When the first baby laughed for the first time, it’s laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of the fairies.” – Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie.

Seedlings:
This week, the Seedlings have focused their learning on their new topic of mini beasts.
The children had great fun making a bug hotel out of items foraged from our garden. The Seedlings shared the natural resources brilliantly, taking it in turn to glue leaves, sticks, bark and straw onto their bug hotel. Theo excitedly told the practitioners that he thought spiders would love to visit his hotel.

A mini beast mark-making activity saw the Seedlings really express themselves with paint. Genevieve and Otis both chose to draw ladybirds and were delighted to see their marks evolve.
The children adored hunting for mini beasts in soil. After giving each child a spoon, we tasked them with finding the critters that were hiding in flowerpots.

George remained engaged in this activity for a long time, while Daneyal had everyone giggling when he quipped ‘uh oh’ when accidentally dropping soil onto the floor.

Star Of the Week:
All of our Seedlings – For showing great enthusiasm for their new topic.

Saplings:
This week, the Saplings have been thinking about how plants and animals grow.

While fashioning flowers from tissue, William told his peers he was making a daffodil as he scrunched up yellow paper. He really impressed us with the way he carefully secured his tissue to the backing paper using both hands.

A real highlight of the week was Laura bringing in our recently hatched chicks to show the children. Lyra sweetly described the baby birds as ‘soft’. Laura spent time explaining what the chicks ate and how they are cared for. The children really focused and concentrated throughout the conversation.

Next week, the Saplings will be treated to a visit from Cindy’s guinea pig Bertie.

Star Of the Week:
Tamsin – For settling in well with her new friends.

Announcements:
All beakers will be going home to parents as the older children will be drinking from cups to improve their dexterity when gripping objects.
Please may we also ask parents to send in any photographs they have of their children meeting animals. We’ll be putting them up on display in the classroom and would like to give the children the chance to talk about the encounters.

Acorns:
The Acorns’ topic of the week was spring.

We kicked things off by creating beautiful tulip collages, dipping forks in paint before stamping them down on paper. It was a joy to see the children giving meaning to their marks as they got creative with different tools and counted up to three as they went.

In a second arty activity, we challenged the Acorns to turn cardboard tubes into different blooms. The children loved having the freedom to choose which flower they’d like to create.

Later on in the week, the children played with floral ice cubes. The youngsters were ever so intrigued by the cool feel of the ice and the way the petals emerged as the ice melted.

Star Of the Week:
Oliver – For doing so well with his transition visits to Seedlings.

Oaks 2:
It was a real joy to welcome the Oaks 2 children back after the Easter break – we hope you all had a restful time.

We’d like to warmly welcome our new joiners Dylan, Alex, Jacob and Imogen to our room. They all did a fantastic job of adjusting to our routines and have settled in brilliantly.

This week, we took an in-depth look at the planet we live on, touching on the different things we can do to protect and preserve it.

The children adored the challenge of removing plastic from a Tuff Tray filled with water and sea creatures. By working with tweezers, the youngsters had the chance to boost their fine motor skills. As they got to work, we chatted about the importance of throwing rubbish away properly and why we should always
recycle when we can, too.

Following on from this, we thought Stephanie O’Connor’s book The Whale Who Ate Plastic would be perfect for further enhancing the children’s learning on this subject. The children listened to the story intently before enjoying a ‘save the turtles’ Tuff Tray inspired by the tale.

Star Of the Week:
All the older Oaks 2 for being so welcoming to their new friends from the Saplings group.

Oaks 1

What a lovely week we have had welcoming Oaks 1 back into nursery. We have enjoyed the glorious warm weather the latter end of the week and spent more time outdoors which included eating outside and games of cricket.

With a gentle ease back into routine we had our weekly sporty stars session which had the children balancing bean bags on their head and a full-on obstacle course around the garden giving the children a chance to show us their strength and determination, using our strategy of ‘team work makes the dream work‘ the children battled it out in teams to win the race.

We have had a very exciting ‘around the world day’ topic this week flying all the way to Australia, where Ronnie the Rocket has lots of family, the children closed their eyes, hopped on their private jets and flew away for the day with Ronnie and Theo as their captains, landing at the very famous Bondi beach. The
children learnt some Aussie slang and they struck up the barbie and flipped a few homemade kebabs whilst “G’daying” all about them.
After playing a few rounds of cricket we had a very special visit from Ronnie’s daddy who brought in a didgeridoo and showed the children how to play it, Ronnie’s daddy told the children an old tale from the outback of the Australian serpent. We thank you for joining us in Oaks 1. We wonder where our travels will take us next ….

Star Of the Week:
Ralph – for his listening and understanding of the rules

Forest School
The children were quick to note seasonal changes and all remarked at how beautiful the bluebells were looking. Ottie gathered a few and made a little bouquet, securing the bunch with twine; and a fine job she did too.
Our ventures took us away from basecamp but beforehand, the children were very keen to make their own fishing rods and cast them upon the stream.
Freddie suggested that there might not be any fish to catch if there were blockages along the way (meaning that they could not navigate the waterways and continue their journey) and he might well be right. We discussed how we could clear some areas in the stream to allow nature to become more abundant and freer, perhaps coax the fish in!
We shall see …………

Yours sincerely
The Broughton Team