Heat wave next week!
Here’s a few simple outdoor activities you can do with your children in the sunshine. Enjoy!
Bug Hotel
We had a go at building a bug hotel to give insects and other minibeasts a safe space to shelter and hide from predators. Using toilet rolls we divided the hotel into sections and stuffed each part with different natural materials. Dry leaves, twigs, hollow stems, dead grass, pine cones and bits of bark worked well. We even made predictions as to what creepy crawlies might live there.
Elderflower cordial and lollies
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/homemade-elderflower-cordial
Elderflower is still in season and the cordial is easy to make. Mix with sparkling water to create elderflower presse or mix half with water and freeze in lolly moulds. We also picked raspberries and blackcurrents from the garden and made fruit lollies blending it all with yogurt and honey.
Painting Stones. Hide and seek and you shall find…
We’ve had lots of excitement finding stones which have been painted and hidden by other children on various walks. Some even have messages written on the back of them. So we decided to make our own to hide! A fun hide and seek game.
Ice Cream Crafts
Once we had drawn around cups and cut out the circles with scissors we painted our ice creams and added a range of toppings: sprinkles, hoops, mini marshmallows, chocolate buttons and glitter. We then set up an ice cream shop as a role play activity exchanging money for ice cream. Nom Nom Nom
Homemade Bubble Wands
Very easy to make, you just need pipe cleaners. Take one end of the pipe cleaner and bend it to form a circle. Once you are happy with the size and the shape twist it together tightly so it stays locked in place. We used a large tray of bubble solution so we could get creative with shapes and sizes.
Raft Building and Bridges
My children are constantly bringing back sticks to the house and collecting them on walks so we decided to put them to use. Making rafts, bridges across rivers and castles were lots of fun. You’ll need the following:
10 (approx) small sticks for the raft deck
1 twig for mast
Material for a sail (we used a leaf)
Twine to tie it together
Scissors
Craft Glue (to attach the sail or just pierce the leaf)
More fun with sticks with a snake twist…
We found a slow worm in our garden which caught the interest of my 4 year old. We researched about snakes; their colours and habitats and then painted sticks of different sizes to make our own. Finally, we went on a snake hunt and found lots buried in the garden just like the slow worm!
Facepaints and Dressing up
We found a big box of fancy dress clothes in the loft and explored every corner of it. Lots of fun guessing what animal, story character we were and then made up our own stories using face paints to invent new characters for the stories: Electricity Man and Ice Girl.
Water Pistol Phonics Fun
All you need is a water pistol, egg cups, plastic balls/rubber ducks and a felt tip pen.
Write a range of ‘Letters and Sounds’ on each ball or on the base of the duck. Put the balls into the cups and place somewhere where they so they can fall off (we used a bench). It soon becomes a target practice game with a Phonics twist! Aim and fire the water gun at the balls within a time limit or see how many you can knock down before your water runs out. The child then has to read out the Letters and Sounds on each ball knocked down in order to keep them. Extend by taking in turns to hide the balls around the garden at different heights before aiming at them and the child has to collect more each go. My 2 year old loved helping me to hide the ducks and retrieving them. She also enjoyed replacing the balls onto the egg cups again. It was a winner for both children!
Make a wildlife pond
Watch this space! More on pond making soon but take a look and see if it is something you’d like to with your children. https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/actions/how-build-pond
Campfire and camping
Camping in the garden overnight or just using the tent as a den or reading area is so much fun. My children enjoyed collecting…yes you guessed it…sticks and making a bonfire. We then had to eat marshmallows on it of course.
