New Year In Nature Nurture

We have had three wonderful and very different sessions with our 8-11 year old group since we returned after our Christmas break. 

New children and adults have brought a lot of good energy to the group and together with the old faces we discover new spaces to explore and play.


During the first week of February we had just enough snow to sledge down the slope at great speed.

The second week we enjoyed ice skating on the frozen puddles in the glorious sunshine and discovered a woodchip pile, which magically kept us warm if we dug down or buried ourselves in the newly chopped wood.

The third week it almost felt like Spring – the sun was out and we heard birdsong and saw hundreds of crocuses and snowdrops on the hills. Some children jumped in the muddy puddles that had been frozen just last week and got so dirty that both woodchips and leaves could stick onto their clothes whilst others tried the big rope swing for the first time or dared to go higher than ever before.

In the woods an old tree house was discovered and the boys helped each other to figure out how to crawl up into the tree in order to take the old wood down and rebuild it. It seems to be the beginning of a big project, which we hopefully will be able to continue tomorrow or perhaps when we have more time in the Holiday Project? On the bus journey back to school, some of the boys wrote down a list of materials they will need to continue the project whilst others were entertaining each other by putting on their best French, Italian (Danish and Hindi) accents!

Building a Sense of Place and a Connection with Nature

A few weeks ago one of our boys was given the task of exploring the wood beyond the boundary markers. His mission was to seek out another place where we can play as our current location is soon going to need a rest so it can recover. He was thrilled to be trusted with this important task. When he returned, rosy cheeked and excited, he was full of stories about a magical place he had found. He lead me through the 'new land' introducing me to places, trees and landscape features he had discovered. This was one of those moments when so many ideas and wishes came together in perfect harmony.... this little boy now has an enormously significant sense of place and an ownership of a piece of nature that he can now share with his friends

What we have been up to

What we have been up to the last weeks…

2014 is coming to an end and we had our last Nature Nurture sessions in the Autumn programme at the beginning of December.

The last couple of weeks were full of surprises both for the little and the older ones. A spontaneous tractor ride,lanterns and a magical fire at snack time in the Tuesday afternoon session and loads of popcorn and marshmallows to roast over the fire for the boys who came last Thursday morning. 

And then we of course did all the usual the things we love such as:

Working together to open the gate for our friends

Playing in the mud kitchen

Jamming in the musical area

Saying 'hi!'to the cows at the farm

 Chilling

Learning to light the fire to help keep our friends warm at snack time

Drilling holes

Making advent logs for someone special

Climbing trees to see the world from a different perspective

Seeing where Harry takes us

Discovering and jumping in some perfect muddy puddles

Getting a lift in Michael’s trailer to the minibus...

before it was time to say good bye

and see you next year!

The Nature Nurture team wish you all a wonderful Christmas and we look forward to starting up again at the end of January 2015. 

Autumn at Nature Nurture

We had to wrap up extra warm to play outside yesterday, making sure we had hats and gloves to keep out the cold.  

It is nice to have good friends who can make a fire to keep us all warm at snack time.

The leaves have turned beautiful colours and they had fallen onto the woodland floor, all different shapes and sizes.  It looks so pretty, turning the ground to gold by the stream. 

The children found some great uses for them, collecting them to share with friends at school, making pictures out of them for loved ones, and covering each other with them so you couldn’t be seen.  They also make great swishy noises when you walk through them, kicking them up as you go.

If you clear the leaves from the slope, you can make a great mud slide! A rope tied around a tree is another way of getting up to the top quickly if you are a climbing ninja.

"Here I come"

Woo hoo!

The leaves are falling off the trees, it must be Autumn!

Football was played everywhere at Nature Nurture today.  It was a good way to join in and start making friends, and all you need is a jacket and a tree as a goal.  The leaves were fling off the trees and the children said it looked like confetti, particularly good for celebrating the scoring of a goal!

Good friends and a football

Lovely view from up there

There was a lovely view from up high in the tree, where you could see the boys picking red apples for the cows we made friends with last week.

Apple picking

Nice conversations 

On the way through the woods there were some great conversations and we saw some real friendships beginning to emerge. 

Digging for dark soil for nature painting 

 The boys had collected blackberries on their way through the woods and dug out some dark soil to use as natural paints, making some lovely colours on the paper.

Sword fighting whilst balancing on logs

 There was also some advanced sword fighting going on as part of an elaborate imaginative game, whilst balancing on a log!

Another football game in donkey field

It was a shame it all had to come to an end when Beth shouted 'Find the Flag!' but luckily there was still chance for one more game before it was time to get onto the minibus and go back to school.  We are all looking forward to having more time to play in the Holiday Project in two weeks time!

What you might see in the Nature Nurture Woods on a Tuesday Afternoon

Journeying through the Nature Nurture woods on Tuesday there was a lot of climbing over and under bushes and brambles in the big wild "jungle". 

From the hollow log, you could see brave "firemen" rescuing other children and how "mini chefs" served great portions of chips and cabbage for lunch in the mud kitchen.  They really enjoyed serving up the food on plates and were very generous with the cups of tea and teaspoons of sugar!

At snack time we looked in the treasure bag where we found a fish, a cow, a bird and a frog.  Each animal has their own song or rhyme that we all sing - it is fun to join in with the actions.  When we are done, we say ‘Goodbye Bird, see you next week,’ before putting them back in the bag.

The children found two mysterious magnifying glasses that made their faces look very big. It was decided that the big eyes and giant mouths were the faces of spooky monsters and this turned into a chasing game, with scary noises.

"Does a snail get homesick?"

It was all about snails yesterday.  The children took the snails off a wall for a closer look, quite far from it's home, for a small snail.  But the snail carries it's home on it's back, so does it get homesick? That was the discussion.

In between the brambles that the children have been picking over the past two weeks, there were a host of snails of all sizes, patterns and colours.  You can easily pick up a snail and transport them on a leaf, in a basket or in your hand if you really want to.  And who would have known you can impress others with a snail?

Ask your friend if you can borrow their treasured bug box to get a closer look, and show your friends what it looks like close up.

Remember, if you borrow your friends snail, make sure you ask if it's ok before you release it back into the wild!