I really feel Scandinavian now!

Those who follow my blog will know that my whole outdoor play approach is heavily influenced by my experience of visiting a Norwegian outdoor kindergarten in Eikefjord, Western Norway. I have spoken about it in this post. I have also been fortunate enough to be visit some kindergartens in Sweden as well. When I also had an opportunity to visit the fabulous Mindstretchers Nature Kindergarten at Auchlone in Scotland I was very drawn to their outdoor fire grill. Every year when I was given my budget allocation for requisition I would spend ages looking at the Haba fire grill & wondering could I justify spending half my budget on 1 item & every year I had to sadly conclude that I couldn't. Then, this year our Board of Governors asked every teacher to draw up a 'wish list' of things they would dearly love to buy but could never quite afford with the annual budget given. I jumped at this chance to finally get the fire grill for my nursery class & was fortunate enough, through the wonders of Facebook to make contact with a brilliant company called Muddy Faces. They could supply the grill for less than many others were asking & every little bit saved meant that I had money for something else!
So with much excitment the grill arrived last week (only 2 days after being dispatched, excellent service indeed) & I couldn't wait to try it out. However, I knew I'd need lots of extra adult support, especially the first time as the children would be very curious about the whole process. So I waited until a Friday when I knew there would be 4 adults & we had our first nursery fire. It was wet & windy but nothing was going to stop us! The children were brilliant about being very careful around the fire, though the main attraction about the Haba grill is that it has a stay cool ring around the outside. We enjoyed sitting around it, savouring the heat & smell of smoked wood & then cooked some marshmallows. The smoke got too much for some but then 2 children had the bright idea to get the goggles from the block corner!!

We have outdoor days every Friday & I think the fire will be a big part of those days, hopefully we'll cook some popcorn as well.
So mainly a big Thank-you to the Board of Governors for allowing my dream to come true in the playground! The best comment on a photo on the Facebook page was 'This looks like it was made in Norway'!!