Egg rolling- a tradition

I have the fondest memories of egg rolling as a child. 

We would always take a BBQ and head up to Grizedale Forest in The Lake District, with a basket of freshly painted eggs and big smiles a plenty. 

I have always wanted to recreate this magic with my own children, and today we did! 

 We started the day with dippy eggs and soldiers (of course!) 

  
The kidlets then decorated their eggs 

    
    
   
Once all the eggs were good to go, we packed the kitchen sink (literally ) and headed north.

Only a few loo and “I’m gonna be sick” stops and we arrive at our woodland retreat. 

It was just as I remember, even down to the sound of the rushing water fall splashing over the mossy rocks! Isn’t it funny how evocative smells and sounds are. I was suddenly transported back to being a pickly 6 year old! 

   
  
There’s something quite special about eating in the great outdoors even if at times we had to flick a few bugs off the colslaw that dropped in for a nibble 

   
 
So everyone is fed and watered, and so we go in search of an “eggcellent” (sorry) rolling hill. 

    
Enroute we find a very lonely wood cutter and a money tree (I’m sure my folks always said money doesn’t grow on trees- well here is the proof that they were wrong!

  

  
And so the rolling competition began, although I use the term rolling very loosely… It was more of lobbing! I pulled the short straw and had to be at the bottom of the hill- I’m sure they hatched a plan and were aiming directly at my head! 

Despite their best efforts I came away egg free, the kids shrieked with laughter, argued about who won and who didn’t, ran around in the fresh air, but best of all made memories that I hope like mine… Will last a lifetime! 

  

The difference between children and adults!

Following my last post… This needs no further explanation!

Are you a puddle parent?

I am a definite puddle parent, my children at school know if its raining more often than not we’ll grab our wellies and waterproofs and head on out!

Last friday it was absolutely tipping it down, we donned our wellies and waterproofs and spent a delightful afternoon splashing in puddles and hunting for snails and slugs!

We had a few minor incidents, one of which consisted of me dropping my iPad in a puddle, but apart from that all was grand!!

I didn’t see one littley with a sad face, what I did see though was big huge smiles, giggles, whoops to be free of the stuffy classroom! Children jumping, chasing, hoping, running, discovering, chatting, squealing with delight!

So…. Are you a puddle parent? Or do puddles get you in a muddle? Would love to hear below!

B and Q wastage scheme

I posted about this on Facebook this morning, but thought I’d also write a quick post here too! 

Did you know that you can sign up to B & Q’s wastage scheme if you are a nursery, school, scout group, brownie pack, childminder etc etc

http://www.diy.com/corporate/community/waste-donation/
Our local store required you to contact head office and then they add you to the scheme. They will then give away any products that can’t be sold within the store. Items such as wood, paint tiles, turf etc 

I guess each store differs. It’s worth a phone call though! 

I hope you are successful in sourcing some freebies which will help further your children’s development. 

Please do comment below and let us know how you get on 

Bye for now x 

Jumping in Muddy Puddles!

I have been out of class for most of the morning, so was delighted to see my children this afternoon. I love the fact that it’s like being a minor celebrity every time I return from being out, they greet me as if they haven’t seen me for years!

During the register one kiddle begins singing “It’s raining it’s pouring” true to their word it was absolutely lashing it down! He then asks if we can go outside. I promise we can, after our maths focus time, which was investigating capacity using coloured rice (a whole new blog post- not sure I am going to be flavour of the month with our cleaner’s tonight oppps!)

Once our maths time is over, we begin to get ready to go! This still takes a little while, but I try to encourage independent as much as possible.

And we’re off… Firstly they decide to head to the puddles (of course… who wouldn’t?)  there’s something quite magical about being outside in torrential rain, knowing your hood is up, your wellies are on and all that’s to be had is a grand old time. Some children were a little dubious of the splashes to begin with, but an encouraging smile and the odd “Don’t worry, you’re covered” was all they needed. Play then developed to who could make the biggest splash, and how much of a run up do you need to create the biggest wave!

One child then headed to the mud kitchen and sand area, and so the play then transferred to this area. I heard shouts of “I’ve found clean water”  “I’m going to make clear soup” “We need to use a sieve” “You need half a kilogram”

Before we had set off on our outside adventure the children decided they would like to build dens  so they could shelter from the rain.  We went down to the woods and found some lovely piles of willow. Whilst heading down to the woods, we looked for bears, found bear claw scratches on the trees, one little girl found some berries on the floor- she was fascinated by them, which led to a full scale search of where they came from, which animals might eat them and if they were harmful to humans. We also found a beautiful butterfly. I was so impressed to see how delicate and careful our children were. They looked intricately at the wings and legs. “It’s an insect, it’s got 6 legs” said one of my little boys.

     

Once we had collected the willow we headed back to our garden. It was still raining, we were still happy, and work on The Den was about to commence.  The children chatted to each other about how they wanted it to look. They decided that a triangle was the best shape. They told me I needed to hold them altogether, then two girls ran to get twine and scissors. Much fun was had whilst these two lovlies ran around the den winding the string round the top so we could hold it securely. It never ceases to amaze me, how strong leaders in activities like this come out of the woodwork. Once the structure was complete a little girl after my own heart shouts “We need things to decorate it” She runs inside and returns with a job lots of glitter, tinsel and ribbon! There was nothing more prefect that I could think of to decorate our Den!

  

An amazing afternoon was had by all, I feel honoured and blessed to have THE BEST job in the world, and to work with the BEST customers!

Pizza Hut Mud Kitchen

I saw this fab idea this morning on Twitter, and just knew that the children in my FS2 setting would love this…

Please forgive me I can’t remember which school it was …

I was out visiting another school and nursery this morning so decided to swing by Pizza Hut and ask if they had any Pizza boxes that we could have for our mud kitchen! They were so very generous and had a huge pile for me to “take away” (excuse the pun!!)

Day 1 Mud play!

Evening Folks,

Welcome to my first of a series of blog posts about our new “Mud Kitchen.”

So this morning our gorgeous brand spanking new sparkly Mud Kitchen, sat in the grounds of our EYFS garden, untouched, unloved and unplayed with. That was until 60 little pickles entered the building…

After doing our hello’s and sharing stories of holiday and treasured times with families, discussion turned to our newest addition to our outdoor space. Our new Mud Kitchen! The children were literally itching to get outside to take a peek. We talked about the need for ensuring we washed our hands, kept it clean for the following chef, wore water proof trousers, made sure we had wellies on….

Blah, blah, blah!!!

All they wanted to do was get in there and start “baking, cooking and digging”

Mud Glorious Mud!

Since joining Pinterest and reading lots of ideas for EYFS on Facebook, I knew I was lacking something in my life… It’s only now that I know what it is! A MUD KITCHEN!!

There are so many things we want and need to do as teachers, but during term time we are either usually too busy or damn right shattered. I had decided that this Easter holidays was going to be the time that I would devote to designing and building our mud kitchen. Well, when I say I, what I actually mean is my lovely hubbby! I would be providing the tea and cake, whilst being very good at telling him what should go where!!