We held our first two Wheely Wonders days in April and May. These have been funded by the Baily Thomas Charitable Trust. In April we had 13 children and 6 of these were new. There was an Easter egg hunt in the morning as well as Forest School activities and at Craft Club Easter decorations were made. All the children enjoyed seeing the animals, especially our new donkey Angela. They met the newborn lambs and were able to get up close to Yellow who is being bottle fed.
In May we welcomed 3 new families with 19 children attending. Sheep on sticks were created in the morning. They planted sunflower seeds and did some leaf printing. In the afternoon we got ready for the Jubilee by decorating crowns and designing flags. Yellow the lamb loved being with everyone for the afternoon and watched the magic!
Both days were rounded off by Chris North, and in May all the children and parents were given the opportunity to take part in a special “royal pageant” using stomp rockets, bubbles, stilts and jugging balls to music from The Greatest Showman!
Huge thanks to Jen, Sam T and Sam K at Woodland Wonders Forest School as well as Chris North, Carole Beaty, Heather Green, Josie Maitland and Celyn Hind for supporting the days. Also thank you to Jaime, Lucy and Rosie from the University of Chichester and Emily Snow from The Academy, Selsey for volunteering and helping into make Wheely Wonders such a great experience for everyone!
In May we welcomed 3 new families with 19 children attending. Sheep on sticks were created in the morning. They planted sunflower seeds and did some leaf printing. In the afternoon we got ready for the Jubilee by decorating crowns and designing flags. Yellow the lamb loved being with everyone for the afternoon and watched the magic!
Both days were rounded off by Chris North, and in May all the children and parents were given the opportunity to take part in a special “royal pageant” using stomp rockets, bubbles, stilts and jugging balls to music from The Greatest Showman!
Huge thanks to Jen, Sam T and Sam K at Woodland Wonders Forest School as well as Chris North, Carole Beaty, Heather Green, Josie Maitland and Celyn Hind for supporting the days. Also thank you to Jaime, Lucy and Rosie from the University of Chichester and Emily Snow from The Academy, Selsey for volunteering and helping into make Wheely Wonders such a great experience for everyone!
This year we have been so lucky with the weather at Wheely Wonders! We now have 72 families on our mailing list and it has been fantastic meeting so many new children as well as parents and grandparents. Here is a roundup of the year since the last update…
June - We had a beautiful sunny day and it was fabulous to have 17 children and young people – 8 were newcomers including our youngest ever visitor - 3 month old Rosie! It was great to see the families all making friends. The children made wooden boats and bubble wands with Jen and Sam at Woodland Wonders Forest School and at Lizzie’s Craft Club we decorated musical instruments as well as flowers and butterflies. The afternoon was rounded off by Chris North and everyone joined in with a musical extravaganza using the instruments they had made!
July – Another sunny day! It was wonderful to meet 11 new children (16 in total) and parents, and see more new friendships being made. Sam T and Sam K at Woodland Wonders Forest School ran a great morning – Elder wood puppets and friendship bracelets were created in the woodland before marshmallows on the campfire. At Lizzie’s Craft Club after lunch the children decorated beautiful fabric bags using pens and paints with stampers, as well as suncatchers before finishing the day enjoying all Chris’s circus skills equipment and musical instruments. June and July’s days were funded by the Baily Thomas Charitable Trust.
August - a fabulous hot day with 15 children attending! Everyone enjoyed spending time with the farm animals before going into the shady woodland with Jen, Tam and Sam for Forest School bug themed crafts. They also spent time in the hammock, on the swing and in the Mud Kitchen. Back on the field there was fire lighting and toasting marshmallows before lunch. We then created some beautiful paper plate pictures, decorated slap bands and sun visors at Lizzie’s Craft Club. Yellow the big lamb loved coming to admire all the children’s creations! We ended the afternoon with a fun magic show with Chris as well as bubbles, stomp rockets, music and dressing up!
September - It was great to meet 3 more new families and see new friendships being made between the 15 children and parents. Everyone enjoyed playing in the woodland and doing natural crafts with Tam and Sam before some fire lighting back on the field. Again Yellow was very happy to see everyone and got rather cheeky, unpacking lunch bags and stealing apples! After lunch the children created their own characters with people shaped card and made harvest themed wreaths with stickers. Chris North brought all his musical instruments, puppets and more before we listened to a scarecrow story and watched the magic show. One of the boys told Chris “that magic has changed my life”!
We had a Wheely Spooky Day in October with our largest gathering of 21 children preparing for Halloween. The Applefield animals loved the attention when everyone arrived in the morning! Families worked in the woodland, carving pumpkins and making conker spiders with Sam T and Sam K. Magical fire lighting and toasting marshmallows went on before lunch and after the picnics we celebrated Chris’s birthday with a suprise cake and card. At Craft Club there were tealight lanterns, Trick or Treat bags and Halloween scratch art to decorate. We finished the day with a magic show and all the children were given the opportunity to participate. It was very special to see how happy some of the children were to meet their friends again and how the new parents found support from those who have been coming for longer.
Our final Fireworks themed Wheely Wonders for 2022 in early November was smaller in number due to coughs and colds as well as the wet and windy weather! Luckily the rain held off for most of the day and the 4 families were able to meet all the farm animals on arrival and have a bit of time playing in the woodland. Back on the field with Jen and Sam, the children had a go at sawing some wood and made brilliant conker fireworks, wooden Catherine Wheels and Elder “Guys” as well as enjoying coloured fire lighting. At Craft Club in the afternoon we used collage materials to decorate cardboard stars to hang up as well as choosing coloured sand to fill rocket shaped bottles. We ended the afternoon making a musical fireworks display with Chris conducting us all playing his wonderful selection of instruments.
An enormous THANK YOU to all the volunteers for coming and helping to make Wheely Wonders days run so smoothly this year. Please contact me if you would like to join the mailing list or volunteer to help. More Wheely Wonders photos from this year are on the Wellspring website and Facebook page.
We are so grateful to Persimmon Homes Community Champions for the funding for the autumn Wheely Wonders days. Thank you to all the families and children for making us all smile! It has been fabulous to spend time with so many special people of all ages and we can’t wait to make more memories with you next year!
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Lizzie Baily 2022
June - We had a beautiful sunny day and it was fabulous to have 17 children and young people – 8 were newcomers including our youngest ever visitor - 3 month old Rosie! It was great to see the families all making friends. The children made wooden boats and bubble wands with Jen and Sam at Woodland Wonders Forest School and at Lizzie’s Craft Club we decorated musical instruments as well as flowers and butterflies. The afternoon was rounded off by Chris North and everyone joined in with a musical extravaganza using the instruments they had made!
July – Another sunny day! It was wonderful to meet 11 new children (16 in total) and parents, and see more new friendships being made. Sam T and Sam K at Woodland Wonders Forest School ran a great morning – Elder wood puppets and friendship bracelets were created in the woodland before marshmallows on the campfire. At Lizzie’s Craft Club after lunch the children decorated beautiful fabric bags using pens and paints with stampers, as well as suncatchers before finishing the day enjoying all Chris’s circus skills equipment and musical instruments. June and July’s days were funded by the Baily Thomas Charitable Trust.
August - a fabulous hot day with 15 children attending! Everyone enjoyed spending time with the farm animals before going into the shady woodland with Jen, Tam and Sam for Forest School bug themed crafts. They also spent time in the hammock, on the swing and in the Mud Kitchen. Back on the field there was fire lighting and toasting marshmallows before lunch. We then created some beautiful paper plate pictures, decorated slap bands and sun visors at Lizzie’s Craft Club. Yellow the big lamb loved coming to admire all the children’s creations! We ended the afternoon with a fun magic show with Chris as well as bubbles, stomp rockets, music and dressing up!
September - It was great to meet 3 more new families and see new friendships being made between the 15 children and parents. Everyone enjoyed playing in the woodland and doing natural crafts with Tam and Sam before some fire lighting back on the field. Again Yellow was very happy to see everyone and got rather cheeky, unpacking lunch bags and stealing apples! After lunch the children created their own characters with people shaped card and made harvest themed wreaths with stickers. Chris North brought all his musical instruments, puppets and more before we listened to a scarecrow story and watched the magic show. One of the boys told Chris “that magic has changed my life”!
We had a Wheely Spooky Day in October with our largest gathering of 21 children preparing for Halloween. The Applefield animals loved the attention when everyone arrived in the morning! Families worked in the woodland, carving pumpkins and making conker spiders with Sam T and Sam K. Magical fire lighting and toasting marshmallows went on before lunch and after the picnics we celebrated Chris’s birthday with a suprise cake and card. At Craft Club there were tealight lanterns, Trick or Treat bags and Halloween scratch art to decorate. We finished the day with a magic show and all the children were given the opportunity to participate. It was very special to see how happy some of the children were to meet their friends again and how the new parents found support from those who have been coming for longer.
Our final Fireworks themed Wheely Wonders for 2022 in early November was smaller in number due to coughs and colds as well as the wet and windy weather! Luckily the rain held off for most of the day and the 4 families were able to meet all the farm animals on arrival and have a bit of time playing in the woodland. Back on the field with Jen and Sam, the children had a go at sawing some wood and made brilliant conker fireworks, wooden Catherine Wheels and Elder “Guys” as well as enjoying coloured fire lighting. At Craft Club in the afternoon we used collage materials to decorate cardboard stars to hang up as well as choosing coloured sand to fill rocket shaped bottles. We ended the afternoon making a musical fireworks display with Chris conducting us all playing his wonderful selection of instruments.
An enormous THANK YOU to all the volunteers for coming and helping to make Wheely Wonders days run so smoothly this year. Please contact me if you would like to join the mailing list or volunteer to help. More Wheely Wonders photos from this year are on the Wellspring website and Facebook page.
We are so grateful to Persimmon Homes Community Champions for the funding for the autumn Wheely Wonders days. Thank you to all the families and children for making us all smile! It has been fabulous to spend time with so many special people of all ages and we can’t wait to make more memories with you next year!
Click here for Phoebe's Feedback
Lizzie Baily 2022
