The children all seemed pleased to be back at Squirrels this week after their half term break.  Early in the week the weather was good so we spent a lot of time in the garden.  We built an obstacle course where we could hop, skip and jump in different areas and we practised throwing our beanbags through the large coloured hoops. On Tuesday we took delivery of some new wooden hollow blocks and the children used them to make a bridge for balancing.  They then turned them into a road for their cars and hiding places for the small world people.  There has also been a lot of building with the large lego blocks, trying to see who could make the tallest tower.  We used tools to pretend we were fixing our buildings and we wore hard hats and reflective waistcoats like real builders. We have continued making lots of things with boxes, big and small and on Wednesday we made some fruit friends out of a surplus of cooking apples.  We stuck on eyes, drew faces, added hair etc.  Perhaps you could help your child to make one at home and bring it in to share with us.   We have made some more big shapes, using boxes and paints of different colours and we will use these for our throwing games. On Thursday morning Leo came to do sports with the children in the big hall which was very popular.  We had fun with the little compare bears, weighing them and matching size and colour.  Some of us have looked at floating and sinking in water play and watched the tiny submarines rising and sinking. Throughout the week we have played some games where we practise putting ourselves or different objects in different positions ie in front of the table, behind the box, under the chair, inside the box, next to the teddy.  The children particularly like putting themselves in various places and it is something you might be like to practise at home.   We now have a new bag of giant pegs and we have used them to peg material to tables and chairs to make dens where we can play with our friends. We are very sorry to report that our garden summer house has been vandalised twice this week (all the perspex windows have been broken so it has had to be temporarily boarded up).  This is such a shame as the children do like to use the summer house during their out door play.       

This week has been all about the moon, stars, other planets and hearts!  The week started with children making rockets out of boxes and covering them with paper and silver foil and  later on we took a trip to the moon.  We have been to the moon lots of times by using the chairs to form a spaceship and putting our enormous parachute over the top.  We practised counting backwards again and when the spaceship landed our roof flew off the top.  We climbed out and walked slowly on the moons surface.  We went on a ‘moon hunt’ which was a bit like a bear hunt but we found little aliens, sparkly moon dust and craters.  The next day we made a moon landscape with lots of paper mache, silver foil and some very messy, very blue moon slime which turned our hands blue!  We even had a volcanic eruption coming out of one of the craters.  We finished off the day by reading our book about the dinosaur who pooped a planet which made us all laugh. To celebrate Valentines day we have made cards for people we love, salt dough hearts which we painted red and tied with ribbon and red heart people with arms and legs.  We also had fun throwing our number beanbags through the big red heart shape hanging from the ceiling.  We enjoyed this so much that after half term we are going to make some more big shapes to use.  It will be a fun way to learn our colours, shapes and numbers.  We ended the week by making some delicious heart shaped biscuits with colours in the centre. We now have numbers on the toilet doors which many of the children have found fascinating and it has been a good way of getting children talking about numbers.  We also have lots of felt number tiles and foam numbers which the children like to use as stepping stones for jumping games. To ensure as many parents as possible get to read our weekly blog please could you tell any Squirrels parents you know, where/how to find it.  Please spread the word! Have a great half term everyone and don’t forget to have a clear out and fill your clear bags with all your unwanted clothes.  Please bring your filled bag back to Squirrels after the weeks holiday.   

This week we have been to the moon and back at Squirrels!  One child asked to build a rocket and then lots more children decided they would like to go to the moon and other planets too.  We used lots of chairs, sellotape and paper to make our rocket and it had a big burner which helped to launch it.  The children made hats with different shapes on ready for their journey into space.  We visited planet Fiona and planet Julie and had an alien party.  We had our snack on the moon and we had a party there too where we played musical statues and did lots of dancing.   Our big parachute was introduced as we revisited the moon and the children built houses from wooden blocks and used popoids to make aliens.  We hope to extend the children’s interest and learning in this topic next week by making a lunar landscape and seeing what else they come up with!   The laptop has been popular particularly ‘find the bear ‘, visiting the café, creating an alien and road safety games.  Other activities that have been popular are role play hairdressers, home corner and doctors.  The fishing game has been well used as have the large mosaic pattern boards and the road and rail. Lots of children dressed in red on Thursday and Friday and placed donations in our British Heart Foundation basket.  The basket will remain out next Monday and Tuesday just in case anyone else would like to part with a few pennies for this very good cause. Next week please look in your child’s drawer/tray and collect your plastic bag that can be used for any clothes you may no longer need.  We are able to raise money by getting these unwanted clothes weighed and receiving cash for them.  Please have a clear out during half term and ask your friends and relatives to do the same.  All money raised will be used to buy resources for the pre-school. Have a good weekend