We have been making our own bread this week which was inspired by last weeks story of the Little Red Hen.  Our first attempt was with a simple packet mix which the children helped to mix together and shape into small rolls.  These were fairly successful albeit a little hard.  The children enjoyed eating them for afternoon snack.  We decided that we could do better by making them from scratch and the children had a great time mixing the ingredients together and kneading the mixture. We were amazed at how big the mixture had grown when it had been left to “prove” for an hour.  The children then kneaded it again and we finally were able to bake the small rolls.  The kitchen was soon filled with the lovely smell of freshly baked bread.  The children have a great sense of achievement when they have experience of creating something from scratch and they are very enthusiastic about the  future cooking projects that we discussed.
 
We learnt a new song this week called “Five cheeky monkeys swinging from a tree.”  Unfortunately the monkeys get snapped up by a crocodile one by one until there are none left!  On Friday the children made a large wall display of the crocodile which they covered in green paint, paper, glue, egg boxes and other assorted materials.  After half term we will be making the five cheeky monkeys to go with him so don't forget to look out for them in the book corner when you bring your child in.
 
We were unable to go into the lunch club with our harvest donations as planned this week because the club was cancelled for this week only.  We will however be going in on the Wednesday following half term.  We have been practising our singing so we will be ready. 
 
Have a good week off and we look forward to having lots more fun in the run up to Christmas.
 
Words we have learned this week:
 
Knead
 
Texture
​
Ideas to continue this weeks fun at home:
 
Make your own bread.  There are many simple recipes  but we also have one on our website if you would like to try it.
 
Complete the half term challenge that was in your child's drawer.  If you forgot to look in your child's drawer and collect one we will extend the challenge for a further week after half term.
 

We have been beginning to look at the meaning of the word 'harvest' and how this season has developed into the tradition of the harvest festival.  We began by reading the story of the Little Red Hen.  The story takes us through the process of growing wheat from grains until the hen has produced some lovely bread to eat.  At each stage the hen asks animals to help him but they are always too busy. Of course they are not too busy at the end of the story when the delicious bread is ready to eat!  The red hen decides to give his bread to the characters who had been kind enough to help him.  The story give us a good basis for discussing how we can help others.  We will continue the theme of helping this week when the Wednesday afternoon children will be taking our harvest gifts of biscuits into the lunch club in the main hall.
 
We had great fun during our yoga session this week pretending to be a variety of animals.  The children are becoming very good at listening and engaging with this fun activity and they really look forward to our visits from Sarah.
 
We had another visitor this week.   Lynn is our community link with the Tesco store and this week she came in to see the children and to read a story about a tiger which she then signed and donated to the children. 
 
We have played our car game in the garden each day this week.  The children run around the garden pretending to drive their cars.  When the adult holds up a coloured card the children have to respond according to the colour eg; go, stop, roundabout, break down or reverse.  This activity encourages skills such as listening, observing, following instructions and identifying symbols.
 
Mathematical skills have been encouraged through compare bears, coloured bricks and numbered cards and number related sporting games.
 
Words we have learned this week:
 
·         Grains
 
·         Helping
 
Ideas to continue this weeks fun at home:
 
Find ways your child can help you and earn a sticker or small reward for being kind, e.g. setting the table or finding something you have lost.
 
Create your own traffic light system like we use in our car game.  Hold up coloured cards for stop, go etc...

​On Monday we helped the children to make their own playdough which gave them the opportunity to measure and weigh and mix it all together.  It gives them a real sense of achievement to produce something for all the children to play with.
 
Crafts this week have continued to be based around the signs of autumn and some very interesting prints have been created by rolling an acorn dipped in paint across a piece of paper.
 
There has been a large spiders web hanging across our window this week and it looks very ghostly as it shimmers in the sunlight.  The web has inspired lots of spider drawings and creations of webs using glue and glitter.
 
We have been measuring ourselves this week using our home made giraffe that is placed on the cupboard door.  The children love to see how tall they are and we will enjoy monitoring their growth as the year progresses.
 
Our yoga session was great fun this week and we practised filling our lungs with air and blowing ping pong balls across the room.  We also practised stretching and imaging we were elephants as we squirted pretend water at each other.  Currently these yoga sessions are only available on a Friday but we plan to use some of the techniques we have learned and incorporate them into other sessions  during the week. 
 
 
Words we have learned this week:
 

• Stretching

 

• Squirt

 
Ideas to continue this weeks fun at home:
 
Why not make your own playdough.  The recipe is on our website.
 
Try blowing a ping pong ball across the table and create a goal using a small box.  See if you can blow the ball in to “score a goal”.
 
 
 
 

​What a fun and physically challenging week this has been!
 
We have had lots of fun playing with big and small hoops.  The children have been practising rolling them and running after them to see how fast they go.  It has been a week, filled with physical activity and games.  Jolly Jo encouraged the children to move around a large floor space in the hall in different ways.  The younger children focussed on moving like different animals and the slightly older children tried big and small steps, jumping skipping and running to pick up balls and put them in a box.  The physical health benefits of these activities are obvious but they also encourage children to practise skills such as listening and following instructions, colour and shape recognition, spatial awareness and differentiating between sizes. 
 
We enjoyed a lovely yoga session on Friday with Sarah who read the children the story of 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt,' which we stretched and moved to in a variety of poses.  The children were enthralled by this slightly different take on a well known and loved story.
 
Animals have also been popular this week. The children created the farm out in the garden and the zoo was set out indoors.  It is interesting to observe that the children are very clear on which animals should be in a zoo and which are meant to be in the farm.  They do not like to mix them.
 
At Squirrels we have a set of emotion stones.  These create a fascinating introduction to talking about how we feel.  The stones each have a picture of a face on them and we simply chat about what that child might be thinking, e.g. happy, sad, cross, frightened etc.  We have been very impressed by the caring attitude of our children this term.  There have been many new faces and some children have understandably struggled a little on first parting from their parents.  It is lovely to see the concern and caring from the other children when someone is upset and they have been seen patting a child gently on the back, or saying “mummy back soon” or simply asking an adult why that child is upset.  Happily we are all settling down now as the children have come to know us, but it has been lovely to witness the caring attitudes at Squirrels.
 
Many of the children have enjoyed using wooden domino bricks or their hands as mobile phones this week.  It is fascinating to watch them imitate adults shouting into phones or saying yeh, yeh, yeh oh really!, yeh, yeh etc.  It makes us think “Are we adults really that dull!!”
 
 
Words we have learned this week:
 
Stretch
 
Hula hoop
 
 
Ideas to continue this weeks fun at home:
 
Why not make different faces and ask your child what you are thinking eg happy, sad, scared etc.  Then ask your child to do the same.  You could draw faces also with mouths turned up or down.  It is a great point of discussion and can been extremely funny.