Out To Play
We all know that fresh air and being in touch with nature are extremely beneficial to everyone and here at The Ark we ensure that we spend a lot of time outside. Fresh air is good for both physical and mental health, purifying the lungs and providing energy. Natural environments can lower stress, reduce negative emotions and in turn increases positivity and physical well-being. This month we thoroughly enjoyed playing outside, experiencing the autumnal weather. We collected lots of exciting treasure and made a very creative nature area in our Busy Bees room.
Sensory Play
Water play is always a favourite with the children and some of the children in Busy Bees had a great time making a Halloween witches soup with cooking apples, bubbles and kitchen utensils. The children became really inventive adding in leaves, googly eyes, spiders and casting a magical spell.
Shaving foam is always popular and the children chose to add orange lentils and rocks to their foam – in keeping with our autumn theme. When discussing autumn the conversation naturally evolved into discussion about animals, farming and the changing season. This then progressed into a range of art activities, where children used natural and loose parts. Our babies enjoyed apple printing and there were a few nibbles apples by the end of their activity!
Halloween and Harvest
We can’t end our October adventure without mentioning Halloween and Harvest. Our vegetables were planted very late this year and we weren’t sure they would grow, but lo and behold our green fingered Afterschool children managed to coax them to grow and we were able to harvest our radishes and lettuce. Everyone made a great effort to dress up for Halloween – we had witches, pixies, fairies, cowboys and cartoon characters galore. We had a spectacular time at our party.
