This week the Oaks have been showing great curiosity surrounding the changing seasons and discussing Autumn. Using their sense of touch, they all set off on an Autumn treasure hunt. Amongst their findings were acorns and different coloured leaves (some at varying stages of decomposition) They used their Autumn treasures to create pieces of artwork that showed off the beautiful Autumnalcolours.

The adults and children spoke about the importance of keeping oneself fit and healthy noting self-care routines and the importance of cleaning and washing our hands. Whilst playing with the small world toys, the Oaks paid close attention washing the figures’ hands and bodies, assessing the temperature of the warm soapy water. By using toothbrushes and toothpaste, the Oaks brushed the dolls’ teeth demonstrating exacting movements and learning that circular motions are ideal. One child commented on how shiny the dolls teeth were after they had been cleaned whilst another said “If you don’t clean your teeth you will get decay” to which Frankie replied “I clean teeth, me not get yellow teeth” Further discussions ensued regarding those foods which are considered healthy/unhealthy.

The children are being encouraged to be more independent with all bathroom activities and have learnt a new song to help them on their way. A child found a toy hippo, drawing her friends into social interaction she remarked “hippo has a bath when he lays in the water”.

Using their counting skills, the children created their own ‘shop’, they maintained focus and displayed high levels of energy and fascination whilst they bought and sold and considered costs, coins and change.  Outdoors, the children enjoyed their first ‘Sporty Stars’ session and were shown a number of different sports disciplines.

Evie celebrated her birthday and brought balloons in for the children. They had a wonderful time playing the ‘hot potato’ game, essentially not allowing the balloons to touch the floor, testing their speed and endurance. Theo displayed skill by heading the balloons, delighted by his achievements. Moving their whole bodies to music, the Oaks joined in with dancing to the Hokey Cokey.

The Saplings have also been busy exploring Autumn. They have gathered together textured leaves, pine kernals, sycamore seed cases etc and used force to push, scoop and load using divers sized diggers. The Saplings are doing really well with their pincer grip and have been showing accuracy whilst mark making in coloured salt. They have been demonstrating a basic understanding of maths by participating in a maths activity ordering leaves by size and shape. They then went on to position the leaves according to shade, placing them from light to dark.

The Saplings have had a great time enjoying physical activities this week with a favourite being the parachute. They moved it to replicate different weather patterns such as ‘gentle breeze’ and ‘raging storm’. They also took part in a music and movement activity exploring how sounds can be high or low pitched, fast or slow using a range of instruments and shaking them accordingly. They imagined themselves moving around like animals e.g striding around like an elephant, stretching up like a tall giraffe and scuttling around like mice using instruments to accompany them. This proved to be a lot of fun and was repeated several times throughout the week!

Meanwhile, the Seedlings have been focusing on ‘fairy week.’ The children used their natural exploratory sense to play with the recently created fairy garden tuff tray consisting of various items selected for their texture and smell such as logs, pebbles, hessian, silk and fairy ornaments enclosed within a soft canopy under which the children had fun playing peek a boo with their friends.

Furthering the fairy theme, the Seedlings made good luck bugs using paint and glitter to decorate pebbles. Using their mark making and fine motor skills, the children enjoyed creating their bugs. We incorporated the fairy theme in our yoga sessions stretching tall like a tree and using our fingers to sprinkle star dust. The Seedlings enjoyed messy play by creating pictures using paint and glitter to make fairy wands. Using their hands and different painting tools, the children made marks across the paper.

In the garden the Seedlings and Acorns delighted in playing in the rain by splashing in puddles. Some of the children opened their mouths to catch the rain on their tongues.

The Acorns have been looking closely at books. One of our favourites is currently ‘Dear Zoo’. The Acorns were involved in a painting activity depicting animals from the story. They picked up the animals using thumbs and fingers then sploshed them into the paint and daubed paper to represent footprints.

We have been involved in lots of sensory activities this week using flower petals and scented bubble bath. The Acorns used their sense of touch and smell to appreciate the scents and textures. Some of the Acorns used the bubbles to wash their own faces, laughing as the bubbles flew everywhere meanwhile Sophia took her interest a little further by painting her own face with her hands!

In the garden we have been exploring nature too, looking at how the leaves are changing, falling rapidly from the trees and crunching them underfoot whilst using our hands to explore the wet, long wavy grass.

Puzzles and shape sorters have been popular this week, promoting the Acorns concentration skills. They have been showing high levels of energy and fascination when putting the correct puzzle pieces together.

Stars of the week:

Elliot– For sharing nicely with his friends.

Arthur- For good tidying up.

Daisy- For being more settled and joining in more with activities such as painting.

Kalin- For settling in so well and accelerating his speech by saying “car”, “mummy”, “ball” and duck.

Yours sincerely

The Broughton Team