“Books make great gifts because they have whole worlds inside of them.” – Neil Gaiman
We’d like to thank everyone for donating on Pyjama Day. As a nursery, we’re delighted to share that we raised £75 for Children in Need.
Fine motor skills have been something we’ve spent time working on with the Seedlings this week.
They honed their grip of different art mediums while creating fabulous Pudsey faces decorated with sparkly baubles and googly eyes. Some of the children chose coloured eyes, while others opted for black and white ones. The Seedlings used glue sticks with great care when adorning the yellow bear’s signature bandage with shimmering balls.
The Seedlings were ever so intrigued by the sensory bags they explored, full of natural autumnal resources from the garden enjoying the fluid movement as they wiggled around the liquid encompassing them.
Star Of The Week:
Arlo – For expanding his vocabulary, and for being such a cheerful addition to our room.
Saplings:
This week, the Saplings enjoyed taking part in a range of engaging activities.
On Monday, the children created Remembrance Day poppies using a potato dipped in red paint to decorate the paper. Another arty activity saw them use coloured pens and pencils to create pictures for their families. Oliver selected a red pen and proceeded to draw large circles on his piece of yellow paper.
While outside in our garden, the trikes and climbing frame have been very popular. Robin particularly enjoyed the latter, saying that she wanted to climb again and again. The Saplings also got creative cooking up some inventive dishes in the mud kitchen. George carefully cooked a burger, while Gigi said she was freezing some ice lollies.
Star Of the Week:
All the Saplings – For being so caring towards one another.
Our Acorns’ main focus this week was Children in Need.
The children loved a mark-making activity where they used different tools to make colourful dots on yellow paper. This was brilliant for promoting colour recognition.
We also teamed up with the Seedlings to create Pudsey headbands. The children wore these with pride on pyjama day.
We focussed on physical development this week too by getting out our indoor slide. Axel had fun working out how to use the stairs. The Acorns took turns to whizz down the slide brilliantly, by waiting their turn.
The Acorns loved playing a game of skittles that had been set up by a practitioner. The children were encouraged to roll balls towards the skittles in an attempt to knock them over. This was great way of working on the children’s gross and fine motor skills.
Star Of the Week:
Axel – For his great communication and for always joining in with songs and rhymes.
We continued to enjoy balmy autumnal weather which was quite a treat. The children voted to stay at basecamp and set about building, climbing, digging and exploring their immediate environment. We noted that our natural balance beam was missing it’s second ‘beam’ and set to work searching for a replacement which required collective critical thinking. Working as a team the children worked out the length and thickness required to match the parallel pole. They did well and dragged finally their ‘find’ to it’s destination. It took strength and determination but they got there in the end.
Isla, William, Holly and Sophia decided that they would help the birds by making their own bird nests and filling them with birdseed. They were very precise and particularly careful during this delicate process. They then very gently placed them amongst the boughs of the trees excited to see what happens when they return next week. Well done everyone. Finneas used rope to move logs around the site; he really put a lot of thought into how he would achieve his goal and never gave up!
Oaks:
The Oaks had so much fun zooming off in a rocket and flying up to the moon to meet aliens. To do this, Lyra expertly set up chairs for everyone to sit on. Emma diligently ensured that all of the astronauts were ready for take-off.
To extend this activity, as a group we read Man on The Moon (A Day In The Life Of Bob) by Simon Batram. The plot sparked discussions around whether Bob was an alien or an astronaut. The Oaks collectively agreed that were definitely aliens on the moodn Avery eagerly pointed to the moon, shouting: ‘Aliens, aliens’.
Feeling inspired, some of the children made aliens from cardboard tubes. Imogen decided that her alien needed multiple eyes.
If there’s a book your child particularly loves, we’d really like you to send it in to nursery so it can be read to the class. Please do ensure that it’s named.
Star Of the Week:
Imogen – For always using imagination and being so creative.