Your outdoor calendar: September

Julie Mountain Wednesday, September 1, 2021

Summer may be over, but September often heralds sunny, warm days, so be sure to offer children plenty of time outdoors, advises Julie Mountain

Activity

MAD ABOUT MEASURING

A nursery or pre-school garden is a rich mathematical environment and freely chosen play, supported by adults, is a tremendous way for children to develop their mathematical interest and understanding. A few well-chosen, well-placed resources can enhance opportunities to explore the space and use STEM language. Think about ways we measure and talk about distance and height, and curate an outdoor accessible measuring collection:

Nature watch

LOOK OUT FOR…

Migrating birds: Millions of birds begin their autumn migrations in September. Don't forget, plenty of birds are migrating to the UK, as well as from it. Keep a few pairs of children's binoculars handy in the garden along with ID sheets of bird silhouettes, ready to spot geese arriving in their characteristic V-shaped flocks, and swallows and house martins leaving the UK for warmer climes in Africa. Dusk is a good time to birdwatch as they head to overnight roosts. Check out the RSPB's excellent birdwatching resources.

Colourful berries: In the May calendar, I recommended making elderflower cordial. Now you know where your elder shrubs are, revisit them looking for the berries. Raw elderberries are edible, but they aren't sweet like blackberries, so use them to make pigments for mark-making, or include them in an apple crumble recipe. Other berries you might spot include sloes (also edible), hawthorn, crab apples and mountain ash.

Maintenance

IT’S TIME TO…

Story to share

Children at your setting will have been born overseas and migrated to the UK themselves. There is a huge choice of stories about migrating animals and people, so I’m suggesting two this month:

The Turtle Dove's Journey by Madeleine Dunphy and illustrated by Marlo Garnsworty follows the bird's migration from Suffolk to Mali. The prose may be a little old for pre-schoolers, but the stunning pictures and your interpretation of the story will be fascinating. There is also a map and an account of a real, tracked migration of a turtle dove.

Coming to England by Floella Benjamin and illustrated by Diane Ewen tells the Windrush migration story from Dame Floella's perspective. Many of the scenarios lend themselves to being reimagined in your setting's garden – from the fruit market in Trinidad to the sea voyage and arrival in a busy city. Perfect timing for Black History Month in October.

A new project

PORTABLE FENCE PANELS

Old fence panels, pallets and even the slats from a bed can be repurposed into portable panels to use around the garden, but you’ll need to be a confident woodworker to try this project. They make simple barriers – to create a cosy corner for stories, for example, or to provide babies with a safe cuddle and crawl space outdoors. The key to making portable panels yourself is to ensure a low centre of gravity, so they can't topple over if a child pulls up on them. This means creating a heavy lower half of the panel and including heavy or wide ‘feet’ for stability.

You’ll need:

Resources

BEG, BUY OR BORROW…

Construction resources: ask parents to donate surplus timber for your construction area.

Children will make use of any sawn timber they have access to, but you could ask particularly for long planks (that you can then saw to size), pieces of ‘marine’ plywood that can cope with being outdoors, square or rectangular section battens, chunks of moulded skirting board and floorboards or decking.

Many families have been busy with home improvements over lockdown – or instead of going on holiday – so there should be plenty of leftovers!

Also, don't forget to check skips and ask local builders and timber merchants for offcuts.

Looking ahead

MAKE PLANS FOR…

Risk assessment

WATCH OUT FOR…

Real-life construction materials offer rich experiences, not least because they come with inherent risks.

‘Our Garden in 2021’

FOR THE RECORD…

September is a time of change for many families, so add images, sketches and comments about the garden's transition from summer into autumn to your floorbook.

If you have spotted migrating geese or house martins, try to capture a photo from the garden and add an ID image and the date spotted.

Add your elderberry and apple crumble recipe and include pictures of children's faces as they taste-test the ‘raw’ berries!

Take daily photographs of the leaves on one of your trees – watch them turn from rich August green through to yellowy brown as October approaches.