This week lets look at Yoga in the outdoors - 23 March 2015

This week we are looking at Yoga in the outdoors.  Has your child tried posing like a mountain or enjoyed stretching out in the downward dog? Lets try it all together!

At the moment we are looking at the possibilities of rain showers during our session, so it is a good job that Marina has been out shopping for new tent pegs and props to support our shelter!  I am sure that our new shelter will be brilliant.

Please where your splash suits this week as a bit of rain never hurt anyone, but could make us feel uncomfortable.

Also I would like to thank anyone who has voted for us in the 'Mum's in the Know' competition and if you haven't yet voted please do I think it is this sort of validation that makes the whole idea of 'Etherow Mini Rangers' worth while.

http://www.mumsintheknow.co.uk/stockport/mitk-awards-2015-the-nominations-are/

Thanks everyone and see you there!

Mel

Winter is over lets go into the woods and explore! Monday 16 March 2015

Our phonics sound is 'w' this week and so without further ado a list of activities, snacks and a story!

This week lets have some waffles.

We are getting creative with our 3d web so get ready to get involved with some weaving of a spidery web!

Our book is called 'once upon a slime' and it is all about a spider who explores a little far from home one day.  Here are some spidery facts because the more you know about a spider, the less he will make you jump when he scuttles past your feet!

The silk web spiders weave is very strong in fact spider silk is five times stronger than most metals!
spiders spin webs to catch flies and bugs!
they wrap it tightly round food they have caught
they knit it together to make spider dens and egg sacs!

Don't worry though you are most likely not to find a spider in your house till august and september!

This is short and sweet today, its mothers day enjoy!!

Mel

Phonic sound 'v' as in volcano and Velociraptor - Monday 9 March 2015

Oh what a Monday last week was, being able to catch falling snow, making and eating jammy baguette, eating jelly and hearing about the terrible jumble bum who only appears in messy bedrooms, which reminds me must sort out house!!!  

We welcomed many new faces to our natural wonderland of ever changing terrain.  Seeing children begin to adjust their balance and using their whole body to negotiate the bumpy ground, sometimes falling, but using that intrinsic quality that motivates children to want to move their bodies and be active.

When I attended my own forest school training in 2010 I could immediately see the benefits that I had read about in the childhood and nature study commissioned in 2009 for supported play outside.  At Mini Rangers we are supporting our children in the type of play that we as adults took for granted when we were children.  Mud pie constructing encompasses a wide range of learning schemas, I am of course misleading you in the use of mud pies as they could be anything and the time that children take in collecting objects to put into the pots and spooning earth and leaves into them and then proudly showing this off means that to just call them mud pies is much too simple a term.

This week Pure Innovation team have been down to our area to clear some of the brambles off of the slopes surrounding us.  This means that more able children will be able to climb up the banks without getting cut!  So that should become a more exciting opportunity for older children.

Ranger Steve will not be coming and Neil has a dental appointment this week so I am hoping that my lovely volunteers Mark, Mark, Marina and Sam will be able to assist as usual.

So this week we are focusing on the letter sound 'v'.

We will be making some volcanos out of mole hills, some vegetable soup. Due to its volcanic connection we are going to have 'the dinosaur that pooped the past' by Tom Fletcher and Dougie Poynter.

So see you Monday for some more mini ranger fun.