“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.” – John Lubbock, The Use of Life

Saplings:

The Saplings have enjoyed learning about different colours and tastes associated with summer this week.

While looking at ‘blue’, the children got involved in some bubble wrap painting. William suggested his work of art looked like rain falling from the sky.

The Saplings also tried their hand at making ice cream. We’re sure you won’t be surprised to hear that they loved tucking into their homemade sweet treat which was packed with soft berries, all mixed in. Much to the children’s delight, the ice cream was served in a cone.

We are hoping to add to our ceiling display so would be thankful if you could continue to send some holiday photos in.

Looking ahead to next week, the Saplings will have a go at creating artwork from natural resources including grass, twigs and flowers.

Star Of the Week:

Alice – For good listening when a practitioner mentioned one of her peer’s dietary needs. Alice also kindly moved her chair to make space for the child to eat next to her.

Acorns:

The Acorns have been busy exploring colours this week.

On Monday, the children enjoyed a messy play activity involving shaving foam. To tie in the week’s theme, we asked the Acorns to mix in different shades including blue, pink, yellow, green and red. Devon loved this activity and suggested she liked the texture of the foam. As the Acorns played, the practitioners spoke about the different colours visible. James cleverly pointed out that there was blue and red foam.

Next, the children created a colourful sensory painting. Practitioners laid paper on the table before adding blobs of paint. Once a sheet of bubble wrap was laid on top, the children got to work pressing down on it. Axel was intrigued by the texture of the bubble wrap and was fascinated with the way the paint moved around underneath as he pressed down with his index finger. This activity was great for encouraging the Acorns to work on fine motor skills.

Continuing on with the theme, we then set up an engaging musical activity involving bright sensory scarves and colourful instruments. The Acorns beamed as they moved to the music they were creating.

Star Of the Week:

Theo – For always putting a smile on everyone’s face.

Oaks 2:

It has been another wonderful week for the Oaks 2 children.

We have continued focusing on the children’s writing skills and their ability to recognise their names visually. The youngsters really wowed us with their attempts at copying their names on whiteboards using pens.

In the coming weeks, we’ll introduce a Letter of The Week to help the children work on pronunciation. We’ll begin with ‘A’ next week. We’d love parents and carers to get involved with this at home too by asking their children to think about which objects start with the letter. It would be brilliant if the children could bring in something beginning with ‘A’ on Monday to look at with their friends. This’ll help strengthen the children’s confidence when talking in large groups, as well as their ability to form longer sentences.

We’ve spent lots of time outside this week enjoying the sunshine too. The children participated in numerous water-based activities and loved hunting for natural treasures in the garden. They were delighted to discover different plants plus plums (golden yellow), apples and berries.

Star Of the Week:

Heer – For being such a great helper this week.

Oaks 1:

Our book of the week was Anthony Browns Silly Billy which is a book about worries and worry dolls, a tradition that originated in Guatemala. Oaks One were encouraged to talk about their worries. We also made worry dolls to tell all our worries to and a worry bag to put our worries into. The children came up with some very creative designs especially Mia who fully utilised the resources available, well done.

Oaks one also put their scientific thinking caps on and embarked on a volcanic journey of rising heat and lava. We carried out an experiment using bicarbonate of soda and white vinegar. We put both in a cup at the mouth of the volcano, created just a few days before and watched as the volcanic eruption happened. Everyone had a chance to add the vinegar in increments as they waited in growing anticipation.

Oaks one said some more good byes ..  to our friend this Raul, we wish him all the best during his summer adventures to Canada and to Mia who will begin school in September. Bon voyage and good luck on your new schools.

The group have been very helpful in the garden, we are lucky enough to have our own golden plum tree which has provided us with lots of delicious plums. Ronnie quickly got to work, forming a team and using wheelbarrows to collect all the plums, Charlie and George were extra helpful in getting all the stones out and squashing them down whilst Ralph and Amelie enjoyed making the crumble with Annette. We ate our plum crumble for pudding but to our surprise it was a little too sweet for some with Sebbie remarking “it isn’t yummy for my tummy” whilst in contrast, Jamie couldn’t get enough!

Star of the Week:

Ronnie – for waiting patiently until his peers were ready before getting down from the table.

Seedlings:

This week Seedlings turned their hands to everything ‘messy.’

To start the week the children explored the texture of puffy paint which they helped make using PVA glue, shaving foam and paint.  They worked in small groups to design their picture using paintbrushes. Genevieve started to paint telling her friends she was painting mummy.

Seedlings loved exploring the mud kitchen in the garden with freshly cut food.  They loved putting the food into frying pans and pretending to cook.  Kit carefully transferred the food from one pot to another remarking on the different vegetables whilst Otis transferred the food into a plant tray telling his friends he had made some cakes.

Another activity saw the children exploring paint with their hands and feet.  They took it in turns to remove their shoes and socks and enjoyed the sensory experience as they squelched in the liquid goo. George giggled as he wiggled his toes in the paint.  When Ashlynn washed the paint from her hands she repeated that it was ‘wet’.

To end the week, at the request of the children, they made some biscuits which they later enjoyed with their tea.

Star of the week:

Daneyal – for excitedly joining in with all our messy play activities.

Forest School:

Using ropes, the children found new ways to transport objects; taking time to learn simple knots and using their new found knowledge to conjure up ways to use them for good. (Not just to tie each other up and send their ‘prisoners’ to jail!!)

We decided to test their strength and used the rope for a tug of war, adults against children. Safe to say they were the worthy winners and excelled in mind games with Cindy and myself as they cleverly calculated and negotiated their way around obstacles. Well done teams.

We include positional language and comparative terms in our conversations constantly so that the children can discuss and compare what they see and do and also talk about the passage of time; so, we made a clock using sticks and twigs and talked about how the dials/hands move in a clockwise direction. This helps them understand a little about time especially in the evening when they check the garden clock to ascertain what time their mummy or daddy might arrive. The demonstrated excellent recall.

Until next week …….

Yours sincerely

The Broughton team.