It's actually 12:06, but the time stamp says 12:05. So. Close enough.
Anyways, how are you? Anyone actually, physically dry still? What was that all about eh? Week before glorious sunshine, week after "get your brollies out". First week: beautiful sunny days, week after: "I wouldn't go out if I was you" - Well we did. Largely.
Monday: We didn't go out, because we weren't in. But maybe you were in work that day, and if so I hope you had a nice day
Tuesday: Tuesday was Grasshoppers on a locomotive theme and so they scattered pictures from various types of trains from all over the world in a jigsaw style in the Big Field and the tree line (which is sprouting new leaves again, yay!) and they had to come and match the pictures together in the correct order with the correct train. Great activity that one for searching and exploring. Then came Oak who have been looking to create a sensory book for the "Three Little Pigs" and so they came to see what materials they could gather to help them put it all together to help other children access the story more readily and give them a better understanding. Next came Ash class who showed me right up. They're building a settlement using mud bricks and so we had them use the mud mound we'd created for "Mount Springwood" last half term. Here's a lesson in humility for you; show a child how to make a mud brick, have it epicly fail and then sit back and watch as they make it better than you with little input over and over again. Cracking lesson that one and so it gets HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK from me.
Wednesday: My friend from Maple came out to have a bit of one to one interaction on the big field and we have a good time going up and down the woodchip paths where she could feel the sensory vibrations through her wheelchair. After this Spiders came out and did a multi-activity session where they watered the planters with the seeds they'd planted. Saying that I think the rain that followed soon afterward ensured that their efforts weren't in vain (Stop going on about the rain, it wasn't that bad). They also began to build some miniature signs using saws to cut the wood that they will eventually put symbols of the vegetables that they've planted. They also turned the compost bin over for me which we've added some material to the beds already, and continue to do so as we go along AND they also had a bit of time in the Mud Kitchen too. Action packed.
Thursday: The school has joined in with something called "The Big Salford Clean Up" and so Hedgehogs came out to double check through our Big Field to see whether they could find any litter lying around and helped to clear up anything they could find. Badgers class have been working on building a "canal" in Outdoor Learning and searching for boats to put into the water and eventually we're hoping to have the children building some stick rafts and see if they'll work. Look forward to that one. Then my Thursdays end with Forest School and we had a great time. We've been working on the theme of fire with the children (among other things) and initially they didn't seem to interested it, preferring other activities instead but one child decided she wanted to have a go at starting and maintaining her own fire and so off we went and not only did she start it but maintained it for the whole lesson. Before you knew it, 5 other children wanted in on the action and so we had 5 fires going and we're hoping to cook some food and other things on them soon! Exciting times.
Friday: Cedar have moved to Friday morning and so they came out to have an attempt on mud brick making, followed shortly by Dragonflies who had an activity of searching for and matching their names to the appropriate people before having some time of mixing in the mud kitchen. Caterpillars wanted to work on their communication and language skills using some of the language based apps we have in school and for the children to tell us what they could see in the Outdoor Learning area before Willow did some planting of sunflowers and tomatoes in their own individual pots. We got the children to choose what they wanted to plant and using PECS they matched the appropriate symbols to the correct items.
So it may have been a 4 day week but it was still busy.
More to come in the weeks to follow but until then, have a peek at the Highlight of The Week in the gallery, with Ash Class and their mud brick making.