Mini Christmas Trees – Thanks to Ali for this one! Take small pieces of evergreen branches, dip the ends in PVA glue, then glitter. Cut a small piece of Elder as a base and stick the ‘Christmas Tree’ into the soft pith.
Leaf decay – Ask all children to collect leaves, then order them from least to most decayed. Works best with leaves which change colour dramatically in Autumn such as Cherry. Good for communication, lots of discussion work.
Game: Red ball, Blue ball. Stand in a circle, start with an (invisible) red ball. One person starts to throw the ball around the circle. Must say the name of the person you are throwing it to and the colour of the ball. When the other person catches the ball they acknowledge the colour of the ball and say thanks. Continue to throw the ball around the circle, introduce different colour balls as the game progresses until there are 4/5. When the game ends, see if the group can remember where all the balls are and what colour they are!
Game: Look Up, Look Down. All stand in a circle, look down to start, when leader says look up, everyone must look up at another person in the circle. Any pairs who are looking at each other are out and must sit down. Continue until only 1 or 2 people left
Camouflage: Teach children about camouflage – give them each a strip of card with double sided sticky tape on it and get them to find (and collect) bits of wool that you have previously hidden. These should include dark green and browns and bright colours e.g. pinks and reds. The idea is that they will find more bright colours than the others. An alternative is to hide cocktail sticks that have been dipped in paint (wool is probably the safer option with preschool children).
Cooking activity – making porridge as part of role playing Goldilocks and the Three Bears – lots of additional opportunities for learning about size, shape, counting and number in just this one story.
Using lids off SMA tins (or similar) – make a hole through which you can thread string to hang it up. The child has a lid and puts pretty leaves, berries etc. (anything they like) in the lid and then fill it with water and leave it to freeze outside (if cold enough). Once frozen, hang them in trees and watch them melt.
Get the children to use a pen to draw along the lines on the palm of their hand and then encourage them to find a tree that matches the lines of their hands (obviously in the Autumn you can find trees that are bare of leaves) – this is then their tree. They can make a clay face on their tree. Jane suggested the faces could be used as an evaluation tool.
Talk about tree spirits or use an appropriate story to introduce this idea. In Sweden they have tree spirits who look after trees, mountains, earth etc, and they depict these with little characters.
November 23, 2015
Mini Christmas Trees – Thanks to Ali for this one! Take small pieces of evergreen branches, dip the ends in PVA glue, then glitter. Cut a small piece of Elder as a base and stick the ‘Christmas Tree’ into the soft pith.
November 23, 2015
Leaf decay – Ask all children to collect leaves, then order them from least to most decayed. Works best with leaves which change colour dramatically in Autumn such as Cherry. Good for communication, lots of discussion work.
November 23, 2015
Autumn Wands – beautiful coloured leaves taped to a stick make a lovely Autumn wand!
June 26, 2015
Irreversible changes in science, taken outside so cooking on the fire and burning charcoal in a tin. Trying it on Thursday with Year 5.
June 27, 2015
Lovely, let us know how it goes!
June 26, 2015
Game: Red ball, Blue ball. Stand in a circle, start with an (invisible) red ball. One person starts to throw the ball around the circle. Must say the name of the person you are throwing it to and the colour of the ball. When the other person catches the ball they acknowledge the colour of the ball and say thanks. Continue to throw the ball around the circle, introduce different colour balls as the game progresses until there are 4/5. When the game ends, see if the group can remember where all the balls are and what colour they are!
June 26, 2015
Game: Look Up, Look Down. All stand in a circle, look down to start, when leader says look up, everyone must look up at another person in the circle. Any pairs who are looking at each other are out and must sit down. Continue until only 1 or 2 people left
March 27, 2015
Making chairs (has been done with Year 4 group) – they had to design the chair first and then make it – involved using knots etc.
March 27, 2015
Camouflage: Teach children about camouflage – give them each a strip of card with double sided sticky tape on it and get them to find (and collect) bits of wool that you have previously hidden. These should include dark green and browns and bright colours e.g. pinks and reds. The idea is that they will find more bright colours than the others. An alternative is to hide cocktail sticks that have been dipped in paint (wool is probably the safer option with preschool children).
March 27, 2015
Cooking activity – making porridge as part of role playing Goldilocks and the Three Bears – lots of additional opportunities for learning about size, shape, counting and number in just this one story.
March 27, 2015
Using lids off SMA tins (or similar) – make a hole through which you can thread string to hang it up. The child has a lid and puts pretty leaves, berries etc. (anything they like) in the lid and then fill it with water and leave it to freeze outside (if cold enough). Once frozen, hang them in trees and watch them melt.
March 27, 2015
Get the children to use a pen to draw along the lines on the palm of their hand and then encourage them to find a tree that matches the lines of their hands (obviously in the Autumn you can find trees that are bare of leaves) – this is then their tree. They can make a clay face on their tree. Jane suggested the faces could be used as an evaluation tool.
March 27, 2015
Talk about tree spirits or use an appropriate story to introduce this idea. In Sweden they have tree spirits who look after trees, mountains, earth etc, and they depict these with little characters.