With sunshine on their backs, the children started their Monday afternoon by hiding in the meadows. The grass has grown so tall, that given 10 seconds, they could hide completely in the meadow grass without being seen! Whilst there, they got up close to the moths, butterflies and crickets and spent a long while investigating the flying and jumping creatures around them.
Continuing their interests in the woods, the children used magnifying glasses to examine woodland mini beasts under logs and talked about the difference between the meadows and the woods as habitats.
They were also keen to return to working with tools, so had a go at learning to use pen knives safely. With gloves on bracing hands and safe seating, they set about peeling freshly cut hazel and then tried to make miniature trees to develop their knife skills.
Unusually we cancelled our morning session due to the wild winds, continual rain and chance of lightening. It is such a tricky thing to forward second guess the weather, but on waking to fallen plants in the garden and the wind howling, we regretfully cancelled the session. The safety of us all in the woods always comes top of the list. In the summer the full tree canopy is at it's heaviest and if there are unseasonal winds (as this morning), the chance of branch falling increases. We had planned to spot and create butterflies...which we are sure would be sheltering from the weather, so we wouldn't have seen as many fluttering around, as we did the previous day in the warmth!
The afternoon led to showers, which the wind blew through, so we were able to venture out. First the children found a huge pile of grass clippings from the cricket pitch. It proved an excellent natural trampoline and some children talked about how their feet felt warm in the depths of the pile.
The children hid in the meadows as we did yesterday. They found some crickets and a caterpillar, so talked about how they turned into butterflies. Some children designed their own card fluttering symmetrical creations and took them off through the woods.
They swung and tested the rafts they had made before in the stream, which was flowing again due to this unseasonal rain! We are hoping for some summery blue skies next week.