As the weather has been so good this week the children have spent a lot of
time outdoors.  At the beginning of the week one of the girls said she
would like to move the kitchen out of the play house to make a ‘house’
in the garden.  We had a look around to see what else we could add to
it. We fenced off an area in one corner of the garden and used some plastic
crates to make tables and chairs.  We found some saucepans, bowls and
spoons for mixing and lots of acorns to use for pretend food. 
Soon quite a few children gathered round to help and some brought dollies
with them to join in the fun.  The children continued this on and off
throughout the week and staff observed lots of lovely speech and language. 

 
The oak tree in our garden is dropping lots of acorns and the children have
been using brooms and dustpans to sweep and collect them up.  Some
like tipping them into buckets, others use them to decorate sand castles or
mud pies. 
 
We played buses, trains and planes using the chairs outside and making
wheels and steering wheel from paper and sellotape.  The children made and
sold tickets and visited lots of places such as the zoo, the beach, London and
Disneyland!
 
We painted a big map showing lots of the children’s houses, the woods
and the park and we hope to make this even bigger next week.  We
have been reading Brown Bear, brown bear and a lot of the children are now
able to join in with the words.  
 
Today some of the older children visited Tescos to buy some pitta
bread for snack.
 
REMINDER FOR NEXT TUESDAY:  We have a fundraising meeting outside
the pre-school room from 11.45 - 12.15.  Please come along and help us
plan some fundraising events, big and small, to raise money for Squirrels. 
Everyone is very welcome and it is a really good opportunity to make new
friends.
 
Have a good weekend and don’t forget to write in your child’s diary so
that we can talk to them about what they have been doing (with families and
friends) when they come back next week.

Squirrels children have had great fun building with the large Lego bricks
this week.  They have made tall towers, houses, boats and cars.  They
played games to see who could build the biggest tower and they learned that if
they stood on a step they could reach up to make their tower even taller. 
They soon found that it helped to have one person holding the tower steady and
one person putting bricks on the top.  Next week we will see if they
can fit the large waffle bricks together to make some different
shapes.  
 
After a heavy downpour the children were excited to find the tuff spot had
filled up with rainwater.  Those who had boots at Squirrels were able to
splash in the water and some who didn’t have boots got rather wet! 
Please remember to leave NAMED boots at Squirrels when it is wet
underfoot.
 
There have been several birthdays this week at Squirrels and we have all
shared some yummy birthday cakes together and sung Happy Birthday. 
Today we iced biscuits and put decorations on the top.
 
DATE FOR YOUR DIARY  The photographer will be at Squirrels on Friday
8th November at 9.15am.  He will be taking individual photos of the
children which will make lovely Christmas gifts.  You are very welcome to
bring along brothers and sisters for these photos.  All Squirrels children
are welcome even if they don’t attend the Friday session.  

We have lots of new children at Squirrels this term and they are all
settling in really well.  We have been reading the Owl Babies story each
day to help the children understand that although mummy or
another carer leaves them at Squirrels they will always come back
later to pick them up.  As the trees in our garden are beginning to lose
their leaves and the oak is dropping it’s acorns the children have been
collecting them and using them in lots of activities.  They have made
pictures with them, counted them, used them to decorate their sand castles and
pretended they are food in the mud kitchen.  Today we added glitter to the
playdough and some of the children made sparkly shapes. 
 
There has been lots of painting and drawing going on and some pretend
parties in the role play area.  There has also been a lot of ‘fixing’
things in the garden area, using pretend tools.

Potty training
It is usual to start potty training your child between the ages of 18-30
months.  If you need any help and advice on potty training please ask a
member of Squirrels staff.  There is also  a lot of very helpful
advice on the NHS website so do have a look there if you can.