The north wind had dropped and the Spring sunshine was felt today.
With the bluebells emerging, we sniffed them to get their scent on the path to the woods. There was painting and pegging up our own paper bluebells on a small line by the shelter and some great paint mixing.
"If you add yellow to the bluebell paint, you get green....for the leaves!"
The smallest of children worked together to light our fire after tapping out rhythms and playing with sticks. They then created their own play fire in their woodland den, collecting, transporting and snapping fallen wood they had found.
The birds made last week were fluttered and flown around the woodland and the parachute games were fun!
This afternoon the children hot footed it to the woods, with a short snack stop along the way. In the woods, they tried creating some 3D 'pretend' bluebells with this mornings paintings. This soon led to their own creative ideas of developing their tool skills, by hammering the blue painted paper to wooden planks, and then got involved in fixing pieces of wood together to then decorate.
Others found that the dry weather had led to the stream drying up, so followed its path up through the woods to try to find the source. They found an old blocked pipe, which carries the runoff from the fields above, so set about unblocking the pipe.
There was some excellent tree climbing action also and the hammock as ever, was well swung in.
The children's reflections today included:
" I liked using the hammer with my friend and working together with the wood, pens and nails"
"I liked climbing the tree with my friends"
"I liked exploring up the stream and clearing out a hole in the pipe to let more water out"
"I like the bluebells"
"I liked being in the hammock with my friends"
Us adults enjoyed watching their strong conviction in what they want to independently explore and play with in the woods. And are privileged to witness their recognition and value of their woodland friendships.