“Keep all your promises, don’t take what doesn’t belong to you, and always look after those less fortunate than yourself, and you’ll do well in the world.” – The Dragon of Lonely Island by Rebecca Rupp
Acorns:
This week in Acorns, we have said hello to all of the new babies that have started with us at Broughton. We have very much enjoyed our baby sensory sessions each day and singing all the new favourite songs the babies like to move and dance to. The practitioners helped the babies to explore rattles, shakers and bells as they ‘sang’ along to The Wheels on the Bus’
and balls as they rolled them back and forth
All children explored and experienced the garden and enjoyed the messy tuff trays we set up for them to experience different textures and set them a little task of seeking out different objects hidden beneath the fluffy and slippery mass.
We are all excited to continue the children’s new journey with us as we watch them grow and develop in our care.
Stars of the week:
All our Acorns as they adapt to their new surroundings.
Seedlings:
The children have been exploring our new sensory resources. The children love our baby sensory sessions so adding more light up toys enhanced their experience. They watched in awe at the patterns and illuminations thrown out all around the ceiling and walls.
We spent time daily in the big garden. Most of the children seem to gravitate towards the bike track which really tested their physical strength. A spot of cooking in the mud kitchen saw their creativity really shine as they made lots of mud pies and other delights for us.
The children found hand painting ‘tickly’ as they made some pictures which were ‘All about me’
We spoke about how many fingers we had and all the different things we could do with them, such as waving, clapping, and colouring.
Stars of the Week:
All our Seedlings for settling in so well.
Saplings:
This week, the Saplings have been learning about a book called the Colour Monster.
The story by Anna Llenas links feelings such as surprised, happy, angry and sad to different colours. Thank you for bringing in such a lovely book, Otis.
Feeling inspired by what we read, we challenged the children to make lemon flavoured monster cake pops and ice pops. We can confirm that they were delicious.
The Saplings adored our special Colour Monster Tuff Tray too, complete with different coloured pom poms, monsters in an array of shades and tweezers. We tasked the children with matching up the coloured pom poms with the corresponding monsters. They all did a brilliant job.
On Friday, the youngsters got crafty making fabulous colour monster faces for our wall display.
Star Of the Week:
Otis – For his excellent understanding of the emotions represented by different colours.
Oaks:
This week the Oaks have been diving into our imaginations; with Jack and Beanstalk being a firm favourite of the class, talking over breakfast the children decided they wanted to act it out, with the weather still holding on just enough for us to enjoy a lovely walk over the reserve we trailed into the woods with our trusty cow daisy
(played by Poppy) who was then swapped in return for the magic beans, everybody recalled the story well and remembered what parts they were acting out and enjoyed contributing to our play, later that day when returning to nursery the children continued the play and swapped characters so that everyone had a chance to be the giant.
Sporty Stars focussed on team work and how to encourage team members to complete a physical challenge, giving the children an opportunity to show themselves that team
work does really make the dream work.
Star of the Week:
Peggy for such excellent listening skills.
The Oaks have also thoroughly enjoyed exploring the Broughton Cottage Garden this week.
A number of the children took a keen interest in a pile of snails that had accumulated in the mud kitchen. Some of the youngsters were very confident when handling them, being sure to take great care.
We’ve also spent time thinking about different noises we might hear around the nursery, such as the Spitfire that often zips overhead or the geese flying in a perfect V formation as they make their way from Sevenoaks Nature Reserve to Chipstead Lakes. Avery sweetly announced with great certainty that they were ‘going to the duck pond’. We were also lucky enough to listen to the solitary sound of a robin while we ate our tea in the garden.
We noticed the green leaves on the trees were beginning to change colour, so we got our colour palette out and chose some autumnal colours to create our own autumnal trees.
Star of the Week:
Avery for considerate turn taking on the bike track.
Forest School:
Our new team continued their journey of discovery as they spent time embracing the great outdoors in a woodland environment. We took a ramble through the surrounding fields for the first time and discovered some young dairy cows munching the lush green grass; the children were fascinated at the large metal cage containing hay for their feed and needless to say, the cowpats provided further hilarity as they discovered just what they were!
The sun shone for us (which was a welcome change) helping to encourage the children to walk for longer so we set the them the task of navigating two farm gates which they all negotiated with great fortitude, having a go and never giving up, well done everyone.
Until next week ……
Yours sincerely
The Broughton Team