Outdoor Play Party - settling in to nursery.

The children have now been in nursery for almost 4 weeks & most are well settled & enjoying exploring the outdoor areas at school. They were very excited to go on a visit to Bear Woods for the first time this week too. Even though we know the children loved this space last year, we still worried whether another class would find it just as exciting but we shouldn't have worried! They all got on their rain gear & had so much fun playing on the grassy slope & having a picnic for snack time. It was very interesting to watch how unsure many of the children were walking on a slope & around the various tree stumps & branches lying around on the grass, not to mention the long grass. Once again we were reminded of how invaluable this whole experience is for the children as they develop their vestibular system in readiness for a more sedentary experience next year.

I can't believe how tall some of the alder trees are in just 18 months - some are bigger than me (5 foot 10) & yet were below my knee when planted. It was lovely to see some berries on the guelder rose & catkins on the alder, you can really see seasonal changes in this space. 

They were great at gathering loads of grass to bring back down the guinea-pigs - we plan to bring them up with us next week so they can trim some of the long grass for us!

The 2 groups go together next week for the first time & it'll be interesting to see how the play changes in a bigger group as they both have very different ways of playing at the moment. The 1st group love to make dens with planks & sticks in the forest area while the 2nd group love to play at being super heroes!

The past few weeks have proved that most children are happiest outside & they don't need lots of expensive resources to have fun.

This post from Wild Family Fun was my favourite from the last OPP, it sounded like my idea of perfect day too & I like to think we recreate a little bit of this in Bear Woods.

Any kind of children's outdoor play-related posts are welcome!

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