Today the Den children were lucky enough to venture out of the nursery grounds to search far and wide for blackberries!
In the Den this week our forest school sessons have been based in our fruit and veg garden, where the children have been learning about how to care for the plants we grow, what they produce, and where to find them. Lucy has very kindly taken over the forest school sessions this week as Ed had been sunning himself on holiday during the first part of the week, and Jess is currently doing the same! Lucky them as right now the weather is looking a little soggy here!
She began by reading the children a story called "Mr Percy's Magic Greenhouse", which is about a man called Mr Percy who steps into his greenhouse and learns its full of endless stories and adventures. This linked in really well with our forest school activity; the children listened well to Mr Percy's adventure, and set off to our own garden to explore and create their own adventure. The children were told to explore the garden to see if they could find various plants and animals. We found lots of snails, slugs, and blackberries! The blackberries were picked and have been used as part of our snack this week, the chilren loved this as they appreciated the fact they were picked from our very own garden.
Today however we extended this even further by venturing out to the Greenway to find even more blackberries to pick. A lot of them were at the children's level, so they were able to pick and collect them themselves, carefully avoiding the prickles. We (unintentionally, but brilliantly) made this walk link in to our Bear Hunt story when we came across obstacles in our path, the big gate for example, Kate asked the children; "We cant go over it, we cant go under it, oh no! So we've got to go.." the children replied "through it!!" Some did just that and waited for the gate to be opened, whereas others were determined to step up to the challenge by independently climbing over it.
A brilliant time was had by all so far this week, exploring the garden, the paddock, the greenway, and the fields. When we arrived back at the nursery the children we're so proud with what they had collected, and the vast amount they had picked. It was very rewarding to see the children so happy and content.
Soph :)