We have a fabulous team and we would appreciate your input each month as we recognise the efforts of one individual member. If you would like to commend any one member of the team for a monthly award, we would love to hear from you. For March, we have chosen three recipients, Paige for the additional support she gives to the whole team, to Chloe for her great efforts in Oaks 2 and to Jackie for her flexibility working within all the groups.
For personal reasons Jasmin will be leaving us at the end of the week. We would like to take this opportunity to wish her all the very best for the future and thank her for her contribution.
Emily Foote will be joining the Acorns team when we re-open. Emily has over 15 years’ nursery experience and will be a very welcome addition at Broughton.
As previously advised, please note that the nursery will be closed from Friday 2nd April until Friday 9th April, re-opening Monday 12th at 7.30am.
We are in process of writing our end of term reports, if you would like to have a Zoom meeting with your child’s key-person to discuss their progress, please let us know and we can arrange that for you.
Oaks 1
Our week has mainly been spent outdoors. As a continuation of our topic, Planet Earth, the children have investigated the water cycle and how it helps to sustain life. The children looked at a illustration of how the water begins as precipitation in clouds, then falls onto mountains which then flows through to rivers, finally reaching the ocean. The children considered how the water evaporates into little pieces and in turn reforms into clouds. As an extension of this, the children created their very own water cycle using different materials from around the garden, it was decided that a drain tube would be efficient as a mountain, bricks created the basin of both the river and ocean and a sieve represented the rain. The children questioned how we could recreate evaporation and learned that it is not always visible to the naked eye and is therefore microscopic.
The children built a new den; searching and foraging around the garden, the Oaks found a large tarpaulin that Oliver G described as “massive”, as well as a number of poles that Reeve and Alba helped to carry and position. The children planned their strategy on how best to create the den, Evie and Theo E decided that using a particular tree to hold up the tarpaulin would be the best option as it gave us the height we needed. Ottilie and Florence suggested we needed some furniture and so found a pallet. However, this pallet was too low to act as a table so Jaime pointed out that we could prop it up using logs or bricks. As the weather was so nice that day, the children were able to sit outside and eat their tea. The children were eager to cook their own meals so created two campfires this week. First, the children considered fire safety and the boundaries needed to ensure they stay safe. A boundary is set to the perimeter of the firepit and the children are permitted to enter with one foot firmly planted only (to give stability whilst they cook) however, if two feet are planted the whole group shout out our code word “Sausages” as a warning to step back. The group were delighted to cook sausages over the fire and enjoyed their lunch al fresco with toasted marshmallows and hot chocolate to follow!
As Easter is fast approaching, the children have taken part in lots of Easter themed activities. Using the water tray, the children created an Easter scene with eggs, feathers, glitter and sequins. The aim was to develop their fine motor skills by using tweezers and spoons to collect each of the items, however, to make this a challenge, moulding foam was added so that the children had to search ‘blindly’ for all the objects. Using measuring jugs, the group considered whether or not the jugs were full, half full or empty. Noah pointed out that the jugs were in fact “3/4s full”.
Star of the week:
To Jaime for outstanding behaviour and paying attention, and for helping his friends when they found particular tasks difficult.
Oaks 2
We have thoroughly enjoyed our Easter themed activities particularly those which ignited our creativity and individuality. We duplicated our paintings by folding the paper and carefully peeling them back to reveal a mirror image which delighted the children as they now had two identical images! Further concentration was required as we completed the task by decorating our masterpieces.
Associating rabbits with the season of spring we worked together to create a junk model rabbit which led to discussions about what materials would best serve to replicate its parts.
A sweet treat was welcomed as we mixed cornflakes, melted chocolate and mini eggs. This prompted discussions about solids and liquids and how they may become one or the other depending on how they are processed.
Finally, we painted our feet orange in order to produce a ‘carrot’ for our ‘rabbit’; this supported language development as we asked the children to describe how the sensation made them feel. Responses included “smooth,” “cold” and “tickly.” We are hoping that we may have a visit from the Easer bunny next week ……. here’s hoping.
Star of the Week
To Annabelle for being really supportive of her friends when they were sad.
Saplings
This week our focus has been preparing for Easter. We’ve been reading various stories surrounding the festival to support the children’s listening and attention skills. We have been looking in detail at hens, learning that their babies are called ‘chicks’ where eggs come from and how the mother hen must sit on the eggs to keep them warm and safe as this happens in one of our stories.
The children have enjoyed playing with our Easter tuff tray exploring the colour yellow and different textures such as straw. Eggs were hidden beneath the straw and the children enjoyed searching for them, all the while we encouraged them to use their mathematics skills to see if they could place the chickens inside the eggs with some stating they were too big!
Another favourite activity has been playing with yellow ‘Easter’ playdough with the children using their gross motor skills to roll it into balls proudly announcing they had made Easter eggs!
The Saplings have begun to make cards using their handprints to represent rabbits and then adding eyes and whiskers with great precision whilst developing their pincer grip. They continued with arts and crafts when they used a combination of media e.g bubble wrap, pom poms and rubber stamps to explore and experiment with.
As the weather has been pleasant the children have made the most of outdoor play choosing tunnels to crawl through and playing ‘peekaboo’ with their friends. Bikes were also a popular choice encouraging turn taking and giving opportunities to demonstrate kind behaviour.
Star of the Week
Is awarded to Thomas for excellent turn taking and also for demonstrating good balance, determination and coordination whilst negotiating the balance beam.
Seedlings
As Easter approaches topical arts and craft activities have been the feature of the week. We have been focusing on strengthening our pincer grips and Palmer grasps by creating our own chicks utilising yellow paint and forks to create unique marks as a representation of the theme thus helping the children’s’ hand and eye co-ordination.
We have also explored our senses of touch and smell by planting cress seeds, patiently and accurately working our pincer grips to pick up the seeds and drop them into plastic cups. We would encourage you to continue to develop this at home and if possible, photograph your progress.
During our singing and story time we have been introducing Makaton signs, particularly those relating to farm animals, such as pig, horse, cow and sheep. The children have thoroughly enjoyed copying the signs and actions. They are all growing in self-confidence and are very vocal now in requesting which songs they would like to sing next.
Star of the week
Is Alex for growing in confidence and playing alongside his peers.
Acorns
We wish Leo and Lorelai all the best as they move to the Seedlings room. It has been wonderful to watch them grow and develop.
We would love to welcome Ralph into our Broughton family; he is settling well and already building a bond with the practitioners.
This week Acorns have been very busy enjoying the beautiful warmer weather. We have enjoyed playing with warm water in the garden and made our very own “flower soup.” Henry added the vital ingredient (in this instance daffodils) to the water and stirred it all together. While Raul and Adrian watched the children ‘cook’ we discussed the process. Adrian can now pronounce “water” while Raul was drawing others into his conversation. It was lovely to see the boys form their friendship.
The children enjoyed creating Easter arts and crafts which included decorating eggs, wreaths and cones. During small world “barn” play Thomas keenly spotted the differences between the animals while Mia has begun to use single words to define them. The children observed each other’s play and as a result were drawn into play.
We have also enjoyed playing with colourful pasta. We have used all of our senses to discover the texture, smell and taste of the pasta. We used the pasta to represent Easter ‘stamps’ adding them to our cards.
As a nod to St. Patrick’s Day and to support their understanding of this special day, we have read a lovely book about the saint and what he achieved during his life. Getting creative, we used a green pepper to fashion our leprechaun using predominantly green paint to make marks on paper and card which fascinated Ophelia. This activity helped children to study and distinguish the differences between the marks they made. As the pepper is bigger than other, more typical painting tools it’s easier for children to lift using both hands.
Star of the week
To Mia for her developing social skills and drawing others into social interaction
Yours sincerely
The Broughton Team.