“These autumn days will shorten and grow cold. The leaves will shake loose from the trees and fall.” – Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
The Saplings have spent the week learning all about Spain as we celebrate our friend’s heritage and culture.
An arty activity saw the youngsters paint the Spanish flag in bright shades of red and yellow. Willow quipped that she liked the colour yellow because it was ‘happy’.
Next, the Saplings played with a Tuff Tray complete with brightly coloured scarves and carnations, a flower native to Spain. We then challenged the children to scour the nursery for red or yellow objects that could be added to the tray. Otis found a banana, while Genevieve opted for a red Colour Monster.
Alba was particularly taken with the bright blooms and said ‘flowers for mama’. Alba’s mummy has kindly said she will come in to talk to the children about Spain as it’s where Alba’s daddy comes from so we hope he will be coming in to give a talk to the children about his homeland.
We rounded things off by baking ‘flag’ biscuits to eat after a delicious Spanish-themed lunch. The children happily helped cut up different vegetables for their meal.
Star Of the Week:
Robin – For creating the most wonderful symmetrical shapes with the silver magnetics. She also impressed us with her good behaviour and listening.
Acorns:
This week, the Acorns have been focusing on Autumn.
To kickstart the topic, we collected sticks at garden time and tasked the youngsters with using them like paintbrushes to create artwork with orange, brown and yellow paint.
We extended this activity by adding leaves into the mix. Axel loved getting messy as he ran his paint-covered hand over the leaves.
The children enjoyed being wrapped up warm for lots of time outside this week, with Cornelius whipping up a delicious feast in the mud kitchen.
Star Of the Week:
Leo – For becoming more independent when exploring the room.
Oaks:
This week at nursery, we’ve been exploring different modes of transport and what jobs might be linked to them.
The children were encouraged to use their imaginations as we flew off to a playground in a helicopter to have fun on the roundabout and what Peggy sweetly called the ‘big girl swings’.
Next, we zoomed off to space in a rocket to walk like astronauts on the moon. We even saw an alien on our galactic adventure.
The children also drove lorries and sailed in boats before soaring high into the sky in an aeroplane. Feeling inspired by the latter, the Oaks went on to make paper planes.
Seeing three vivid rainbows was a real highlight of the week for the Oaks and they loved our visit from a beautiful dragonfly who weaved his way through the children as they queued for the swing. While marvelling at the sky, Colby questioned why the clouds were moving so fast.
Determined not to let the wet weather dampen our spirits, we decided to carry out an experiment. The children were ever so excited to guess which items might float or sink in the big puddle on the Tuff Tray.
Our Oaks have been engaging in storytelling this week, and have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the plot of The Three Little Pigs.
The Oaks hit the construction area to create The Three Little Pigs’ houses using bricks, big sticks and straw-coloured wood for the final house. The children took turns to act out the roles of the pigs and wolf.
Some of the children followed on with their new appreciation for storytelling and went around the nursery garden re-telling the plot of We’re Going on A Bear Hunt with much vocalising of long wavy grass, swishy swashy, swishy, swashy, thick ooooozy mud, stumble trip, stumble trip and more.
Star Of the Week:
Alex – For her exemplary table manners at lunchtime.
Seedlings:
We’ve enjoyed getting messy and using our senses to touch, feel and smell as we offered gooey, sticky resources to allow the children to delve, explore and investigate their properties and adding different ‘flavours’ to further discussion.
Stretchy goo, squidgy dough and slippery paint were all received well. We love to observe how the children draw others in by proffering the materials to one another and to listen to their ‘conversations’.
Star Of the Week:
Clemence – for being so willing and eager to delve into all things messy!
Yours sincerely