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! 

Hammered Flower Art

With so many beautiful colours in our nature garden at the moment I was determined to incorporate the vibrancy in some of the children's art work. We started by looking at the flowers we could see, discussing the sizes and colours and put a collection of some of the flowers together.

With it being a sunny day we decided some outdoor art work would be good and we then went to one of our tree stumps with some paper. Each child took it in turns to arrange some flowers on the tree stump. They took great care in their arrangements, talking about what colours they wanted where.

Younger children then used a wooden mallet and the older children used the hammer. Practising their skills at using tools they hammered away at the paper that we had placed over the top of their flower arrangements. This led to some beautiful colours being transferred to the paper.

Our only slight disaster was that one child had loved the colours of the berries so we agreed to place one in the picture. This did, possibly predictably, make the paper go rather soggy!

Nurture through Nature

I was recently lucky enough to attend a training course on the importance of outdoor learning. I find this topic inspiring as the outdoor environment is so accessible to childminders.

We were introduced to the work of a particularly inspirational lady, Claire Warden. I have therefore shared some of her quotes below together with photos from the last few months demonstrating  the outdoor learning we undertake here at Berkeley Childminding to hi light the value we place on learning through nature.

Imagine a world where the lines were harsh and unyielding, the textures were consistent and variation is unheard of.  Does it inspire you?

Now image a place where the carpet changes every day, the ceiling is a myriad of different colours, light, shadow and movement. 

 The feelings and movement completely surround you, sometimes breezy, sometimes cold, others warm.

 Unexpected wonders fly by, sometimes full of colour and sometimes full of noise and movement.

 If we really want children to thrive we need to let their connection to nature nurture them.