Welcome to our first blog following the half term break! It's been lovely to have so many 'Autumn Challenge' pictures returned, giving children the opportunity to proudly show their amazing efforts at carpet time, and tell their friends about their finds.
Our Squirrels' garden has been looking particularly autumnal this week, with an abundance of red and golden leaves having fallen from the trees! The children have enjoyed kicking these, sweeping them, collecting them in pots, and talking about the colours and shapes. We've also enjoyed exploring the pumpkins that have been donated. We've been rolling them, scooping them, filling them, painting them, washing them, comparing sizes and counting them!
With fireworks night on Tuesday, this has been a theme that has been popular all week. We've introduced children to a variety of new techniques at the craft table to create firework pictures, including; using straws and toilet roll tubes to print with, junk modelling our own sparklers using straws and tinsel, using bubble wrap to create rockets, tea-bag 'splatting' to create explosive patterns, and using coloured pasta to make fireworks! We've also explored fireworks within our sensory play, using shaving foam and powder paint to swirl patterns, and using our 'sparklers' (sticks) to mark make in sparkly salt! This has led to children exploring some lovely words to describe fireworks, such as 'bang', 'boom' and 'whoosh,' and telling us all about fireworks that they've seen. Continuing with our 'fireworks' theme, on Wednesday, we decided to have a group snack around our own 'bonfire' - enjoying hot chocolate and marshmallows together!
Also on Wednesday, we took our 'harvest' biscuits to the lunch group at the community centre. The children handed them our basket of biscuits before we then sang a collection of our favourite songs. The lunch group gave a big applause and thanked the children.
Scooping and pouring has been popular this week. Rain over the weekend had filled our mud kitchen with water which enabled children to then scoop this into pots and pans to make 'soup' and 'mud cake'. We saw lots of lovely group role play, with children really building up their own play ideas.
During Jolly Jo we introduced children to our parachute! We focused on lifting it high / low and fast / slow, before then taking turns to run underneath it! We also played a game matching shapes and turning over discs!
Other popular activities this week have included the train set, Happyland, marble run, cars and planes, and wooden building blocks.
Ideas to continue the learning at home:
Why not explore signs of autumn together? Look out for leaves falling from the trees - what colours have they turned? Have you noticed it's getting colder and the days are shorter - why is that?
There are lots of great stories you could share about Autumn, such as 'We're going on a Leaf Hunt' and 'Pumpkin Soup' - details of local library services can be found here...
https://libraries.essex.gov.uk/
Our Squirrels' garden has been looking particularly autumnal this week, with an abundance of red and golden leaves having fallen from the trees! The children have enjoyed kicking these, sweeping them, collecting them in pots, and talking about the colours and shapes. We've also enjoyed exploring the pumpkins that have been donated. We've been rolling them, scooping them, filling them, painting them, washing them, comparing sizes and counting them!
With fireworks night on Tuesday, this has been a theme that has been popular all week. We've introduced children to a variety of new techniques at the craft table to create firework pictures, including; using straws and toilet roll tubes to print with, junk modelling our own sparklers using straws and tinsel, using bubble wrap to create rockets, tea-bag 'splatting' to create explosive patterns, and using coloured pasta to make fireworks! We've also explored fireworks within our sensory play, using shaving foam and powder paint to swirl patterns, and using our 'sparklers' (sticks) to mark make in sparkly salt! This has led to children exploring some lovely words to describe fireworks, such as 'bang', 'boom' and 'whoosh,' and telling us all about fireworks that they've seen. Continuing with our 'fireworks' theme, on Wednesday, we decided to have a group snack around our own 'bonfire' - enjoying hot chocolate and marshmallows together!
Also on Wednesday, we took our 'harvest' biscuits to the lunch group at the community centre. The children handed them our basket of biscuits before we then sang a collection of our favourite songs. The lunch group gave a big applause and thanked the children.
Scooping and pouring has been popular this week. Rain over the weekend had filled our mud kitchen with water which enabled children to then scoop this into pots and pans to make 'soup' and 'mud cake'. We saw lots of lovely group role play, with children really building up their own play ideas.
During Jolly Jo we introduced children to our parachute! We focused on lifting it high / low and fast / slow, before then taking turns to run underneath it! We also played a game matching shapes and turning over discs!
Other popular activities this week have included the train set, Happyland, marble run, cars and planes, and wooden building blocks.
Ideas to continue the learning at home:
Why not explore signs of autumn together? Look out for leaves falling from the trees - what colours have they turned? Have you noticed it's getting colder and the days are shorter - why is that?
There are lots of great stories you could share about Autumn, such as 'We're going on a Leaf Hunt' and 'Pumpkin Soup' - details of local library services can be found here...
https://libraries.essex.gov.uk/
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