“It’s the first day of autumn! A time of hot chocolatey mornings, and toasty marshmallow evenings, and, best of all, leaping into leaves!” A. A Milne – Winnie The Pooh
Open Day – Saturday 11th October 10am-1pm, all are welcome, and we’d love to see you. Annette will be providing a healthy breakfast for us all so please do join us.
Meet the teams – we have changed this date to Thursday 13th November 7-8pm and hope you can join us for an informal chat with your child’s team, a glass of wine and some homemade snacks.
I’d like to thank Annette for her most informative presentation last week all about Healthy Eating in Early Years, if you were unable to attend but would like some more information, please let me know.
Saplings:
This week, the Saplings have enjoyed a range of autumn-themed activities.
One saw the children use cardboard tubes dipped in red and yellow paint to create circle prints leading to a game of colour matching and shape identification and recognition.
In another activity, the children creatively used paint sticks to decorate card before adding leaves that they had collected from the garden to add the finishing touches to an autumnal backdrop upon which their little furry friends could play.
The Saplings wrapped up warm and headed out into the garden to explore. They particularly liked riding trikes along the track, with the double trike proving to be most popular as the children paired up and used their collective strength to set off on an adventure. They imaginatively pulled blocks, bricks and logs together to form a bus and off they ‘disappeared’ to explore new avenues chatting away about just where they might be headed.
Star Of the Week:
James – For sharing and being so kind to his friends.
Seedlings and Acorns:
This week in Acorns and Seedlings, we have focused on nature and the world around us.
To kick off the week, we collected apples from our garden and tasked the children with washing them using water and sponges. The youngsters loved this activity and happily sang along to “this is the way we wash our apples”.
We then used the apples to make a yummy crumble for our pudding. Arthur was skilled at using a child-safe knife as he helped the practitioner cut the apples, and Annabel beamed as she sprinkled cinnamon into the bowl.
Next, we set out on an adventure outside to gather up different coloured autumn leaves and used these during a sticking activity to make beautiful butterflies. Freddie and Ernie concentrated very hard on sticking the leaves onto their paper. This was excellent for developing fine motor skills and helping the children work on their pincer grip.
We’ve spent lots of time outside cooking up a storm in the mud kitchen using left over vegetables, and the slide was a massive hit with the little ones this week too. Using their gross motor skills, the children took it in turns to climb up onto the steps and choose a way to go down. Ernie loved going on his tummy, while Millie enjoyed going backwards.
Our new favourite song is ‘Bingo’ and the children have really grasped the concept of clapping each time to replace a letter in their name. We like to sing this song during our baby sensory sessions, using scarves and other sensory toys as props.
Star Of the Week:
Seedlings: Arlo – For becoming more confident within the room and when using his words.
Acorns: All our little Acorns – For having a fantastic week and being more experimental with new things.
Oaks 2:
This week, Oaks 2 thoroughly enjoyed taking part in our lemon science experiment.
Hope sprinkled loads of bicarbonate of soda onto the lemon and watched it fizz. Next, Jasper poured on the malt vinegar, smelt it and said the word ‘chips’. The children also built a huge junk modelling structure for Festival Day, with Devon showing Cindy just where to place the boxes. She really enjoyed painting them, holding the brush in her right hand making big strokes as she went.
Star Of the Week:
Edward – For showing amazing attention during Sporty Stars and carrying out all the actions.
Announcement:
We’re on the lookout for cardboard boxes and plastic bottles for various projects, so please may you kindly donate any you no longer need.
Oaks 1:
Oaks 1 have been celebrating the official start of autumn this week.
The children danced and decorated with glitter and face paints at our festival and have spent most of their mealtimes outdoors in the wooded area.
They have been getting stuck into some cooking and baking; the learning opportunities are vast and the feeling of satisfaction at a job well done is priceless! We will be cooking weekly, with one meal at least to be cooked over a fire.
This week we have been reading Anna Llenas’s book The Colour Monster, a fantastically illustrated story about coloured feelings. We will be expanding this tricky subject of emotions by making coloured jars holding coloured objects. Please share any favourite books with us, we read many stories each day.
Stars of the Week:
Each one has been a star this week with their fantastic contributions especially during our cooking sessions.
Until next week ……………