“But then I realized, what do they really know? This is MY idea, I thought. No one knows it like I do. And it’s okay if it’s different, and weird, and maybe a little crazy.” – What Do You Do with an Idea? by Kobi Yamada

Acorns:

This week in Acorns, we’ve thought about Shrove Tuesday and Chinese New Year.

To start the week, we set up a Tuff Tray with Play Doh, different sized saucepans, mixing utensils and rolling pins. The children loved rolling the modelling clay flat to replicate pancakes before transferring it from one saucepan to another.

This was such a successful activity we decided to extend it the next day by swapping the Play Doh for gloop. The children mainly manipulated the squidgy solution with their hands, although some opted to use their feet! We introduced new descriptive language to support their experience.

During our garden time, we tasked the children with planting some flowers in large pots. Georgia and Olivia were engrossed in this activity as they moved soil from one pot to another. Georgia loved repeating the practitioners’ phrase, ‘Scoop and pour’, before adding: ‘Wow, wow, wow!’.

For Chinese New Year, the Acorns enjoyed making lanterns. The children were given freedom to choose whether they wanted to use paint, colouring pens or decorations. The completed creative and colourful crafts can be seen hanging in the Acorns’ window.

Baby sensory has been a huge hit with the children this week too and incorporated a variety of light up resources. The class really loved having a boogie before lunch time!

Star Of the Week:

Freddie – For settling into our routine so well.

Seedlings:

The Seedlings have been concentrating on numbers and numerals using everyday materials.

We used egg cartons as a vehicle upon which we labelled one to five. In the ‘egg’ spaces we placed coloured pom-poms, and the children were challenged to pick them up using plastic tweezers to enhance their pincer grip. Arlo was particularly good at this activity and spent some considerable time placing the pom-poms into the egg cartons.

Another numerical activity saw the children play with paper cups that had been numbered from one to five with an accompanying funny face to keep them focussed. The children were then encouraged to put the relevant number of items (such as pieces of Lego) into them.

We loved mark-making in our sand trays too using a variety of utensils from plastic forks to spoons and paintbrushes too.

To celebrate Pancake Day, the children tucked into delicious pancakes topped with yoghurt and fruit that Annette has whipped up.

Star Of the Week:

Matilda – For joining in so well and starting to chatter while she plays.

Saplings:

Our observations of the children in recent weeks have shown their love of vehicles and particularly ‘working’ vehicles such as those in construction and on farms. They have reimagined cardboard boxes to replicate them, building them high and wide, pushing them over, under and around their pretend locations. New books have supported their fascination and increased their vocabulary.

Stars of the Week:

Everyone, for their passion and commitment. 

Oaks 1:

It’s been a brilliant two weeks in Oaks 1.

We’ve embraced the rain and spent as much time outside as we can, observing the changes in the weather and seasons. From dramatic thunderstorms to emerging spring flowers, the children are truly learning to appreciate the wonder of nature.

We combined a wintry walk with our ongoing interest in doctor and baby role play. The children spent hours examining and treating each other. We took the opportunity to discuss natural remedies and the origins of medicine. Did you know you can make paracetamol from pine trees?

We went into the woods and gathered ‘treasures’ which we then ground with pestle and mortars before other ingredients were added to make our own pretend medicine. This STEM activity introduced new and rich language with a number of the group exclaiming, ‘It’s fizzing!” as bicarbonate of soda was mixed with vinegar. We used scissors to cut up petals and other natural objects too, challenging our fine motor skills. We sang Miss Polly Had a Dolly as we walked through the forest, accompanied by the ukulele, and wrote out prescriptions. A truly holistic learning activity.

Thank you to everyone who was able to attend our special Valentine’s Day picnic. We’d of course like to thank Annette too for serving such fabulous food. The children drew pictures for their families and told us who and what they loved. A special week of connection for all.

The children are all obsessed with puzzling at the moment. We have been so impressed with their ability to focus on increasingly difficult puzzles.

Stars of the week:

The entire team, what a wonderful, enthusiastic group you are.

Forest School:

We had a visitor, Natasha who came to watch our Forest school sessions in action. 

She was amazed at the children’s ability to work as a team, at their obvious abilities to build a fire, (but also know when their work is done and adults proceed), to their attention to instruction taking and response, to their creativity and empathy for one another. 

Forest School sessions are never a series of ‘activities’ but an ever-evolving experience of nature, in all it’s elements. Having said that, the forest offers so many chances to climb which led to open, rich, imaginative language between the children. Annabelle spotted a ‘lighthouse’. We then collectively discussed its purpose whilst Alice was happy to play the role of lead pirate; with our (imaginary)telescopes we looked ‘out to sea’ and ensured the waters were safe!

Oaks 2:

Over the last couple of weeks, the children have enjoyed our circle time rhymes and have demonstrated confidence when taking part, and patience when waiting their turn.

We have enjoyed a variety of activities such as making our own pizza for tea. This gave Oaks 2 the opportunity to show off their cooking skills when rolling the dough and spreading the tomato paste across the base. The youngsters loved sprinkling cheese on top.

We have worked on the children’s scissor-handling skills too as they snipped up modelling clay.

Michael Rosen’s book We’re Going on A Bear Hunt was very popular with the class. Feeling inspired by the plot, the children created their own bear hunt using the climbing equipment and soft play sofa to represent a cave. It was a joy to see the children having so much fun rolling and climbing.

Star Of the Week:

Ziad – For growing in confidence whilst taking part in our circle time.

Yours sincerely

The Broughton Team