A cold & frosty week of fun!

This past week the temperatures have dropped considerably in N.I, most mornings it was -2c when I was arriving at school and it didn't get higher than 4c during the day. The heavy frost that was on the ground stayed all day & it there was so much ice to be found around the playground.
Of course some children feel the cold more than others plus some aren't dressed appropriately for the cold weather. I have talked this over with colleagues who run outdoor preschools & we all agree that some parents should be made to stand in the playground for an hour for them to appreciate how cold it can be!
We have a supply of extra coats, fleeces, hats & gloves and some children will even need an extra pair of trousers to keep warm. On days like this we generally stay out for 40 minutes, then go inside and come back out after lunch when it is a little warmer & the children are warmer after being inside for a couple of hours.

We brought out some straws and the children had fun blowing down them to melt the frost.

Luckily on Tuesday when we had a trip to one of our partner schools to play in their amazing outdoor space, the temperatures rose a little and the children had so much exploring this great site & some even discarded their gloves and hats after running about for an hour or two. 

A beautiful sunset over the nursery on Monday evening.

We have two days a week where we stay outside until lunchtime - Tuesdays & Thursdays. This week it was just so cold on Thursday that I knew we'd have to get the children warmed up again before venturing up to our wooded area known as Bear Woods. So after playing outside for 40 minutes we gathered all the children in the cosy story room & got them ready for going back outside again - the children wear waterproofs when visiting Bear Woods & we made sure everyone had gloves & a hat. The path up to Bear Woods was very slippery but even when some children slipped over, they just laughed and got back up again. They had some snack in Bear Woods - it turns out they really like brioche! 
Then after lots of running about & sliding down the frost slope, we set off on a big adventure - to explore the much bigger wooded area in the main school grounds - Big Bear Woods! The children loved clambering about in this space & roaming along the paths. This area is open onto the main playground but we put some rope across part of the area & told the children to stay behind the rope & they did. 

Exploring 'Big Bear Woods' in the frost.

This is definitely an area we will revisit as the children liked having all the space to explore. 
The Friday was as cold as the Monday had been so we stayed outside for 40 minutes & had some hot chocolate to warm us al up before venturing indoors for a few hours. Then after lunch the children were all ready to go out again & had fun finding a large piece of ice that they tried to stand on without slipping.

One child put a lego brick on a stick & gathered some other sticks to make a fire to toast it on! 

I have to admit I do like cold, dry weather the best and the frost made everything look so pretty.