Outdoor Play Party - A whole new class!

My new class are now all one big group now, they have been in school for almost 7 weeks & in the big class of 28 for just over 2 weeks. It never ceases to amaze me how different each class is & how they use the space in unique ways - this is the one aspect of my job that I love & the reason why it never feels like I am doing the same job year after year.

This class has 17 boys & 11 girls but it doesn't feel that way, the girls so far are the more dominant force in the class, they decide what games will be played & where & when, the boys tend to trail after them. So far hide & seek & chasies (tag) seem to be the most popular games - I honestly don't ever remember a class introducing hide & seek either by themselves or this early in the year. They love the mud kitchen & after a really dry September, they have embraced the rain of October & loved having water to play with in the kitchen. Mrs Carson's dad was good enough to make us a water station for the kitchen from a couple of pallets & some of our Cosy bowls.

Our new water station - adds a new element to the mud kitchen.

For the first time ever, the children began to try to climb the willow dens - 2 boys started climbing up the inside like spiderman but then realised they couldn't go too far inside & moved outside, one got right to the top of one of the dens. We could have stopped them but as the willow are very strong & they'll only be able to see the branches to climb in the Autumn & Winter, we decided to let them get this climbing urge out of their systems. After a week some are still climbing the dens sporadically but it's not like all 28 are lining up to scale up the dens.

We have had 4 visits to Bear Woods & 2 as a big class & they are enjoying this space as well. The ropes are proving a big hit but so are the books that we have in 'we go' storage system on the fence. 

The 'We-go' storage system allows us to have books, gloves, hats etc. to hand in Bear Woods.

We have also had a practice run with the fire circle - where they learned about not running across the fire circle & how to move from seat to seat by walking around the back of the logs.

Then on Friday we had our first fire - a disposable BBQ - when we cooked some popcorn. Considering it was the first time it went very well & only a few forgot about how to move about the seats without crossing the fire. I had picked up a load of mouse mats at the scrap store over the summer with the intention of using them as seats up in Bear Woods but they have proved perfect for the fire circle when the logs are damp & it saves having to make everyone get into their rain gear just to sit on the logs.

Mouse mats make perfect seat pads on damp days!

As the weather gets colder & damper it will be interesting to see how this class reacts to the challenges this will bring & how it will impact on their play.

A very kind past (and future) parent made this new seat for us!

My featured post from the last Outdoor Play Party was from Mommy Crusader & her Knights & Ladies - you can read about their scavenger hunt over here:

http://mommycrusader.com/country-themed-scavenger-hunt/

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

We'd appreciate it if you included a link back to this post (either in your post or sidebar) to help us spread the word about the importance (and fun!) of outdoor play! In return, we'll gladly further share your post on Facebook/ Twitter/ Pinterest. Please feel free to grab the Outdoor Play Party button from the sidebar and/or include a text link back. Please note that by contributing you are giving permission for an image and link to your post to be republished if featured.(If you have been featured, please feel free to grab the 'featured' button from the sidebar.) Share your ideas for outdoor play activities with us every other week!

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