“Maybe I can only do small things. But my small things might join small things other people do. And together, they could grow into something big.” – Be Kind by Pat Zietlow Miller

We look forward to seeing you at our event on Thursday evening at 7pm supporting healthy eating. 

Oaks 2:

Oaks 2 have experienced lots of new and exciting things this week.

Mel brought in her glockenspiel for the children to play. Jasper held the sticks confidently in both hands as he played a great tune.

As the class made orange biscuits, Theo was ever so interested to learn which ingredients were used. Teddy held a segment of orange and squeezed the juice into the biscuit dough using both hands. Jasper stirred the mixture using a spoon.

Theo did a fine job rolling out the dough before Clemence pushed a cup down onto it to make a circle shape. Ashlyn very carefully placed a dough circle onto the baking tray.

During this activity, the practitioners taught the children how to slice the dough into a crescent shape to represent an orange segment.

Star of the Week:

Ashlynn- For always being so willing to help tidy up at the end of an activity.

Oaks 1:

We’ve had a fantastic week here in Oaks 1. As the weather starts to gently turn, we’ve turned our attention to the changing season and the beauty that autumn brings.

We cooked our food over an open flame outside and we gathered natural materials and began to make an autumn discovery table. If any children collect any interesting autumnal objects over the coming weeks please feel free to bring them in to add to our table!

Our Story of The Week has been Owl Babies, a tale all about separating from our loved ones and then being reunited with them later. The story supports the children’s emotional development as they settle into our new classroom and celebrates the love we have for our families. Oaks 1 all worked together to make a house for their owl babies using natural materials and mixed media.

Lots of the children expressed an interest in baking and manipulating things with their hands so we dived into making our very own Play-Doh AND bread this week. Baking supports children’s early math skills, fine motor skills and science as they explore cause and effect and study the changes that happen when we mix different materials together.

The youngsters proved to have a strong interest in baby role-play too – we will lean into this next week. If anyone has any baby resources or toys that their children used to use and they’d be happy to share with the class, please feel free to bring them in and add to our role-play corner.

Star Of the Week:

Amalie – for helping the teachers look after some of our younger Oaks.

Forest School:

The children took delight in attempting all that the woods had to offer this week as they attempted to make damper bread and jewellery from the haul of acorns scattered all around. The winds had certainly thrown a treasure trove of riches our way and the children soon used problem solving skills and critical thinking as they devised ways in which they could put their bounty to good use. Oliver was seen winding the twine back onto it’s anchor, methodically following its natural path as it had become rather entangled around a tree and some bushes, displaying a ‘can do’ attitude when it got difficult. Well done Oliver for such dedication.

Lola relaxed in a hammock and amused us all and Alba showed great spirit as she pulled the trolley with little assistance, what a lovely day we had.

Seedlings:

This week, our Seedlings enjoyed a fun sensory activity involving farm animals.

The children explored sounds and animal pictures, diligently matching the animals to the correct basket. In our sensory baskets, the youngsters discovered toy cows, pigs and sheep that had been hidden in a tray filled with straw/ hay, scoops and containers. They loved matching the animal sounds – oink, baa and moo – to their picture.

Using cotton balls, our Seedlings helped wool our sheep during a fun craft which set out to enhance fine motor skills. As they got to work, they sang along to Old Macdonald Had a Farm and Baa Baa Black Sheep.

We worked really hard to boost a number of key skills this week – communication and language, fine and gross motor skills. The children were all excellent at animal recognition too.

Star of the Week:

Madison and Marina – For being fabulous at settling into nursery life.

Saplings:

This week, the Saplings have enjoyed engaging with a range of different activities.

One activity saw the children use spoons to scoop up pinecones before placing them into cupcakes trays. This activity helped to support their fine motor skills, allowing them extra time to practice holding their cutlery, supporting them at mealtimes.

The Saplings also enjoyed a spot of sensory yoga using brightly coloured sensory scarves, stretching up high into the sky and reaching down low to touch their toes.

The children loved playing with modelling clay, manipulating it with our various shaped cutters. The youngsters really liked the feeling of squashing the play dough between their fingers.

Finally, the Saplings had so much fun getting messy in our mud kitchen. They enthusiastically mixed mud and water together to make a cake batter, which they then poured into different containers.

Star of the Week:

Leo – For his great tidying up and always making his friends smile.

Acorns:

The Acorns have focused on music and movement this week.

We spent time learning lots of interactive nursery rhymes and songs, practising our signs while doing this. Oscar particularly enjoyed these and joined in brilliantly.

The Acorns had the biggest smiles on their faces during our baby sensory activity complete with scarves, toys and different sensory toys. Tilly was particularly fond of this activity and beamed throughout.

We’ve read lots of books this week too, enjoyed water play in the garden and got creative with building blocks and magnetic tiles. We also whipped up feasts in our mud kitchen and boosted gross motor skills on our soft play.

Star of the Week:

Oscar – For his fantastic signing of ‘please’ and ‘thank you’.

Until next week.

Yours sincerely

The Broughton Team