“The nicest thing about the rain is that it always stops. Eventually.” Winnie The Pooh – A.A Milne
This week, our Seedlings have been exploring natural resources associated with autumn. We tasked the children with heading out into the garden to gather up leaves, sticks and conkers for a seasonal Tuff Tray. The conkers came in handy during a mark-making activity too. This saw the Seedlings roll them in paint to create patterns on paper. Arthur was able to correctly identify a conker by name. The Seedlings all thoroughly enjoyed a spot of apple printing and pine cone painting too. In between rain showers, the youngsters had plenty of chances to work on gross motor skills as well while riding on the bikes outside. A number of the children got very creative cooking up feasts in our mud kitchen too.
Star Of the Week:
Jasper – For being kind and helping his friends.
Saplings:
The Saplings have been busy learning about trains this week, inspired by a Thomas the Tank Engine book that Otis brought in to share with his friends. An arty activity saw the children roll toy trains through paint to create a colourful track effect on paper. Cindy also spent time showing the children one of the trains she used to drive. The Saplings discovered the locative was called ‘Clun Castle’ and that it was an express train that carried passengers. Otis was impressed by the size of the vehicle. Cindy then explained to the class that she drove a Cadbury’s train too.
Later on in the week, Holly read Otis’ favourite story aloud, with all of the children gripped by the plot which detailed Thomas attending a football game. The Saplings loved hearing the sound a steam train makes, and the shrill sound of a whistle signalling a train leaving a station.
Star Of the Week:
George – For setting such a brilliant example at mealtimes, and for always offering to help friends in need at the table.
Acorns:
Autumn has remained the focus for the Acorns this week at Broughton Cottage. We used our leftover leaves from last week to make beautiful art work by spreading glue on paper and asking the children to select which ones they’d like to gently press on. The Acorns then moved on to creating hedgehogs from their own handprints. Harvey giggled as his hand was being painted, while River said that the paint felt cold.
We all wrapped up warm to go on an adventure outside. A practitioner filled a Tuff Tray with water before adding in fish and ducks. The children sang along to different nursery rhymes as they played with the engaging sensory set-up. Cornelius particularly enjoyed this activity.
Star Of the Week:
James – For independently starting to explore the room.
Oaks:
Wow! What a productive week the Oaks have had.
The children worked hard to whip up healthy smoothies, made from mango, banana, blueberries, oats and milk. They expertly cut up the fruit and counted out the pieces before whizzing them together in the blender. This activity was such a hit that we’ve decided to make it a weekly occurrence. The Oaks have also been enjoying our daily welcome song, circle time and various phonics-based activities. They loved playing Mrs Brown’s Box, a game that helps the children develop their listening and concentration skills.
We introduced ‘Derek the Dragon’ to the Oaks too – a creature who whispers three letters for the children to sound out. The children were excited to sound out c-a-t.
Star Of the Week.
William – For being extremely helpful and kind.
What a trek we had exploring the outskirts of the Weald through the fields and down the lanes. We picked apples from the ‘sour tree’ which rather hilariously distorted everyone’s faces but went on to seek out sweeter dessert apples from a gnarly ancient tree where we thought collectively how we might reach the higher boughs. The children made homemade tools from found objects which certainly had the desired effect and an abundance of fresh juicy apples rained down on us all! The trek back to basecamp was upbeat with lots of discussion about shape, texture and size of our ‘haul’. Oh, how wonderful nature is.
Until next week.
Yours sincerely
The Broughton Team.