There was great excitement when scaffolding went up outside playgroup last month and builders arrived to make repairs and safety additions to our roof. The children were inspired into role play: hammering, sawing and building brick walls, making sure they had hard hats and high-vis jackets on. We would like to say a huge thank you to Menheniot Parish Council for helping us with the funds to have this work done.
We have been making the most of the lovely weather by getting out and about, looking at flowers and leaves and learning about trees and the water cycle. We’ve had fun in the willow maze playing hide and seek and we even had a game of football on the field.
On Thursday 14th May the children took part in a muddy puddle walk for ‘Save the Children’. We headed, once again, to The Granary Farm School at Tencreek Farm. We began the day with a visit to see the animals and said "hello" to the pigs, lambs, chickens and an eighty-year-old tortoise!
The children then began their walk down the hill, spotting lots of small creatures and colourful flowers in the hedgerow. At the bottom of the hill the children listened to the birds, in particular the distinctive song of the chiffchaff and the honking of the geese who had recently had goslings, before sitting down for a snack by the pond.
While the children enjoyed their snack, a cup was passed around containing one of the pond's resident tadpoles, so the children could take a closer look. You'll be pleased to know that the tadpole was safely returned to the pond and not mistaken for part of the snack! Afterwards the children transformed slices of bread into small sailing boats by adding twigs, leaves and flowers and floated them on the pond to be enjoyed later by the surrounding birdlife.
As the weather had been dry, there weren't any muddy puddles to jump in but the children hadn't donned their wellies in vain as there was a very inviting river to splash about in! Great fun was had paddling and throwing stones in the river as well as crossing the bridge to see the cows and their calves on the other side.
Then it was time for all those little legs to walk back up the big hill and they did an amazing job! We said our goodbyes to our new farm friends and headed back to playgroup for lunch. Thank you to Susannah Kendall at The Granary Farm School for having us and to James and Trudy Kendall for once again letting us visit their farm.
Our Little Owls baby and toddler group on a Tuesday afternoon has also been busy this term. We have planted sunflowers which we'll check each week, hoping they'll grow really tall, and we made delicious bread rolls which was sticky but definitely worth the mess! We always welcome new faces at our friendly little group in The Old School from 1:30-3pm every Tuesday during term time, just £2 per family.
