Making Leaf piles

Any gardener knows how good leaf mulch is for gardens so every autumn we have fun collecting leaves in the garden. As well as the apple, plum, apricot trees and vine in the garden we have cherry and pear trees overhanging so there are a lot of leaves at this time of year! The children get to use tools such as a rake to help collect up the leaves, we put them into big tubs and then work together to carry them to the leaf pile near the compost. We talk about the noise the leaves make and  try to identify which trees the leaves came from. It's great for helping children to learn about the seasons. They also love looking into the compost bin to see how stinky it is and count all the worms!

Starting my forest school journey

I was lucky enough to run some forest school sessions with the lovely Emily from Tribe Tooting. Via Furzedown Primary school we offered some after-school taster sessions on a Friday for 6 weeks in the summer term. They were a great success, the children really engaged with it and it was wonderful to see how immersive it can be. They made foraged for and made clay, built shelters, played chasing games, climbed trees, built imaginary villages, made leaf leaf crowns, made a damn and of course got lovely and dirty. One of my biggest challenges from the first week of my course is learning how to tie various knots, lots of practice will be required I think!

My crown

I think you could say I'm really embracing the instructions at the start of my Forest School Practitioner training practical week (Be as childish as possible to get the most out of the training). I made the decision to undertake this training earlier in the year as I wanted a new challenge, to learn something new to offer my children and be inspired to change how I used the outdoors to plan learning experiences. I made this Ivy crown while we were exploring Ham Common woods to find different natural resources and learn how they can be used in forest school activities.

Outstanding again!

I'm delighted to say that finally, after a long overdue inspection ( almost 8 years since last one!) I have been awarded Outstanding again! She was a lovely inspector and very human, engaging well with the children and put me at ease.  But I did get a proper grilling about child development, my planning, safeguarding, risk assessments and had to give her example of my inspirational practice. She observed me with the children and went through all my paperwork with a fine tooth comb. Hugely relieved it's all over and that I've got the recognition for doing a great job. Hooray!

My daughters were so proud of me and wrote it on the doorstep!

Amazing School shows

Furzedown Primary school put on fantastic regular shows that the children all take part in. I am lucky enough to have 4 different year groups' shows to go and watch and I always bring the younger children with me so they can experience them too. In this one my daughter was taking part in a play about Australia which was the culmination of her topic this term. She looked so cute with a handbag, summer dress and hat as she acted out travelling across the outback. The babies love seeing the children they recognise and its a lovely chance for them to hear live music as there is always gorgeous singing and piano playing.

I like driving in my car!

This car is one of the most popular toys in the garden! This little one can now reach the floor and makes it known loudly that she wants someone to push her around, then giggles wildly. Children learn lots of skills while engaging with this activity; from learning to climb in, providing practice with left and right, balance and co-ordination, personal and social emotional development too as they have to learn to take turns and share. Of course we always talk about it being the big red and yellow car too so we are learning about colours and sizes at every opportunity.

Practising balance

My new little boy is just gaining confidence now and getting to know all the lovely toys and activities we have on offer. On this particular day we were out in the garden and I could see he was keen to try out the trike but feeling shy. I helped him on and he was happiest just sitting on it observing the others around him. This is a good way for him to feel safe and secure and gradually become more involved in activities as he becomes more confident. He did manage smiles though so I was very happy to see that!