“’Is the spring coming?’ he said. ‘What is it like? It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine…’” – from The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

A gentle reminder – that we will be closed for Easter from 29th March and 5th April inclusive.

Seedlings:
The colour orange was the focus of the Seedlings’ learning this week. They were intrigued to discover that the shade can be created by mixing red and yellow together.

Various Tuff Trays provided a great source of entertainment – especially one filled with orange gloop. The children giggled as they scooped it up and let it run through their fingers. Another involved orange-coloured rice, spoons and tubs. Genevieve told her friends that the rice was cold as she got to work with her hands to fill up a pot. Avery decided to use a spoon to fill his, before tipping it out again and exclaiming ‘All gone!’.

After looking at photos of a sunset, the children used sponges to paint their own interpretations of one using red, yellow and orange paint. Later on in the week, they made symmetrical butterfly pictures using the same colours.

Due to the wet weather this week, the Saplings donned their all-in-one cover-ups and wellies to have fun in our courtyard. This was a great opportunity to teach the children about rain. We made marks on the walls with water and had a blast jumping in puddles. Our ‘splishing and splashing’ song provided the perfect soundtrack for our outdoor play.

Star Of The Week:
Genevieve – For her brilliant listening and communication skills. She also demonstrated fantastic tidying up.

Saplings:
This week with the Saplings, we’ve spent time discussing the life cycle.

Our Saplings have recently shown an interest in the eggs in our nursery incubator and have been wondering whether they’ll be hatched by the time we break up for Easter.

We also watched a YouTube video all about how tadpoles turn into frogs. The Saplings asked lots of questions about the process. Holly likened the tadpoles to jelly, while Conni-Rae exclaimed: ‘That’s a tadpole’s tail, they are swimming away.’

The Saplings also created their own unique height chart, which we now have on display in the classroom. The children did really well waiting for their turn to be measured. It was fun to compare the heights of all of the Saplings.

Star Of The Week:
Poppy – For coming up with her own ideas during role-play with her peers and encouraging others to join in.

Acorns:
It’s been a busy week for the Acorns.

They had so much fun using their bodies inventively during mark-making activities. The children painted their hands and feet and decorated a long strip of paper with prints.

The Acorns have been particularly fascinated by our ‘Family Wall’, showing off their pictures to their peers. It was adorable to hear the children say ‘mama’ and ‘dadda’ as they pointed out their parents. Please may we ask those of you who haven’t given photos to send some in with their little one.

Another hit was gloop-making. The Acorns mixed different colours together and used both spoons and their hands to manipulate the sticky solution. This activity kept the Acorns amused for such a long time.

Sensory play went down very well with the children this week too. We darkened our room and listened to meditation music with our sensory light on low.

Star Of the Week:
James – For his brilliant use of single words.

Oaks 1:
This week, in Oaks 1 we’ve been exploring motor vehicles.

We investigated the differences between various vehicles, considering size, weight and structure. Once the children gathered some information, they made their own modes of transport from recycled materials such as cardboard boxes, milk cartons and other creative resources. Oaks 1 were all able to tell us what they’d created.

Next, we played a game that relied on the children using their senses. This saw Oaks 1 match sounds to different vehicles. The youngsters remained engaged throughout, using their problem-solving skills too.

To finish off the week, Oaks 1 got stuck into making Easter crafts and delicious biscuits. When doing the latter, the children mixed sugar with butter and flour. Next, they used rolling pins to flatten the dough before getting creative with egg-shaped cutters. Once cooked and cooled, the children decorated their bakes with icing.

Another crafty activity saw the children make Easter cards with paint, glitter and glue.

Star Of the Week:
Ralph – For listening so well during group times.

Forest School:
Well, we revisited our bird houses and found the remnants of the feed in both, just husks and the children were delighted to know that they had been responsible for not only housing them but also for providing them with nourishment for the week; they were very proud of themselves! The only problem we encountered was the collapse of the structures and discussed how best we could rectify this with ideas banded about, finally deciding that wood would be the better replacement.

The children worked hard as a team to dig a hole to ‘plant’ our totem pole and set to work decorating it along with pebbles to adorn the base; once complete we fitted it into the hole and shored it up with logs. Some of the children decided to use a few pretty pebbles to provide shelter for their friendly worms nestling in the nooks and crannies of nearby trees.

I wonder what our adventures will lead to next week?

Oaks 2:
We were delighted to welcome Beth into our room this week. The children have loved helping teach her the Oaks 2 routine.

Making homemade modelling clay proved to be a hit with everyone. The children adored rolling up their sleeves and getting stuck in as they combined all of the ingredients.

We celebrated St Patrick’s Day with the children too this week to enhance the class’ cultural capital. We’d like to thank Oli’s mum for providing us with lots of interesting resources – the youngsters were ever so excited to look for different items hidden within green spaghetti.

Next week will mark the start of our Easter countdown.

Star Of the Week:
Xander – For being such a superstar with brilliant listening this week, keep up the good work.

Announcements:
On Thursday 28 March, we’ll be hosting an Easter bonanza for Oaks 1 and 2. Please may we kindly ask the children to get creative and make Easter bonnets for the occasion.

Yours sincerely
The Broughton Team