This week the Oaks have continued to research all aspects of Space with many bringing in facts from home. Hugo’s handmade book incorporated all planetary systems naming all the planets; it was filled with lots of beautiful colouring. He proudly presented his work to the whole group and shared all that he had learnt in detail. We have been very busy making Chinese lanterns and a human ‘embodied’ Chinese dragon; the children suggesting design, colour and materials such as fiery tissue paper, cereal boxes, glitter, gold paint. The dragon slowly evolved over the week and the children were extremely proud of the final result, excited that they would become the moving parts, leading a merry dance around the nursery.       

The children have also been using their senses to make blossom tree pictures using their fingers to create the blossom and thinking about what colours might be blended to achieve the shade of pink they sought. Most of the children were able to tell the adults that a mix of red and pink would give them the result they needed.

The children have been having lots of fun in the snow and the Oaks made a snow man. Exploring the outside environment, the Oaks foraged for sticks and other objects to represent the snowman’s face and body. We kindly asked Michelle if we could borrow her scarf, which the children then used to wrap around the snowman. Evie told an adult ‘’this will keep our snowman nice and warm’’’. The children had lots of fun exploring the snow, discussing its texture and how cold it was. Lying down in the snow, the children moved their arms and legs to create snow angels. Danny said ‘’Ooohhh that’s a bit cold’’ once he had made his snow angel.

The Oaks 2 have been using the parachute and coloured bricks to test their colour matching skills, aligning them in order. They displayed patience and excellent turn taking skills as they matched the components to the segments of the parachute.

Showing a fantastic sense of teamwork, they have been helping each other to tidy away showing a positive, can-do attitude, setting the table at meal times and anticipating how many utensils were required, they enjoyed helping one another to achieve these tasks. To celebrate Valentine’s Day, Oaks 2 have enjoyed making cards for their loved ones sharing just who they loved so much.

Oaks 2 have also enjoyed playing in the snow this week joining forces with the Oaks to help build a tall and round snowman. Using strength, persistence and great collaboration they worked hard as a team to roll the snow balls in the snow until they grew large enough to fashion it into a body. We have been talking about the sky and how it’s appearance changes when snow clouds form. Some of the children spotted how it had altered to a white hue suggesting that snow was very likely.

The Saplings have also enjoyed playing outside in the snow powder, assisting staff in snowman construction and demonstrating a good aim whilst throwing snow at each other and staff! Joshua and Felix were both very engrossed whilst using hammers to break the snow, revealing hidden ice before noticing that there were coloured balls immersed beneath. Felix was particularly determined to break the ice to remove the balls showing both perseverance and good use of his gross motor skills.
Whilst in the garden the children enjoyed a game of football with both Thomas and Ava demonstrating good co-ordination and team work as they kicked and dribbled the ball to each other and taking turns to try and achieve an accurate shot into the goal.

The children have been learning about Chinese New Year traditions and after having a discussion about types of decorations one could use to brighten people’s homes this prompted the children to talk about their own special times and link experiences to support their knowledge and understanding of the world around us. Hassan told the group that he had a Christmas tree and James Fox said he had lights and baubles! The children made Chinese Lanterns providing them with the opportunity to work on their scissor cutting skills which some found difficult; however, they remained focused and were determined to see the activity through. They also decorated a Chinese Dragon puppet using their pincer grip for gluing and painting with a fine paintbrush.

To extend the topic of Chinese New Year, the Saplings enjoyed the sensory experience of playing with spaghetti, using their gross motor skills to lift the spaghetti using their hands and utensils such as tongs and spoons which supported their pincer grip. James particularly enjoyed scooping the spaghetti before transporting it between containers with great accuracy, ensuring he didn’t spill any.

The Saplings have also been busy making Valentine cards using bubble wrap soaked in paint. After realising that bubble wrap popped if pressed hard enough Stanley decided to lead the way for the rest of the group by standing and jumping on sheets of bubble wrap anticipating when it was going to pop next!

To extend their keen interests in sensory play the children finished the week playing with foam, manipulating and scooping it; later adding water they found the texture altered sufficiently that they could now it pour through sieves. They soon worked out that adding more water meant they could now splash each other too!

Messages – Has anyone in the Saplings group taken home a grey jelly cat bunny by mistake? We have one at nursery which is very similar but doesn’t belong to the child who is missing one. Would be great to swap them over if possible.  We hope Ottie had a lovely birthday and thank you for the yummy cake, the children loved it!

This week in Seedlings we have been continuing with our celebrations for Chinese New Year. We have been trying different Chinese traditional dishes such as chicken Chow Mein, noodles and prawn crackers- This has helped the children to explore and experience different cultural dishes and textures. We have also been exploring our senses with the use of sensory play dough in traditional Chinese colours such as red, yellow and orange. These were also scented with a variety of scents such as strawberry, lemon and orange.

We have been developing our pincer grip whilst we decorated our Valentine’s Day themed hats. The palmer grasp was also strengthened when painting and decorating Valentine’s Day cards for the upcoming celebration. To coincide with our Valentines theme, we have been talking about emotions and feelings with the use of flash cards and encouraging the children to express their feelings and emotions in all that they do.

This week we have also been exploring different forms of sensory play-such as exploring the use of different colours, textures and effects with the use of a variety of different material’s We set up two different tables both sensory, but with different materials for the children to explore such as a shiny table with a range of different textures.

We have also been discussing recent weather changes and what happens to the weather when the seasons change.

The Acorns would like to thank you for bringing in your pet photographs. We have enjoyed finding out about your pets. If you haven’t already please could we have your pet photos to add to our pet photo book for the children to share.

We have been enjoying lots of activities which involve different types of animals. Using paper plates and cotton wool, the Acorns had lots of fun making their own sheep. Using a palmer grasp to spread the glue, the children had to extricate themselves from the sticky wool mass after ‘dressing’ their sheep which for some was rather frustrating! Using colourful feathers, the children soon adorned their ‘chicks’.

A snowy scene was created using foam and silver foil upon which farmyard animals were soon seen skidding and sliding.

We brought snow indoors and created our own winter wonderland theme tuff tray. Using snow and pots and pans the Acorns used schemas of transporting and enveloping. The children used their fingers to make marks in the snow adding different animals and using a pincer grip to lift them. The Acorns created their own animal footprints in the snow. Later, the snow had turned to ice. As they lifted pieces from the ground the children expressed just how cold it was audibly.

The Acorns joined others in creating lanterns to adorn their room and delighted in acknowledging their efforts by pointing around the room.

We have been reading stories about the love between parents and babies linking this to the love of St Valentine. Using red and pink crayons, the Acorns developed their mark making skills to create their own Valentine pictures.

Messages – Please see below single and paired gloves which are un named. If these belong to your child please let us know. As you can imagine it has been a mammoth task keeping abreast of gloves and mittens (especially this week as the children must wear gloves for their enjoyment of such cold conditions) 

and particularly as so many are un named – if at all possible, please sew a piece of string, wool or elastic to the pair so that they can be strung through the coat and will therefore remain in situ.

Stars of the week:

Oaks 1: Elliott for super listening and always using core values.

Oaks 2: Reece for great listening and following instructions.

Saplings: Killian for sitting still at circle time, listening to stories and joining in with singing.

Seedlings: Roman for accelerating his walking skills and for using a pushchair for support.

Acorns: Mia for pulling to a standing position and being confident enough to let go and stand unaided.

Yours sincerely

The Team at Broughton