Puddles, and elderflower cordial

21st June 2023

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What a wet but wonderful morning Firs had this week! They used a hammer to make a bottle top caterpillar and made mud to paint butterflies…
…and had a splashing good time jumping in and walking through the puddles!
Willows and Maples had a good look at the caterpillars we are observing…and found that they had turned into chrysalises! It was very exciting to see.We carefully removed the lid from their pot and placed it into a net butterfly home. The chrysalises will take a week or so to transform into butterflies… We can’t wait to watch this happening…
This week, we all got involved in a favourite Forest School summer activity-picking elderflowers and making them into a delicious drink.
First of all we identified and found one of the three elder  trees on our site. We looked at the leaves, discussed their shape and smelt them (they don’t smell very nice!) We talked about how important it is to only pick things in Forest School, if Mrs Smith says it’s ok! Elderflowers are safe to use. We looked for The white blossom, avoiding ones that had gone over. These will develop in time into elderberries which we will see in the autumn time.
 
We picked a few, then washed them well. Next we helped to make a small fire in the bowl of the Kelly Kettle. We placed the kettle over the fire and waited for the water to boil. Then when it was ready we added it to the elderflowers along with two lemons and some sugar. we gave it a good stir and will now need to leave it overnight. Mrs Smith will strain it through a muslin cloth then save it for us to drink next week.