“Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmastime.” –
Laura Ingalls Wilder, Prairie Wisdom
Seedlings:
We would like to welcome Edward to our Broughton family.
As we continue to be inspired by seasonal variations, Cindy helped the children create an ice dome containing tissue paper (representing snow), tasking the children to chisel away at the ice to free the paper within. Some children found it easy, but others found working with the slippery ice quite a challenge.
Later that week, we teamed up with the Acorns to make reindeer food. The children had so much fun emptying and filling containers with the mixture.
Another festive activity saw the Seedlings create Christmas tree calendars for 2025. The children all did a fine job adorning their makes with pom-poms and confetti stars.
To complete the week, the children made hot chocolate which proved to be the perfect way to warm us all up. The Seedlings carefully stirred their sweet drinks before topping them with squirty cream, marshmallows and sprinkles.
It was quite the treat.
Star Of the Week:
All the Seedlings – For showing such enthusiasm when joining in with activities.
Saplings:
This week, the Saplings have been getting into the Christmas spirit by enjoying a range of craft activities.
The children particularly liked crossing off the numbers of their group advent calendar daily and all did a brilliant job when counting down how many days were left until 25 December.
The Saplings have spent a lot of time outside in the garden, having so much fun cooking feasts in the mud kitchen and riding trikes around the track. While doing the latter, James declared: ‘I’m going fast!’
The Saplings also loved dressing up and checking out their reflections in the mirror, with Willow saying ‘I’m beautiful!’.
They have been cooking lots of meals in the kitchen too, working excellently as a team to chop up the food. George told us his friends he was cooking pasta.
Star Of the Week:
All our Saplings – For playing so well together and for caring about each other.
Acorns:
This week in Acorns, we’ve been preparing for the holiday season with lots of festive crafts.
The first arty project of the week saw the youngsters make Christmas cards for their mums and dads.
We then tasked the children with making salt dough ornaments. They loved getting messy as they mixed all the ingredients together before pressing cookie cutters into the sticky solution. This was a great way for the Acorns to work on both fine and gross motor skills.
The children were delighted to have the chance to get ever messier when creating beautiful brightly coloured baubles. We gave the Acorns freedom to choose which paints they would like to put inside. Next, the children shook the baubles to mix the shades together.
Everyone adored making reindeer food from a Tuff Tray containing Weetabix, flour and sprinkles. The Acorns certainly developed their hand/eye coordination as they scooped the feed into bags. The children squealed with excitement as they mixed chocolate powder into milk and watched as the concoction, now skilfully stirred warmed. It now required two final additions of whipped cream and marshmallows to adorn the top. Delicious.
Star Of the Week:
Harvey – for keeping us all amused.
Oaks:
It’s been yet another busy, fun-packed week for the Oaks.
We’ve continued to teach the children about hibernation. The children have been diligently working on making houses for their clay hedgehogs to sleep in during the winter. The Oaks impressed us with their ability to wait patiently for their nocturnal creatures to dry.
To extend the children’s knowledge, we made sure to use relevant vocabulary throughout the activity. We asked questions such as:
- Where does clay come from?
- How does the clay feel when it’s rolled into a ball?
- Which animals hibernate?
- Why do they hibernate?
We have also been working hard to boost the children’s cognitive and physical skills.
Oaks had a spectacular junk modelling session spurred on by Xander who exclaimed that he had to make robot armour; this soon became a theme and it wasn’t long before the entire class were adorned in cardboard, booster rockets and buttons!
Next week the children will start work on their Christmas cards.
Star Of the Week:
Luca – For embracing this topic with gusto.
The children love preparing lunch at forest school, they know exactly how small everything needs to be cut in order to cook quickly over the flames. This week they decided they’d also like to make biscuits! Gathering sticks to use as rolling pins, they nimbly practiced excellent fine motor skills as they mixed the dough together and rolled it out carefully, adding each flattened dough ball to the foil dome.
They were excited to see just exactly what the result could be when cooking over fire and very much enjoyed the fruits of their labour declaring they were strange looking, crunchy AND chewy, but overwhelmingly delicious. Next week we plan to make an apple crumble over the fire!
So as not to leave the poor birds out the children then went on to make seed biscuits for them pressed onto tree trunks; they certainly used immense effort to firstly soften the lard, then press the seeds into their ‘cakes’. I rather think they mainly enjoyed ‘decorating’ the trees. We’ll see if they have been enjoyed next week when we return.
Yours sincerely
The Broughton Team