Firstly we would like to welcome James’ brother Freddie who joined the Broughton family this week and is settling well, making lots of new friends. We would also like to wish Freddie a happy birthday as he turned one on the 24th November. Another new member of our family, Alex also joined us and is settling very well with his Seedling friends.
The Oaks have been very busy preparing their Christmas crafts and treats, ready to send home in December. In rolling rotation, the children took it in turns to take part in activities, spanning three tables. Challenging precision and accuracy, the children created Christmas trees out of lollipop sticks. Using pva glue to secure each corner, the children angled each piece carefully in order to form a triangle. Moving on, the children proceeded to create salt dough handprints. They identified which ingredients were needed to make the dough and measured carefully just how much of each was required. As a group they were charged with calling out once volume/capacity was reached. Using their fine motor skills to stretch out the sticky substance, the children rolled the salt dough into a ball before squishing it with their hands, forming a handprint in the process. As the countdown to Christmas commences, their next task was to create an advent calendar. They certainly showed perseverance as they gathered up sequins between thumb and finger and carefully decorated their festive scene. Nova very cleverly arranged her sequins so that the snowflakes were at the top, simulating a sky, and her trees and angels were at the bottom, where the ‘ground’ would be.
The children have also learnt a new Christmas song to add to their repertoire, which is attached below.
The Oaks have also been working as a team using the giant parachute in the garden. Taking a handle each to position themselves the children used all their force to create ‘waves’ in order to keep the ever rolling ball stock in the centre, changing the tempo as required. The children described different scenarios; slow, pulsating movements were likened to gentle waves on a sunny beach, and then as the Cumulonimbus clouds enveloped the sky bringing a storm with them, the children created vigorous waves, which sent the balls high up into the air. Following this, the children each took it in turns to sit in the middle of the parachute as their peers created waves around them, causing them to almost fall over, laughing. A game the Oaks particularly enjoyed was lifting the parachute into the air and switching places with one of their friends. The children had to remember which place they were running to as well as negotiating time and space as the parachute slowly started to descend and envelop them.
As a continuation of the children’s’ foreign language lessons, the Oaks have also been learning French. When partaking in our daily morning circle time, the children take it in turns to say, “Hello, Bonjour or Hola”. The children surprised us by choosing French and Spanish words in favour of English. To extend this, the Oaks have also learnt how to say ‘hello, my name is’ in French, the French equivalent being “Bonjour, je m’appelle”. Alongside our Spanish numbers, the children now know numbers 1-10 in French, which are as follows;
1 – Un
2 – Deux
3 – Trois
4 – Quatre
5 – Cinq
6 – Six
7 – Sept
8 – Huit
9 – Neuf
10 – Dix
This week the Saplings have had many ‘imaginary adventures’ whilst playing outside in the garden. They began by following their interests and going on a hunt for wolves negotiating between themselves as to who would ‘tip toe’ up the garden to see if there was one hiding before running away to tell the rest of the group if it was there or not! The children waited in anticipation and excitedly screamed at the thought of it ‘coming back’. To extend this, the story of the ‘three little pigs’ was read to them and the children went on to build houses made of various materials with each child having a turn at ‘huffing and puffing and blowing the house down’. Annabelle quite rightly said that the house of bricks was strong and so the wolf couldn’t blow it down!
Whilst outdoors they also went on the ever-popular space journey ‘Aliens Love Underpants’ with the story fresh in their minds. The children showed high levels of energy and fascination whilst looking out of their spaceships to see if they could spot any space related objects. Joshua thought he saw a ‘wolf’ whilst Alf saw some very odd looking ‘aliens’.
The Saplings also enjoyed energetic play when they used their gross motor movements whilst negotiating their way around an obstacle course. Winding themselves through the maze, across stepping stones, weaving in and out of cones then climbing up onto the balance beam before throwing bean bags into a bucket (testing their hand-eye coordination) and finally jumping off the end achieving a secure two footed landing.
To conclude their theme of ‘transport’ the Saplings moved freely and with confidence in a range of ways such as running with arms stretched out imitating an ‘aeroplane’ and walking slowly like a ‘tractor’ or jumping into the air with arms stretched up pretending to be a ‘rocket’.
Meanwhile, indoors, the car mat provided an ideal opportunity for the children to demonstrate how they might differentiate between modes of transport (and their purpose) and sorting them into colour groups thus supporting early mathematical concepts of shape, space and measure.
Lastly the Saplings enjoyed mark-making with their own interpretation of tracks and roads upon a large roll of wallpaper; a fine backdrop for their vehicles. Felix, Annabelle and Hassan all demonstrated good control in holding their pencils further supporting their physical development.
This week the Seedlings have been exploring the season of winter. The children have been getting creative designing their own baubles and wreaths, using their motor skills and decision-making skills to choose different colours and items to stick upon them. The children have also explored the sensory experience of handprint painting, using green paint to create Christmas trees. To extend this, the children added cotton wool as an ‘igloo’. Tearing it into smaller pieces and gluing it onto paper, feeling the soft, fluffy texture as they stuck it down. Ava, Rory and Sophia discovered that they could stick the cotton wool to their finger and then tickle each other, which Flynn found very funny.
The children have also enjoyed creating a winter themed small-world tuff tray. The children enjoyed exploring different textures such as bubble wrap, cotton wool, aluminium foil and snow blankets. The children extended their communication and language skills as they named each woodland animal and added their call; owls – “twitwoo”, rabbits – “hop hop” and more complex animals such as foxes that “creep creep”. The children have also extended their understanding of the world by considering which habitats the animals live in, whether they live on land or in the water. It is clear that the children’s play has really progressed with Oscar and Sofia demonstrating their own experiences whilst playing with small world people, labelling dolls as ‘mummy’ and ‘daddy’. This will be extended through repeated small world play.
In order to progress the children’s communication and language skills, the practitioners have created an ‘almost’ obstacle course with items that the children might recognise. As the children progress through said course, they have to name each item, some were more confident than others but everyone had a try! The children maintained focus and were able to repeat every word, even those that were a little hesitant thus showing true perseverance.
The Acorns have continued exploring their senses, investigating whether objects be wet or dry and learning to understand opposites. The children felt a number of everyday objects familiar to them including wooden spoons, dry pasta and metal saucepans. By comparison, they then considered other items altered by the inclusion or absorption of water such as cooked pasta and gloop – a simple mix of cornflour and water. Not only did the children explore the textures but enjoyed tasting the cooked pasta! To extend this further, the Acorns involved themselves in water play, using varying sized pots and pans as containers for water transportation. The children watched as the adults poured water from a height to create waterfalls and this made some of the Acorns squeal with excitement as the water splashed fiercely upon hitting the tuff tray.
Messages:
This week the Seedlings have asked for jam jars for their upcoming Christmas craft activities.
Across all groups the lack of named clothing and shoes is causing a lot of confusion. It is imperative that all items are named, as so many children have the same or similar items, often in identical sizes.
We would also like to bring it to your attention that breakfast times have slightly changed. They now range from 8:45-9:15. This is to allow those that are coming slightly later to be able to have breakfast should they need it, also to make it easier for parents that have school runs to incorporate into their mornings. If your child has already had a substantial breakfast before arrival please let staff know, as we do not want to over feed them.
In light of recent events, we have reviewed our Covid risk assessments and we ask that parents now reframe from bringing toys into nursery. This is not to say comforts are not allowed, simply that we are trying to prevent cross contamination between children and adults. Please also ensure that your children are not eating when coming through the gates as this can put others at risk – due to a number of severe allergies in the building.
Stars of the week:
Oaks – Nova – for her sheer determination to tidy up with her friends and encourage everyone else to join in. Also for working really hard to achieve her ‘astronaut’ stickers and succeeding.
Saplings – James – showing good listening, following instructions and being a good role model when taking part in the obstacle course.
Seedlings – Daisy – for her efforts at tidying up.
Acorns – Freddie – for settling in so well and developing relationships with his new peers.
Have a fantastic week and stay safe.
The Team at Broughton.