“Just living isn’t enough,” said the butterfly, “one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower.” – Hans Christian Anderson

Seedlings:

Despite the occasional delude, the Seedlings spent plenty of time outside this week.
All the children did brilliantly when we asked them to zip up their own coats and puddle suits. Once appropriately dressed for the weather, the youngsters jumped in puddles and worked on their ball skills.

The sand has been a firm favourite this week – all the children loved making the practitioners cakes and ice cream. Harvey adored creating something with the sand before squashing it back down again.

In the middle of the week, the children had fun spray painting. We filled spray bottles
with paint before topping them up with a little bit of water. The Seedlings then set about spritzing the paint over paper on the floor. The children really enjoying figuring out how the spray mechanism worked. It’s safe to say they all adored this messy activity.

To help develop the Seedlings’ fine motor skills, we set up a spaghetti and meatballs Tuff Tray. Yellow thread represented the pasta while pom-poms became the meatballs. The children giggled as they tried to pick both up with spoons and pincers.

Star Of the Week:
Polly – For doing so well on the potty.

Saplings:

This week, the Saplings have enjoyed undertaking all their favourite activities. Insert puzzles were very popular – they are brilliant at helping support the children’s fine motor skills. Theo and Edward wowed practitioners and their peers with their amazing puzzle skills.

The Play-Doh was also a huge hit and gave the Saplings the chance to build different creations. Jasper liked using wooden knives to slice up the modelling clay, while Clemence enjoyed using the different shaped cutters.

Drawing with crayons presented an opportunity to further boost fine motor skills. Arthur demonstrated his artistic prowess by drawing different pictures, telling practitioners he had sketched a parrot. Alba revealed that she had drawn a magpie. All the Saplings were very creative and wowed with their colour recognition. On Thursday, we celebrated National Teddy Bears’ Picnic Day. The children sat down to tuck into a picnic-style tea on the floor and chatted to one another about the names of their bears.

Water play in the garden has provided relief from the heat we’ve been experiencing. The children were quick to take their socks and shoes off and loved the refreshing feeling of the water between their toes. The youngsters also enjoyed making some ‘soup’ using green water and different leaves that they collected from around the garden. Marco, Cornelius and Rupert liked pouring the water into different sized containers before using wooden spoons to stir around the leaves and flowers.

Star Of the Week:

Clemence – For always being helpful and kind to friends.

Acorns:

This week in Acorns our main focus has been messy play.

We kicked off the week with gloop, a solution made by combining corn flour with
water. The children manipulated the sticky concoction with their hands. They added
a little sand to it and were fascinated to learn that it had become a different texture.
We then made taste-safe mud using cocoa powder, oil and flour. Luca expertly
mixed the ingredients together with a whisk, while Harrison searched our treasure baskets to look for different baking tools.

Thanks to the mainly lovely weather this week, we spent a lot of time in our
courtyard, with some of our Acorns changing into their swimming costumes for a dip
in our paddling pool. We decided to add lots of sea creatures to transform the water into an ocean.

The Acorns have worked hard to master lots of new words this week too including ‘duck’ and ‘boat’. Some of the children even attempted to master the word ‘octopus.’

Star Of the Week:

Arlo – For wowing us with his excellent communication

Announcement:

Please may we kindly request that swimwear is sent in so the children can use our paddling pool.

Lower Oaks:

Summer greetings from Lower Oaks!

We are thrilled to report that our potatoes and carrots are being harvested and we have lots of flowers on our tomatoes too. The children have loved digging the lucky potato dip!

We’ve enjoyed lots of Wimbledon-themed activities too. The children loved exploring strawberry ice and had so much fun making rackets and working on their ball skills. Lowri came in on her last day wearing a 2025 strawberries and cream T-shirt – we wish her all the luck when she starts reception in September.

In class, the Lower Oaks have been using their best listening ears when playing Guess The Instrument, and while learning about verbs with Tizzy. To extend the children’s learning, it would be wonderful if you could talk about action words at home too.

Next week the children have decided volcanoes will be the hot topic.

Star Of the Week:

Ashlynn – for her continuing determination.

Upper Oaks:

The weather has largely been beautifully warm so we spent the week finding lots of fun ways to keep cool. From splashy water Run Rabbit Races – Helgi’s all-time favourite game – to making refreshing cooling drinks together, it’s been a week of laughter and sunshine. Heer was absolutely brilliant at ensuring all of her friends stayed hydrated. The children were really excited for their Leavers’ party and were very busy making decorations and rehearsing songs. We also spent time reflecting on our favourite Broughton Cottage memories. We’re so proud of how far each child has come this year.

Ada has fond memories of our litter-picking walks to the park and looking after the bugs – she’s always been so thoughtful about looking after our environment. Peggy revealed how much she loved the talent show. It was a real confidence boost for her to perform in front of her friends. These reflections have given everyone the chance to remind ourselves just how much fun we have in Oaks.

With changes ahead and new adventures waiting at big school, we’ve also been talking a lot about friendship. We’ve explored how we can be friends with lots of different people, and how kindness is something we can all give. The children have shown such thoughtfulness in these discussions, reminding each other that even small acts of kindness can make a big difference.

We were delighted that so many of you could join us for our party last weekend. There’s still more fun to come in these last few weeks, but for now, we’re enjoying the sunshine, and soaking up these precious moments together.

Star Of the Week:

Alex – For being a true friend to everyone – well done!

Forest School

The children enjoyed preparations for their Leavers’ party equally in the woods too, painting and drawing pictures to hang in the trees using tools made from sticks and fir tree fronds and carbon sticks. They practised their songs again too against the backdrop of their artwork.

We enjoyed a moment of reflection about our Forest School sessions and discussed what we had learnt over the weeks and months, from season to season.

Collectively, the children spoke keenly of their abilities to build and sustain a campfire, and how adept they are at transforming a simple stick into any number of objects. Hot chocolate and marshmallows were voted a high point of the sessions as was reading a story in the ‘story camp’. Many will continue Forest School session at ‘big’ school and are looking forward to it; they’ll certainly be able to build upon their new skills. Good luck everyone.

Yours sincerely
The Broughton Team