Enabling Environments: Forest school diary - glorious mud

Given the continuing wet weather, puddles, mud and rain once again preoccupied the children on our trip to the woods.

Noticing that the puddles 'had grown', we discussed how far we could venture into them and checked their depth using a stick.

Fin 'You have to be careful or you will get wet all over.'

Kate 'I can walk on the edge.'

Evie R 'We're not so deep.'

As for a puddle up the hill:

Evie L 'it looks like a duck pond!'

And the spot where they had built a fire on their last visit?

Harry 'It's gone!'

Seb 'The rain killed it.'

Everybody squelched in the mud until Evie L found a deep puddle.

Evie L 'Guys! Come here, you can clean your wellies in the puddle.'

Later in the day, the conversation again turned to rain, when Martin asked where rain comes from:

Kate 'When God makes summer and not summer then it rains.'

Fin 'The sun goes through the clouds.'

Martin 'Where do clouds come from?'

Tadiwa 'From fluff and candy.'

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

Evie L and Poppy climbed on the balancing log and pretended to drive.

Evie L 'Where shall we go?'

Tadiwa 'Anywhere!'

Poppy took the 'slippery stick challenge' and practised walking along a log. The other children also wanted to practise.

Fin 'I made it all the way to the end!'

Kate and Tadiwa played at being princes and princesses.

Kate 'I'm a princess, no Superman, Spiderman on my wedding day!'

Tadiwa 'We are having a wedding for Princess Kate and Prince Tadiwa!'

Evie L found a tiny snail and decided to make a home for it with leaves.

Evie L, putting sticks around the snail, 'Let's make it a fire house!'

Reflections has operated a Forest School programme for children over three years old since summer 2009. Three groups of up to 12 children go to the woodland by minibus every week for at least 30 weeks a year. Families are sent a four-page diary of each visit. www.reflectionsnurseries.co.uk.