Nursery - Welly Wednesday

Every Wednesday the teachers and children dress in their outdoor clothes and bring their wellies ready for ‘Welly Wednesday’. It’s a fun action packed session! 

During the day, the on-site forest school is visited and each week different activities are carried out, with children learning something new every session. The children have the opportunities to learn many skills such as sharing, health and safety around the forest area, communication and understanding the world around them.

Below is an example of some of the activities we carry out:

• Tally charts – using chalk tally charts on the floor children find the correct number of natural resources to match the numbers in the charts. This helps develop their counting skills and number recognition. 
• Ice sculptures – children collect and add natural resources to water, then begin to freeze their creations. They discuss the changes that occur to water as it freezes and once frozen they hang their ice sculpture outside. 
• Map reading skills – the Children hunt for goodies that Hansel and Gretel have left for them. Children have to use their map reading skills to find the missing goodies. This helps develop direction and team work.
• Construction – whilst teaching our ‘The Three Little Pigs’ topic, children explore different ways to construct buildings. Using twigs, leaves and other materials the children create houses of different sizes for the pigs. They have to find a way to make the twigs stand or stack to make walls for their house and discuss how effective different materials are when building.
• Creative art – children use natural resources to make many characters from different stories we have read i.e. Supertato, Leaf Man and the Troll for the Three Billy Goats Gruff.
• Minibeast hunt – Children learn about different minibeasts as they carry out their hunt. They observe the different minibeasts noticing their features and discuss their habitats.
• Family tree – Using leaves from the environment, the children create their family tree. This encourages children to talk about their families and understand the different relationships people have.
• Floating and sinking – Children collect different natural resources and explore if they float or sink in water. By the end of the session, children will understand what floating and sinking means as well as exploring how weight will contribute to the outcome. They explore what happens to objects of different sizes and predict if they would float or sink before finding the answer.