Outdoor Play Party - Another Visit to An Creagán

This week the class had their 2nd visit to the 'big forest' at An Creagán, outside Cookstown. They were so excited to be getting another chance to explore this amazing space with banks to climb, places to go pond dipping, a waterfall/barrel feature & the chance to eat their lunch around the fire.
This brilliant place is open to any members of the public at the weekends & to any preschools/schools or parent/toddler groups during the week.

The best thing about An Creagán is that it is still staffed with education officers so there are plenty of resources like nets, trays & spades etc. to enhance the experience.

It does take us a little longer to get here than to Peatlands & this is why we leave it until 3rd term. But after the 40 minute bus drive the children are free to play for an hour before they gather round the fire for lunch. We try to bring something to cook on the fire for an after lunch treat, this time it was marshmallows. Some chose to just eat them on a small stick whilst others wanted to kneel by the fire & cook them.

After all of this we let them have a 30 minute play in the play park before heading back to school just in time to go home. 

There were some great posts linked up once again & it's brilliant to see so many people really enjoying spending time outdoors in all types of weather. But I have to pick a favourite post & this time round it's from Kids in the Garden on their perfect day outside exploring lots of fun things at a National Trust Property - I think it's great that the NT is embracing the whole 50 things to do before you are 11 3/4's.

How did your kids play outdoors this week?

• Any kind of children's outdoor play-related posts are welcome!

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Box Collage Project

I got the idea for a year long box collage project from this photo I saw on the Sophia Preschool website.

I asked the parents to send in an empty cereal box in October & the first layer of the box collage began in November - you can read about the whole idea over here.
The idea was paint the boxes first & then add a different layer every few months to them over the school year so that we would have a finished layered box to display at the end of the year.

Step 1 - painting the boxes

I have to say that even I was surprised by the end result as each time the children added a new layer & we put them back into the store they looked ok but certainly not as eye-catching as they do when all displayed on the wall.

Lots of time taken adding a layer of tissue paper to this one.

This was a very simple project that allowed the children to return again & again to the same piece of work. Some invested lots of time in them, whilst others did the bare minimum but each box is unique & at least you know the children did this all by themselves. As we revisited the boxes every 4-5 weeks we learned that certain children would need a long time to work on their boxes so were best left to near the end whilst others would come along stick a few items on & be ready to move on. 

More layering

 

The last layer - paper off-cuts & 10 buttons each!

This is a project I intend to do again next year with a whole new class. I will do some things differently - I will prep the boxes first as I was advised to by the brilliant Lesley Romanoff from Takoma Park Cooperative School, so that the paint doesn't flake off so much. We have also bought some foam brushes to make it easier to add the PVA glue wash to the boxes - we were using ordinary household paint brushes but they soaked up too much glue.

19 on this wall

6 on this wall

Today when the parents & children came into school they were so excited to see them up on the wall & loved showing them off.  

The sounds of a busy playground.

If you have a space that provides lots of different play experiences for the children they will always be busy & need very little adult direction but it will allow for good quality adult/child interaction.

Enjoy a little snapshot of our playground & the sounds of busy children at play.

 

What a difference a week makes!

Last Friday for our Scandinavian Outdoor Day we had so much fine rain that it managed to put the fire out. But as you can see one week on we had lovely spring sunshine.
It was a special day as the British Council had arranged for us to be filmed out & about outdoors & talking about our eTwinning project, Flat Teds Travels.
It was lovely to be able to do away with coats & to be able to sit around the fire with no rain clothes on. 

 

This week we cooked some popcorn on the grill & the children enjoyed getting up close to the fire & watching the kernals popping up onto the lid of the pan.

Adrian who was filming was very patient & allowed the children to have a look through the lens to see what he was filming. Hopefully some of the footage taken today will make into a short DVD to promote eTwinning.

When the rain puts your fire out!

If you have been following my blog you will know that we spend Friday mornings outside on our Scandinavian Days & that in recent weeks we have been cooking on our Haba fire grill from Muddy Faces & enjoying the warmth of a real fire on cold days. So far all had been easy, yes, it has been very smokey but the children have learned to turn away from the fire if they don't want too much smoke in their faces. 

However this week we were severely tested by the weather, it was windy & wet all morning, the kind of really fine rain that soaks you in minutes, so the fire was put out almost as soon as I had it lit!
But as I have said before, this is a class that just deals with whatever is thrown at them, so they all just got on their rain gear & enjoyed playing around the playground & sitting round the very smokey fire while we had to admit defeat & put the buns in the oven inside.
When we eventually had them cooked they all came back round the fire to sit in our log circle & enjoyed eating the chocolate filled pastries - they were declared 'delicious'. 
Our lovely new rustic planks from Cosy Direct provided brilliant new seating that proved very popular.

I took a short film to show how the playground looks on our Scandinavian Days & what I love about it most is you can see 2 of the children getting up from the fire & walking around the outside of the logs to go somewhere else - all that 'Always walk around the outside' mantra has paid off!

Outdoor Play Party - Embracing the Rain!

Our weather is so variable & this past week was no exception, on Tuesday we were out with no coats, sun hats & enjoying icepops while the rest of the week it was cold, dark & wet.

Sunglasses, sunhats & no coats.

What I love about my class each year is that they truly do embrace all different types of weather without question & just roll with whatever life throws at them. I also really appreciate that the parents support our outdoor play approach fully too.

Cold, wet & dark the next day!

Sometimes it's even more fun on wet days as the children get into their rain gear & enjoy playing with the water from the water butt, making 'hot chocolate' or enjoying flying down the wet slide.

2 days of rain & the mud patch is back in action

One of our lovely new planks from Cosy Direct.

There were 55 posts linked up in the last Outdoor Play Party, it's great to see more people getting outside as the days get longer, even if the weather is not improving. My favourite from last week was from My Nearest & Dearest, I love posts that show families how to have fun with children without having to spend lots of money & the fact that this post showed how sensory play can be done outside with little or no resources appealed even more.

The logistics of going out in all weathers.

Through blogging & social media I have come across many other nursery teachers from across Northern Ireland & I have discovered that most are enthusiastic about getting outside every day in our inclement weather but many are inhibited by the cost of providing good quality wet weather gear. However, even before this obstacle is mentioned the one question most ask is 'How do you get 26 children into wet weather gear?', closely followed by 'What do you do with the gear when it is really wet after use?'.

The 1st question always throws me a little, I suppose because we have been getting up to 26 children into their rain gear for over 5 years now & it is just another part of our routine, just as much as tidy-up time or lunch-time are.

We have it down to a fine art now after 5 years & even on days when we actually have to get all 26 into the rain gear it is usually done in 15-20 minutes. In reality, we don't have to get all 26 dressed everyday, as we are lucky to have a covered area so some children will chose not to get into their rain gear but just stay under the roof to play with whatever activities are on offer there.

But on days when we do have to get the whole class dressed (when going on an outdoor trip or having a party outdoors), it really is all about making the children as responsible for their own stuff as much as is possible. it is a big help that we are outside first thing so the children all have their coats on already, if there are only 2 of us we call 2 children at a time to get ready while the others play about either under the roof or if dry, in the playground.

Even on the wettest days the covered area provides shelter

The covered verandah area

The children get their own wellies, rain trousers & coat & then come sit down on a crate to get dressed. The key really is that we the adults are also dressed in wet weather gear, so we can comfortably kneel down on the ground to help get them ready. If you are the kind of person who has beautiful nails etc. then this is probably not for you, as the wellies are muddy/dirty as is the wet weather gear. (we only wash it once a term or if someone has a tolieting incident)

From experience, it's best if trousers are tucked into socks & then wellies put on, then the dungarees go on, over their own coats & finally the rain coats over the dungarees. One of our sets (we have 2) is much easier for them to put on themselves & take off again as the dungarees have no velcro fastenings at the ankle & the coats have buttons not zips. But even with the other set they still have to do as much for themselves as possible & they are expected to take it all off themselves.

We encourage them to be as independent as possible from the start

If the rain gear is very muddy or sandy we will hose them down before taking them off. If they are very wet, they are piled up after use ready to be hung up after the children are away home, either inside on some travel washing lines we have or in our large upright drying cabinet. (This is a luxury item & certainly not essential)