Week commencing 15th April 2024

It has been lovely to see the Year One children back Beyond the Gate in the spring sun.

Mrs Dear challenged the children with a flora scavenger hunt. Firstly, they were given a map of the site and used map reading skills to locate features such as the bell tent, shed, swamp, mud kitchen and bug skyscraper.

Each map had a star on it - in a different location – and the children had to follow the map to find the correct place. They then had to identify the plant which was growing in that location by reading a name label. They had to tell Mrs Dear the correct plant name for that point and then were given a different map. They loved this challenge and hopefully can tell you the name of some plants found around our site!

After this, the children were free to play and explore as they wished. Some children chose to continue their plant identification by leaf bashing and labelling, or collecting a leaf, cutting it in half and drawing the other half.

Amongst many different forms of free play, Mrs Dear observed one group of children making a seesaw and heard their independent risk assessment discussions: “be careful – I don’t think it is safe yet!”; “We need a team to help make it safer!”; “we need 4 people to lift that,”; “let’s be builders and build a park!”