“Never do anything by halves if you want to get away with it. Be outrageous. Go the whole hog.” Matilda – Roald Dahl

Seedlings:

We’ve been looking at the universe.

We kicked things off this week with a fun Tuff Tray activity that saw the children fit felt shapes into the masking tape outline of a rocket. The Seedlings loved the challenge of placing the soft brightly coloured triangles, circles and squares into the empty space.

The Seedlings had so much fun while sticking the sun, moon and stars onto a cardboard plate that had been transformed into a night sky using black paper.

Our glow-in-the-dark stars and gloop activity was a hit with everyone. The children adored manipulating the slimy solution with their fingers. Later on in the week, the Seedlings made some soft and sticky moon sand. Finley told his peers that he thought the activity was “amazing” as he scooped it into his hands before pressing it together to make rocks.

The children demonstrated excelled teamworking skills when they crafted a rocket from a cardboard box. Silver foil, coloured paper and a few decorative accessories added the perfect finishing touch.

Stars Of the Week:

Arthur – For being fabulous at settling into his new room.

Acorns:

We’ve had lots of fun exploring our garden and marvelling at the changes in the season as we head towards a more autumnal period. Our trees are dropping beautiful golden and deep, fiery red leaves and the apples and plums, both golden and purple are plentiful so we collected them up and presented Annette with this gorgeous fare so that she can add them to next week’s menu.

We’ve welcomed or new friends as they attended their settling-in visits and supported those who are transitioning to Seedlings. We absolutely love water and have enjoyed plenty of water play, splishing and splashing whilst outdoors in our courtyard. 

Star of the week:

All our Acorns for being so kind and welcoming.

Saplings:

This week, the Saplings have loved doing a range of activities inspired by Claire Freedman’s books Aliens Love Dinopants and Dinosaurs Love Underpants.

During an activity where we tasked the Saplings with decorating their own underpants using red, green and blue tissue paper, River wowed with excellent colour recognition and named every shade she used. Clemence impressed with brilliant fine motor skills when using the glue stick to secure the tissue paper.

As the children got to work threading pipe cleaners through colanders, the Saplings again boosted their colour recognition skills. The insert puzzles supported this further too, by encouraging the children to talk about the different pieces, displaying patience and great critical thinking.

The youngsters also enjoyed building a variety of creations with the magnetic tiles. Theo proudly showed his friends the rocket he’d built, and James named all the colours he could see while connecting the magnets together.

We spent lots of time singing too this week. Sleeping Bunnies was a firm favourite with the group. The children beamed as they hopped up and down. Devon did such a wonderful job of encouraging all her friends to join in.

Star Of the Week:

Finley – For being very brave during his visits to Saplings.

Lower Oaks:

We are nearing the end of our school year and changes are afoot!

We have been talking about our next steps and explaining the coming changes to our Lower Oaks children. We will be continuing our prep to make sure the youngsters feel happy and secure.

The weather has continued to be dry so we have been outside in the garden, exercising and problem solving as a team. We made houses from huge boxes and the children planned a town. They worked together to tape and cut, then they decorated their houses and put numbers on their doors.

In our classroom we have been celebrating all number work. We made number mats and baked domino biscuits to reinforce our number recognition.

We said farewell and good luck to Tamsin and Theo – we will miss you both.

Star Of the Week:

Genevieve – for making us all giggle as she recounts her stories

Upper Oaks:

Upper Oaks’ week has been packed full of adventures and fun in our new outdoor tool area.

Imogen and Maeva loved asking questions about what the different tools are used for, and thought about how they are handled too.

The children have worked on strengthening their scissor-handling skills and all did very well. Upper Oaks spent lots of time drawing this week too – we hope you love their creations.

Thanks to the sunshine we’ve had, we’ve spent lots of time in our garden soaking up the rays. Colby and Luca love using the sand pit and making sand castles.

We took time to further work on the children’s grasp of Spanish this week too. This week, we taught the Upper Oaks to ask ‘What is your name?’. We’re delighted to report that the children were able to confidently reply.

Star Of the Week:

William – For his excellent sharing.

Forest School:

The beauty of Forest School is how the seasons influence the beautiful landscape pallet and all that we do, whether it be exploration or investigation and what discoveries we might find. We have watched over the past 5 months as the farmer has ploughed, slurried, seeded and watered his fields. Way back then we had no clue as to the eventual crop as each year it changes, but we do now, magnificent corn swaying in the golden sunshine. The children have measured themselves each week against the plants but are now truly outmeasured!

We were permitted to take a few cobs, and Annette added them to the nursery dishes. It’s wonderful for the children to be able to plot this journey.

We came across a huge soil mountain which Cindy likened to Ayres Rock or as it’s now known by it’s Aboriginal name, Uluru; the children were fascinated to hear all Cindy’s stories from Australia and decided to decorate sticks with rainbow twine and colourful marks to represent didgeridoos.

Yours sincerel

The Broughton Team