“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language. And next year’s words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning.”

-from ‘Little Gidding’ by T. S. Eliot

Notices – Please let us know if you have not yet received your child’s report summary.

Seedlings:

This week the Seedlings have been looking at different ways to stay active.

Monday saw the children work on their balancing skills by counting how long they could keep beanbags on their heads. The Seedlings found it so funny whenever they saw a beanbag slip to the floor.  Next, the youngsters got physical with the soft play. All the children were able to climb across the obstacles carefully.

We also had a brilliant time exploring a box filled with different types of ball. The Seedlings demonstrated excellent hand/eye coordination as they kicked, rolled and threw the balls across the room. They also adored scrambling through our play tunnel, smiling as they popped out of the other side.

With the recommendation that toddlers should have 180 minutes of physical activity a day, we thought these sporty challenges would contribute towards this quota while also strengthening gross and fine motor skills.

Star Of the Week:

All our Seedlings – For settling back in so well after the holidays.

Saplings:

We started a new ‘All About Me’ topic with the Saplings this week to enable the new joiners to introduce themselves while also giving them the chance to learn their peers’ likes and dislikes.

The children enjoyed creating their own face interpretations after looking at their reflections in mirrors. After drawing her face, Annabelle sweetly quipped: ‘That’s my nose’.

Later on in the week, the Saplings made shaving foam faces using pipe cleaners and pom-poms which represented the eyes. Otis marvelled that the shaving foam felt soft and squishy in his hands.

The children enjoyed splashing in our wet play Tuff Tray, using spoons and cups to mix and pour the water. This activity helped to develop the Saplings’ hand/eye coordination as well as supporting their ability to self-serve with accuracy at mealtimes.

We all loved reading The Hungry Caterpillar this week too. We extended the youngsters’ learning by feeding the ravenous creature by posting food cards into its mouth.

Star Of the Week:

All our Saplings – For bringing gusto to nursery life after the festive break.

Acorns:

To kick start 2025, the Acorns have been exploring new sensory resources.

At the start of the week, a practitioner set up a box with string lights threading through the top. The children adored sitting inside the box while doodling on its sides with crayons. Axel sweetly said he was drawing ‘dada’.

We then tasked the children with making edible mud from oil, cocoa powder, water, flour and cornflakes. We asked the Acorns to call upon their five senses by looking at, touching, smelling and tasting the mixture while also listening to the crunch of it being combined.

Our ball pit was a huge hit with all our little Acorns too.

To end the week, we challenged the children to create their own sensory plates from feathers, pipe cleaners, tissue paper and straws. As the children got to work, we talked about what they were doing and drew in descriptive language.

Star Of the Week:

Finley – For independently making his way around the room by bottom shuffling.

Lower Oaks:

The Oaks’ topic for the next few weeks is winter and will touch upon colours associated with the season.

We were very lucky to have some snow in our garden for the children to observe. As a group, we talked about why and how the ice was melting. The children were very engaged and seemed to really like talking about the chilly season.

This week also saw the children participate in a number of maths-based activities including shape work and numeracy. The children have been busy starting to learn how to write their names too. When doing the latter, we talked about the different sounds in each child’s name. The children proved to really grasp the concept of ‘stretchy’ and ‘bouncy’ sounds, which is the scaffolding for teaching phonics.

Star Of the Week:

Penelope, Carter and Daneyal – For thoroughly embracing their first couple of weeks in Oaks.

Forest School

The children embraced the cold, wintry elements and enjoyed what the snow offered them in terms of an opportunity to have fun with it! They joined Christina as they became snow angels sweeping the soft, fluffy carpet with arms and legs. They collected swathes of ice enveloping ground and trees, likening it to glass and a mirror, watching intently as the glorious sunshine began to soften the icicle ‘plates’ and melt away one drip at a time.

We found numbers here there and everywhere as we noticed them on the edge of the golf course, upon a bridge woven into twigs and I became our focus as we competed to find as many as possible.

During our walk away from base camp the children came upon a skeleton and debated how and why this could happen to an animal in the woods which brought on an animated discussion about a life cycle.

We wonder what we’ll encounter next week on our next adventure.

Upper Oaks:

With Christmas and New Year now a distant memory, we were delighted to welcome back our Upper Oaks.

During a lovely long walk to the park, we noticed that there was a lot of rubbish left on the grass. Using litter pickers, the children worked hard to gather up discarded items. We talked to the Oaks about the negative impact littering has on wildlife and also discussed why it’s important for our planet to recycle correctly.

Following on from this, the youngsters made recycled paper using old sheets that were blended to a pulp. Jacob and Emily K especially enjoyed this activity – they smiled throughout and loved having the chance to get messy.

Our Book of The Week was Plastic Bottle – a story about a bottle who goes along the process of being used, reduced and recycled. Please may we kindly ask that you send in a plastic bottle that can be re-used for an activity this week.

We would like to say a huge, good luck to Dylan who left Broughton Cottage last week for school. He has been with us since the baby room! We wish him all the best for his next adventure and know he will thrive.

The Upper Oaks also had a very special visitor this week, Amelie D’s new baby sister Francesca. We would like to extend our congratulations to the whole family, the children were so excited to meet little Frankie.

Star Of the Week:

It would be impossible to choose just one… so well done to the whole class for doing so well this week.

Yours sincerely

The Broughton Team