Jumping frogs!! Monday 2nd March

Jumping into Spring, I am starting to see the changes with the snowdrops popping up everywhere, crocuses blooming and daffodils getting ready to show their yellow trumpets!

This week our sound is 'j' a tricky sound to just throw into a mini rangers session!  So I am thinking a lot will depend on the rather tempestuous weather we have been having of late with heavy downpours some mornings and glorious sunshine on others.  So far the weather predictions are for light showers or snow ??  Not sure what to believe!  This week Mark is stepping in as fire expert, so we will be having our cosy fire and I am planning on making some jelly for snacks.  If anyone wants to bring a snack, like the lovely flap jacks which were very much appreciated, we will be happy and grateful for that.

We also have Oliver's dad Mark assisting us with shelter building and general other bits so thanks to him too!

We will be having some jumping races and I will be providing us with bits of string to make nature jewellery with.

Our book this week will be Jumble bum!

As an aside I was reading a book called Thinking games for preschoolers by Susan Baltrus and one of the games was lovely called Hippopotamus.  The purpose is to exercise listening skills, critical thinking, imagination and verbal communication skills.  You don't need any materials.
How to play:  The first player thinks of  sentence that describes a true fact about one or more of the other players.  The player says the sentence aloud, but substitutes the word for hippopotamus for one of the nouns.  Other players try to guess the correct word.  The first player to name the correct word thinks of another sentence.

example:  Lauren says, 'mum brought her hippopotamus to work this morning because it might rain' Sam correctly guesses umbrella, so he creates the next sentence.

You may have to do quite a few examples to get the ball rolling, but I have used this idea with the three year old's that I look after and they were in stitches.

Skills developed: As your child listens to your sentences, she/he sharpens listening skills and uses critical thinking to determine the correct word.  She/he's likely to find the role of creating her own sentences to be more challenging, but more rewarding (and funny!)  This part of the game develops imagination and verbal communication skills.

Anyhow, as ever looking forward to seeing you all, and I hope you had a good week!

Mel

Hope you had a happy half term- see you all Monday 23 February 2015

Last half term we covered the phonic sounds of

e  u  r  h  b  f

We managed to warm our hands on boiled eggs, create an umbrella pathway, runaway with raisins, we bought crazy hats, read about bog babies and created fairies while eating fish fingers!

For our best bits check out the facebook page Etherow park mini rangers.

This term we are starting with phonic sound 'l' and moving onto 'j','v','w','x','y'.

With the half term we have just celebrated the chinese new year, so what better way than for us to join the fun than to make lanterns to hang.  For our snack this week I shall be bringing some Lychees and for our book we have had a kind donation from Peejmaybe of the blog 'read it daddy' with a book called 'How many legs' by Jim Field and Kes Gray.  Hope you like it!

See you Monday 23 February 2015, 10 am!  

I did check the weather and it seemed fair, remember we have the shelter and the fire so we should be ok.  Please let me know if you have any ideas for activities, snacks or books for upcoming phonic sounds!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2642999

Post for February 9th February 2015 - Phonic sound 'f'

Well f could stand for fairwell to Ranger Steve for a little while.  Ranger Steve is off to have an operation so this Monday will be our last time to say good luck with everything and hopefully see you back here after Easter.

f could also stand for friends as that is what you have all become and thank you to the friends that have been volunteering to help especially while Steve is recuperating.

Neil is still attending his assemblies this week in order to appear in the Kingsway School assemblies to publicise the Stockport Cancer Research Relay for Life a 24 hour walk that Neil organises each year and will be taking place on the 4 and 5th of July.  If anyone wants to know more please ask us or go to the following link  http://relay.cancerresearchuk.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/General?pg=entry&fr_id=1478 .

So Ranger Steve will be making his fire for the last time in a while on Monday which I feel is an exciting event in itself and I think we should have something special on the BBQ for the last week, Steve will be making fish fingers.

Our Story will be Barry the Fish with Fingers.

We will make a fairy or a fish stick.

First we will collect our willow sticks (there are some in our area) and we will weave wool and bits of fabric in order to make a fairy or a fish.  We can then tie our fairy or fish on to the end of the willow and let the them bounce round the area.  All will become clear...

So looking forward to seeing you all on Monday for our last session before half term, it also marks our one year anniversary of doing mini rangers.

Mel

Bog Baby

Last week we heard the story Bog Baby by Jeanne Willis and Gwen Millward. This has become inspiration to make our own Bog Baby swamp at Etherow in our Mini Ranger area.  As it is quite cold at the moment I think it would be great if you could make a Bog Baby at home and bring it to Mini Rangers to create our Bog Baby area.

I would normally use air drying clay, but if you don't have this how about this possible alternative?  

Making the Clay -

Ingredients

 1 cup Cornflour or Cornstarch

2 cups Bi Carb Soda

1 1/2 cups Water

(Food colouring if you desire)

Let me know how you get on!!

Phonic sound 'b' leads the way for Monday 2nd February 2015

Well the weather seems to have stabilised a bit and with the BBC weather report showing a clear and bright winters day for Monday with temperatures dropping to -3degrees as long as we wrap up I have made the call that Mini Rangers is on.

So without further ado lets get started.  Some of you may have heard of a wonderful book called 'Bog Babies' which is perfect for our sound b, it also fits in with our natural surroundings as it talks about how nature should be respected and enjoyed, from a parental point of view it talks about the excitement generated by nature for children.  During the winter it is the awakening of nature that can fuel imagination.

We will be making bog babies out of clay, I will make sure we have a washing up bowl filled with warm water for washing hands and a towel. Ranger Steve will be on hand to make a fire so I am confident of warmth this week!

As the weather is a bit cooler I am going to bring my bubble mixture and I suggest you do too, There is a lovely experiment you can do if the ground is frozen.  Blowing bubbles to the ground when it is frozen freezes the bubbles and looks stunning.  You can actually see the bubbles freezing.

For snack I will make some of my home made bread as it seemed to go down well with the ham sandwiches!

No excuse!

Sunrise 07:52 Sunset 16:53

Last updated 07:14

  

Weather forecast details for Monday 2 February. Each column contains hourly forecast details for weather conditions, temperature, wind speed, wind direction, humidity, visibility and pressure.

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Weather Conditions
Temperature (°C)	-4°C	-4°C	-4°C	-4°C	-3°C	-2°C	-1°C	0°C	0°C	0°C	0°C	-1°C	-1°C	-2°C	-2°C	-2°C	-2°C	-2°C	-2°C	-2°C
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