What a fabulous, first full week back at school!
Pre-Prep ventured down to the school orchard last week, identifying the usual natural hazards of nettles, brambles, mushrooms and fox poo as they went. Once there, they listened to the story of Johnny Appleseed. Johnny Appleseed, a hero of American folklore, was said to be a barefooted wanderer, who walked ‘west’ across America, planting apple trees from seed.
The children were quick to notice that it is a very poor year for apples down in the orchard, only one tree has been able to produce a small number of apples. So, they were thrilled to hear that my friend Johnny Appleseed had flown over from America and hidden a golden apple somewhere in our orchard for them to find!
Having found the golden apple, the Reception class pretended to be rangers, exploring the orchard, finding feathers and sticks. They all enjoyed playing ‘fruit salad’, a very tiring game, especially in the heat, before lying down on the grass and spotting things above; blue sky, clouds, branches with leaves, a dragonfly, a bird and a bee!
In the orchard, Nursery children jumped over the mole hills and tried to sit in the rabbit holes. They sat and ate their snack while learning about Johnny Appleseed’s adventures, before heading out on their own escapades, hunting for apples, carefully placed throughout the orchard. They found the apples along with ants, a slug, spiders and a hopping frog. It was suggested they’d like to find different fruit next week, maybe bananas!
Years 1 and 2 played additional fruit based games in the shade, before going on self led exploration, making independent decisions about risk taking in the orchard.
Kindy were full of enthusiasm walking down to the orchard; they had spotted all the potential hazards, plus spiky holly, before we even got there! They ate a snack, listened to the story, hunted for different types of fruit, played fruit based games and enjoyed running down the slope making funny noises! They were very kind and helpful, helping me back up the slope as I was groaning about having ‘tired old lady legs’!
Mrs Wilson
