“The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it. The reason birds can fly and we can’t is simply that they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings.”
—The Little White Bird by J. M. Barrie

Upper Oaks:

In slightly sad news — we regret to inform you that, despite hopeful glances and regular check-ins, we’ve yet to see any duck eggs appear. However, spirits remain high and eyes even higher… because we’re still crossing fingers for a peacock sighting. Stranger things have happened in Oaks. We did however welcome one chick who has already gone to live on the farm so has he now has lots of new friends and doesn’t feel lonely. We are watching and waiting now for our butterflies to emerge from their cocoons.

This week, we decided we needed to treat ourselves to a real morning delight — cinnamon toast, cooked outdoors! The sweet, spiced aroma drifted through the air, proving that sometimes this is the very best way to start the day- it was a huge hit with Xander who stated it would be a good idea for breakfast every day.

Sports day practice is well under way with an intense, competitive team spirit shining through.

We explored stories around kindness to remind us of why it is important and how it makes us feel when we do kind things for others and equally what feelings occur if we are unkind.

Star Of the Week:

Hegi – for his willingness to help others

Lower Oaks:

This week the children have been enhancing their counting skills. We’ve continued the use of our abacus and the children are learning to subitise groups too.

Annabelle used the little abacus to count the 10 beads on one line. She then learnt how to divide the 10 beads in half by pushing the number either side of the line. She then grouped the beads in pairs.

Lower Oaks proved that they were able to use a safety knife effectively as they cut up fruit to make a fresh pudding to enjoy after tea. With the help of an adult, Otis sliced an apple. As he started to cut, he exclaimed ‘it’s tough because of the skin’. We tied this activity to the children’s favourite Crunching Munching Caterpillar story by Sheridan Cain which discusses healthy eating. Amalie pointed out that chocolate cake isn’t good for you, before cheekily telling her peers she loved to eat it. Annabelle revealed that she loves pears and said they were healthy.

Star Of the Week:

Tamsin – For learning how to count to ten on a push button phone.

Annabelle has been awarded our backpack for her brilliant demonstration of counting in fives aided by the abacus up to ten.

Forest School:

 We had a fabulous trek away from basecamp and gathered lots of wild and woodland flowers to make bouquets for our mummies and daddies, embracing and enjoying the sunny weather and emerging growth as we discussed exactly what we noted had changed from previous weeks.

Seedlings were starting to poke up through the fields (previously we had watched the farmer spread slurry across the plane to enrich the soil) as the children debated what had been planted, last year it was corn perhaps wheat this time, we shall have to wait and see. 

We delighted in the ever-growing grassy fields and the children loved pacing through the ‘swishy’, ‘swashy’ undergrowth and playing peekaboo with their friends.

Back at basecamp the group helped Cindy make use of rope by creating a rope ladder on which they competed in a challenge to reach the end without falling off! 

I wonder what finds will befall us next week ….

Seedlings:

This week, our Seedlings have enjoyed a week themed around children’s literature.

On Monday, we read Michael Rosen’s story We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. This inspired us to make our own bears using glue and tissue paper. The children roared as they got to work – the children blew us away with their impressive animal impersonations. Throughout the activity, the Seedlings demonstrated their colour recognition skills.

Next, the children read What The Ladybird Heard by Julia Donaldson before crafting red and black spotty inspects  using paints and sponges. Once the ladybirds were complete, we counted their spots. Cornelius and Finley impressed us with their numerical skills.

Towards the end of the week, we played That’s Not My Bear in a game involving a treasure basket with three toy bears hidden inside. The children really enjoyed getting to know the bears, touching their paws and ears when requested in the book. When it was time to say goodbye to the bears, the children sweetly put them back to bed.

Farm puzzles were a hit with the Seedlings this week too. Leo was brilliant at finding the pieces for the missing slots. Puzzles are wonderful for improving hand-eye coordination and testing critical thinking and problem solving.

Star Of the Week:

Finley – For being very confident with his non-stop chatting. He’s loved pulling himself up on furniture too.

Saplings:

The Saplings spent their week boosting their fine motor skills through a variety of engaging activities.

A colour matching activity was thoroughly enjoyed by all. This saw the children challenged to pick up bright pom-poms with tweezers. If any pom-poms were dropped into the wrong coloured bowl in error, the youngsters were quick to place them into the correct one.

To mark World Bee Day, the Saplings painted lovely collages. While the children got creative, the practitioners spoke about why bees are so important to our planet.

During a fun meatball-themed activity, the children were tasked with picking up spaghetti strands with tweezers. This activity led to giggles all round.

Elsewhere in the week, the Saplings planted sunflower seeds in the garden. They made musical instruments by filling up bottles with rice too an had fun shaking them as they sang along to nursery rhymes.

Star Of the Week:

All our Saplings for welcoming new friends to their room.

Acorns:

Sea creatures remained the focus for us this week.

Practitioners presented the children with different sea animals, fish, sharks and starfish, and they enjoyed crafting them onto paper. The children selected sponges and dab dabbed all over the place with paint. Once dry, we asked the youngsters to carefully peel off the animal stencils to reveal their sea creatures.

Our ocean Tuff Tray was a huge hit with everyone. The Acorns adored exploring sensory scarves, fluffy blankets and under water creatures while they listened to nursery rhymes.

When outside in the garden, the children zipped around on bikes, cooked feasts in the mud kitchen and got very wet during a spot of water play. The Acorns also had a blast rolling balls down guttering into a ballpit and tyres. We played on the soft play too and had fun making lots of noise with musical instruments.

Stars Of the Week:

Jamie and Ernie – For settling in so well during their first week at Broughton Cottage.

Yours sincerely

The team at broughton