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

Monday 6 July 2015

Nature watch can you find?

       Stinging nettles
       Wild honeysuckle
       a Caterpillar on a leaf
       dropped feathers from birds moulting
       Flying ants

This week our giddy Ranger Steve is setting up an assault course (from his time in the military!) .
Conversations involve one person speaking while the other listens, and then the other person speaking, while the first listens.  Any game that involves taking turns helps to develop this skill:
There will be only one of each obstacle, we will listen while Ranger Steve explains how to move over or under the obstacle, then we will get the chance to try this one at a time.  

During snack time we take turns in approaching the lovely Marina who has sourced some lush blueberries for snack time. Marina will say 'your turn' and then offer us a small cup of blueberries we can either respond 'yes please' or 'no thank you' (or I prefer biscuits don't you know!)

We will be reading 'Oi Frog'  for this we will talk about the character of the frog and develop an action and sound that the children can join in with.  I will then emphasise the name of the character each time he is mentioned and allow the children to join in.

These activities are supported by the 'I Can' range from the Children's Communication Charity section Toddler Talk.

See you on Monday

Mel