HeART Projects

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If we want our children
to move mountains
we first have to let them
get out of their chairs.

- Nicolette Sowder

At equinox outdoor learning our curriculum is inspired by montessori ethos together with a forest school approach. We facilitate child led learning and reconnecting with the natural world in our inspiring sessions based at a beautiful twelve acre outdoor setting.

Follow our journey ⛅️

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flexible places available from September 2021 ♡︎

During today’s session we had a variety of painting activities; sponge painting dollies to give a pattern on the cardboard underneath, egg box cartons and plastic bottles with Pom poms stuck on (with double sided tape). We had the playdough table out with cinnamon playdough (which smelt delicious) and various rollers and shape cutters, the children enjoyed pretending to make waffles and different shapes all whilst working on their fine motor skills. There were also a number of home made activities, firstly, there was threading following a pattern made by sticking toilet rolls down onto the floor. Secondly, there was a box with plastic cups hanging down inside that the children aimed at with a tennis ball trying to knock as many as they could, this is an excellent and very simple activity to help develop hand eye coordination. Lastly, we put out cardboard boxes with wax crayons beside them for the children to explore and draw in. Our toy & book corner always has a number of open ended and natural toys for the children to play with, use their imagination and develop their motor skills.

Today we made Father’s Day cards and presents as well as having lots of open ended activities that helped develop the children’s fine motor skills. For all the dads, step dads & grandparents we painted cards and then used lollipop sticks to engrave drawings and messages into the paint as well as painting pencil holder gifts made from toilet rolls and cardboard. We also had our ever popular play dough table filled with recycled items to enhance the children’s play, imagination and fine motor skills. They played with homemade coloured rice shakers, enjoyed feeding pipe cleaners through the holes in the sieves (which is a simple yet great exercise to develop their motor skills) and putting pom poms through toilet rolls stuck to the wall.

Today’s session was enjoyed by everyone with lots of open ended activities allowing the children to explore a variety of different mediums. We used an old blind and spread it out on the floor for them to use chalks on, they loved this and some of the patterns looked like fireworks. There were two painting activities; one with ‘spaghetti’ paintbrushes and another using paper plates to squash and mix the paint, swirling it around giving it a lovely effect on the cardboard. We had a our playdough table with green and yellow playdough that was infused with peppermint and lemon essential oils, we put out sequins, lollipop sticks and various containers for the children to play with and use their imagination as well as develop fine motor skills; cakes, sweets, dinosaurs and aliens were made with the variety of items. Lastly, we stuck contact paper to the wall and gave the children a box of duplo to use, they all enjoyed sticking it onto the paper and taking it off again making various patterns.

We’re back this Thursday and will run for 5 sessions, with our last session before the summer holidays being July 4th 🙂

There’s no session this week due to half term. We’ll be back the following week on Thursday 6th June. See you then 🙂 x

This weeks session had a wide variety of open ended activities for the children to take part in. There was spaghetti messy play (that got extremely messy) with different items to pick it up and a variety of containers to fill. This activity is excellent for fine motor skills as well as hand eye coordination, our play dough table also consisted of similar materials this week as well to help develop these skills. We made a tower from cardboard boxes and different materials for the children to build and knock down, which they loved doing, and our contact paper and tissue paper activity that consists of a large sheet of it stuck to the wall allowing the children to experiment sticking on the tissue paper however they liked together or individually. We also had a really lovely salt dough activity with natural resources that the children could press into it and make ornaments to hang up at home, there were some really beautiful results. And lastly there was a group painting activity where we stuck different materials to large cardboard sheets for them to paint, the materials were of different textures including a variety of shapes and 3D objects.

Today’s session was really busy with lots of new faces 🙂 We had resistance painting on cardboard with star shapes which was was popular as well as a variety of threading activities including pasta and toilet rolls for younger ones. This activity is great to help develop fine motor skills and hand eye coordination. We also had a table with sensory bags aimed at the younger children but enjoyed by all and an animal scene scooping activity with beans and chick peas. The latter entertained a number of children for a very long time and is easy to replicate at home. Lastly we had our usual playdough table with a variety of items to interest the children and help develop their fine motor skills and empty cardboard boxes with different materials laid out in front for the children to enjoy open ended play and discover different textures.

We had numerous painting activities today mixed in with our usual sensory play, play dough (with added glitter), toys and books. The car painting activity was really fun and the children loved dipping them in the paint and letting them roll down a cardboard slope. We had egg boxes that were made into caterpillars with twigs, pipe cleaners, paint, sequins and googley eyes as well bottles and toilet roll printing on cardboard. We used a variety of plastic bottles to give different effects, some even looked like flowers, which the children liked and of course some just enjoyed painting their hands and getting plain messy 🙂

We focused on pastel colours today, it was a very messy session using lots of sensory based activities. The kids had a great time! We had the cling film painting out again as it proved so popular during the previous session, again the children loved this and it is inclusive to much younger children too. There was sensory water play with oranges, limes and lemons that smelt delicious and a variety of items for scooping and filling which is great for developing motor skills. The play dough table was based around different shapes today for printing and building and we had another messy activity of paint exploration using kitchen utensils which was thoroughly enjoyed by all the children. Our last activity used pastel coloured rice in zip lock bags that the children could experiment with and draw in it, some began to recognise numbers and letters in the rice too 🙂

This weeks session had a variety of activities including a painted Easter egg, using tin foil as the medium for painting, which gave a marbled effect when dipped in different colours. We also had a ‘process art’ group painting activity on cling film, all the children really loved this and spent a long time at this art station having fun creating different patterns together. There was our ever popular play dough table as well as a painted blossom tree using hand prints and cotton wool buds. We’re now on holiday for 2 weeks but back next term on Thursday 2nd May. Happy Easter Holidays 💕💕