Reflection on the new changes at Mini Rangers

Forest School techniques are all about giving children a purpose to learn.  Teaching knots that will tie up the shelter, using a peeler to prepare vegetables, a knife to whittle or a bow saw to chop wood.  It may seem far fetched when you look at your newly walking 1 year old to make the leap to them using a bow saw, but little by little and with staggered steps the idea is that by the time your child reaches the end of reception not only will they have mastered these skills, but they will be able to choose which tool goes with which job.

Learning for purpose have lead the changes at Mini Rangers.  Firstly we looked at snack time.  This was the perfect area to introduce different tools for food preparation to the children.  This is to encourage their competence and bring them a stage further towards our development goal of 'realising tools can be used for purpose' as an emerging skill to an expected skill of 'selecting tools and techniques needed to shape, assemble and join materials they are using.' and finally at the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage (End of reception year) children will be 'safely using and exploring a variety of materials, tools and techniques.' These same goals can be overlaid onto the camp fire activities where new tools and risk go hand in hand.  With our tool talks and respect positions and inviting children to come in to feed the fire we give purpose to these EYFS goals.

Trajectory schemas are seen by
'An interest in how objects and people move, and how children can affect the movement.  This schema can be seen in children's actions when they drop objects, jump, swing and Climb up and down repeatedly.'
So that Steep bank, that can only be climbed or slid down with no activity based at the top really feeds into the Trajectory schema.  This is why Schema's are so exciting to me, I have children who constantly throw food, toys or anything else I put on their high chair and the fact there is a relationship to that steep bank at Etherow is a really exciting observation.  Moving on from that we are also looking at the mastering of Physical Development here.  So from the emerging skill of 'climbing confidently and pulling themselves up' to the expected skill of 'moves freely with pleasure and confidence in a range of ways'  to the  exceeding skill of 'Negotiating space successfully and experimenting with different ways of moving.'  All this and to go with it the added bonus of seeing the characteristics of effective learning such as Active learning and motivation - being involved and concentrating, keeping trying, enjoying achieving what they set out to do.

'where skills are taught in isolation from the need to use them, there is  a risk that balance can be lost and the growth of independent and creative thinkers is limited' (Nutbrown, p50)

Sometimes the jargon of the EYFS can numb the sheer joy of the activity I mean children climbing that bank are not thinking of the muscle strengthening, the co-ordination of remaining balanced while engaging with a vertical slope or indeed how they will get down!  For each child the motivation may be unique to them - that is the question for you to ask!  Can you remember them dropping food and toys off their high chair, do they love to chase and catch bubbles, playing paper areoplanes? Observing the children each week climbing the bank it is irresistible.  It is great to see parents making that climb supporting their eager child.  Here I was being given a climbing lesson.

An experienced mini ranger is expertly showing me how she climbs the bank.

I wanted her to use the rope, but she uses her legs as her strength and support.

Here she humours me by holding the rope,

    This expert climber has her own style and she will climb the bank, but she will do it how she does it best and she is the expert in her own learning.  She has taken control and revels in it.  She shows a persistent interest and despite the effort and the struggle it takes to get to the top and then get down again, she continues to explore.  There is much to be learnt about the characteristics she shows at the moment  reveal her motivation for the task in hand.

Some children might use transporting as a means of understanding the world.  definition:
An interest in moving themselves around and in transporting objects.  Once they are mobile, babies and children begin to move objects and themselves from one place to another, using bags, bikes, trucks etc.  
I have discovered myself lately that when a child is compelled to transport it is often a good idea to take a bag on every journey.  Certainly down in the Education area at this time of year there is so much to transport and for good reason too.  I am going to be regularly taking children off to the woods with parents and carers to search out tinder and kindling, collect leaves and spot plant life.  If you recognise your child in this schema I am sure that child will come prepared for collecting anyway.

It is Vygotsky the Russian Psychologist who contributed to theory of children's thinking and Cathy Nutbrown explains that organised learning can often be traced back to the real experiences children have such as filling the washing machine, baking, gardening, writing postcards or birthday cards.  Tasks are categorised by what a child can do now and what a child can do with assistance Vygotsky identified the inter difference between this as the 'zone of proximal development'.

This is exciting because here we are talking about the importance of that close adult relationship that as a carer or parent we work towards building.  As Bowlby asserts
'As long as mothering is of high quality and is provided by figures who remain the same during the child's early life, then (at least four or five mother figures) multiple mothering need have no adverse affects'.(Bowlby J 1969/1982 attachment and loss: vol 1 Attachment. New Yorks Basic Books).

As parents it is not only important to give our child high quality interactive experiences when they are with us, but to ensure that these activities are continued in whichever high quality child care we choose.  I will say no more on this subject as I am of course inherently biased!

Mini Rangers share many of the same aims as Forest School such as

The use of a woodland setting  -  We are looking at children's freedoms within boundaries, innovative approaches to learning and strict safety routines.

A high adult to learner ratio - With the parent/carer taking the lead in the child's learning allowing the children to undertake tasks and play activities without exposing the children to undue risk of harm.

Learning can be linked I try to link whatever we are doing with the Early Years Foundation Stage.  As an Early Years Teacher this is my area of comfort and expertise.

Regular contact for the children - We run mini rangers, rain or shine throughout term time.  this ensures that we are allowing children to plan and enjoy the routine of mini rangers.

The most important people for the children at mini rangers are the mini ranger's parents.  It is your continued interest and wonder at their excellence that will drive the children forward on their quest for knowledge and skills.

This type of group is constantly evolving.  We rely on volunteers, so to some extent different volunteers bring in different expertise and that is fantastic.   I hope you all continue to enjoy Mini Rangers and the new ideas that come and evolve here.

Monday 2nd November - What effect will Forest School have on Mini Rangers?

So I had a week off playing in the woods and then half term, so lucky!

The first thing I realised on the week away was that it was the start of an incredible journey into Forest School understanding.  I have merely been introduced at the moment.  My aim now is to bring elements into what we do here at Mini Rangers.

I have prepared the team and we are now moving forward with a few new things.  I don't want to explain too much as I can get a bit technical sometimes, suffice to say we are going to start trying to meet the needs of Forest School.

First off Marina is going to invite small groups at a time to help prep food.  This may involve learning how to squirt tomatoes or it may go on to peeling carrots, but the important thing is going to be getting everyone who can to join in preparing their own snacks!

Secondly Ranger Steve is going back to basics, he is going to show us how to manage our woodland appropriately by showing small groups how to collect tinder and kindling, how we dry out our wood and he is going to be getting our mini rangers (who feel comfortable and sensible around a fire) to feed the fire.  We will be following Forest School Ethos here and will be treating the safety of the children with the highest regard this includes putting the fire out if children are behaving in unsafe way.

Thirdly, I will be bringing some of the Forest School activities that we have practised in the woods.  for the first week back I am going to take a small group of brave mini rangers off into the woodland to see if we can spot any signs of Fairy or Troll visitors.  

The teas and coffees will now be served at the entrance to Mini Rangers on a help your self basis and Mark will be there to greet you and answer any questions you may have!

I am really excited to be starting a new term at Mini Rangers and I hope that you will come on my journey towards Forest School Ethos and understanding.

Mel

Reflections of last week using 'Threads of thinking' by Cathy Nutbrown

The outdoors enables children to develop their own ideas and questions.  Subjects are not divided and children will jump from scientific theories, mathematical language to flights of imagination all in the same session.  These questions develop over time, in an ever changing landscape.  During the Mini Rangers sessions we may be in the same place at the same time every week, but the environment constantly has new surprises for us.  

It is really important to allow children to grow and learn giving them opportunities to have unrestricted play outdoors.  At Mini Rangers we have created appropriate risks and challenges for the children, this gives them opportunities to become more aware of themselves and better equipped to learn about assessing risks, putting them on the right track to be able to to live and play independently.  

'In addition to sensory experience, talk is as vital to human life as pure air.'(Brierley 1994, p28)

At Mini Rangers the interactions with the different volunteers and adults create a lively bubbly environment.  From the acknowledgement of your arrival to the interested adults walking around.  The talk around the camp fire, the stories and snack time all offer up times where individuals are valued and recognised.  These adults notice and value the children's play.  For example Last Wednesday it rained so much that we only had Gabrielle and Millie to entertain.  They both enjoy filling containers as I have observed on previous occasions, so I positioned sauce pans on the outskirts of the shelters.  The girls soon got busy moving the containers to different parts of the bench so that they could catch more drips or stir what they had caught.  They also started to become innovative by turning an umbrella upside down and using it to catch more rain in order to fill up their saucepans. The adults around quietly observed, but congratulated the girls on their clever way of collecting rain.

This experience is different to anything you can offer when surrounded by home comforts.  The truth is as adults we would rather be indoors on a rainy day.  The discomfort of being wet or cold presents a risk to us.  The idea of getting dirty and ill becomes a risk.  Children pick up on this and enjoy staying in and exploring the opportunities inside instead.  Is this such a bad thing, well it depends, when you consider the opportunities missed, the independence that these girls showed, the innovation of their water collecting ideas and probably more besides relating to size of pan, how water behaves etc.  More than this though it has shown how an environment that they are comfortable with can completely change.

Here the boys are digging on a dry day and again we can see that they have formed an interest and together they are exploring the changes they can make to the area.

Cathy Nutbrown talks about the consistency in children's behaviour which as she says is at odds with some notions that adults have that children are inconsistent, spasmodic and idiosyncratic in their approaches to life and learning.  She espouses the constants are

- adults and their behaviour
- routines and information
- experiences and materials

Mini Rangers uses these constants to provide an environment for exploration.  If you found that your child/children always head for the same challenge at mini rangers this is no bad thing.  When you announce your plan to go to Mini Rangers your child is probably planning their own ideas for exploration on arrival, which means that when you have been a few times and your child realises the routines are just the same, the same adults are there and all the challenges are in place they will head off with their own ideas in mind.

As the adult in our children's lives it is important to be consistent and to show them your support in the activities that they choose

This is a  photograph of a dad focussing on his child's play.  Other children are particularly drawn into their play.  This particular play is led by the child's interest.  These first steps into discovery are more important for the child than any other as they are with someone that understands the ways in which they think, and understands their needs.

Mini Rangers has a routine that is set to incorporate the initial burst of energy children feel at the realisation they can now start putting all their plans and their ideas into practice.  Half way through the session we feel that they have had exploratory time and some children by now are flagging or just looking for a little something else, so snack time.  We have put a little story in, this is to allow children to experience a little adult led activity.  This is a short time and has always been enthusiastically received by the children.

We follow this with snack time and then the session has ended.

Mini Rangers was designed so that the children would be able to access the constants such as the mountaineering up the bank, the mud kitchen, den building, the stepping logs, the campfire and the bug hotel.  We then occasionally add activities that challenge other areas of their thinking.  Some children are really open to additional activities whilst others are still exploring the constant challenges.  I have found that sensory activities such as mixing the duck food and painting with shaving foam have been extremely popular activities.

I really feel that these activities have been tackled by the children because they feel safe with their adults and their routine.

At Mini Rangers we put out other activities for the children they are only offered.  It is important to stress that if children feel confident to try these it is only because of where they are on their journey and not a sign of future successes or failures.  Professionals create starting points, but we must be bold and relinquish control over what the children do.  I appreciate the difficulties of this and recently had an ofsted visit where I was desperately trying to show off in many aspects.  The child I was looking after was having none of my desperate need to be validated and ignored all my further attempts to implement literacy, maths, science!  She carried on with her own far more interesting areas of exploration.  That is how it should be, as adults we need to recognise our own needs and let the children's interest develop.  Our role is to support, challenge and suggest.

Okay I will come back to this topic, but I am taking break now!

For Mini Rangers Monday 12th October

This is my very last week before I go onto the Forest School Course. Lots to read!!!

This week we are going to set up a Gruffalo trail through the woods.

The snack this week is apple dipped in coconut.

Look forward to seeing you

Mel

Monday 5th October

We are focussing on the way children move this week.

Ranger Steve is going to be setting out an obstacle course that will challenge your children and the way they like to move.

It is really important at Mini Rangers that you consider your child's abilities before they attempt any obstacles.  Always allow them to judge their own risks and try where possible to support them in their efforts.   Some children will always want to attempt the seemingly impossible we want to encourage them, but safely.  Some children can climb before they walk!

We will be creating obstacles that will look at balance, climbing and wriggling under.

We will be encouraging our children to move with controlled effort we will be looking for them to be 'strong' 'gentle' we might use the word 'reach' 'stretch'.

We are going to motivate the children to be active if children are reluctant maybe we could play follow the leader?

Pose challenging questions, can you balance on one leg?  Can you walk across that without putting your feet down, on tip toes ?

Marina will be making her delicious taste of autumn. Blackberries and apple in a pot with a bread stick for dipping.

I can't wait to see you there.

Mel

28 September 2015

What a fantastic Mini Ranger Session

We started the session of with some independent adventures into the wood chip pit with the dinosaurs and Saucepans.  Lilly can be seen making music using the rake and an upturned saucepan.

 We had a lovely parachute session with the children singing nursery rhymes, bouncing balls and running underneath.

I didn't take many photos, but a first for mini Rangers with Ranger Steve reading a lovely story, as you can see the children really enjoyed it.

Marina's snack of sweetcorn wheels went down really well.

Next week and Wednesday we will be making blackberry and apple dip with bread sticks for the snack, and we will be building a special mini rangers assault course.  So see you next week or Wednesday!

Forest School Inspired post

This week I have been re reading a book that introduced me to the ideas of Forest School theory.

The Ethos or definition is such

Forest School is an inspirational process,that offers all learners regular opportunities to achieve, develop confidence and self-esteem, through hands on learning experiences in a local woodland or natural environment with trees.

Forest School is a specialised approach that sits within and complements the wider context of outdoor and woodland learning.

Our Case study works within this remit

Volunteers work together to provide the environment  Myself Melanie Commins a childminder and a committed to outdoor learning Early Years Teacher. I work together with Marina a self confessed dirt avoider (has taken on the title of snack provider)  Mark dad of two, jack of all trades, outdoor enthusiast, creative director etc.  Neil my partner in crime, gets lectured by me on early years and is pretty creative when it comes to activities in the outdoors.

The Setting

Etherow Park is council owned and had an educational remit until recently.  It now has no Rangers of its own, but a Ranger who looks after the whole of the Stockport area.  This means that Etherow is free to explore and enjoy, but Mini Rangers is the only outdoor stay and play group it has.  We have had talks with the friends group to help us to clear some of the areas and the grass is cut by the council.  The children can access a number of activities independently.  The area is quite secure as the volunteers always ensure there is some sort of barrier between the water and the area.  The children who come regularly no where the activities are and stay close to the central area.

Mini Rangers is made as safe as is reasonably possible

The council ensure that all plants growing in the area are safe.  Each session is run by the volunteers who undertake a risk assessment of the area before everyone arrives.  Over the year this has resulted in contacting the council when a tree has partially fallen in the middle.  We have also written and use risk assessments for the camp fire with a bucket of water and bag of sand on stand by in case it gets out of hand.  Some weeks we do not have a camp fire this is when we feel that it is not safe or the weather is too soggy.

Mini Rangers has happened over time

We have been able to offer sessions weekly during term time for over a year now, parents and children are able to become familiar with the routines and activities and then feel confident in joining in where they feel they want to.

There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing

Although we don't carry waterproofs ourselves, there are lots of good offers at local outlets at this point.  It is worth ensuring that at the very least your child has waterproof trousers and boots, if only to ensure that you have an easier time when returning to the car or home.

Trust is Central

It is important at Mini Rangers that parents and children feel confident and secure and can ask the volunteers for any help.  We have often been on hand to ensure that children get a helping hand when climbing or balancing.  It is important that visitors know that we adhere to our risk assessments and proceedures.

The learning is play based and, as far as possible, child initiated and child led

I am hoping that when I attend the forest school course I can expand on this area.  Until now I have ensured that the activities are simple and reflect children's interests and seasonal interests.  I am hoping that the Forest School course will inspire me into thinking of more sessions that fulfil the encouragement of self confidence and self belief.

The Blocks and sessions have beginning and ends.

The beginning is always a cheery word from our volunteer that greets the visitors at the entrance, with an open ended activity that children can choose to do or not. There is always half an hour of free play and then a story and a snack.  (Coffee, tea and biscuits for the grown ups).  Children learn through seeing others that story time is a time to sit quietly or join in to the adult led section it really only lasts for about 5 or 10 minutes and is always followed by a snack.

The Staff are trained

As yet this has been an ambition of mine.  Although I am an Early Years teacher and feel confident to engage young people in activities and look for areas that are important to them, I feel that becoming a Level 3 Forest School Practitioner will add so much more to our area and what we do.  So watch this space.

Regular attendees will understand that our regular meet ups can add benefits to their children that aren't apparent on first viewing.  Children can be seen to be more resourceful, more resilient.  The children set their own agenda's making pretend camp fires and cooking on them, making dens independently, climbing the bank independently and using the rope to lower themselves down.   Balancing on the tree stumps and become experts at bug hunting.

 

Monday 28 September 2015

The weeks are speeding past and we are now at the end of September.  Wow. This Mondays Plans are for a lovely hunt for dinosaurs in the wood chip pit.

A snack made on the camp fire which this week is Sweetcorn wheels and a story.

The weather is looking a lot better with some dry weather coming our way

Outlook for Saturday to Monday:

Fine, dry weather will dominate and it will feel pleasantly warm with lighter winds and plenty of sunny spells. Turning chilly at night though, with some fog patches developing.

So hopefully see you Monday, I may still need some help planting the rest of Sarah's bulbs.

Thanks as ever

Mel

Monday 21st September 2015

Mondays and Wednesdays 10 am 

                                  £2 per child and £1 per adult

These pictures of Autumn tell children of changes, it is these changes that help them understand the nature of learning.  That one thing can become another thing a flower can become a blackberry.  An oak tree can produce Acorns.

At Mini Rangers we use constants to remind children that the logs designating the fire area are not to be crossed.  That they can watch Ranger Steve change wood into fire. 

This week we are going to be searching for mini beasts.  Mini beasts are only going to be found for another few weeks as the weather gets colder they are searching for warmer hibernation habitats. While Monarch butterflies and dragonflies are off searching for warmer climates, spiders and the lave of insects will still hang around.  Sometimes surviving winter as small eggs or black dots that are still very much alive under the snow and ice.

It is great to show children the habitats of creatures that are familiar to us adults, but it can also bring with it many other questions and discussions - why do we live in houses and the worms live in the soil?  Why types of woodland mini beasts can we find?  No leg variety, how many segments do they have are they worms or lavae?  Legs if so how many?  

These provoke many discussions and it is this language used in different experiences that bring literacy to life!  Who could ever understand the song 'there was an old woman who swallowed a fly' if they had never seen a fly before it is hard to understand what the big deal is to swallow a fly if you did not know what one was?  The more you know and have had first hand experience the more the world of literacy makes sense and then when you do go to school the more your teacher makes sense.

It is this uncovering of language in different experiences that enables our children to become school ready, no amount of time sat at a table studying a page of writing can replace real life experiences.  However real life experiences can enhance the page of writing and bring the lessons to life. It is these early experiences that allow children to make the right connections.

So this week we look forward to

a mini beast hunt

snack of grapes 

plus all our usual fun with the Mini Rangers 

Mel

Monday 14th September 2015

Just finished a wonderful session which has given me lots of ideas for monday.

This Monday we will be making natural frames using twigs.  We will be supplying you with the materials and then it is down to your childs imagination.

We are looking at the letter a in our box, can you bring anything to our session that begins with the letter a?

Looking forward to seeing you all on Monday

Mel

Review of Monday 7 September

A fantastic return to mini rangers.  The weather could not have been nicer.

The cars activity seemed to go well with all the children trying out the different bamboo car runs some went for the enclosed bamboo run and some went for the tiny bamboo car runs with really quite big cars.  It was very interesting watching.  Remember there was no real wrong way of doing it any experimentation is good, our job is just narrate and enjoy.  Discovering how our children will approach each learning activity makes it all worth while.

I really enjoyed meeting the young people who were making cakes at in our mud kitchen.  Fantastic ideas for decorating the cakes were coming up.

Lovely story time too thank you to Foni for that lovely picture on fb, you could really see the children listening and enjoying the story (especially Marina).

I would love to hear your opinions and learning experiences that you have had during Mini Rangers, it is always such an enjoyable way to pass a Monday morning.

Mel

Monday 7th September 2015

Welcome back!

What a lovely long summer we have had.

We have already started our new sessions on Wednesdays and looking forward to re starting our Monday sessions.

 There is a little price increase as we are trying to reach our target of raising money to turn our group into a forest school!  We are now charging £2 per child and £1 per adult.

For our first week we are looking at some interesting activities and all the other usual Mini Rangers fun.

Thanks to everyone who came to our Fun day we all had a lot of fun!

This session will be following this framework

Cars on the Run (bring your toy cars and help make a run to see how fast they go)
Stinging Nettle tea (we are going to be putting special rubber gloves on to pick the nettles for tea!)
This weeks letter is S so have a think of all things beginning with the S sound.
Our book this week is 'The Tiger who came for Tea'

So see you Monday for the beginning of a new term of Mini Rangers.

Mel x

Wednesday 2nd September

We are kicking off our first term with an additional day WEDNESDAY!!!  There is a little price increase as we are trying to reach our target of raising money to turn our group into a forest school!  We are now charging £2 per child and £1 per adult.

For our first week we are looking at some interesting activities and all the other usual Mini Rangers fun.

Thanks to everyone who came to our Fun day we all had a lot of fun!

This session will be following this framework

Cars on the Run (bring your toy cars and help make a run to see how fast they go)
Stinging Nettle tea (we are going to be putting special rubber gloves on to pick the nettles for tea!)
This weeks letter is S so have a think of all things beginning with the S sound.
Our book this week is 'The Tiger who came for Tea'

See you all down in the Education Area 10 am x

Mel

Support for Forest School Training

Hi Holidaying Mini Rangers.  I am here for a huge ask, I am asking for your support.  I have been given the opportunity to present an application for Area Ward Funding to the councillors of this area at a public meeting in the Marple Senior Citizens Hall to be held on Wednesday 12 August 2015 at 6pm. 

The funding would give us the opportunity to move forward educationally with the area.  At the moment I am a qualified Early Years Teacher.  I have used my knowledge and education to bring the objectives of the EYFS outside and overlay them on as many outdoor activities as I could.  I have reflected and discussed with volunteers and attendees and to improve we have all commented that Forest School training would be the way forward.  We would like to be able to have Forest School skills to enhance the area and what we do.  We have already achieved so much and I am so proud of everyone who comes no matter the weather and braves the unknown to experience Mini Rangers.

Early Years toddler groups are mostly indoors. Out door group experiences limited to the national trusts generosity and costly Forest Schools set up in certain parts of Manchester.  These experiences have been promoted by age old education pioneers such as Jerome Bruner, Jean Piaget (1952) and Lev Vygotsky. Bruner (1966) and Piaget (1952) hold the view that children acquire knowledge in stages. They believe young children need time to actively engage with the world and to examine and investigate it physically through the senses.  Children learn by performing actions, reflecting upon them and internalising the knowledge gained. (Marianne Sargent, 2015 EYE vol 17 No 5)  Etherow Park in itself is the environment that supports children and this is before we add activities such as pond dipping, bug hunting, mud kitchens and challenging tasks.  This is an environment that children can begin in, these are the ideas that support children before they enter the pre-school environment.

I personally do think that what we offer is priceless, but I don't think it should be an opportunity just for people willing to pay high prices.  My aim has always to be able to keep a low cost community orientated group that supports children's first exploration of their parkland surroundings.  A place where people are not afraid to get their one year olds out of the buggy and into the grass, touch the trees and enjoy the camaraderie of other parents.

We cannot assume that all of this comes without training, experience and knowledge and in order to keep it going we have to show our support for this.  I don't want this to be something that only the rich can enjoy I want it to be accessible to everyone.  Please help us at Mini Rangers to win the councillors backing by either  coming to the public meeting and showing your support or by writing something on our facebook page or writing us a letter to show us your support. 

Please like and share the facebook page with as many people as possible.  The training could mean that we are able to open up an educated Forest School to our community.

Please Help

Melanie Commins (BA hons, EYTS)

Mini Rangers 27 July 2015

Great turn out for a rainy siblings day!!!

Thank you so much for coming some of you bringing big brothers and big sisters to show them what you get up to when they are hard at school.

What a great day for popcorn and buzzy bees.

What have we learnt from this past academic year.  I have really enjoyed it all standing outside on a snowy day catching snow flakes.  Hearing the sounds of the river, the ducks and all the other noises we associate with Etherow Park.  Steve has constantly pulled out all the stops to provide us with a lovely camp fire, nettle tea, garlic soup, pancakes, fishfingers, and many more.  For a lot of this year it has been trial and error!  

I enjoyed the activities that went with the phonics, but I think over the following year I am going to be focussing more on the Aspects of learning and this will be more focussed on our younger learners, of course with plenty to do for the older children too!

Lets all enjoy the coming holiday, I hope the weather cheers up for you, but remember we are not made of sugar we can still venture out even if the rains there, it just makes it more exciting and unpredictable!

I have really loved it all thank you for experiencing it with me,

Mel

Our penultimate Mini Rangers 20 July 2015

So as our summer term of Mini Rangers draws to a close I like to reflect on our journey this term.  I saw a huge growth in attendees for our summer term and it was lovely to see the the children enjoying the warmer weather and watch the interest they showed at exploring the area as it exploded in plant life.  Climbing up the bank has proved a very exciting challenge for a lot of mini rangers this term.  So a big thank you to Paul at Etherow Park for coming along with his strimmer to chop the stingers and nettles away.

We had plant scares that turned out not to concern us with the giant hogweed!!!! I hope everyone saw the post I put on mini rangers facebook site I hope that this put your minds to rest.  We don't actually have any in our area, but it is good to be aware.

We had some great story telling added to our area in the form of Mark Howard who has been shown to have many talents not just chopping wood with a baby in one hand!    Marina has shown her talent and flare in snack making and continues to shine at snack time.

So this week during our penultimate week we are going to make a giant foil river.  I will be buying a roll of tin foil and we are going to lay this out on the ground and see what natural objects we can float down it.

What to do:
1. Unroll all of the tinfoil.
2. Fold each side in towards the middle by 5cm
3.  Repeat the process but this time leave the sides standing upright you should have created a long foil channel.
4.Put the water butts at one end and turn on(not fully)
5 put natural materials into the water to see how they change colour or texture
6 Combine your materials to create structures that will float.

What is in it for the children
The children will have the opportunity to engage in some large scale water play while at the same time discovering key elements about floating and sinking. The use of natural materials creates lots of opportunities for talk and use of their senses around changes that happen when things get wet.

Marina is going to be providing hummus and bread sticks this week.
As usual children get a lot from being able to wait patiently for their snack with regards to conversation skills and looking after one another.  Also this snack encourages the skill of holding the cup in one hand and using the pincer movement to hold the bread stick and dip.

Mark is going to be reading another story.
Listening and attention is a skill that we develop, I think Mark is great as his kids role model effective listening and the voices especially are entertaining.

I will start planning our holiday special which I am happy to take in suggestions, but I have a feeling there will be lots going on.

Looking forward to seeing you Monday

Mel

A rainy drizzly day 13 July 2015

Look at our volunteers getting ready for snack time,whilst the children sit earnestly listening to the story ready by the lovely Mark.

Mel

Mapping our Area - Monday 13th July 2015

Not long now till the Summer holidays, and we have big plans here at mini rangers HQ!

Before that the plans for this week will be a focus on making an  outdoor map of our area or Etherow park using twigs, sticks, logs, leaves and flowers.  There may even be some prizes for the best one.

This activity is similar to making a jigsaw.  Talk with your child about what is in the area at the moment, maybe walk around to get your bearings.  Talk about the individual areas such as the circle of logs, the story area, the bug hotel, the campfire area, den building area, the mountain and the woodchip pit. Then discuss with your child different ideas in making miniature features in your map. 
When your child has come up with an idea praise and encourage them.  This can include them pointing at a stone or a twig that you could use in your map.  Don't worry about the outcome just enjoy the communication that comes from attempting this idea.

Ranger Steve will be showing us how to make nettle tea over the campfire.  Please check out our campfire risk assessment and procedure.  I hope its ok.  Please understand that by coming to Mini Rangers we take every precaution that we can to make it a safe and enjoyable activity, but you as the adult are responsible for your child and what they achieve at Mini Rangers.

We welcome back Mark who has volunteered to read again for story time.  This is fantastic especially as I think he is really good at it.

The fabulous Marina is serving Raspberries for snack.  Remember the ability to hold conversations is a key skill for everyone.  For a good conversation, children need well developed attention and listening vocabulary, sentence building and story telling skills, as well as knowledge about how to interact with others. 
Children need social communication skills to be able to hold conversations.  Giving them the opportunity to practise these with others is extremely important.

Can't wait to see you all Monday

Mel

Monday 6 July 2015