19/08/2026
WEEK 1 – FOOD 🧀🍦🐟
We kicked off our summer with a delicious week all about food and exploring our senses!
🍦 We enjoyed a visit to Brymore, where we tucked into some tasty ice cream in the hot sunshine, watched the animals playing and had lots of fun in the large open sandpit.
👃👅 We explored our senses through food tasting, trying some unusual flavours and discovering the differences between sweet, sour and savoury foods. We certainly had some interesting reactions! 😂
🧀 We then headed to Wensleydale Creamery, where we discovered how the famous Wensleydale cheese is made. We learned about the cheese-making process, explored the Wallace & Gromit exhibition and even got to taste different flavours of cheese! 🧀🐶
🧁 After all that exploring, we got busy in the kitchen with some baking! The children enjoyed mixing, creating and getting hands-on with their ingredients before enjoying their tasty treats. 👩🍳👨🍳
🐟🍟 We finished our food-filled week with a classic favourite – fish and chips! A delicious way to end a fantastic week of exploring food, flavours and our senses. 😋
🏰 WEEK 2 – HISTORY ⚔️
Our history week began with some fantastic fine motor work as we created our very own historic castles. The children cut, stuck and joined boxes together before decorating their castles using lots of different colours. 🎨🏰
We then visited Byland Abbey, where we explored the fascinating history of the ruins. We climbed, practised our gross motor skills, played hide and seek and enjoyed a lovely picnic amongst the historic surroundings.
⛏️ Next stop was York for The Dig, where our budding archaeologists listened to a talk about ancient artefacts and then had the chance to get stuck in and do some digging themselves!
🦴 We also became fossil makers, using clay, tools and moulds to create our own fossils to take home.
⚔️ Finally, we travelled back in time at JORVIK, learning all about Viking life. We travelled through their world on the Time Machine ride, experienced the environments and even some of the smells they would have encountered! We then explored the museum and incredible Viking artefacts.
🎨 WEEK 3 – ARTS & CRAFTS 🖌️
We got creative in so many different ways!
👦👧 We talked about the different parts of our bodies and used what we had learned to create our very own portraits.
🌸 At Helmsley, we got close to nature with a flower-picking experience. The children explored colours, chose their favourite flowers and created beautiful bunches to take home for their loved ones. 💐
🗿 At Yorkshire Sculpture Park, we explored interactive galleries inspired by Indian and African cultures, created our own sculptures and then ventured outside to discover the amazing large-scale sculptures around the park.
🤡 We celebrated National Clown Week and summer with lots of colourful crafts, including tissue-paper clown faces, paper-plate creations, symmetrical butterflies, glittery ice cream cones with our favourite toppings and lots of drawing! 🍦🦋✨
🏺 We finished the week with pottery masterpieces, adding lots of glitter, splashing them with colour and letting our creativity run wild!
🐾 WEEK 4 – ANIMALS 🦋
Our final week of this first block was all about the wonderful world of animals!
🦆 We took a leisurely walk to visit the ducks, feeding them bread and seeds and even having a little paddle ourselves!
🐠 At the Sea Life Centre, we explored the amazing colours of the underwater world, coral and a variety of sea creatures. We also discovered reptiles and the environments they live in, watched the penguins and even got to feel a mermaid’s purse!
🦋 At Butterfly World, we learned about the butterfly life cycle, experienced the warm and humid environment they live in and discovered a wonderful variety of butterfly species. Afterwards, we enjoyed a picnic, played in the sandpit and practised our gross motor skills on the large climbing frames.
🐄 We visited Steph’s Farm, where we met baby calves, horses and sheep before heading out on a hike and stopping at Lake Gormire for our mid-morning snack.
🦉 To finish our animal adventure, we visited Thorpe Perrow and Birds of Prey, where we saw and learned about incredible owls, eagles, vultures and ravens. We even had the opportunity to meet some of the animals before finishing with a picnic.
🌳💚 What an amazing first four weeks of summer our Ash Trees have had! From food tasting and baking to history, art, nature and animals, we have explored so many new experiences, developed new skills and made lots of wonderful memories together.
And this is only the beginning… ☀️🌳💚
