Into the summer….

As things slow down for some, I am still busy over the summer. This week coming I will be delivering Ofqual Learning Beyond The Classroom (level 7) to a groups of English Early Years staff in the Midlands. A week later, I will be up in Aberdeenshire working with childminders on fire management and schema in the outdoors…

Just for now though, here is a quick summary of Easter to July (nearly). This includes continued coaching sessions for a private nursery chain, back to the Royal Highland Show for PeatlandACTION for another year- our busiest yet! and of course, teaching outdoors in a primary school….

Outdoor teaching started with some foraging for P7 and P6. P7 made wild garlic pesto and P6 made dandelion cordial and mint tea.. The Dandelion cordial was a massive success, as was the pesto pasta!

With P4/5 we celebrated Sir David Attenborough’s 100th birthday and his impact on conservation. We made some fossils, as this is where Sir David was inspired and started his love for nature. We then discussed what we can do to conserve local habitats and beyond.

There was a lot of tool use this year, P2/3 made toys, P7 created Nail Art and P6 made a range of musical instruments.

P1/2 were down on the farm making tractors, grinding flour with a pestle and mortar and playing the tractor transport game. They then made popcorn with corn kernels and naan bread (with their own and additional flour) on the fire in the afternoon.

Meanwhile P4/5 embraced Roman life, making their own tablets (the first kind) and writing Roman Numerals on them. They marched as an army and defended the mini Antonine wall.

Back at the Royal Highland Show, we continued to demonstrate how peatland can be brought back from the brink by damming up unused drainage ditches and that salmon love it when peat captures the sediment and reduces flash floods in their rivers and spawning gravel beds. This year, we took a deep dive into the butterflies and day moths found on the Peatland and the importance of camouflage to these animals. The children loved the prizes - pencils and hats this year!