News from the Rooms 22nd May 2025
‘It’s no use to go back to yesterday because I was a different person then.’ Lewis Carroll – Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland
Seedlings:
This week, the children focused on Eric Carle’s book The Hungry Caterpillar.
The Seedlings loved making their own caterpillars on Monday using pegs and cotton wool.
Later in the week, the children made fruit kebabs like the ones in the charming story. The Seedlings all loved pushing the pieces of fruit onto the stick. Cornelius really took his time. It’s safe to say the children all adored eating them too.
Another fun activity saw the children craft beautiful symmetrical butterflies. As they got to work, we tasked the Seedlings with telling us what colours they could see. Leo was able to tell his peers that his butterfly was red and blue. The Seedlings were in awe of the way their butterflies came to life once their pieces of paper had been folded in half and opened to reveal a fuzz of colour.
Star Of the Week:
Cornelius – For joining in with all of the activities exceptionally well and for chatting away to everyone in the room.
Saplings:
This week, the Saplings have been taking part in activities aimed at helping to support their fine motor skills.
One saw the children thread pipe cleaners through the holes in colanders. Teddy really wowed the practitioners with his concentration and determination to thread them all through.
The Saplings also enjoyed making different creations with Play-Doh. Theo made a brilliant birthday cake and expertly used a wooden knife to cut up slices for his friends counting as he went to ensure no one was disappointed.
An arty activity where the children were asked to dip pom-poms into paint presented an opportunity to work on colour recognition.
We also challenged the youngsters to sort the pom-poms into pots of corresponding colours. The children boosted their fine motor skills by using tweezers to carefully pick up the pom-poms. Alba and Robin both had an excellent technique and correctly named all the colours.
Once again, the Saplings enjoyed spending time in the garden, splashing in the water Tuff Trays and racing around the bike track. A new slide was also very popular, where the children were encouraged to take turns and share with one another.
Stars Of the Week:
Ela and Daphne – For settling into the Saplings’ routine so well.
Acorns:
The Acorns’ enjoyed a number of activities linked to their ‘on the beach’ topic this week.
We started off with a fun challenge that saw the children use their fine motor skills to uncover sea creatures that had been wrapped in tin foil. Harvey gasped as he unearthed a dolphin, while Leo treated us to a brilliant crab impression.
During another engaging activity, the Acorns got to work decorating ice cream cones. They dipped different tools into paint before spreading them across paper. The Acorns’ fabulous works of art are on display in our window.
To end the week, practitioners set up a water tray and a sand tray in our courtyard. The children giggled as they poured sand into the water, while others watched the cogs turn with great interest. Of course, the Acorns couldn’t resist splashing one another whilst they played!
The children also really liked playing with our brand new treasure baskets – the noisy tubes were a huge hit! James loved pulling them apart with the help of a practitioner.
Star Of the Week:
Freddie – For becoming more vocal and beginning to pull himself up on different objects.
Upper Oaks:
In Upper Oaks, we’ve been focussing on school readiness with an exciting and practical twist—knife and fork skills.
The children have been busy exploring how to cut with and hold their knife. Doing this has not only improved the youngsters’ understanding of what sized pieces of food they should eat but also helped to strengthen fine motor skills and foster independence.
Lunchtimes and snack times have turned into wonderful learning opportunities as well. To take things a step further, we’ve even been cooking our own meals using the gas fire outside as often as we can. The children have been involved in the whole process, preparing the ingredients before turning them into a warm and tasty meal.
We’re also on single digits now in our chick countdown! It’ll be just five more days until we hopefully see our eggs start to hatch. The children have loved checking in on the eggs each day, observing, discussing, and waiting with growing excitement. And as if that wasn’t thrilling enough… we’ve added peacock eggs to our incubator!
Star Of the Week:
William – For trying really hard at mealtimes to be independent.
Forest School
We stayed at basecamp throughout the session, having taken a vote to stay put!
The children were then very busy exploring and foraging to help make their inventions come to life and boost their creative stories which were perfectly acted with gusto. It’s quite incredible how the children’s imaginations run wild with a few props, watching one thing become something else with such flair and agility is quite extraordinary. Helgi impressed us with his rope tying, using it to attach to a log where he determinedly dragged it to a different area of choice. Despite the heavy load he never gave up and eventually reached his goal
Helgi and Jessica opened their biscuit shop, using sticks as currency they were fastidious in ensuring correct payment was received (the cost this week = three sticks). Jessica added another dimension by insisting that each purchaser used their hand to tap the wooden log slice as confirmation of sale; wonderful, she was quite a stickler!
Lower Oaks:
This week, Lower Oaks spent time improving their counting skills using different materials and objects.
James used the abacus to count in number groups. He started in lower multiples, twos and fives, putting the beads on the abacus by separating them onto either half. The practitioner demonstrated first and he followed the instructions really well. He made a wonderful pattern as tasked by the practitioner.
Lyra also did the same activity and even counted the cherries on her top in twos. Genevieve impressed us by counting in twos up to number ten on the abacus. She was quite rightly very proud of herself for completing the task.
We then found five caterpillars in the garden and the children were very excited about it. They carefully put them into a special net to have a wonderful feast of fresh fruit.
This week’s Tizzy book was about going to the supermarket, and the song was Jelly On A Plate. Genevieve particularly liked demonstrating the actions.
Annabelle brought in her dice to show her friends. This gave us the chance to explain how the children could count with dice, before trying to anticipate what number would result after it was rolled.
We are looking forward to seeing your sunflower photo shots. Please send them in as soon as you can.
Star Of the Week:
James – For amazing counting on the abacus. Genevieve did a fine job too and will be awarded the backpack for her efforts.
Until next week.