Strawberry picking

We harvested our first home grown strawberry yesterday, Albie was very excited, however we only ever get one ripe strawberry at a time - two if we are very lucky!  So I decided to take the children strawberry picking at the local fruit farm today, it turned out to be a lovely few hours outside, the children got to see actually where the strawberries are grown, they were reminded not to trample all over the plants, and how to spot nice, juicy and ripe strawberries ready for picking - and eating!


Before we had even glimpsed the fruit fields M fell over, literally face first into the biggest muddy puddle - is it wrong of me to admit that it was quite funny?! (disclaimer - no children were harmed during any of the strawberry farm activities!)


We all sampled a few of the strawberries while we were picking them - some ate much more than their fair share, but I won't tell!


When we got back home we made delicious smoothies using our hand picked and very fresh strawberries.

Planning - what planning?!

Planning according to the EYFS is not my strong point; I actually do lots of planning for the children in my care, I think about what we haven't tried before, activities we haven't done for a long time, activities to meet the children's current interests and their next steps, new places to visit, etc.  I just don't document it too well!  I never have, I intend to try, however lots of my plans remain within my head rather than on paper!  I believe that this is to no detriment to the children whatsoever, as far as I can see it will only ever affect my Ofsted inspection grade, which I can live with!


Today I planned to do messy play with shaving foam - this is something we haven't done for a while, the children love it, I planned to incorporate mark making and concentrate on adding colours to the shaving foam and discuss the individual colours and the results once we mixed colours together.  How clever of me to plan such a wonderful, enjoyable and educational activity all rolled into one!


The children however had other ideas!


Yes they jumped at the chance to play with the shaving foam, yes they did make marks (briefly) in the foam, and yes they (briefly) were interested in the colours we added.


However both Albie and J had the most fun of all smearing the foam all over themselves, the table, the walls, the floor, the windows, and me if I stood still for long enough!  I provided a bowl of clean water for the children to wash their hands and a clean towel for them to dry themselves afterwards.  The children used the water to stamp in!  They then added water to the foam to make it watery, and they added foam to the water to make it bubbly!  They then tipped the water out to stamp in it!  Albie had the great idea to mop up the foamy puddles with the clean towel, then 'clean' anything remotely static in the garden with the wet towel!


Today's activity has reenforced to me that no matter how much I plan an activity, the children will always do what they want to do and will lead the activity their own way.  Which also makes me wonder am I actually doing the wrong thing in not documenting all of my planning before we do the activity?


A wonderful time was had by all!

International Mud Day 2012

Friday was international mud day, and I was very excited!  The boys I look after all love the mud kitchen and play with it lots every time they are in the back garden.  I was determined that we would have lots more fun with mud.

First thing in the morning I gave each child a piece of paper and told them we were going to make mud pictures - I did not give them any other tools to make the pictures with, I left it entirely up to them.  Albie led the other children to the mud kitchen, he picked up a ladle full of mud and splatted it onto his paper.  J then copied this, smearing the mud all over the paper.  M stood watching them both, taking everything in, which isn't like him - he is usually the first into everything!

After M had watched the other children create their masterpieces he decided to join in - no mud kitchen utensils required here - mud and M's hands go very well together!

Albie added some water to his picture, however it washed all of the picture away, so he then resorted to stamping on the paper with his muddy wellington boot to create his picture.

Albie and J had enough of mud pictures and went to play inside, however M spent a little while longer stamping in the mud - little did he know what I had planned for after lunch!!!

Here are the children's muddy pictures - they are unique and quite different!

Later in the day we took a picnic to the back of the Flash - I had ran there earlier in the week so I knew it was a perfect spot for a bit of mud exploration!  After we had eaten it was time to go in search of mud - the children enjoyed their freedom, running about the country park pathways, stamping in little puddles and bits of mud - they were very excited and having lots of fun.

The children came across a large puddle - it stopped them in their tracks!  I went past them and then encouraged them to walk through the puddle.  True to form, M was first in, without a care in the world!  The other two were a little more cautious but soon followed.

We then came to a HUGE and VERY muddy puddle!  The children were very excited.  I told them that they could do what they wanted and to go! 


Albie and J were quite cautious, and walked through the puddle carefully.  M waded on in there, splashing water and mud everywhere and getting soaking wet through in the process - he laughed so much, it was hilarious!  Once Albie realised I was finding M's antics funny, he decided to join in too, and the two of them had an absolute ball, splashing about and trying to splash me as much as possible!  J was a little more reserved, although he did enjoy himself too!

At the end of our playtime, all four of us were exceptionally muddy - walking back to the car we attracted lots of comments from the passing cars who all thought it hilarious that we were all so filthy!  It was a fantastic muddy hour, one that I hope the children remember and repeat in the future, I fully intend to!


Thank you to J's and M's wonderful parents - you are very understanding allowing me to get your children so filthy, and I really appreciate it, and I am also sure that J and M do too!