Community Garden Opening at Five Children Centre
Today our Lord Mayor, Mary Rasmussen joined the Gruffalo to officially open our Nursery and Community Garden at Five Children Centre. It was very special to us that Mary cut the ribbon as she is a long term supporter of our Children Centres; and to the delight of all the children who joined us for the “Great Gruffalo Hunt” they were very surprised by a visit from the Gruffalo himself.
We were able to revamp our tired front garden and create a beautiful new space from an unsightly strip of land at the back of our centre, which will also be used by children and parents accessing our Children Centre community groups. This was all made possible through a Government Bounce Back loan which we used to upgrade our outdoors so we can manage bubbles (which we hope will soon be a thing of the past) more effectively to keep our nursery safe and operational. Liverpool City Council, Mayoral Inclusive Growth Fund, grant matched the funding to support us to create our shared early years community garden.
Our lovely new woodland copse will enable us to deliver Forest School activities and children were given a little taster today when they tried their hand at “Hapa Zome,” which is the Japanese art of bashing the natural pigment out of leaves and flowers on to fabric to create prints. The children enjoyed this wonderful sensory experience which provides a really simple and effective way to learn a little more about plants and trees and a creative way to make beautiful prints. (Check our Facebook to find out what you need to create your own Hapa Zome activity, which is also really fantastic for developing children’s gross motor skills). We know from experience that children’s physical and mental wellbeing is supported through accessing natural surroundings and we plan to take our learning outside for a large part of the day.
The children also enjoyed an interactive Gruffalo story in the Gruffalo Cave, making Magic Woodland Wands and delighted in the opportunity to splash in Muddy Puddles, totally undaunted by the torrential downpour, which only added to the sense of fun on the day.
The morning was a great success and parents and children did not want to go home, we look forward to many more community days spent in our garden, as one mum said “It’s great when they cry going home; you know how much they love it here!”
The Five Children Centre will soon publish its timetable as we resume parent and child activities, from September keep checking our Facebook Page and anyone wishing to view our nursery can give Sam or Chelsea a ring on 0151486 9719.
Finally, special thanks to our Lord Mayor, Mary, our Childcare and Five Children Centre Teams, WM Exteriors (who understood our vision and created the most wonderful garden) and last but not least our parents and children who came out in the rain to support us and make the day a great success and local dads Mark Rice who painted our pre-school for free.
