Exploring Spring (Reception)
This is a hands on day that explores springtime at Skelton through lots of outside activities, including pond dipping, games and crafts. All the activities encourage the children to look at the natural world, to understand the features of springtime and to think about how the world will change as the year progresses.
This day supports delivery of the EYFS framework including the EYFS principles and learning and development requirements, particularly Knowledge and Understanding of the World.
Available for reception classes March-April.
What the day involves
The day begins with an introduction by the day leader, welcoming the children to the Centre and explaining what will be happening in the day. We have a general discussion about springtime, and have a warm up game.
The class is then split into groups (normally 4 groups - depending on class size) for the remaining activities: Signs of spring, New life, Seeds and Trees, Soil and Minibeasts.
Signs of spring
We will have a chat about what season we are in and how we know it's springtime and then, with giant magnifying glasses in hand,we'll search outside looking for signs of spring arriving. We explore the colours that we get in spring time by collecting natural objects on stickyboards that the children can take home. We also look at what birds are doing in spring time, looking for old and new bird nests and examining our collection of bird eggs.
New life
We think about the animals that are living at Skelton Grange and how in spring time they are preparing to have babies. We examine the different ways in which life arrives in spring time, some animals lay eggs, some have live babies. Exploring the pond we see that this brilliant habitat is coming to life with new animals and we hopefully will find some frogspawn or tadpoles and lots of minibeast larvae.
Seeds and Trees
We'll discuss how all plants start their lives as seeds. We will examine lots of different types of seeds and plant a seed to take back to school or home to watch its progress as the year develops. Finally we'll go and meet our oldest tree and find out how he changes over the year.
Soil and minibeasts
We will link plant growth with a trip to our compost bins and wormery to see what our minibeasts are busy doing at this time of year. We'll then finish the session with a minibeast hunt in the woods or at the vegetable patch.
Visit our Links page to find some fun ideas for pre-visit or follow-up activities!
