What to do with 1000's of conkers!

Loose parts in abundance!

In October our Parent Council (PTA) asked the children to collect conkers for the Hallowe'en party and offered prizes for those who brought the most in in each class. They were surprised by the sheer amount that were collected and after making conker snakes with all the children at the party, they had 2 bins full of them left over to donate to nursery. 

We have enough to fill up the bottom of one of the pallet dens!

Since then the children have had fun cooking with them in the mud kitchen, rolling them down the slope in Bear Woods, planting some to see if we can grow some chestnut trees and generally incorporating them into their play. 

We had added them to most activities indoors too - the dough, water, sand etc. & plan to paint with them soon too.

Candles on the birthday cakes.

It has been fascinating to see all the early maths coming out with the conkers, some have made patterns with them on the crates or lined them up to count. One child began to put them into some upturned giant Lego blocks to make 'birthday cakes'  & this was followed with others putting loads into some bilibos and 'cooking' them on the fire - I do love it when the children transfer experiences into their play scenarios.

The Lego blocks are the sticks, as they have seen me set a fire & they are cooking chocolate cake!