8th of June 2020
Garden Fun
Young outdoor explorers
Nesting Season: Our feathered friends have been building nests to lay their eggs and raise their young in. How good are you at building one using loose materials indoors or out? Remember birds don’t have hands – can you build a nest using tweezers!?
Growing outdoor explorers
Potions and Pies: Play around with potions and perfumes. Collect a range of smelly petals, herbs and other leaves and put them in an old yoghurt pot, bowl or saucepan. Add warm water, mix, and sniff! Stuck indoors, then try out spice rack combinations!
Expert outdoor explorers
Wormery: Make your own wormery.
Going for a Walk
Young outdoor explorers
Hole punch flower holders: Use some cardboard (old amazon packaging is perfect), cut it into a shape and punch holes in it, large enough that stems of flowers or leaves can go through. On a walk, ask the children to collect flowers/leaves to use their fine motor skills to thread the stems through the holes. Discuss and observe the differences and why they’ve chosen that one.
Growing outdoor explorers & Expert outdoor explorers
Journey sticks: When you go for a walk, find a stick and tie some string/wool/twine to it at the top. You can also use double sided sticky tape. Then as you walk, if you find anything interesting, wrap the string around it to hold it tight against the stick. Then recall everything you saw and in order when you get home. Can you use conjunctions like first of all, next, after that and finally.
Exploring the Outdoors
Young outdoor explorers
Touch a Texture: Indoors or out use an old egg box or similar and collect small samples of materials. Describe how each one feels. Try setting specific textures that your little ones must try to match and bring back to you as fast as they can! E.g., find something rough/soft/smooth/hard/shiny.
Growing outdoor explorers
Cloud Gazing: Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a giant marshmallow monster eating a bowlful of squirty cream! Lie down outside or look from a window and enjoy cloud land. Encourage them to be as descriptive as they can. Enjoy listening to their imaginations!
Expert outdoor explorers
Leaf Bashing Art: Find some leaves or petals, pieces of cotton/linen sheet/kitchen roll and a rolling pin or mallet. Create a pattern with the leaves on one sheet and cover with another. Pound it to release the natural pigments into the sheet to a fab effect!
