This week the Oaks have been continuing their theme of Autumn. The children went on a nature hunt in our forest area and foraged for items that they associated with Autumn. Some of the children found leaves, some found sticks, others found conkers, acorns and pine cones. This led to discussions around colours and textures with Theo pointing out that he’d found orange and yellow leaves and Oliver G. suggested that the pinecones were “bumpy”. To further these discussions, the children have been looking at the inside of trees and how they are filled with rings. Each of these rings represents a year that the tree has been alive. The children were fascinated to count each individual ring with some trees amounting to 25 years! In order to explore the tree rings further, the Oaks took paper and crayons and used their fine motor skills to create their own tree rubbings. Noah remarked how the trees created funny lines and that the bark made bumpy marks.

The Oaks have also been developing their gross motor skills as well as their health and self care skills. The children were put into teams, with cones as markers and passed beanbags between their legs to the person that was stood behind them. This allowed the children to practice self-care in the bathroom so that they can attend to their personal needs – a difficult task for some but one which they strove to achieve! In addition, the movement stretched out their muscles and enhanced their turn-taking skills; Nauris was particularly good at this and helped his team to come first. The Oaks also took part in many sporting activities, including one where the children had to run with a tennis ball until an adult called out a colour at which point the children had to ‘touch down’ at a corresponding colour zone. As an extension, the colours were exchanged for numbers. Ottile thoroughly enjoyed this and was one of the quickest to correctly identify the coloured cone.

The Saplings have continued to explore Autumn and the ever-changing weather! Whilst out in the garden, they observed the effects on trees, such as the seed pods and leaves dropping and their varying colours. They also enjoyed jumping in puddles and using various pots to transport rain from one container to another. The children have been incredibly engrossed in ‘transport’ play, following on from their interests, the children got really creative making tractor and car prints using different coloured paints which led to the children playing with farm animals and discussing the names of their offspring.

The Saplings were taken on various adventures with the most popular one being ‘under the sea’. They imagined themselves being under the water and looking at all the brightly coloured fish and other sea creatures. They let their imaginations run wild and at one point they were all ‘swimming’ away from the ‘sharks’, using gross motor movements with their arms to swim around the room. The children have also been enjoying music and movement activities, particularly ring games, ‘Ring O’ Roses’ becoming their firm favourite.

This week, the Seedlings have been developing their construction skills by building towers using various materials; Duplo, wooden blocks, and mega blocks to create houses around a train track they had previously built. Rory mastered his tower building and balancing skills all the while holding on to the bottom block to stop it from toppling over.

The Seedlings have also been having lots of fun exploring the mud kitchen, making many mud pies, using both hands and spoons and exploring the sensation of squelchy mud. This allowed the children to practice independent hand washing, furthering their health and self-care skills. To further their senses, the Seedlings have explored cinnamon playdough, using their fine motor skills to poke holes in it and mould it into different shapes. Ava smelt her hands and said “nice”.

Prior to lunch, the Seedlings have begun their own ‘circle time’. The children all gather together and choose their favourite nursery rhymes. Using a selection of cards as visual aids, every child gets to choose which is their favourite song even if they can’t verbally say it yet.

The Acorns have been exploring sounds and how by tapping on certain items with different utensils can vary in sound and intonation. Using metal and wooden spoons to tap onto saucepans and pots, the children concentrated for long periods of time, listening to the high and low pitches and developing their gross motor skills. To further this, the children listened to different animal sounds on a CD, exploring familiar sounds such as a bird or a dog and learning to distinguish new sounds such as those from cows and sheep.  The Acorns have also been painting one dimensional shapes, specifically squares and circles whilst mixing other colours to see what evolves.

Stars of the Week:

Oaks: T-J – For excellent football skills and control over a ball.

Saplings: Killian – For beginning to take part in and interacting in group activities.

Seedlings: Thomas – For Joining in with his friends and sharing the toys.

Acorns: Flynn – For feeling confident enough to take a few steps holding an adult’s hand.

Messages this week:

As the weather is so interchangeable, we ask all parents to provide appropriate clothing where possible, welly boots and warmer coats are needed now as well as waterproof clothing. We ask that all items to be named for easy identification.

The Oaks ask for Jam jars in preparation for Christmas, please get collecting now!

Enjoy your evening and have a fantastic week.

The Team at Broughton.