Welcome back everyone; we hope you all had a lovely break. We are delighted that Emily Foote has joined the team and is happily immersing herself in the Acorns group. During the closure we have made improvements to the main garden, baby garden and staff car park and we are all enjoying the new space.
For any parent who has not yet booked a meeting to discuss their child’s report, please call and we can arrange it virtually, by telephone or outdoors in person.
Oaks 1:
This week in Oaks 1, the children have continued their Planet Earth theme by considering the various infrastructures situated around the world. They thought about types of housing and how these are dependent on access to necessary materials. Some of the children discussed how certain structures are built and how they stay secure. Oaks 1 also suggested that builders might use glue, concrete and metal to hold their constructions together. This was extended through an activity that entailed combining shaving foam and cocoa powder to form a cement-like mixture. The children used this to try and stick various sized blocks together to form different arrangements. This enabled them to develop their ability to compare quantities, objects and solve problems whilst promoting physical development.
The children went on to investigate the building blocks outside, using them to build configurations that resembled familiar objects such as a house or boat. This led the children to discuss the story of the Three Little Pigs and whether their home was adequate enough to withstand the ‘puff’ of the Big Bad Wolf. Soon, we’ll be enhancing this learning further by delving into how bridges are built and how various factors can alter the stability.
The children have also taken part in building another campfire and this time, cooking their own burritos. Using child-friendly knives and their fine motor skills, some of the group chopped the peppers into smaller pieces. Oaks 1 were very excited to watch their meal cooking on the fire, discussing both the smell of the food and the sound of the mince sizzling in the pan. The children sang ’10 Fat Sausages’ over and over again as they willed their burritos to be ready.
Star of The Week:
Ivy – For settling in so well and making lots of new friends.
Messages:
In order to continue our construction topic, we would like to ask parents to come up with a creative fact about bridges or large structures. This could be illustrated by pictures or drawings, or in the form of a model.
Oaks 2:
‘All about me!’ has been our theme this week.
During circle time, we’ve been discussing emotions and how certain scenarios might make us feel. For example, we asked the children to describe how they would feel if a friend took a toy from them. This encouraged Oaks 2 to think about others and understand that they should treat peers how they would like to be treated themselves.
The children have also been busy caring for toy babies by attempting to dress them and put their nappies on, sitting them on the potty and feeding them milk. This activity was useful for a number of reasons; not only did it support emotional development through learning how to care for someone, it taught the children that babies are fragile and unable to do things for themselves. Role play like this can also be invaluable to those who have started toilet training.
Oaks 2 happily contributed to our ‘all about me’ display by decorating letters with glitter, paint and colouring pencils. They exercised self-confidence throughout as they independently chose which resources to use. We continued our theme outdoors by playing a parachute game. The children were tasked with listening to instructions and identifying features as a practitioner called out directions such as “Run under the parachute if you have blue eyes”. The children proved to be great at teamwork while helping each other decide who should act on each command.
We also challenged Oaks 2 with correctly matching puzzle pieces of eyes and mouths representing different emotions. This enhanced self-awareness and their understanding that they may look a certain way depending on how they are feeling. We’ve spent time working on the children’s literacy development too by encouraging them to write their own names while identifying the letters in them.
Star of The Week:
Hassan – For showing a big interest in beginning to potty train and demonstrating this through role play.
Saplings:
Spring has been our focus this week. By learning about the various plants and animals associated with this season, the children have been developing their understanding of the world around them.
The Saplings enjoyed hearing about the life cycle of a caterpillar, something we supported by reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. This also provided an excellent opportunity to strengthen the children’s concentration skills. It helped with vocabulary expansion too as we learnt new words such as ‘nibbled’ and ‘tiny’.
We went on to create our very own large-scale Hungry Caterpillar for our upcoming spring display board. While doing this, the Saplings reinforced fine motor skills by carefully holding paintbrushes using the palmar grasp to draw circles with great precision.
In another activity, we carefully examined bunches of daffodils. As well as discussing how flowers grow and ways to take good care of them, the Saplings were so fascinated to watch the daffodils bloom each day.
And while playing with dolls in our home corner, the Saplings had plenty of chances to practice their turn-taking and sharing skills. They all loved feeding their babies in the high chair and helping put them to sleep in their crib.
Star of The Week:
Emi – For doing a fantastic job with her potty training.
Seedlings:
Firstly we would like to welcome Arie and Arabella to the Broughton family and hope they will be very happy with us.
The Seedlings have enjoyed many sensory experiences this week, with activities centred around exploring different textures. They had fun searching for animals hidden in shaving foam and were just as engrossed while emptying and filling containers with sand and water.
We have also spent lots of time in the garden looking for natural resources to create an animal and dinosaur Tuff Tray. The Seedlings used their palmar grasp to crunch leaves they’d picked up and were enthralled by the sound this made. When collecting sticks, a number of the children demonstrated the noises that can be made by banging them together.
Back inside, the Seedlings retained focus when copying actions whilst we sang together.
Star of The Week:
Maila – For growing in confidence and engaging in conversations when playing alongside her peers.
Messages:
We are hoping you can help contribute to our sensory baskets by donating anything wooden, metal or textured. Thank you in advance!
Acorns:
We’d like to warmly welcome George, Rafferty and Sebastian into our Acorns family. All have settled into nursery life so well and are already establishing bonds with members of staff.
This week we’ve spent lots of time in our newly refurbished courtyard, lovingly decorated with flowers planted by the Acorns. The children were amazed by an outdoor musical activity which enabled them to play different drums, maracas and a keyboard. The Acorns all smiled and giggled as they made as much noise as they could.
And while playing in the ball pit, Raul successfully mastered how to throw a ball into a bucket and Sebbie loved rolling balls quickly along the gutter. They also happily engrossed themselves in sand and water play al fresco.
The Acorns adored creating their own blossom tree paintings using bottle ends and their finger-tips. Archie was very precise, slowly tapping the bottle end into the paint before firmly placing it on paper, admiring the marks they made.
Physical skills are something we’ve also been working on with the help of our slide and ‘rocking boat’. As the week progressed, we were delighted to see the children’s confidence grow as they used the slide. The Acorns were soon able to climb onto it and retain their balance when sat down. Ralph can now access the slide via the treehouse steps without any additional help. While moving the boat by rocking his whole body backwards and forwards, Freddie vocalised to ‘Row, Row, Row, Your Boat.’
Finally, the Acorns used fine motor skills as they got to grips with our new textured board. Mia was pleased to discover that she could make a sound by deftly running her fingers across fabric.
Star of The Week:
Adrian – For being extremely caring towards his friends and willingly sharing his toys.
We hope the sun is shining on you all this weekend.
The Broughton Team