We had a lovely good bye party for all our Pre-school leavers; it was great that so many families could join us and so nice to be able to get together at long last. Despite the miserable weather this did not dampen our spirits.
We welcome Arabella to Oaks 2 and Margot to Seedlings; they are both settling in beautifully, making lots of new friends.
Groupings from September – With the departure of our school leavers many children will be moving into their new groups from September and the Room Leaders will have informed you of your child’s new team. There are a few changes to the individual groups with some staff moving to new rooms:
Charlotte will be moving to Oaks 2, joining Cindy, Chloe and Jo
Jodie will be moving to Oaks 1 joining Paige and our new staff member, Becca who will be introduced to you this coming week
Karen and Marnie will be moving to Acorns joining Monika and Susan
Saplings staff remain the same; Zoe and Zaynah
As do Seedlings; Lacie, Jackie and Aaliyah
News from the Rooms
Oaks 1:
Oaks 1 discussions this week led to requests that they learn more about the sea, forest and tropical animals.
The practitioners introduced them to the concept of the food chain, explaining why some animals eat other animals while others feast on plants and insects. Oaks 1 were also fascinated to learn that a blue whale weighs as much as three elephants. During circle time, one of the youngsters confidently told his friends that nocturnal animals only come out at night-time. He impressed us when he added that diurnal creatures such as birds, reptiles and mammals stay awake during the day.
We set aside time to boost the children’s communication skills as well as their grasp of the wider world by sitting them down with shadowing sheets. The group particularly loved looking at birds, noting how they are all unique with different coloured feathers. As an expansion of this, we asked Oaks 1 to design their own birds.
Oaks 1 showed off their prowess in the kitchen by making jam tarts. They carefully smoothed out the pastry with a rolling pin before using fine motor skills to add dollops of jam. Everyone recognised that the pastry cutter was circle-shaped, leading to a conversation about the moon being a sphere. One the group added that the baking tray had four sides and was a rectangle.
As a class, we watched a Hansel and Gretel video too. We did this to initiate a discussion about stranger danger. We explained why children shouldn’t accept things from people they don’t know, instead saying ‘no, thank you’. We then advised they should go and find an adult they know and trust. The children agreed this was a good idea.
We introduced Oaks 1 to Pantasaurus too, a short video explaining that we should keep our underwear to ourselves. The footage also details why we mustn’t expose our private parts to anyone. All of the children firmly understood that they must say no and tell and adult if anyone ever asked them to do this.
Please find the links to these videos below so you can reinforce this at home.
Star of The Week:
Tommy M-T – For managing his own feelings and using his listening ears.
Messages:
If you have any books or toys relating to tropical places at home, we’d love to borrow them to further the children’s learning.
Oaks 2:
Activities have been centred around the concept of holidays this week for Oaks 2. The class loved telling each other about their trips with their families during circle time, bringing in photos, pebbles, seaweed and shells to show one another.
Then they got arty while creating a colourful display for the wall, using fine motor skills to cut out waves they’d drawn.
Oaks 2 loved making their own refreshing smoothies too. The children carefully put strawberries and bananas into a bowl before blitzing them with a blender. The fruity drinks were gladly sipped by all at snack-time.
One of the group’s favourite activities involved helping the adults construct a giant cardboard beach hut. They went on to decorate it with colouring pens and had plenty of fun indulging in a spot of pretend play. A few members of the group cheekily shouted ‘boo!’ at the practitioners when they opened the windows.
They also adored making a supersized aeroplane from a box. The children gathered small world people together to become the passengers and replicated the role of the captain including navigational tools such as maps and satellite.
We continued to embrace our summery theme by making sandcastles and teaching the toy babies to swim.
Oaks 2 ended their fun-filled week baking a cake complete with edible holiday-themed stickers.
Star of The Week:
Joshua – For participating in our activities so well and for helping his friends during mealtimes by handing out the cutlery.
Saplings:
Zoe B left the Broughton Cottage family this week and we’d like to start by wishing her every happiness and success in her new adventure. Thank you for all of your hard work and continued support, Zoe.
Inside the classroom, we’ve carried on the Saplings’ seaside theme and have continued to consider what creatures might live under the water.
The children created a vibrant new display board and expressed themselves artistically by making marks with paint. While crafting an octopus from recycled toilet roll tubes, the group used fine motor skills to carefully cut eight slits to represent the mollusc’s arms and legs. This also provided an excellent opportunity to hone the children’s counting skills, thus extending their mathematical understanding.
Teamwork was required when the Saplings were tasked with creating a large-scale sandcastle and they used cotton buds with precision to create different sand-like marks. Turn-taking and sharing were an essential part of this activity too. The children were thrilled to see their masterpiece come together.
We also spent time developing the children’s vocabularies plus language and communication skills by listening to and discussing some Julia Donaldson stories. The Snail and The Whale and Tiddler proved to be very popular with all.
Star of The Week:
All of the Saplings – For being so happy and enthusiastic on what will be the last week for many before they move up to Oaks 2. We’ll miss those leaving us dearly, it’s been such a delight to get to know everyone and their families.
Seedlings:
Due to its popularity with the Seedlings, we decided to revisit our earlier transportation subject this week.
We filled our days with a range of engaging activities, one of which involved rice dyed to match the colours found on traffic lights. The children strengthened their fine motor skills as they played with it. This type of game also helped develop the Seedlings’ understanding of people and the wider community they live in. Freddie was able to correctly identify the colour red and Arie demonstrated fabulous hand/eye co-ordination while collecting and pouring the rice.
Our construction Tuff Tray kept everyone entertained, especially Leo who enthusiastically drove the diggers around the makeshift site. Adrian really got into the spirit of the activity by shouting out ‘beep beep’.
Star of The Week:
Maila and Stanley – For adjusting to life as Seedlings so very well.
Messages:
We’ve put a real focus on the importance of having good manners this week, reminding the children to say please and thank you when required. We would appreciative your encouragement of this at home.
Acorns:
We got stuck into our new construction theme this week.
The Acorns all retained concentration while playing with our Tuff Tray comprised of wet sand, wooden blocks and tools. We asked the children to have a go at building their own walls. Parker enjoyed building and knocking down a tower aided by a practitioner.
We also used Duplo blocks and blue paint to make marks representing houses. Raul mimicked the staff member by say ‘bue’ as she repeated the name of the colour whilst Archie was very proud of his artwork.
Out in the garden, we set up a Tuff Tray that enabled the Acorns to make turtles, dragons and seahorses using moulds. And while enjoying water play, Raul and Ralph had fun filling up the jugs before pouring them back in to the tray to create waterfalls. The Acorns loved rolling cars down the drain pipe too, as a staff member said ‘ready, steady, go!’. This activity supported the children’s understanding of simple instructions.
Star of The Week:
Ralph – He’s become very bubbly and his speech is coming along brilliantly. He’s growing in confidence every day and is learning new words.
Have a lovely Bank Holiday.