“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.” – John Lubbock, The Use of Life

Seedlings:

This week, the Seedlings have been working on their counting and number recognition.

We kicked things off with a puzzle making activity. This saw the children paint paper plates before adding numbers to one half and dots to the other. We then cut the plates down the middle and tasked the Seedlings with pairing up the halves.

The children had the chance to work on their fine motor skills in an activity involving paper numbers and pegs. The Seedlings did a brilliant job of securing the paper numbers onto the pegs. We then asked if the youngsters could count how many numbers were on each peg.

Further strengthening included threading, using cardboard tubes topped with tissue paper. The children then pierced the paper with pipe cleaners and counted them as they burst through.

A final activity saw the Seedlings secure elastic bands to a stencil of a hand. We’re so proud at how the children have boosted their mathematical skills this week. It was a joy to see how well they concentrated while drawing and tracing numerals using chalk and crayons.

Star Of the Week:

Nellie – For settling in so well

Saplings:

This week in Saplings, we enjoyed spending time in the garden.

While outside, the children had fun exploring loose parts particularly our offering of tins filled with brightly coloured bracelets. The children loved the shine and the shimmer with Clemence telling her friends she looked like a princess. Some of the group liked playing with the stones, carefully stacking them on top of each other before knocking them back down.

Loose parts play helps us to facilitate the children’s imagination and foster their sense of empowerment and independence as there will never be a fixed/set outcome.

For an arty activity, we tasked the Saplings with gathering up apples in the garden to dip into paint for a collage. Arthur told his peers that he was working with green paint.

Star Of the Week:

Arthur – For being helpful when putting toys away.

Acorns:

This week in Acorns, learning has centred around our All About Me topic as we’ve had a number of new friends join us.

An activity on Monday saw the children make self-portraits from modelling clay. To give them inspiration, the Acorns studied an example made by a practitioner. The youngsters all really enjoyed manipulating the dough with their hands. Once they’d created the perfect shape, the Acorns adorned their models with a pair of eyes, a nose and mouth. Arthur really liked the feeling of play dough between his fingers.

The next activity saw the Acorns expand on this concept by making portraits from paper plates. String was added as hair, pipe cleaners represented mouths and pom-poms made the perfect nose. Millie was fascinated with the colours she could see as she put pen to paper, while Arlo really wowed us with his placement of the features.

The Acorns certainly made the most of the week’s sunny spells with a dip in our paddling pool. To add a fun dimension, we added animal figures (usually found in water.) Everyone had a blast splashing around.

Stars Of the Week:

Millie and Arlo – For their amazing independent walking.

Oaks 1:

What a week we have had!

We started with an ambitious attempt to fly a kite. After a rather unsuccessful go in the garden, we decided to take our efforts to the highest point we could find—up on the hills in the nature reserve.

Despite our determination, the wind just wasn’t on our side. But we’re coming back with plan B next week and keeping our fingers crossed for a breezier day – just no rain, please!

Midweek brought a change of pace as we headed out for some seasonal fruit picking. With apples and blackberries galore, we had a brilliant time on our fruity walk. The original plan was to bake a delicious crumble… but due to the length of our walk we stopped for a snack and decided a yummy smoothie later was the way to go instead.

The children sipped their homemade smoothies whilst relaxing during our very special spa day. We created a calming environment in our bell tent – the perfect setting for relaxing music and face masks complete with cucumber to soothe the eyes. Fizzing bath bombs were a hit in our mini foot spa. The children absolutely loved getting pampered and everyone left feeling rejuvenated and ready to take on the weekend.

Star Of the Week:

Amelie K for being so thoughtful

Forest School

Mushrooms adorn the woods and every week the children notice new types sprouting here, there and everywhere, large, small, dark, light, colourful, toadstool ‘like’ (perhaps under which fairies live?). They marvel at the sheer spectrum, but they also know not to touch; these are foods for woodland animals, not humans.

Holly opened her bakery shop and demanded extortionate prices for the snack which was highly amusing as she absolutely refused to ‘bargain’ with anyone! With acorns in abundance, they were a fitting currency. Well done Helgi for ensuring everyone ‘paid’ as required, swelling coffers at the ‘bank’. 

Our fabulous team prepared lunch with gusto (after a ramble which certainly tested our fortitude). A special mention to William for peeling and chopping onions so professionally. He tells us he will be a chef when he is older.

Xander showed dexterity and determination as he fixed the clamp to the bench (it’s not easy, believe me) and found sawing wood was so much easier this way, with suggestions of his numerous inventions!

We ended the session with a tree hug and discovered that if we all hold on tight, we can fit almost the entire group around the old oak tree.

Oaks 2:

This week, Oaks 2 have been learning more about earthquakes.

They made tectonic plate biscuits and decorated them with black and red icing pens. Finneas designed a great crack along his biscuits to symbolise the ground splitting under pressure.

The practitioner explained all about the subject and showed the children pictures of San Francisco, which had an earthquake in 1906. The roads became high under the pressure of the cracks. Genevieve could not believe what she saw as she gazed at the city, saying ‘wow!’.

The children really got to use their imaginations during a task with the practitioner thinking about what it might be like during an earthquake. There was a lot of shaking going on and the children crouched under tables for shelter as one might in a real earthquake.

Star Of the Week:

Otis – For reenacting human response during an earthquake.

Announcement;

Parents, may we ask that you bring in any recycled objects you have so that the children can decorate them with colours and numbers.

Yours sincerely

The Broughton Team