Mud Play
Soil and Mud
This is something that is available to children in large quantities and it’s great to see how the changing elements of the season change the children’s relationship with it.
Checklist of Opportunities
- Wet mud
- Dry mud
- Poking and wondering what will happen when it rains, sun shines
- Transporting mud to different places
- Mark making with mud
- Combining mud with different loose
- parts: bricks, pebbles, flower petals and leaves.
- Mud and role-playing cooking
- Exploring the texture of mud and adding different loose parts to explore
- how this changes: sand, gravel, grass cuttings.
Planning The ‘Garden Classroom’ With The Children
We started our project by having lots of different discussions around our hopes and dreams of our Classroom I involved my family, staff and the children. I am making sure every one within the setting will be involved in the project.
We used various types of planning discussions, this included active discussions, where we discussed what the main outcome will be and how we are going to get there. We used critical thinking discussions to include challenges that may come up, (moving the bug house) and how we are going to source the materials. Active learning discussions to include why, where and what we are doing and included continuous feedback with all who is involved. (Family, Staff and children)
We all got emerged and excited participating in lots of different fun learning activities. We designing our own treehouses, had a Bug log moving day, Storytime in the garden about the bad tempered ladybird (we made up our own reasons why she would be bad tempered if she knew we were moving her home) , we completed a Wildlife audit so we could make sure all our mini beasts are protected and have a temporary home until we can place them into a permanent position.
Everything about the project we were mindful to include the 17 sustainability goals https://sdgs.un.org/goals we did this through constant discussions within the planning process by deciding about how we are going to be energy efficient, collecting and using recycled materials, location and construction, waste reduction and water conservation.
We had fun talking about our perfect dream treehouse, Jack wanted a tall building so he could use a Zip wire to travel from the tree top to the house. This made us use problem solving skills as I explained you can’t use a zip wire to get back up! Jack said ‘ thats what the door is for!” how silly of me not to think of that! Lottie wanted a big funfair, this caused a discussion on power and we came to the conclusion it would not be easy using solar with all the power it would take up. Lottie decided to have a Unicorn play area instead. (much more manageable!) Elliott wants a slide which I thought would be fun. Jack reminded us we can use the door to go into the classroom to get to the slide and the zip wire. Gemma had an idea to make the classroom out of a greenhouse, unfortunately we all thought it would be too hot to play in, in the summertime.
The amazing dream everyone had was to make sure we still had areas in the garden for bugs, birds, vegetables, fruit and flower growing. This reinforced to me that we are all on the same wavelength and all the activities we provide are being absorbed by the children.
Talking About Homelessness With The Under 5’s
This week we have been talking sustainability goal 1 No Poverty. NCFE (pg 17) I provided the children with photographs to provoke but not distress them of a homeless man, dog and cat. We talked about how all living things need a healthy environment and food to survive. I gave them another three photographs and asked them to choose which home would be suitable for each of them.
They chose a kennel for the dog, a cat house for the cat and a house for the human.
I asked the children what they think they would feel like if they didn’t have a lovely home. Lottie said she would get wet in the rain and Cristian said he would feel sad.
This provoked Jack to talk about the man outside ASDA whom we buy a bottle of water and fruit for when we go shopping. He said the man always looks sad and cold, I said what could we get him to make him feel warm? The children sid a coat, hat or socks. I said I thought the socks were a fabulous idea and the next time we go we can buy him some. When we went to give the man the socks the children asked me to hand them to the man as they felt a bit scared.
The man said thank you very much and Cristian asked him what his name was? The man replied ‘Geof’ Jack asked what his dogs name was the man replied ‘Bruno’ everyone said ‘have a nice day Geof and Bruno’ and we all went home feeling good about our kindness.
When we got back I asked the children what Geof could use as a shelter as he hasn’t got a lot of money? Lottie said he could live in a tent, Jack went on to say he had stayed in a tent with mummy and daddy on holiday and it was fun. I asked them what it might be like living in the tent in the winter, Lottie said it would be cold and sad as Geof has not got his mummy.
The children thought it would be good to make a tent for Geof. I provided the children with a massive box, jack asked if they could decorate it to make it pretty.
They all had fun for hours, once the tent was dry, I asked them what would make the tent comfortable for Geof. I asked them to go and find items to put in the tent for him. Lottie came back with a blanket, Jack found a ‘a fire to keep him warm, Elliott went and got him a tea pot for a cuppa and Cristian brought over some food.
Later Jack coloured a lovely picture of a dog and asked if he could stick it on the tent and call him Bruno. I said it was a fabulous Idea and asked him what would a dog need? Jack went and got him a bowl for food, a bowl for water and a cushion for him to lye on like his dog Cooper.
In the afternoon while the babies were sleeping, the older children asked to take the tent outside to play with. This extended their play and we talked about being in the tent through the seasons, at first they thought it would be fun to be in the tent when it was snowing. I asked them how would they keep themselves warm? They all said they would wear coats, hats and scarfs. I said they would have to wear them all the time so they thought it might not be so fun after all.
This provoked a conversation about Inuits who are people who use igloos for shelters in the Artic when they go on fishing trips. We looked on the internet and found out they are made out of compacted snow, which is a natural insulator and helps them to keep warmer than being outside.
To extend our experience of Tent living I put a tent up in the play room and the children ended up roll playing including having snack and nap time in there.
I took the theme of Poverty to our Childminder Drop in where I read everyone the story of ‘The Three Little Pigs’ we talked about different materials houses can be made off and how strong we think they would be. Development Matters (2021, pg90) The children talked about our tent activity with the other children, they all went back to their Childminders settings to make dens and have fun.
NCFE, UNESCO https://www.ncfe.org.uk/all-articles/supporting-practitioners-embed-sustainability-early-years/
https://www.evertonnurseryschoolandfamilycentre.org/early-years-sustainable-hub
This Week In The Garden Classroom
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.
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.
Stanley Park
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.
Ladybirds And Friends
We all absolutely loved the story sack ‘What the ladybird heard’ themed activity last week. We decided to extend our knowledge around the little red bugs.
First we decided to go on a hunt to see if we can find any ladybirds in our garden.
Tracie put together an activity tray for us to explore all about Ladybirds, what they eat, where they live, parts of their bodies and their lifecycle.
We were all very inquisitive looking through a magnifying glass, and seeing the detail on their bodies.
We looked at other British bugs and the children took it in turns to point out our ladybird.
Some of the children handled the ladybird and snail. Others needed a bit more confidence and persuading to hold them.
We looked at other bugs including a snail that we found.
The children used descriptive words like squidgy, slimy, disgusting, slippery, tickly, spotty, antennae, small, red, black, shell.
When the bugs walked around the tray the younger children shrieked in excitement.
The children all gave the thumbs up for their activity because they enjoyed learning about their favourite little red bug.
Our Spring Growing Has Started
Last week we sowed our first ‘Salad Pots’
First we needed to clean the pots to get rid of any bacteria or decease from last years plants.
We then put coco disks into the pots and added the seeds.
We chose salad and herb crops because they are fast growing and we love cooking and eating them. We added water and watched as the disks filled out and firmed the seeds down.
We covered the pots with cling film to help them keep the humidity to germinate the seeds.
One Week Later….
We had a look in our salad pots to see if any of the seeds had germinated.
In Jacks pot we found a Cucumber seed had grown, it had reached over 1 inch tall.
Tracie very carefully picked up the seedlings in the coco disk and showed us the roots coming out of the disk.
Alba said ‘yuck they are long and wiggly like a worm!”
We then looked in Alba’s Salad Pot, we were surprised to see that her Cucumber had not started to grow. However she had two healthy Tomato plants growing. These were about 1/2 an inch tall.
We decided to move the Cucumber and Tomato seedlings into a bigger pot and leave the herbs in the long salad pots. This was to give them extra space to grow healthy root stock.
We recycled glass jars to cover the seedlings. This was to help them keep the plant warm and to encourage them to grow healthy and strong.
Once we had repotted the seedlings we covered the other coco disks with fresh nutrient rich soil to encourage them to start germinating.
What The Ladybird Heard
Today I read the story ‘What the ladybird heard‘ to the children. Jack asked me to get out the story sack for them to play with.
I laid the story sack out on the tuff tray for them to re tell the story themselves. We had the farmer, two robbers, the policemen, the duck, dog, hen, cow, two cats who went purr and meow and of course the Ladybird who never said a word.
All the children joined in, they used rich language from the story such as ‘ the ladybird never said a word” and “the cow said moo” and “the dog said woof”
Jack and Lottie helped each other count the wooden rounds and guess the bug on them.
Alba realised we didn’t have a pond that Lanky Len fell into. When Tracie went off to find something to use as a pond the younger children decided to tip all the shredded paper from the hen’s nests’ all over the floor.
They had such fun, Ben loved throwing it up in the air and letting it fall all over him. Holly joined in and helped Ben make even more mess.
Everyone helped to hoover it all up and put everything back on the tray.
Think we will extend the story by having a fact finding tray activity next week.
Easter Fun Tray
Over the next few weeks we will be celebrating Easter. We started the celebrations by having a tray activity.
We put together a tray of colourful items that we think of when talking about Easter time. We added a rainbow because the weather is rainy and sunny. We added a plant lifecycle so we could see how a plant grows from a seed to an adult plant.
You cant have an Easter tray without eggs, we added blue, purple, green, yellow and red ones.
Elliott made the hen a lovely nest, he also used the shredded paper to play hide and seek with the bumble bees.
Alba and Elliott played in the sand, digging for hidden eggs. They found other Easter shaped craft items such as pastel coloured shapes, flowers and stencils .
Alba said she enjoyed making mini Easter sand castles.
We are going to extend this activity by adding our farm animals, farm house and farmer. We will have sing and Rhyme time to include ‘10 big easter eggs’, ‘humpty Dumpty’ and ‘old McDonald’
Tracie's Treasures 