Highway Rat

On of my little ones loves the Highway Rat book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler. Malden Forest run a trail associated with the book so we thought it was time to take full advantage of the surrounding environment and plan a day trip. 

We had an amazing day out. The children loved finding the various checkpoints along the trail, discussing with their friends excitedly when they spotted a sign. Whilst doing this they talked about the story but also were so observant of the Autumn woodland. 

We talked about the colours of the flowers and leaves that they could see, spotted wild mushrooms and used their developing writing skills to complete an Autumn Checklist. Our youngest, not yet mobile, was able to explore the forest floor using her sense. 

We used counting skills to talk about the number of cones we could collect and birds we could spot. We discussed how the squirrels were gathering nuts ready for the winter. 

The children then enjoyed the play area and having a social picnic together. This learning was taken back to the home environment where the boys used available props to dress up as the Highway rat and to finish the day we read the story once more - what a fun day of learning that was! 

Autumnal Spices Watercolours

The natural colours at this time of year are so vibrant that we decided to try and create some of these colours by making our own watercolour paint using everyday spices. We went out through the woods and collected some autumn leaves, looking at all the different colours we could identify in the leaves.

Having chosen colours we then set about making paints. The children shook the spices into the palette, taking time to smell the spice and comment on this. We used cinnamon, ginger, cayenne pepper and mixed spice amongst others. The children then added water to the spices using pipettes and we mixed the resulting paste together.

We grabbed out paint brushes and the children set to work using the different colours to create works of art. The smell was amazing as all the spices got moved around. We left our art work to dry and added it to our autumn display.

This activity covered so many areas of learning and was great fun together with making the house smell heavenly!

Social Development: The children took turns sharing the pipettes and the spices
Physical Development: The use of pipettes and mixing tools develops fine motor skills
Communication: The children followed instructions to make the paint
Literacy: Through using the paintbrushes the children developed early writing skills
Understanding the World: We talked about Autumn and the reason for leaves changing colour
Being Imaginative: The children designed their own artwork, expressing themselves through paint

Autum Play Dough 2017

Play dough is a great resource that encourages open ended play while, through its malleable nature, allows children to develop their hand and wrist muscles in preparation for writing. It encourages exploration when combined with other objects and often forms the basis for mathematical development through promoting counting and discussions about shapes and sizes. 

For that reason play dough is a much loved resource here and the children thought it was great when presented with Autumn coloured play dough together with some of the Autumn objects we collected from out and about. 

The children are encouraged to share a wide range of tools and often, after starting individually, begin to work together to create structures of invent stories. One child decided to sort out all the conkers and push them into the dough and, with encouragement, began to count the objects. 

I was impressed with the wide range of colourful results and, as ever, our school age children couldn't resist coming and joining in. 

Fun with Autumn Leaves

Autumn creates so many learning opportunities and we love being out and about at this time of year. The leaves falling off the trees provide opportunity to talk about changing seasons whilst the leaves themselves provide opportunity to talk about colour. 

The children enjoyed several mornings at both Saltram and the wildlife area at Devonport Park playing in the leaves, on the play equipment and looking for the various insects that live in such habitats. 

After collecting a variety of leaves (the children love the responsibility of carrying their own bag too collect leaves) we took some home to create some Autumn art through a range of sticking and glitter shaking.