The 'h' sound at Mini Rangers : 26 January 2015

Thank you to the 37 children and 29 adults that turned up to mini rangers here are some of our photos:

As you can see there were quite a lot of hats this week, Hard hats and sun hats fancy hats and sparkly hats also hats that we made.

The home made bread and ham went down a treat along with the coffee, warm vimto and squash.

  Out of our sound box came a hedgehog, a horse and a Mr Happy book.  The men in their hard hats were digging next to our mini rangers area and we dug some holes our selves with our spoons from the mud kitchen.

Next week our letter is 'b' 

Thank you in advance to Gabrielle's daddy Mark and Oliver's daddy Mark for volunteering to help put the shelter up in Neil's absence.  See you all next week.

Mini Rangers sound of the week 'h' 26th January 2015

Snowy Etherow saw 31 Mini Rangers arrive for fun in the snow with the sound 'r'.  Here you can see Oliver with his Robot that he cleverly added stick legs too, he is showing real creativity in seeing what he has been given and adding to it.  

We lit the fire without Ranger Steve last week so I think that shows that we are learning about outdoor living,  It was a plus as well because there were children that really enjoyed the cosy feel of the fire and needed a bit of a warm up!  Thanks to Helen for bringing me Rhyming Rabbit by Julia Donaldson it was a great book I have been enjoying it at home, although I think it was a bit cold to sit still for too long!  Hopefully we can make it a bit warmer this week!  Suggestions for keeping warm welcome!

Next week we are bringing some warm blackcurrent juice as we did feel that perhaps the children could have done with a warm drink as well.  We will also be bringing extra coffee as that is much needed when taking part in outdoor play!

This coming week our letter is

 

just in case my lovely graphic isn't clear it is 'h' !  I am hoping this week we don't have any hail! If we do I guess it will fit in with the sounds, hey when the weather gives you a gift don't knock it!!!  Seriously though, h is a great letter for Etherow, Heron's and Hedghogs live there so we could talk about their habitats and how humans interact with them and how we can preserve their homes by not disturbing wood piles in the winter. 

I am sure we could dig a few holes with our kitchen spoons if the ground isn't too hard!  

For our activity this week Etherow Visitors centre are supplying us with all the ingredients to make hats!  So if you can find any feathers or leaves that you would like to stick on to your hat please bring them along.

At story time I think it is time to introduce Dr Seuss with 'Horton hears a who'.  The one draw back about introducing phonics to small children is that we are introducing them to sounds so h as in horton is the same as h as in who.  I don't want you to be concerned about this and some parents worry when their child starts writing and this mistake is a common 'spelling' mistake. It will rectify itself and when you are reading stories like 'Horton hears a who' it gives a platform to enable us to point out the different beginnings of each word.  Who is a tricky word and usually if there is a h sound the word begins with h so when it does happen it is sometimes good to find a book that illustrates this.

By now everyone is feeling hungry so we will bring some ham sandwiches made with dairy free bread and dairy free ham.

I hope that sounds good and look forward to seeing you there!  Just a tip if your child does feel the cold it might be worth bringing a hot water bottle or warming pouches as these can just add a bit more comfort, the fire will be lit though and the shelter will be up so hopefully we can make a cosy place for everyone to get a bit warmer in.

Monday 19th January 2015 - Moving on to our sound 'r'

Thank you for braving the cold and rain last week to come to Mini Rangers I was really impressed how hardy the Mini Rangers are!  The umbrella walk went really well last week, I felt awful prising some of the umbrellas away from the children, but they were sharing really well!

For this week coming up Joshua and Ben have lent us their copy of Julia Donaldson's 'Rhyming Rabbits' which is a perfect 'r' sounding book for our coming Mini Rangers.

We also have ribbon sticks for swirling, and Caroline at the Visitors Centre is providing us with the ingredients to make Robots.

The snack is tricky as there is so much to choose from

Rice, Radish, Raisin, Rhubarb, Radicchio, Raviolli, Rasberry, Rum, Rum Rasin Ice Cream, Root beer, Rump roast, Rainbow trout, Rose water, Ricotta, Red Snapper, Red Cabbage, Rutabaga, Refried beans, Rigatoni, Roastbeef, Russet potatoes, Ruby red grapefruit, Ranch dressing, Rabbit, Rolls, Ramen, Rotisserie chicken, Roast chicken/turkey/duck/veggies, Rum cake, Raisin bread, Red Velvet Cake, ramon noodles.

So I will consult with Ranger Steve and see what is possible!  Will let you know nearer the time.  In the mean time if anyone wants to make anything or bring anything, I will reimburse you for your ingredients let me know!

Mel

U for Umbrella - 12 January 2015

This week has been really wet hasn't it!  Luckily for us mud just makes the area more interesting, although I think the frost last week stopped us from loosing Marina and her sticks!  Explanation there is that Marina is currently hobbling on walking sticks after breaking her ankle crossing the road!!!!

Anyway back to Mini Rangers, this week our phonic sound is U as in umbrella's, underpants, ugg boots and ugli fruit!!

Firstly it would be great if you could all bring your umbrellas large or small.

We will use these to mark a route through the woods for a small umbrella trail.  We will be using positional language to identify where the umbrellas are, we will be saying words such as look under the bush, up in the tree.  Understanding of position and movement supports logical thinking and is necessary for the general spacial awareness needed for everyday life.  (EYE vol 16 No 10 Feb 2015)

Our book this week will be the fabulous 'Aliens love underpants' .  I have picked this mainly because it is one of my favourites and also that underpants are such a great word.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

The snack will be Ugli fruit  'A large citrus fruit which is a hybrid of the grapefruit, the orange and the tangerine. It looks like a large grapefruit with a rough, greenish yellow peel, which is loosely wrapped around sweet juicy segments. The taste is sourer than an orange, but less bitter than a tangerine. Available from December to April, the peel comes away easily before you break it into segments. It can be added to salads or chopped into a fruit salad.' (Tesco website) I am hoping to get hold of this, but will keep you updated.

Obviously There will be coffee, fruit juice and biscuits courtesy of the Etherow Visitors Centre and Ranger Steve will add to our exciting area the only way a Ranger can....  we look forward to seeing you Monday.

Mel

The New Year Mini Rangers - Reflections and starting on Monday 5th January 2015 - Bring an empty milk bottle!

Happy New Year Mini Rangers. The new year presents us with opportunities of looking back and appreciating what has gone and then looking forward and as Alison Chapman has recently written in the EYE (Jan2015) this suits children brilliantly as they are natural optimists with a 'can do' attitude.  For Mini Rangers this is exactly what I try to capture by providing an enabling environment full of independent choices, interested adults and plenty to inspire and motivate.

We have had wonderful term pulling the phonic sounds out of our phonic box, s, a, t, p, i, n. in the first half term with activities like seed collecting, apple eating, teddy bears pic nics, pirate ships, ink making and looking for and making nests.  Then we moved on to the next term take on the sounds m, d, g, o, c, k, with activities like the maze, dinosaurs, gruffalo, oranges, cats and kittens!  With our weekly story and activities, the sounds really came to life.

Looking back over the pictures I am so impressed with the environment we have created on a Monday morning.  Our mud kitchen which has been so popular with everyone, the bug hotel (may be in need of some care and attention) and our lovely log circle.  With the help of Ranger Steve and his lovely outdoor fire building, his outdoor games, the lovely Marina and Sam who help out with our snack shack and administration and of course Neil and Paul who help set everything up.  The most impressive of all is the Mini Rangers themselves, who engage with activities set out for them with gusto, who are brave and fearless in the face of the English weather, lucky for us we have had exceptionally good weather and haven't really had to rely on the shelter that is put up every week, or the warmth of the fire that Steve has made, but lets see what January brings.

Looking forward, this term we are about to embark upon the phonic sounds e, u, r, h, b, f.  So to start with let the elephants enter etherow park!  I am talking about that lovely Elmer the elephant.  

If you can all bring one empty, washed out milk bottle I will bring some tissue paper and we will make an elmer the elephant, we will then follow that with the Elmer story and perhaps a quick snack of boiled eggs hopefully on our outdoor fire! Coffee, juice and biscuits as always available.

As every the mud kitchen will be open and all we need is you!