For the last two days the land around Atworth has been enveloped in a fog that has barely lifted by the time the sun goes down. We took the opportunity to explore the fields near the nursery with preschool, a walk that they know well but one that was presented in a new light.

As I wrote about in a previous post, when we can’t see our environment we need to start paying attention to it in different ways. Highlighting the things that the children could see close up or hear brought a wider sense of what was happening around them. We could hear bird song but there weren’t birds, there were holes dug in the ground but no rabbits, there were paw prints but no dogs… and just why were there cow pats in the field but no cows!!?

Noticing elements of the environment is a key skill when it comes to navigating and understand the land around us. The line of rushes running through the field tell us that there must be a watercourse there, the darker grass around the edges shows us desire lines that people and animals use every day, the smeuse in the hedgerow means that an animal is using that part as an entrance on their daily (or more likely nightly) travels out. Even noticing which trees the leaves are falling from gives us more information about our local area.

The more we can get out into our local environment, notice the changes and question why things are as they are then the more we open up the world that is literally outside our front door.