“He found himself wondering at times, especially in the autumn, about the wild lands, and strange visions of mountains that he had never seen came into his dreams.” ~ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of The Ring

Thank you to those who came and joined us for our Open Day, we greatly appreciate your support.

We are overwhelmed with an abundance of crab apples which I believe are not easily available. We would be delighted for you to take some for use in jams, jellies, chutneys etc. A small donation for our chosen charity PHAB would be most welcome.

Saplings:

This week, the Saplings have enjoyed working on their colour recognition and counting skills.

One activity saw the children challenged to match the coloured pom-poms to the corresponding bowls. Finley wowed practitioners with ability to name the different shades, while Cornelius and Harvey counted brilliantly. They were able to count up to 15 without any support from practitioners.

To extend this activity further, we introduced tweezers and scoops to pick up the pom-poms. The Saplings worked very hard and had extremely focused looks on their faces.

Star Of the Week:

River – For always having a go at new things.

Acorns and Seedlings:

This week in Acorns and Seedlings, we have expanded more on exploring all things autumnal.

To start off the week, we set up a Tuff Tray consisting of leaves, pinecones, masking tape, bowls and pincers. The children concentrated very hard when using the pincers to pick up leaves and pinecones that were stuck under the masking tape, gathering each piece was tricky but the children did not give up.

Annabel persevered wonderfully as the pincers kept slipping out of her hands. The pinecones used were scented so the children enjoyed using their five senses to explore the full contents of the Tuff Tray.

We then tasked the children with cooking various sweet treats. The Acorns and Seedlings baked delicious apple and cinnamon muffins first. Jamie helped a practitioner cut the apples and Nellie started mashing them in a bowl. The children waited for their turn to mix the ingredients, ever so patiently.

Later in the week, we called upon the children’s baking skills again when whipping up a batch of banana bread, delicious!

On Friday, the youngsters made an autumn soup with orange water. They loved sprinkling in flower petals and took great joy in using different containers to scoop up and pour the liquid.

Star Of the Week:

Acorns: George – For having an amazing week at nursery.

Seedlings: Harrison – For becoming more vocal and confident in the room.

Oaks 1:

This week has been all things Apple 🍏 ! We have been counting, sorting, painting, and eating! This year has seen a mega crop of all soft fruit and we have been collecting and harvesting daily!! We are incredibly lucky to have huge amounts of crab apples…..

CRAB APPLE (Malus sylvestris)

A symbol of fertility and a forager’s delight. Crab apple trees are associated with love and marriage and its small, hard fruits make an exquisite, jewel-coloured jelly.

In the classroom we have been continuing with our jolly phonics- I am thrilled with the children’s progress and engagement! Ask your children to sing the songs to you to reinforce learning!

We have been reading the Pandas who promised and The Whale who wanted more. 

The children are now able to answer more complex questions and are really engaged at circle time. We will be reading rhyming Oi Frog and Oi dog in the next few weeks!

Oaks 2:

This week Oaks 2 have been investigating different textures. Using a selection of natural items James had collected on a nature walk, conkers, a maple leaf and some acorns were used in an experiment we tried. Using two bottles, leaves, acorns, yellow food colouring, vinegar and bicarbonate of soda the ‘ingredients’ were split between the two. Together, James and Jasper poured in the liquid ingredients, gave them a shake and suddenly it all fizzed and frothed resulting  in a reaction which caused enough friction and force to push the acorns to the top and bounce about which the children found fascinating.

The beautiful hue of the maple leaf glistened in through the clear lid magnified in the liquid, the children chorused that it resembled a goldfish slithering in the water.

The group worked brilliantly together as they pooled all their natural finds and layered them into a glass vase, resulting in a criss, cross effect of bamboo, leaves, bark, twigs and soil perhaps a perfect wormery home. Theo played an active role and had lots of fun piling all the foraged materials inside. The addition of a little yellow water soon changed some of the items yellow too.

Star of the Week

Teddy for being very helpful to one of his peers.

Forest School

What’s so wonderful and quite incredible about our sessions in the woods is the anticipation of not knowing what we might encounter on our travels, making every session a time of thought provoking enquiry and marvel; the changing seasons bring so many new and exciting wonders for us to witness and discuss and it’s always so satisfying to hear the children’s thoughts on any given subject; their joint interactions and team work are truly remarkable.

They used wood and sticks to test the depth of an underground home and discovered that it really had no end with everyone imagining the twists and turns of it’s burrows, we even plotted just how far and wide it might have gone and who might be living below.

Alba, Lola and Lyra worked together to make a little nest using oak leaves, moss and hazel, twisting the soft twigs to fashion a hoop. Oliver volunteered his acorns and chestnuts as a food store then together they carefully transferred it to a nearby tree bough with hopes that a little bird might come along and take up residence. We’ll have to wait and see.