“The morning heat had already soaked through the walls, rising up from the floor like a ghost of summers past.” – Erik Tomblin, Riverside Blues

Acorns:
This week we have been working on our physical development by incorporating a range of different activities to support this. Our colourful tunnel provided the perfect resource for this purpose and the children were encouraged to crawl through the tunnel using their hands and knees to guide them through from one end to the other. The children loved this activity and enjoyed doing this repeatedly. The aim of the activity was to encourage the children to navigate their way through small spaces and to encourage their turn taking understanding, this requires the children to understand that their immediate
needs cannot always be met.
And so we continued and extended our movements outdoors. We supplied the children with a range of different activities to encourage their physical holistic development such as bikes/trikes to support their core strength and balance control, water play involving different utensils and cups – encouraging the
children to gain a pouring motion and to transfer water from one place to another. The children also had access to our small trampoline and enjoyed holding on to the rails as they jumped up and down.
We have also been preparing the children for their transition up to the Seedlings room with ongoing visits, which we will continue throughout August for their September start.

Star of the week: All our little Acorns stars for their confidence throughout their transition visits.

Seedlings:
We said our good-byes to Annette and wish her well for the future.
It’s been an action-packed week for the Seedlings as they continued to ‘Let’s Get Physical’.
Balance beams proved to be very popular, with the children waiting ever so patiently for their turn to have a go at walking across.
Our playhouse in the garden was also a huge hit – the children loved whizzing down the slide. The youngsters also had the chance to practice climbing up the stairs safely. While having fun outside, the Seedlings impressed practitioners with their imaginative play. It was lovely to see everyone pretending the playhouse was a cafe or pirate ship.
To end the week, the Seedlings showed off their climbing ability on our frame.
The children demonstrated fine coordination as they climbed up one side before descending down the other although the goods were rather expensive!!

Star of the Week: All of the Acorns who spent time in our room this week.

Saplings:
This week, the Saplings have enjoyed activities linked to holidays.
One saw the group count with pebbles aided by number flash cards. Tamsin liked the texture of the pebbles, while Holly was able to count out four. She placed them in a line beautifully.
Next, the Saplings made sandcastles in the Tuff Tray. This activity had the children captivated for a very long time.
In the week, the Saplings also took part in a science experiment involving a bottle, oil and food colouring in shades of blue and yellow. They were all agog as the oily bubbles floated to and fro as they whipped through the coloured base.
We’re making a treasure basket for the children and are on the hunt for shiny objects or ones that make a gentle sound. If you have anything at home you think might be suitable, please may you send them in?

Star of the Week: James – For interacting with his peers and being such a wonderful helper by
handing utensils and plates to his friends.

Oaks 2:
We are enjoying the summer season and making the most of the glorious days.
A particularly engaging activity saw the children create colourful ice shapes.
The children guessed how long they would take to melt in the sun. Connie really loved this activity and was able to explain which colours she could see melting as we gauged just how long it would take depending on areas of sun and shade and how it fell upon the items.
During circle time, we created an outline of Helgi and labelled what we needed to do to protect ourselves from the sun. The children shared ideas such as wearing sunscreen and drinking plenty of water to stay hydrated.
While outside in our forest area, we challenged the children to find the best shaded area to hide from the sun. We took the opportunity to chat to the youngsters about the activities they enjoy doing with their parents in the summer. Most revealed that they adore going to the beach and splashing in the
water.

Star of the Week: Poppy – For settling really well into the room and making lots of new friends!

Oaks 1:
Oaks have been making the most of the beautiful sunshine this week and thoroughly enjoying the outdoor space at Broughton. We busily hunted for snails and worms for our wormery and snail house. We struggled to find worms so we used a trickle of water on the earth to emulate rainfall in the hope the worms would wriggle to the surface. We continued to dig but still no luck.
Oaks continued to develop their drama skills and acted out Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak. We used loose parts from around the garden as our props and took turns at being Max.
Thank you to Ronnie for bringing in some homegrown fruit and veg. Chef Annette made some sticky apple cinnamon and raisin bake with the children which they ate for lunch with some natural yogurt. Thanks, Annette, for your culinary skills and guidance.

Star of the Week: Everyone deserves star of the week this week for adjusting so well to their new
routine/room.

Forest School

Hi Ho Hi Ho it’s off to the woods we go is our rallying cry and we march along the winding path to basecamp but this week it took rather longer than usual as the children discovered that after many weeks of observation, the blackberries were now ripe, looking scrumptious and ready for picking so armed with
containers, collected as many as possible to share as a snack. As it was our last session before the oldest children start school, we had a treasure hunt and found little sweet treats for the children. Theo and Ralph suggested where they might be hidden and drew a map to help our cause.
We also took our final trip to the stream after the children made rafts and had a competition to see whose boat would travel the furthest. Needless to say mine very rapidly got caught in driftwood however Freddie soon helped to free it as it made it’s weary way to ……. who knows? Spain, Greece, Dubai, Italy, Scotland were but a few suggestions.
Think we might be overly ambitious there though!
A later run through the echo chamber and the children traipsed back to basecamp for their final meal; sandwiches were their lunch of choice and everyone helped to butter and slice.
Well done everyone! We wish all our school leavers the very, very best for the future. I am confident they will be able to prepare a fabulous fire for social or cooking pleasure in the years ahead.