Preparing for Halloween!

The month of October was perfect,bright and sunny Autumn days which allowed us to spend time outdoors. The children enjoyed the  Autumn “clean up”, raking and gathering leaves to compost,clearing the veg patch and planting winter beans.We had many lovely walks and gathered leaves from the beech,sycamore,ash and birch ..we will press these and make pictures.They have much fun identifying the leaves and plants we find.We filled the bird feeders and almost immediately the great tits and blue tits arrived in the garden.I opened the door to allow the children to listen to their songs…the “silence game”!A number of years ago, I discovered a series of toy song birds in the botanic garden shop and they are much loved by the children.From listening to each of these birds and allowing them to listen to each bird in isolation,they are able to recognise the songs of the different birds…great tit,blue tit,robin,chaffinch,sparrow,thrush.We take the birds on the walks and use the “toys”to call the birds…   a fun game and at same time developing listening and observing skills.There was great excitement putting up Halloween decorations,scooping out the pumpkin and making masks.We all made a barn brack and  put a ring in it before baking. On Friday,we had our fancy dress party and played the traditional games and then all took a slice of brack home! We have mid-term now and back next week to Winter..lets hope we wont be banished indoors and we can enjoy crisp winter days!!