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great winter activities

muddy boy outdoors
29 Jan

MUD KITCHENS – free, easy & just brilliant!

activities, children, forest school, great winter activities, Little Rangers

If there is one thing you can guarantee in this country, it’s rain! We get a lot of rain, but if we let it stop us from doing things we’d almost never do anything or go anywhere.

So, we say embrace the rain, work with what you’ve got. Use all this water and mud to your advantage. It’s a resource to be cherished, after all, it is a giver of life and we wouldn’t have such beautiful countryside if it wasn’t for the rain. I thought back to the last time I went on holiday to a hot and dry country, beautiful but scorched landscapes with plant life struggling to survive, and then the feeling of returning home to the UK and seeing all the lush green abundance of growth around me. I know I felt blessed that I live where I do.

That said, the rain can and does get you down at times, especially when it seems relentless, but here at Woodland Classroom we try and find ways in which activities can still go ahead despite the weather and actually work with it, using the weather to our advantage. This is where the mud kitchen comes in…

muddy girl outdoors

We’d seen lots of pictures on Pinterest about mud kitchens so we dug out some old pots and pans, a few planks of wood, some tree stumps, wooden spoons and an old camping kettle; set it all up. The kids added the final ingredient… imagination.

It was the first time we’d done this activity but the kids new exactly what to do, some made apple pie, some made Christmas cake and some just liked the feel of the mud on their hands. For the youngest tots we say how they simply enjoyed pouring mud and water from one container to another.

One intrepid group of adventurers went in search of fallen apples to add to their mud pie. They came back with hazelnuts, pine cones and all kinds of ‘ingredients’ for their creations. We were over the moon at how much the kids loved it, it was easily one of the best activities we have done to date and so easy to set up and (best of all) it cost nothing.

If you want to try this for yourself and don’t want to use your best pots and pans from your kitchen then you can pick up suitable stuff at junk shops or charity shops for next to nothing and we promise it will be worth it. A little corner in your garden dedicated to a mud kitchen will keep your little ones happy even in the worst of weather, just kit them out with good waterproofs and you’ll be well away.

We decided to make a quick video showing you how we set up our mud kitchen and to show you that it doesn’t need to be fancy or overly engineered, so take a look for some inspiration for setting up your own mud kitchen.

Here is an account of one of one parent’s experience after watching our video:

“We set up our mud kitchen after your prompt over the holidays, something I’ve been meaning to do for ages… Took no more than 10 minutes, and they all have played and played out there. Lleucu was out ’til dark making snow soup this evening and only came in cause she was soaked through, literally down too and including her pants and she was freezing.” Belinda Knott (parent)

So what are you waiting for? Get out and get cooking. Mississippi Mud Pie, Chocolate Log, Stone Soup and more will be on the menu. What will your child cook up?

muddy wellies in the woods

nibbled nuts found on winter scavenger hunt
09 Jan

Awesome Winter Scavenger Hunt

activities, children, forest school, great winter activities , , , , , , , , , , ,

So… it’s winter. The days are cold and short, but it’s still a great time to be out and about and see a host of things in the woods that you’d not see at other times of the year. Winter leaves our countryside bare, open to deeper exploration and let’s you poke your nose into all sorts of nooks and crannies that would be walled off with greenery come summertime.

Kenneth Grahame, author of the popular children’s novel The Wind In The Willows, painted an evocative picture of the countryside in winter, which hints at the secrets that are waiting to be discovered;

“The country lay bare and entirely leafless around him, and he thought that he had never seen so far and intimately into the insides of things as on that winter day when Nature was deep in her annual slumber and seemed to have kicked the clothes off… He was glad that he liked the country undecorated, hard, and stripped of its finery. He had got down to the bare bones of it, and they were fine and strong and simple.”

There were plenty of winter adventures for Mole, Ratty and Badger, so in order to inspire you to make your outdoor experience one that the kids will love too we have devised an awesome Winter Scavenger Hunt that will stimulate all the senses of your child. The only sense we haven’t got covered is taste – but we’re sure a nice hot chocolate at home after the walk will tick that box. We hope our scavenger hunt will make going outside in winter a memorable and exciting experience for the whole family. Give it a go and let us know how you got on.

DOWNLOAD OUR AWESOME WINTER SCAVENGER HUNT HERE

winter woodland scavenger hunt

You can share pics of your scavenging adventures on our facebook page, we’d love to see them.

We always host a great range of activity days right through the Autumn and Winter months, because we believe it’s important for kids and adults to get outside more than ever during these times when many people shut themselves away indoors. You can check out our upcoming events HERE.

parent and child at forest school
09 Jan

Got the Winter Blues? Nature Has the Answer

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We NEED To Get Outdoors, even though it’s wet & cold. It’s essential for our health and happiness, here’s why…

Winter is a time of year when many people hide away indoors, mirroring the hibernation of some animals and with all this wind and rain we’ve had for what feels like forever, who can blame them?

Christmas and New Year are behind us and there doesn’t seem much to look forward to. Many of us feel like cuddling up on the sofa and watching a movie when it’s cold, wet and going dark so early. Spring feels like a lifetime away, doesn’t it? When we do have to go out to work or get the kids to school, we dive out of the car and straight indoors, then it’s back out into the car, dive in and out of shops and back home, back to the world of central heating and electric lighting. Although this might make us feel more comfortable, it’s no compensation for the benefits of fresh air and sunlight. Without direct sunlight our bodies cannot produce vitamin D, which is important for maintaining normal blood levels of phosphorus and calcium, and helps keep our bones healthy and strong.

The amount of daylight we get each day has a dramatic effect on our mood too. Without this daylight our body produces substances that make us feel lethargic and lacking in energy. Idun Haugan of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology says that when sunlight hits our retinas at the back of our eyes, light sensitive nerve cells are activated which stimulates the production of serotonin and cortisol;

“These substances are important in determining our physical and mental health. Insufficient levels of serotonin can result in depression, lack of energy, sleep problems, mood swings and poor impulse control.” (Haugan 2013)

It is not always easy to get motivated to go outside in the middle of winter but remember this lack of motivation is caused by our lack of sunlight and the over production of melatonin (our body’s sleep hormone). So in the winter months with so little daylight available it’s even more important to get outside and feel the sun on your face, in fact, I guarantee you will feel more energised and invigorated for making the effort.

Check out our Winter Scavenger Hunt as a great excuse for a walk in nature with your kids. There’s plenty of other ideas on our Pinterest page too.

boys in forest school at winter

boy at forest school in winter with candles
13 Dec

Making the Most of Winter in the Woods

activities, children, forest school, great winter activities , , , , , , , ,

boy at forest school in winter with candles

Wintertime in the woods changes things quite dramatically. The cold, wet and early darkness means thinking differently about the activities we do with our children. Something that the kids look forward to as we approach midwinter is our Winter Wishes activity, something that’s simple enough to recreate yourself.

As the nights draw in I’ve found the children are naturally drawn to the campfire, they head for its light and warmth. Here stories can be told, chestnuts roasted and fire-sticks made. There is also a magical feel to this time of year that can be embraced as well as encouraging the kids to think about what’s going on in nature around them.

Children are full of excitement and anticipation for Christmas and the school holidays. They are mesmerised by the darkness and the dancing flames, it is a time for wishes and wonder and staying close to each other for warmth and protection.

Winter solstice (which falls between December 20th & 21st) is a turning point where (in the northern hemisphere) we are at the peak of the darkness, it being the shortest day and longest night. There is the knowledge of more light to come, as from this day forth the days get slowly longer and with that comes a deep sense of hope, new beginnings and the promise of spring.

At our Forest School we winter solstice at forest school with kidslike to mark the winter solstice as this is all about welcoming the returning light to the earth and it gives the children a chance to reflect on their year just gone and their wishes for the coming year.

We mark this occasion with out Winter Wishes activity. Whilst sat in a circle, away from the campfire, each child has a turn to light a candle and make three wishes;

One wish for themselves

One wish for their community

and one wish for the Earth.

We don’t insist that the children speak their wishes out loud if they don’t want to. This gives them the option to make a very personal wish that they may otherwise be too embarrassed to speak out loud to the group.

As each child lights a candle and adds it to the growing cluster of others the light increases, mirroring the increase of sunlight and turn of the wheel of the year as we move through winter and toward spring.

“Winter solstice is a moment of pause between two cycles, a moment of transition that can be held and savored….take a moment to experience this edge between these two great cycles. It is also a moment to look forward, to name the new seeds and intentions we wish to take into the next cycle.” Glennie Kindred, Letting in the Wild Edges

I feel that it is important that we give the children a chance to wish for the wider community, especially as at this time of year it can be very easy for kids to get wrapped up in themselves as they receive so much over the Christmas period. Setting good intentions for the world can be their way of giving.

children around campfire in winter forest school

There’s plenty of other fun and games to be had in the winter woods. Our kids cook damper breads on a stick, use flashlights and Morse code to send messages through the dark, they light their own fires and cook baked beans in their tin (cowboy style) to share. All this helps dispel the fear of the darkness and develops their night vision by using all their senses. The kids go back to their homes with rosy cheeks, smelling of wood smoke and full of tales of shadows and mystery. Outdoor learning and play certainly doesn’t need to stop just because it is winter.

Happy holidays!

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