‘Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.’ – John Ruskin

Seedlings:

The Seedlings have had their creativity flowing this week.

On Monday, the children had a blast with an activity that saw them dip balls into paint before rolling them down a slide that had been covered with paper. The Seedlings marvelled at the patterns that were left behind.

Next, the children enjoyed a spot of mark making using sensory bags. The Seedlings were captivated as they drew pictures using their fingertips onto sandwich bags filled with paint before their squiggles and whirly patterns disappeared.

Later on in the week, the children had a brilliant time experimenting with gloop. They were ever so fascinated by the slimy texture of the solution. We asked the children to add some sand so that they could see how its texture changed, delivering a gritty effect.

We spent time working on the Seedlings’ fine motor skills too when we tasked them with using a variety of tools to scoop up and place balls onto a muffin tray, closely observing their accuracy.

Star Of the Week:

Annabel – For doing so well in her new room. She’s beginning to show such confidence.

Announcement:

If you haven’t already, please may we kindly ask that you send in a family photograph. We’d love one from holidays and of pets too. We are planning to make lovely albums for the children. You can upload the photos to Baby Days and we’ll take care of the rest.

Saplings:

This week in Saplings, our nature inquisitors simulated indoors what they love to dig for outdoors and made some ‘worms’. We decorated the plates using paint sticks to build on fine motor skills before the adults helped them to cut into the plates using a circular motion finally revealing very long wiggly worms which now adorn our ceiling. The children loved looking up at their creations and kept jumping up to try and reach them.

The Saplings were also challenged to make Play-Doh worms/bugs/critters of all sorts. The children watched on as a practitioner rolled the modelling clay on the table using their palm before having a go themselves.

Jessica said her worm was getting bigger, moments before it broke into two parts. She then excitedly exclaimed that she had two worms.

Another fun activity saw the youngsters make a den out of boxes. The children decided it would be the perfect place to read books.

The Saplings really enjoyed hiding bugs in homemade moon sand. We were impressed to see that the children were able to name lots of the bugs.

Star Of the Week:

Robin, for showing such kindness to her friends.

Acorns:

The Acorns have thoroughly enjoyed a space-themed week jam-packed with engaging activities.

To kick things off, we tasked the children with decorating a rocket and stars that had been carefully cut out of cardboard. The Acorns loved having the freedom to choose which colours of paint to work with. Madison particularly enjoyed this activity as she revelled in the sensory experience of covering her hands in paint so that she could use them as a painting tool.

We then set out different coloured papers and chalks and asked the children if they could draw galaxies, with a practitioner’s model as example. Ernie chose blue, while Freddie opted for green. All the children’s artwork can be seen as a fantastic display in our window.

To end the week, we took the children out for a wonderful woodland walk, reciting the Gruffalo as we went. The Acorns gathered up sticks to use in an art project next week. We found a quiet place to sit for a snack and a drink. The children all adored being out and about.

Star of the week:

Madison – For becoming more confident when communicating.

Lower Oaks:

This week, the children have loved participating in digger and volcano-themed activities.

George arrived at nursery armed with his diggers, which he said were yellow and dug up rocks and sand.

The children helped practitioners set up a construction Tuff Tray in the garden. They scoured our outdoor area for rocks, sand and gravel to make it realistic.

Following on from this, Lower Oaks made rock cakes. George was interested to learn how the sweet treats got their name. A practitioner explained that the rough, uneven appearance of the mix and little raisins resembled rocks.

Lyra did a brilliant job of mixing all the ingredients with a spoon, holding it confidently in her right hand. Finneas said that his favourite ingredients were the raisins.

A final activity saw the youngsters craft a volcano from newspaper. Genevieve liked the feel of the glue and water and did well layering the structure, building each piece upon another. Annabelle helped with painting the finished article. She gripped a paintbrush in her right hand before dipping it into grey paint. A flurry of orange and yellow tissue paper screwed and twisted together finished the rather impressive volcano.

Star Of the Week:

Theo – For excellent tidying up this week.

Upper Oaks:

It’s been another busy week in the Oaks room.

The children worked hard together to create complex structures such as stages, schools and homes with Duplo, magnetic tiles and the outdoor building blocks. It was brilliant to see so many children working collaboratively, especially the youngster ones who have started transitioning into the Lower Oaks class. They explored patterns, particularly with the magnetic toys, and used what they made to develop role plays games.

We’ve been working hard to support the children in developing their attention skills too. We practiced some simple weaving, made braided friendship bracelets and we folded paper to make origami. Many of them wowed us with their ability to focus on a such a fiddly task.

We’ve continued to discover fascinating insects in our outdoor spaces, and some children have begun to bring in bug books of their own. The children are increasingly able to identify different species through their characteristics. Several beetles and ladybirds have been adopted as pets.

Luca brought in a beautiful dragonfly, which he was very excited to show his peers. Luca told everyone some facts about dragonflies and how special they are.

The children had an amazing time at their weekly Sporty Stars session as everyone joined in the favourite game, Cone Monster. The coach chased the children around as they darted between cones to outsmart the monster.

Star Of the Week:

Heer – For her great manners at mealtimes.

Forest School:

We welcomed Maddie to the woods and Forest School for the first time and the children put her through her paces by explaining the rules of basecamp. We were all fascinated by the lone gentleman tending his fire in the outer field, reflecting on life as he relaxed in the warmth of the flames.

Overwhelmingly, the children voted to go and explore and regaled Maddie with their ‘finds’, treasures and stories. We headed left and explored more climbing apparatus (trees) and their favourite pasture, Christmas tree land passing the ‘sour’ tree along the way. We chatted about the way different seasons dictate the landscape, it’s colour palette and fruit and flower production. The children determined that too much rain or too much sun can influence the harvest and decided that it must be difficult for farmers. However they were delighted that so much sunshine had produced an abundance of juicy plump blackberries which they happily collected for their snack.

Until next week ……………….

Yours sincerely

The Broughton Team