Woodland Morning

We are very fortunate at Buttercups to have a fantastic link with Whiteley Primary School, where we hold our weekly Woodland sessions. The woodland sessions take place on a set day every week within the school grounds, which provides a safe and enclosed environment for the children to explore.

Although we have a wonderful outdoor space at Buttercups, our woodland session offers a unique educational experience using the outdoor woodland environment as a classroom. At Buttercups we believe it is essential that young children acquire frequent and regular exposure to the outdoor environment as it is proven to develop resilience, confidence, independence and creative learners, whilst also improving their health and well-being. The woodland area is an open-ended resource, which never fails to offer awe and wonder, it encourages motivation and creativity, with it’s huge and ever-changing supply of materials, as the sessions change.

During the session we encourage the children to investigate, explore, think critically, manage risks, make decisions, work with others and challenge themselves. An important part of our session is safety and risk management, therefore we have measures in place to do so, such as flags to signal safe areas the children can explore independently or with an adult and a whistle that signals it is time to find a teacher.

Throughout the session the children have the opportunity to take part in various child- led activities. The teachers may add learning prompts to the natural environment, however, we like to encourage the children to be independent learners throughout the session, following their own interests. Some of the many activities they take part in are; bug hunts, climbing, den building, digging, mud sliding, and puddle jumping.