It’s great to be in the garden at Footsteps Farnborough!

As the sun has come out to play this June we have had plenty of opportunity to enjoy the newly developed garden area at Farnborough. Over the Easter holidays the garden had been totally transformed with new AstroTurf and new grass which the children have been enjoying over this summer term.

But that’s not all that’s been going on in our outside space! Aside from the setting for our wonderful Jubilee party at the beginning of June we have seen our creativity (from both the staff and children) go wild.
We have been very busy with our Forest School activities. We have got arty with leaves and flowers, mixed our own potions and used our imaginations to create pretend bonfires. We have made beautiful leaf bracelets and clay stick people – a great way to use natural resources. But most importantly had lots of special time sharing ideas and building friendships. Forest School is so amazing for expanding our minds, bodies and vocabulary with some awe-inspiring experiences.

We have had plenty of barefoot play as they enjoyed the new textures of the grass and AstroTurf underfoot. We have been boosting our brain power by stimulating all the nerve endings in our feet – which activates our brains. This has helped us develop lots of skills like balance and coordination without even realising! We have explored other textures with our feet like water, mud, paint and sand too.

We really enjoyed making water pictures on the wall with the hosepipe – we certainly found it a great way to cool off! But we can’t mention being in the garden without bringing up one of our favourite things – BUGS! We got hands on with our lifecycles learning and used our caterpillars to compare sizes as well as learn about how they get ready to make their cocoons. We have had bug hunts galore, teaching us where and how different creatures like to live.
We’ve also been able to take our maths and technology learning outside – looking at shapes, colours and patterns in nature, counting bugs and comparing sizes and weights of sticks and stones. We have also used the iPad to take our own pictures of all the amazing things we have found.
We can’t wait to see what adventures await us at the bottom of the garden next!