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.
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 came in this morning skipping full of the joys of spring, telling us how sunny it was outside. He asked if we could all go out to play in the sunshine
We decided to get out buckets and trowels to do a little weeding in the front garden because as George put it “tis a mess!”
George was so eager he went full bull in a china shop and pulled out the first flower he found, shoving it in my face. “Tracie, Tracie is this a weed?” “No George thats not a weed thats my tulip!”
“ I will take it home for my mummy she loves red roses!”
Elsie found a wiggly worm and called us over to have a look. Elsie moved on and found a snail which she described as “sticky, yuk” so I had to pick it up.
We just kept finding bugs so decided to ditch the weeding (probably safer if we want our flowers to survive George!) and turn the activity into a bug hunt.
We ended up finding, an ants nest with loads of ants marching around, a lily Beatle, lots of wood louse, a ladybird and a carrot! A carrot!! Guess who found that!!!
Yes George, found the carrot!
We went over nearer the house and found a lovely red Crocosmia, a hidden pansy, a blue Felicia and a fly on a leaf. This time it wasn’t George who found it, ‘twas Elsie’
CrocosmiaPansyFeliciaA fly on a leaf
What a lovely day out in the garden, lets hope the sun is shining tomorrow.
Today we walked around the garden to look at all the changes we made last year and to make notes on what we want to plan for this year.
Spring In The Garden
The winding footpath we made last year is ideal for walking and running about avoiding the messy mud. The children love how they can run around and peep through the planting bug hunting, plant spotting and watching everything grow. They love the bug pile and saw some worms and ants.
Cold FrameOur Seeds Are Now Young PlantsGeorgia PlantingPetunia
We have sown all our bedding plants this year to save money, we also used peat free compost to help save our planet. The seeds have now grown into healthy young plants so we potted them on, ( put into bigger pots) and put them into the cold frame to wait for the last frost, we will then put them in our living wall.
This years project is to make the decking area into a nicer living ‘Outdoor Classroom’ We have chosen
Petunia, Lobelia and Fuchsia’s to have trailing, ground cover in the vertical wall garden. We will add the Herbs (growing in our greenhouse) for tasting and smelling into the wall as soon as they have matured.
We have Roses, Honeysuckle, Jasmine and Passiflora for climbing up the trelliss and giving off a floral fragrance. Our aim is to make the ‘Outdoor Classroom stimulate all our five senses. To make the decking more accessible for the babies we are going to add Astro turf so it’s safer for them to crawl and play on.
We were so excited to see our frogs while out and about, they were keeping an eye on their spawn, this will soon turn into tadpoles and frogs. Tracie taught us how to carefully remove some of the water weeds and she added some bunches of watercress to freshen up the pond to make the water less Murky so we can see the pond life without disturbing them.
Clear Water Small PondApple Tree PondMr Croak Mrs CroakSpawn
Our Big Plans For This Year 2023:
We have decided in our living classroom we are going to:
Lay artificial grass to make the decking completely baby friendly.
Make a toy box storage area for outdoor equipment
Pot up the Herbs and make labels.
Make a water feature for relaxing sound and to have water play
In the Greenhouse we are going to grow:
Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Loofa , Chilli and start off our Cabbage, Cauliflower, and Broccoli
Sow winter flowering plants to give out Garden all year color and edibles.
In the front garden:
We want to encourage more wildlife in, so we are thinking about making a new pond, putting in more hedging, and adding some hidden bird feeders.
So we have BIG plans, so keep watching our blogs to see how we go….
This is my dad Alan, he and my mum started my passion for Gardening and outdoor learning when I was young.
My Dad and I
My dad worked in the Horticulture business for many, many years. He’s now retired, so he has all the time he needs to potter around his garden, instead of maintaining other peoples’ gardens.
Dad’s garden is amazing, he lives in Boston, England in the middle of the most amazing countryside. I think he should share his knowledge and garden with us all, so I am adding him to our Garden Classroom blog.
One of his lifetime ambitions is to have a beehive and this year he is finally making that dream come true.
The Base is Ready
The Beehive
Beekeeper Alan!
This is Rosie, my step mum. She has been encouraging my dad to set up beekeeping and has been busy growing a wildflower meadow for the bees to collect pollen.
Rosie is also passionate about their garden and providing wildlife which will enhance the bee’s environment.
My brother Jonathan bought Rosie a camera to go in her bird box for her birthday a few years ago.
This year a bird has already made themselves at home! We will follow the bird over the next year to see what they do.
Today while Gemma was digging her borders she watched this cute bumble bee come out of the ground.
Queen Bee
Gemma stopped what she was doing, so she didn’t disturb her. Gemma looked up different types of Bees and found out it was a Queen Bee.
Gemma is hoping she will build a beehive somewhere in the garden so she can watch what happens. But she will keep away from her as she doesn’t want to get stung!
It was wet and windy today so we decided to stay indoors to sow our seeds. We used items out of our Recycling bin to fill up with soil and sow the seeds.
Jacey is Using Fruit Container
Ivor’s Chives in Egg Boxes
Recycling Egg Boxes
What Made These Marks?
Martha Being Careful
Filling the Modules
Martha found this egg box and said she thought it would be good to sow individual seeds. Ivor said we might be able to see the roots grow too! The children loved the marks the egg box made in the soil.
In August the Wildlife Rangers asked if they could keep some caterpillars they had found. We talked about what they would need for a habitat and that we had to look after them and once they had turned into butterflies we had to let them free.
Caterpillar
Cocoon
The first thing the Wildlife Rangers did was look on the internet to how to make the best habitat for the critters, to keep them safe and well. Tracie found a fish tank in the shed which the Rangers cleaned to make into a little habitat.
The Rangers put some gravel, soil and plants into the tank to provide the caterpillars with food. They used an old lid from a coffee jar and filled with water for them to drink.
The caterpillars seemed happy munching away for a few days. The Rangers kept checking the tank every day, they showed the younger Wanderers and Seedlings the tank and told them all about the facts they had found out about the mini beasts.
One day, when the Wildlife Rangers checked on the caterpillars they said they had all gone and asked me if I had let them go? I asked the children to go back and take a good look in the tank. They were delighted to find they had changed into chrysalises. The children kept an eye on the chrysalises every day. In September, the Rangers found one had hatched into a White Butterfly. They were all delighted. Within the week all the butterflies had hatched and were flying around. We decided it was time to set them free.
Googly Eyes
Stuck on Tracie’s Fingers
Everyone watched as Tracie opened the lid. What happened next we did not imagine, they flew out onto Tracie then flew off on their travels!
A few weeks ago, we posted about our two cherries the boys had found growing nicely on our Cherry tree. Today Poppy decided it was time to pick them!
2 Cherries
Poppy Picked Them!
She had found three all together and said as she had picked them its one for me and two for her! What a little madam!! They were quite sour so Tracie was pleased she only got one in the end! Lets hope next year we get more and they are sweeter!
We have been looking on the internet for labels for our plants. We didn’t like the ones we saw so Tracie decided to make some. First she asked her brother, Jonathan to slice up a big log. Then Tracie sanded them all smooth so they wouldn’t give anyone splinters, and so she could paint on them.
Once they were ready for painting, we all sat around the table and decided which ones we needed making first.
Vegetable Signs
Ivor wanted the tomato one, Martha the Cucumber, Fearne wanted Lavender, Poppy the Garlic and Tracie thought a salad bowl would be good for the raised bed that has everything we love eating as a salad.
As soon as the paint had dried Tracie took them outside and sprayed them all with varnish to protect them from rain. They all looked very good and we cant wait to make more.
Tracie's Treasures 