“Do you remember the Shire, Mr Frodo? It’ll be spring soon. And the orchards will be in blossom. And the birds will be nesting in the hazel thicket. And they’ll be sowing the summer barley in the lower fields… and eating the first of the strawberries with cream. Do you remember the taste of strawberries?” Return Of The King – JRR Tolkien

Staffing news – We would like to welcome Maddie and her daughters to Broughton Cottage. Maddie is a qualified teacher and has worked in schools here and abroad, she will be working with Catherine two days a week and  is slowly introducing herself to our Upper Oaks families. Renuka has settled into our team and is currently working in the Seedlings and Acorns groups. We are delighted to have them.

Seedlings:

The Seedlings have had another very productive week, combining their spring topic with an element of colour recognition.

The children worked on developing their independence too by handing out drinks bottles, bowls and cutlery to one another. All the Seedlings did a brilliant job and acted with nothing but kindness to their peers.

We’ve of course been enjoying the sunshine as much as we can too – our mud kitchen has proved to be very popular again.

Next week, the Seedlings will continue to look at spring and different colours, this time with shapes added in too.

Star Of the Week:

All of the Seedlings have been amazing this week. Well done, everyone!

Saplings:

This week, Saplings enjoyed their time back at nursery by getting involved in a range of different painting activities to decorate our room.

This included dipping dinosaurs’ feet into trays of paint before walking them over sheets of paper. The Saplings loved seeing the variety they could create.

On Tuesday, we celebrated World Earth Day by creating our own interpretations of the planet we live on. The youngsters got to work spreading green and blue paint over paper plates. Once dry, we hung them around the room for all to see.

On Wednesdays, we marked St George’s Day by having a go at decorating flags using red crayons and paint sticks.

Throughout the week, the Saplings also enjoyed building a range of creations using our magnetic shapes, with Ashlynn wowing her peers with her very tall tower.

What’s In the Box and Sleeping Bunnies were such a hit with the class. The Saplings all demonstrated excellent turn-taking skills while waiting for a chance to choose a song from the box. Arthur suggested the children should become sleeping caterpillars – this saw the Saplings wiggle around the room, being ever so careful not to bump into one another.

The Saplings really enjoyed spending time in the fresh air too. They particularly liked riding the bikes and cooking in the mud kitchen. The children had so much fun setting up a train by placing chairs in a line before all jumping on and thinking of places they wanted to visit. James said he wanted to go to the swimming pool, while Alba said she fancied the beach. George carefully drove us to the seaside where we all had an ice cream!

Star Of The Week:

All our Saplings – For settling back into the routine so well after their time off over Easter.

Acorns:

This week in Acorns, we’ve focused on transport – a subject that has really captured the children’s interest.

The Acorns adore looking out of the window to see the different cars arriving at nursery and always gaze up at the sky to spot helicopters and aeroplanes during garden time.

To start the week, we set up a Tuff Tray in our courtyard consisting of water, bubbles, cars and sponges. We tasked the little ones with scrubbing the vehicles squeaky clean. This activity enhanced the children’s hand/ eye coordination as well as their language skills. We emphasised words like wash, scrub and clean. To extend this, we sung along to ‘This Is the Way We Wash The Cars’.

Next, the Acorns had a blast dipping cars into paint before rolling them along paper. The children were intrigued to see the different types of tyre marks as they emerged. As they got stuck into this activity, we took the opportunity to boost the children’s colour recognition skills.

Towards the end of our exciting week, we sat the youngsters down with a giant ‘build your own train’ activity. Polly loved painting the locomotive and giggled as she covered herself in paint too.

Star Of the Week:

Arthur – For joining in with activities and giving the practitioners lots of smiles.

Upper Oaks:

It’s been a fantastic week settling back into nursery life here in Upper Oaks.

We spent lots of time outdoors, making the most of the spring weather. We ate as many meals outside as we could, which was such a treat.

The children enjoyed a physical challenge that saw them work with pallets, logs, hammers and nails. All of the Oaks proved to have a brilliant understanding of the importance of safety.

The Oaks were delighted to spot chafer beetles and larvae inside the logs. This inspired the children to hunt for minibeasts around the garden. The youngsters gently scooped bugs up into cups so we could discuss what we’d found.

Finally, we enjoyed a wide range of literature this week, and the children used their imaginations to come up with their own stories. We adored seeing the youngsters really put their creativity to the test. Next week, we’ll be creating story books together.

Star Of the Week:

The entire group for their joint endeavours outdoors, great teamwork.

Lower Oaks:

We started our week with a spot of gardening. The group headed outside to check on the progress of their plants before inspecting the ones indoors.

We’re thrilled to report that the peas are shooting up in the garden. Our bean plant has been growing an impressive amount too!

Lower Oaks were captivated by the story of Jack And The Beanstalk and listened intently to the audio version that was played. This inspired the children to make their own beanstalk for the porch area of the house. Willow impressed us with her use of fine motor skills as she painted the stalk. Maeva also painted brilliantly, using lots of green to enhance the appearance of the beanstalk.

The children also worked together exceptionally well while making a Tizzy Tiger for the wall which links in with the other stories and activities we have been engaged in. Finneas and Annabelle demonstrated excellent scissor control as they snipped orange strands of wool before sticking them down with precision.

We also spent time learning about rhythm this week too. The children tapped the rhythm of their names as a musical instrument played. Finneas was able to count to three to state the number of syllables in his name.

Star Of the Week:

Lyra – For being helpful and doing such great listening. The backpack goes to Lyra for all her hard work.

Announcement:

If any parents would like to come in to show an activity that they do with their children at home, we’d love to arrange a visit.

Forest School:

The bluebells heady scent was pungent as we wound our way to basecamp, the forest floor awash with blue.

Our final session for this rotation saw us take a stroll to the periphery of the local golf course and discussed all that we saw, the ducks looked delighted to see us as they paddled around the enormous pond, and we sought out similarities and differences in their plumage. Luca was aghast at a contraption he found which cleans golf balls and we all kept our beady eyes open for any golf balls which may have been hit off the course and landed in the surrounding fields with the children remarking that those players must not be very good!!

Heer, Eli and Joshua worked together to create a nest for the forest birds while Ada spent time working hard to saw sticks to equal size in order to make a picture frame. Imogen did a grand job cutting all the potatoes so that they would cook quickly for lunch whilst Alex made a fabulous string monster.

I wonder what sights we’ll behold next week.

Yours sincerely

The Broughton Team