“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.” – Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss
Dates for your diaries:
Christmas parties – Acorns, Seedlings and Saplings – 16th December 3pm-4.30pm.
Oaks 1 and Oaks 2 – 17th December – 2.30pm-4.30pm All are welcome.
Seedlings and Acorns:
This week in Seedlings and Acorns, we’ve focused on a variety of different topics.
We celebrated Remembrance Day by using potatoes as stamps to replicate a poppy. The children dipped them in red paint and transferred them onto paper, then used a small circle sponge to create the black centre within the petals.
On Wednesday to mark Work Nursery Rhyme Week, a practitioner drew different nursery rhymes on pieces of black wood and introduced a new game to the children. During circle time, each child took it in turns to choose one, flip it over and reveal which song they had chosen, which we all sung in unison. This was a great way for the children to show effortful control and demonstrate turn taking.
This then led us into Thursday where we celebrated World Kindness Week. We all really thought about sharing and being kind to one another through a selection of different interactive games. It was beautiful to watch some friendships blossom within the room. To finish off the week, we welcomed all children and staff to wear pyjamas to nursery in aid of Children In Need – it was wonderful seeing all the children looking so cosy! Thank you for your donations which have been sent to this very worthy charity.
We ended the day by putting on our dancing shoes and enjoying a big pyjama party.
Stars Of the Week:
Acorns:
Olivia – For interacting beautifully with her peers and signing please and thank you.
Seedlings:
All of our Seedlings – For using their Makaton so well.
Saplings:
This week the Saplings have enjoyed marking Remembrance Day by creating poppies from red and purple tissue paper. The children were very careful when spreading the glue and placing the tissue paper to beautifully decorate their own versions. They learnt that some poppies are purple in memory of the animals who fell too.
We enjoyed building creations with the magnetic tiles and wooden building blocks, challenging ourselves to build houses and tall towers, measuring ourselves against the final products.
The Saplings tested their coordination and core strength using our balance beams and even started to assist one another by holding their friends’ hands as they made their way across the beams whilst the slide allowed the children to work on their counting skills, counting each step as they ascended.
Star Of the Week:
Finley, for always engaging in our activities
Oaks 1:
The continuing mild weather has provided us with opportunities for wild walks. We ventured into the nature reserve opposite the nursery to collect flora for our wreaths. The children love to explore our stunning surroundings, and we found an array of greens and reds to weave into our festive wreaths.
This week we extended learning on The Chocolate Cake by Michael Rosen, we made chocolate Play-Doh and drew our own versions of cakes! We have been packing in descriptive language to enrich vocabulary. Early years age children should absorb eight new words a day, five of which should be with us.
While we’re not wanting to prepare for the festive season too early, we’d be very appreciative of your animal dressing up costumes being sent into us in a named bag. We are singing daily and the children have loved hearing about Mary and Joseph.
Our play is 6th December so save the date…. Guaranteed hilarity and a warm fuzzy feeling!
Stars Of the Week –
Everyone, for such enthusiasm whilst practising our Christmas presentation.
Forest School:
We were certainly tested this week as the icy weather set in. We sought out all the frozen puddles dotted around basecamp and marvelled at how insects and leaves had become encapsulated within. The children then turned their attention to cracking the mirror-like sheets, delighting in the sounds that were emitted. We tested our strength as we rebuilt our home-made balance beam using the many trunks scattered across the woods and put our problem solving skills to the test as we matched size and thickness to achieve as even a surface as possible. Great teamwork was prevalent throughout.
Oaks 2:
This weeks, Oaks 2 continued expanding their knowledge of space. We were impressed that a number of the children spotted the moon in the morning. This inspired the group to create their own moon. We talked about the spherical shape of the ball which we then covered in blue paper. We also created our own universe artwork, using cotton buds, white and pink paint and black paper.
Later on in the week, we explored colours using pastel chalks. The children loved blending the soft shades with their fingers. This activity was brilliant for supporting the youngsters with their colour recognition. Devon and Hope did a great job as they combined the colours with great enthusiasm.
Stars Of the Week:
Hope – For her amazing creativity skills. Well done!
Devon – For bringing in the fantastic alien she crafted at home with her mummy.
The Broughton Team.