Dear Parents,
We would like to take this opportunity to welcome Jo and Zaynah to the Broughton team working alongside staff in the Oaks 1, Acorns and Saplings groups. Room Leaders will introduce them to you over the coming weeks.
Oaks 1:
This week in Oaks 1, the children have begun their preparations for school. They have discussed the transition, uniform, friends, topics etc and are all very excited about the next chapter in the lives.
The group looked at rhyming words, using Post-it notes to correctly position ones with the same ending. Having completed this last week using simple words such as; ‘cat’, ‘cow’ and ‘log’, Oaks 1 have now extended their understanding of rhyming words by considering more complex ones. These included ‘star’, ‘mop’ and ‘hot’. The children worked very hard and came up with a considerable number of rhyming words including ‘stop’, ‘cot’ and ‘bar’. Yannick suggested that ‘yacht’ sounded like ‘hot’ so we discussed how they sound the same yet are spelt differently. This encouraged the development of the children’s literacy skills as well as their understanding of rhyme and alliteration.
The class also studied Jack And The Beanstalk. The children created their own beanstalk using fine motor skills to make marks on paper and forage for leaves and sticks in the forest. This enabled Oaks 1 to consider the various textures involved when sticking the natural resources down, with some suggesting that the twigs made a ‘snap’ sound when they were broken. Others acknowledged that the leaves came in all different shapes and sizes. To accompany the beanstalk, the children crafted a giant who’ll be tasked with watching over the broad beans that will be planted soon. Using mirrors to consider their own appearances, the group gave the giant eyes, hair, a nose and mouth, along with a shirt and tie. Once complete, he had a look similar to that of the lead character in Julia Donaldson’s Smartest Giant In Town.
Now for an update on our butterflies and stick insects! The butterflies have all now hatched out of their chrysalides and have been released into the wild. The children were all very excited to see the butterflies take off and find a flower to enjoy some nectar. It was identified that one butterfly had an antenna missing, affecting its balance and restricting its flight pattern. Oaks 1 then considered the notion of balance and how some animals need wings, tails or equal parts in order to fly or move as they should. The stick insects are progressing nicely too. They are thoroughly enjoying their new habitat of ivy and are growing day by day. The class love observing their change in size and relish having the responsibility of feeding and watering them.
Star of The Week:
Noah – For showing real perseverance in his activities and for being a team player.
Messages:
To ensure clothes are returned to their rightful owners, please can we remind parents to name any items sent in. May we also ask that all children come to nursery with a sun hat, regardless of the weather. We’d also appreciate parents providing a drawstring bag for their child’s belongings. As well as being easy for the children to carry, we feel they’ll better prepare them for school.
Oaks 2:
To help the children grasp the different seasons, we’ve been talking about spring, summer, autumn and winter during circle time this week.
We started with an in-depth look at summer, celebrating the solstice on Monday 21st June. Oaks 2 worked so well as a team to create a big summer picture. This involved painting a piece of paper blue, with the children taking turns to share three paintbrushes. As well as supporting their personal, social and emotional development, this task enabled them to enhance their palmar grasp. The class then dipped bubble wrap into yellow paint to create their own sun interpretation. Most of the children were able to tell us that the sun is shaped like a circle. Colourful tissue paper was used to create flowers positioning grass at the bottom of the paper. The adults put the finished creation up on display and the children were very proud of their work.
During this week’s circle times, we’ve listened to songs about seasons. At different stages of one particular track, the practitioner paused the music so the children could guess which season was being described.
Oaks 2 also helped to organise a special season-themed Tuff Tray. For the summer section, they collected buckets, spades and sand. For autumn, we foraged for leaves, sticks and mud in the garden. We selected chicks, lambs and ducks from the animal box for spring. Finally for winter, the class took turns pouring white glitter to represent snow. This activity was great for fostering independence because the children were involved in lots of different tasks.
This week, the class have been looking at butterflies too, linking them to spring. Reece very kindly brought in some caterpillars which we’ll watch evolve into butterflies over time. Witnessing this change in an animal supports the children’s understanding of the world.
Star of The Week:
Harry – For making his friends laugh whenever they are sad by singing along to Reel 2 Real’s catchy 90s hit I Like To Move It.
Saplings:
We started the week reading Lucy Cousins’ book Jazzy In The Jungle. The children were drawn to the colourful illustrations and loved participating with the story by pointing to all the different animals, with Emi telling us that pandas eat bamboo.
Feeling inspired by the tale, the class went on to play with small world animals in a variety of sensory activities. They helped to create a jungle-themed Tuff Tray, using gross motor skills to rip up paper and find all the creatures that would live there.
The Saplings really retained focus during our fun Guess The Animal game. This saw a practitioner play different animal sounds on the iPad, before asking the children call out what they thought was making the noise. Rory speedily identified the lion and elephant, and the monkey’s chatter caused everyone to laugh.
We spent time enhancing the Saplings’ communication and language skills by reading another Lucy Cousins book entitled I Am A Little Fish. The class loved it and asked for another animal-themed story. We settled on Giles Andreae’s Giraffes Can’t Dance and it was thoroughly enjoyed by all.
The children got creative this week too by making their own paper plate snakes. Using a paintbrush to colour the plates with different tones of green and yellow, the Saplings were able to work on their palmar grasp. Some of the group used scissors (with help from an adult) to cut a spiral shape for the snake’s body. This provided a chance to strengthen fine motor skills.
We also made our own giraffe height chart. Once decorated and up on the wall, the Saplings were excited to get measured. This sparked a discussion about the concepts of short and tall, leading to the children comparing heights with one another.
Our busy week ended with a spot of jungle dancing; the children using gross motor skills to move in a variety of different ways. They were tasked with listening carefully to the adults’ commands of which animals to impersonate. Hudson was particularly good at pretending to be an elephant, swinging his arm to mimic a trunk. The group all loved thumping their chests while pretending to be gorillas.
Star of The Week:
Alex – For settling into the room so well.
Seedlings:
The Seedlings have continued to focus on the topic of summer and self-care. We’ve been encouraging the children to clean their own hands and faces after mealtimes, as well as blowing their noses and putting the tissues in the bin.
Our Tuff Tray themes this week have consisted of pasta, rice and sand play, filling and emptying containers and also using shaving foam, toothbrushes and laminated teeth to encourage oral hygiene.
The Seedlings have also been very busy with art projects. They loved making their own ice cream pictures with potato mashers and paint, and adored using leaves and flowers found in our garden to craft sun-catchers.
We’ve also spent time singing summer melodies during song and story time and have looked through different books about the weather.
Over the next two weeks, we’ll explore the subject of numbers, colours and shapes.
Star of The Week:
It would have been impossible to pick just one child this week. So we’d like to say well done to Leo and Lorelai who have both impressed us with their developing vocabularies when talking to peers.
Messages:
Please may we remind all parents to bring in some family photos that we can use to create a collective photo album of all the children.
Acorns:
We’d like to begin by wishing Oscar a very happy birthday, we hope he had a wonderful time celebrating his special day.
The Acorns had a fantastic week which saw them engage in various activities relating to our Old MacDonald’s Farm theme. This really helped further the children’s understanding of the world, whilst boosting communication and language development.
The children got stuck into our new farm peg puzzles, with Adrian proving to have excellent hand-eye coordination as he lifted the pegs and manoeuvred them around the board. We’ve also been using our choice trays to encourage the children to master the principles of sharing and taking turns when playing with their peers.
While planting lettuces, we talked to the Acorns about caring for the environment and the stages involved in growing plants. This activity also helped the children get to grips with which fruits and vegetables are grown on the farm.
The Acorns have enjoyed numerous arty activities too, with painting ducks a firm favourite amongst the room. Alfie took a great deal of pride in his creation and concentrated well throughout.
Star of The Week:
Adrian – For correctly being able to identify different body parts.
Messages:
We now have a large family tree mounted on our classroom wall and would love the children to bring in photos to add to it. We’d also appreciate any garden pots that you might have going spare as they’ll come in very handy for our current topic.
Yours sincerely
The Broughton Team