This week we’ve been exploring lots of different sensory materials.  We started the week by exploring rainbow coloured rice; the children enjoyed scooping, pouring and mixing the different colours.  This type of activity can introduce children to early maths concepts such as the language of quantity with words such as more and less, as they empty and fill containers. We also made orange scented playdough which the children have enjoyed squishing, rolling and moulding!  It smelt so enticing it was quickly used in the ‘kitchen’ and served up as lunch - this offers children a lovely opportunity to pretend play everyday actions, it also helps them to form friendships with their peers!   Next we explored shaving foam; this is a great resource for mark making, with children able to draw and write in the foam, as well as using stampers and rollers.  We’ve also enjoyed the (very muddy) mud kitchen, sand pit and water in the garden this week. 
 
Our weekly Jolly Jo session was popular; we introduced some of our younger Squirrels to these weekly sports sessions, but kept it very simple - with games involving running, walking, stopping, skipping, hopping etc.  The focus with our younger children is to simply encourage them to listen to an instruction, and be able to follow that.  Older children tend to have more involved games where they will focus on turn taking, colour matching, ball skills and team work.
 
The weather has definitely turned more autumnal this week.  The garden is awash with leaves and acorns!  The children have enjoyed collecting acorns, so we decided to use these to make acorn pictures!  We’ve also found lots of bugs this week!  The rain seems to have brought out the slugs and snails, as well as making the spiders’ webs glisten – these are themes we intend to explore in more depth next week!
 
Other popular activities have included the trains, dinosaurs, tool bench, Duplo Lego, and glitter at the craft table!
 
Ideas to continue this week’s fun at home:
 
Everyday kitchen ingredients such as rice and pasta can offer children lots of sensory fun!  They can scoop, pour and sort the ingredients; they can feel the different textures, compare sizes and look at colours.  Alternatively, you could have a go at making your own playdough!  The recipe is on our web page and is great fun to make with your child.  Measuring ingredients and mixing them altogether is as much fun as the playdough itself!

Welcome to this week’s blog!  The children have continued to settle well this week and are becoming much more confidence with our routines. When children first come in in the morning, we have a period of ‘free-play’ where children are welcome to choose what they want to play with.  This week’s most popular free-play activities have included the Happyland, the cars, the jigsaw puzzles, and the home corner.  The craft table also remained a popular area, with children deciding to explore colour mixing after it was noticed that the paint on the page changed colour when a child used a second colour.  This led us to look at mixing different colours in a pallet to see how the colours changed – children enjoyed trying lots of different colour combinations and discovering what new colours they could produce.  Outside, the mud kitchen has remained a firm favourite, as has the Lego den with lots of tower building going on.  Children also enjoyed racing balls down ramps this week!
 
As the morning progresses we will offer a range of adult-led activities that children are welcome to join in with if they want.  This week our adult-led activities have included going bug hunting in the garden, a Jolly Jo sports session in the main hall, producing leaf rubbings in the garden and baking very yummy carrot and courgette muffins!
 
We also have a ‘rolling snack’ where children can come for a drink and something to eat mid-morning.  They are encouraged to wash their hands and then select their snack independently, before then having a go at washing up!  Snack is usually a choice of fruit, a rice cake, bread stick, cereal or similar, as well as a plain biscuit.  They also have a choice of milk or water.  You can see what snack has been had by looking at the white board in the foyer.
 
Free play will then continue with free flow between indoors and outdoors.  We then come together at the end of the session for circle time.  During circle time we will sing songs, read a story, play a group game or talk about things children have done.  We usually ask children what activities they have enjoyed so that we can plan what activities to focus on the following day.  We follow a similar routine after lunch for our afternoon sessions.
 
Ideas to continue this week’s fun at home:
This week our song box has been very popular; with children choosing what songs they would like to sing.  Why not check out the song page on our website and enjoy singing at home too?  We love to learn new songs at Squirrels – so if your child has any favourites – please do let us know!

We have enjoyed a full week this week where we have been focused on getting to know our new children and helping them to settle in.  The children are doing really well at settling into their new routines and are becoming more adventurous and exploring the many toys and activities we have on offer.  Many of our older children have been really helpful at helping the new children to settle – demonstrating what kind, caring children we have at Squirrels.
 
Indoors, the cars and garage have proved very popular with children enjoying driving the vehicles across the room.   The home corner has also been a busy area, with children ‘cooking’ food, setting up picnics for their baby dolls, and enjoying serving up dinner!  We use an array of plastic food in our home corner, but food packaging is also a great resource – so if you have any interesting empty packaging (plastic or cardboard), you can always donate it.  We also use this for junk modelling – so all donations greatly received.
 
The painting and craft table have been busy.  We have had painting, sticking, gluing and printing activities this week.  The children especially enjoyed using apples to do ‘fruit printing’ with on Wednesday and helping decorate a large owl on Friday!  We like to show the children lots of different art and craft techniques so that they learn new skills, but we then let their imaginations be as creative as they wish to produce their final works of art!
 
Outside there has been lots of interest in all the acorns!  Children have been busy collecting these in buckets and talking about how all the acorns got there – we have talked about autumn, and how leaves and acorns fall from the trees.  This was even more evident this week with so much wind!  The children have loved the windy conditions, so we will hopefully be able to explore this even more next week if the wind continues, with activities such as kite making and scarf dancing.
 
Ideas to continue this week’s fun at home:
 
We have enjoyed looking for signs of autumn in the garden this week, and have found lots of acorns.  At home you could enjoy your own autumnal walk and look for signs of autumn - leaves, conkers and acorns for example.  You could talk about the seasons, the things you find, the colours of the leaves, the shape of the conkers or fir cones.  This will help children to look at their local environment and start to understand the world around them.  Feel free to bring your autumnal finds in so we can see them too.

We just want to say a warm welcome to all of our new families who have started with us this week, and to welcome back our familiar faces who are starting their second year.  It’s been a busy couple of days as we’ve been learning new faces and helping the new children to settle into their new routines. 
 
There have been lots of activities on offer so that we can observe children and find what their interests are.  Particularly popular have been the dinosaurs and the large vehicles.  We have also been asked for cars, trains and pirates - so these are all themes we will visit next week.
 
There has been lots of painting and craft – we do encourage children to wear aprons, but these don’t always stop all of the paint – so we do suggest you send children in clothes that can get messy since encouraging independence and messy play is all part of their learning.
 
The playdough has also been a popular activity – the children have enjoyed using it in the home corner and using it to ‘cook’ with.  It was encouraging to hear children talk about sharing in this area, ‘once you finish, it’s my turn’ – learning to share and take turns is an important pre-school skill that we encourage.
 
The children have been listening to the story ‘Owl Babies’ – this is a story about 3 baby owls who awaken to find their Mother has gone!  They discuss where she might have gone, as they huddle together and wait for her to return.  She soon swoops back and tells them that ‘she will always come back!’ This story can help children to understand that at preschool, when Mums and Dads, or Nans or Grandads leave them… they will always come back!
 
Finally, we have also re-introduced Bear this year!  Bear will be coming home to visit children over the year – we would love the children to share what adventures they have had on his return to Squirrels.
 
Ideas to continue this week’s fun at home:
Talk to your child about their first few days at Squirrels; what did they enjoy playing with the most, did they play inside or out in the garden?  Even if your child doesn’t speak yet, you talking about things they have done, having snack, singing songs, listening to stories, playing in the garden – it can help their language and communication to develop.