Sensory ID Squares

πŸ’š πŸƒ 🍁 πŸ‚ LOVE my new felt touch leaf ID made by the talented Lottie Vee who has an Instagram page called Lotties Patches. I love them and they are proving a BIG hit at school – so colourful and tactile. The leaves (which I chose to reflect the two sites I use or am likely to use the most) and letters are raised so it’s a great sensory experience and the conker is VERY cute in it’s felt outer casing. Just beautiful – I can see another order going in πŸ’šπŸπŸ‚πŸƒ

Spring Equinox


🌺 🌸 WITH the Spring equinox this weekend my activity possibilities this week at school have had a Spring feel to them …. WE have made ivy crowns, enjoyed a fire, explored charcoal for drawing and face painting (!) and started digging over our green space ready for some seed 🌱 planting after the Easter break. IN the classroom we have enjoyed one of my favourite stories The Bog Baby so outside we had GREAT time taking advantage of a sunny warm afternoon to make our OWN bog and explore the mud with our hands and feet having lots of lovely FUN in the SUN with some barefoot walking – feeling the mud between our toes πŸ’šπŸ˜ŠπŸŒ³πŸ˜ŠπŸŒΈπŸŒΊTomorrow’s SUGGESTION will be to make some beds and homes for our bog babies which will have lots of possible texture fun πŸŒ³πŸ’šπŸŒ³πŸ’šπŸ˜ŠπŸŒΈπŸŒΊ

Natures Colours

🌳🌲🌳LOVING the different colours, sounds and sights on our dog walks at the moment – from foxes 🦊 and ducks πŸ¦†, rabbits and whole variety of birds and bird song – so diverse depending on the time of day that you get out OR even on our walk this afternoon the sky was changing as we made our way round the meadows. Food for the soul πŸ’šπŸŒ³πŸŒ²πŸŒ³

Introducing Sonia

Evening all! How was your Mother’s Day?! We spent it in the forest , carrying sticks to check the depths of puddles as trained by Jenny Flude Buckley πŸ˜†(thank you! , saved us many a time! Seriously!)

So I’m Sonia Williams and have learnt so much from so many of you and Jenny, from Jenny’s fab Nature Noodles sessions!

I’m so excited to be posting this , as I set up my first session at The Outdoor Classroom , as I know it’s the beginning of some great collaborations with the amazing Jenny Flude Buckley and Beth Allen!

I’m a Mum of 3boys, I’m Contemporary Dance trained at the Royal Academy of Dance , performing arts teacher trained and in the process of being outdoor trained πŸ˜†.

I have a passion for Maria Montessori’s phenomenal pedagogy with learning taking place outdoor FIRST, allowing children to be β€˜scientists of nature’ …

…and for the importance of allowing creativity ,
whether it be through movement , writing, drawing, painting or sculpting.

While I’m not forest school trained , I look to provide a safe, inspirational space for our children to explore their passions at their pace on their terms, to ALLOW learning to happen as THEY wish it to.

This of course could only have happened with Jenny’s and Beth’s influence and actions , so truly thank you, & I’m so excited for what is to come as we all are very passionate about what learning might look like for our children!

Clay Faces, Stories by the Fire & Mindful Moments for our first week back …

🌳🌲🌳I hope that you have ALL had a good return to some kind of normal be it school/ work or home 😊🌳🌲❀️

🌳🌲🌳AT school this week we have spent TIME labelling our feelings, played in the SPINNEY, made clay designs, played mindfulness games around the fire and enjoyed LOTS of stories NOT to mention enjoying some wild weather πŸ’¨ 🌧 … hoping for some sunshine 🌞 soon 🌳🌲😊

🌳🌲🌳It’s hard to recommend ANY specific book BUT The Busy Fox is a great book and really captivated the class and prompted LOTS of conversations… 🦊 🦊🌳🌲🌳

Introducing Beth

🌿Hello everyone!🌿
Firstly-thank you Jenny Flude Buckley for providing this platform introduce myself and share with you my new venture…. I am looking forward to collaborating in the near future on some exciting projects!
My name is Beth and I have been an Early Years teacher for the past 10 years. I trained as a Forest School Leader in 2016 and ran the forest school at my Primary school for a couple of years before taking on the role as Early Years Lead in the Nursery. I am a mum of 2..Matilda (5) and Toby (2) and we loved joining Jenny at Nature Noodles sessions a while back!
I am passionate about outdoors, the Forest School ethos and PLAY and after leaving my teaching job at Christmas, have set up β€˜WONDER in the Wild’ Forest School at the wonderful Bradlaugh Fields!!! πŸ’š We were due to begin in January although have had to hold on through lockdown, but now sessions are going to begin after the Easter Holidays🀞🌿!!!
The first block of sessions is fully booked but I am hoping to add lots of session possibilities to the programme, including parents and under 5’s, family sessions, school groups, home schoolers, parties and more! Feel free to join the β€˜Wonder in the Wild’ Facebook page where I will release new groups and availability when they arise!
Thanks so much everyone -hope to see you in the woods soon! πŸŒΏπŸ’šπŸŒΏ

https://www.facebook.com/groups/785653525353108

This is me!

🌳🌲🌳AS most of you know I’m Jenny. I am a Level 3 Forest School leader and Approved Practitioner with The Therapeutic Forest. I set up Nature Noodles in 2016 and then the Friday Foxes a bit later working part time as a childminder alongside running these sessions. I have been very lucky with the site and the landowners and have worked and trained with lots of amazing people leading to all kinds of opportunities including a trip to Sweden to attend a conference on Forest School/ Outdoor Learning as a delegate promoting the use of our outdoor spaces and changing peoples play perceptions recognising the benefits of risk taking and outdoor play for children. I have been influenced by the approaches of Joseph Cornell, Chris Holland and Greg Bottrill to name a few and now I work full time at my local primary school in Foundation stage which I love bringing in as many of these approaches as I can 😊🌲🌳

🌳🌲🌳I first met Beth Allen through a mutual friend and Beth was with me when I originally looked at the Outdoor Classroom site to use for my training and subsequent sessions so we have come full circle and then Sonia Williams when Sonia and her family began to attend my sessions. 🌲🌳🌳

🌲🌳🌲IF you have any questions please message me but in the meantime we will keep you posted with what we are doing and any upcoming sessions 🌲🌳🌲

Collaborative Networking

🌳🌲🌳THANK you for all the recent interest. At the moment I am not able to offer term time sessions BUT there is a collective of like minded practitioners building independent of each other YET with the same ethos and we will introduce ourselves on this platform shortly and advertise the sessions and who is leading them, what they do and where they do it as they arise WITH a view to working together – hopefully – offering Forest Camp sessions in the Summer holidays to re-wild our children and ourselves πŸ’šπŸŒ³πŸŒ²

Moving Forward …

πŸŒ³πŸ’šπŸŒ³WOW! What a week … I hope that everyone is feeling ok about this new β€˜normal’ that we are about to start. Be kind to yourselves and others, listen and be heard. πŸ˜ŠπŸ’šπŸŒ³πŸ’š

🌳🌲🌳THIS week at my (primary) school we have enjoyed mud pie cafes (a lot!), potions, chalk story boards and stories outside alongside everything else we came up with! 🌳🌲🌳

🌳🌲🌳WE have made a bug hotel πŸ›πŸ•·πŸœ, prepared a sensory play area and have a new storytelling chair 🌳🌲🌳

πŸ’šπŸŒ²WATCH this space for an announcement soon for the exciting new collaborative direction that Nature Noodles is taking β€¦πŸŒ²πŸŒ³πŸŒ²

Wildlife Challenge

πŸ’šπŸŒ³πŸ’šLAST week it was all about connecting to our local environment – to stop and see what we could see. WE encouraged our Reception children to make a map of their local area – to try and feel part of what is around them with the hope of encouraging more Nature and community connections promoting their voices in outdoor spaces πŸ’šπŸŒ³πŸ’š

πŸ’šπŸŒ³πŸ’šWE also took a turn to be wildlife spotters looking for SIGNS of wildlife around us – spotting birds nests, spider webs, tracks and poo 😊 looking to complete another Wildlife Challenge with the RSPB. SOME made habitat heaps in their gardens or outdoor spaces creating secret hideaway shelter possibilities for a whole host of creatures from frogs 🐸 to millipedes πŸͺ±πŸŒ³πŸ’šπŸŒ³

🌺🌸🌺SPRING may not have quite SPRUNG yet but we’re getting ready to SPOT as many signs of Spring change as possible ❀️🌺🌸🌺