Seedlings preschool group has been running for several years at Sacrewell. The aim of the toddler group is to connect young children and their carers with nature, farming and enjoyment of the great outdoors. Each week in term time we meet to play games, grow things to eat and explore the outdoors. We make things to take home and care for the wild and farm animals that live at Sacrewell. Our sessions are ideal for 2–4-year-olds with accompanying younger siblings also welcome.
The education programme at Sacrewell is currently developing and expanding, including our Seedlings preschool group. Our sessions now run on a Wednesday and Thursday morning giving families more opportunities to join us.
The David Powell garden has recently been redeveloped into a sensory garden to give us more scope to explore and enjoy growing flowers and food. We can watch our fruit and vegetables grow, harvest them and the best part, eat them!
We have an amazing woodland area with fallen trees, we can visit the farm and be among the animals. And if that’s not enough we have an exclusive use seedlings garden (adjacent to the sensory garden) with a mud kitchen, digging troughs, sand pit and story time fun.
At Seedlings preschool group we make things to take home as well as care for the wild and farm animals that live on the farm. We want your children to grow their love of the outdoors, have fun with nature and engage with all it has to offer.
Seedlings Preschool Group Details
Please take a few moments to read about our sessions so that you and your child know what to expect.
- Our Seedlings preschool group sessions run from 9:45-11am. You are welcome to arrive at the farm from 9am and make your way to the farmhouse garden from 9:30am. Our session will end at 11am and you are welcome to stay at the farm until 12:30pm.
- Our sessions focus on children exploring and enjoying the outdoors. Dress for the weather and in old clothes that can get wet and muddy, everyone is welcome to get as messy as they like at Seedlings!
- Activities such as art and craft, mud kitchen, digging and bug hunting will be spread out at ‘activity stations’ for you and your child to enjoy. We also have a focus activity every week which the group leader will explain and demonstrate to children and carers.
- We understand that young children can have short attention spans and often don’t like to sit still. Please feel free to take art and craft activities home to do later if your child is too busy to do theirs during the session.
- We finish each session together with games, stories and rhymes at our storytime circle. This is a lovely opportunity to share some time together and a gentle introduction to speaking and listening as a group.
- We make regular trips around the farm to look after and learn about different aspects of Sacrewell. Your group leader will keep you informed about the activities planned for each half term.
- We meet on a Wednesday and Thursday mornings during termtime, usually 6 sessions at a cost of £48. The cost for the half term is payable in advance and includes entry to the farm for the morning session for both the child and one accompanying adult.
Seedlings Activities
Here are a few of our favourite Seedlings preschool group activities:
- Foraging for berries
- Imaginative play in the mud kitchen
- Story times and songs
- Making bird feeders
- Planting potatoes
- A tractor tour of Riverford organic farm
- Making snuggly boxes for Sacrewell’s rabbits and guinea pigs
- Growing seeds in our polytunnel
Autumn Term Topics
Berries – Week 1
- Collecting berries on a foraging walk around Sacrewell
- Painting with berries on acrylic sheets
- Berry messy play
- Take your berries home to make a crumble!
Daffodils – Week 2
- Planting your own daffodils to take home
- Daffodil craft
Apples – Week 3
- Tractor ride to the orchard
- Collecting apples and pressing them to make apple juice
- Collecting the apple seeds, wrapping them and taking them home to sprout your own tree sapling
Conkers – Week 4
- Autumn foraging including finding hazelnuts
- Collecting conkers on a walk around our woodland area
- Marble painting with conker seeds
Autumn Leaves – Week 5
- Collecting leaves of all different colours, shapes and sizes and learning about the trees they fell from
- Looking at the wormery, meeting our worms and feeding them some of our leaves
- Make a home for a hedgehog in our fallen tree area
Pony Grooming / Pumpkins – Week 6
- Meeting our Shetland ponies and having a go at grooming them with a member of our livestock team
- Pumpkin carving and messy play
- Tasting pumpkin
As well as our focused activities listed above, we will also always have tuff trays relevant to our topic. There will also be a craft related to our topic for your children to complete if they wish and take home. These activities and topics are subject to change if we experience poor weather.
We look forward to welcoming you and your children to Seedlings Preschool Group at Sacrewell.
If you have any queries please contact us at learning@sacrewell.org.uk