YOUNGSTERS at Busy Bees Preschool in Ledbury are really happy about learning right now, - no matter the weather, and all because of the weather.

Pre-School manager, Emma Davis said: "This came about last week as the children were very interested in the changeable weather - there was torrential rain, hail, thunder, sunshine and rainbows, sometimes all on the same day!

"This week, we are extending the children's learning by focusing on the weather in more depth. Luckily, we have been fortunate with the weather as it looks like being another week where we get to experience a bit of everything!"

She added: "We always like to explore creative ways of encouraging the children to play and learn and this week is a very 'hands on' week. We made rain gauges at the start of the week so we could measure the rainfall day by day. This is great for encouraging the children to use mathematical language such as 'more' and 'lots' as well as using rulers to measure, developing our number recognition skills and thinking about days of the week.

"We've also made bird feeders to hang in our Forest School area and will be using binoculars to observe them being used, probably by the squirrels who live in the garden as well as the birds."

The children have also been practising their writing skills by making marks in shaving foam, flour and gloop using sticks, leaves and cones which have been blown from the trees in the wind.

Miss Davis said: "The wind has also been used to blow our streamers we've made and for us to see how far our bubbles travel.

"Although the weather has been quite miserable this week, there have been lots of happy faces at Busy Bees!"