Week beginning 25th September

This week we have been learning about the farm and Harvest, which we will continue to learn about until the end of term.

The children have joined in with lots of farm crafts to develop their cutting skills, they have been feeding the animals in the sensory play to help develop fine motor skills and hand eye co-ordinations. On funky fingers table the children have been making farm fences to help develop their fine motor skills.
We have joined in with farm exercises and farm zumba in our physical sessions. We have sorted farm animals into size

The children have been learning about different farms around the world. We learnt about sunflower farms on Wednesday and explored lots of sunflowers.

In maths the children have been learning that the last number reached when counting a small set of objects tells us how many there are in total.

On Tuesday we made glasses, learnt about looking after our eyes. what a guide dog is and then we guided each other around the room while our friend had heir eyes closed. We used magnify glasses to explore with, they made everything look bigger.

On Wednesday we learnt about our sense of smell. We smelt different foods and drinks and tried to guess what they were. We made different scented playdoughs, the chocolate playdough smelt yummy.

On Thursday We learnt about our sense of touch. We made feely boards and touched lots of different textures and learnt new vocabulary to describe these textures.

On Friday we learnt about the sense of taste. We have fun tasting different foods and guessing what they may be. We made our own jam sandwiches for snack.

Over the week we have used our senses to explore the wind, rain and sun.

We have had fun playing on the MUGA with the balls, hoops and beanbags.

Last week we learnt about keeping ourselves healthy. The children talked about their experiences of going to the dentist and doctors. We sorted out foods that are good and bad for our teeth. We made a healthy plate and an unhealthy plate of food.

We played shops with some of the vegetables we have grown.
On the funky finger table we made germs out of egg cartons.
The children learnt about germs and why it is important to wash our hand. In Forest schools the children had fun exploring mud and using it to paint with.

In the squirrel playground we found lots of little frogs, worms and slugs. The children enjoyed looking at creatures and some of the children were very brave and held them.

In phonics we have been exploring the musical instruments.

During the morning sessions before it has got too hot we have been making the most of the outdoors. We have loved playing in the sand, water and on the bikes.

In Forest schools we have made faces out of clay and dug up the potatoes we have been growing

Week beginning 8th May

The rain has not stopped our outdoor learning this week, we put on our wellies, puddle suits and went out onto the field on a mini beast walk, we found lots of different mini beasts including a big spider, lots of wiggly worms and 2 bees.

We have enjoyed playing in Forest schools and developing our physical skills.

On Tuesday we learnt about Spiders, Wednesday we found out lots about worm, Thursday we found out facts about ladybirds and on Friday we learnt about ants.
The children have chosen which bugs they want to learn about over the next two weeks.

One of our friends enjoyed learning about worm so much that he made a wormery at home with his family.

We have made various mini beast in our creatives, used mini beast in our maths and rolled worms out of playdough.

We have spent lots of time exploring the sensory room and taking part in turn taking games

What a busy week!

This week we have been learning all about King Charles coronation.
We started the week making castles form duplo, cutting up pictures of famous landmarks in London, finding hidden treasure in rice and making life size pictures of the new King and queen.

In Forest schools we made streamers to wave on Saturday during King Charles coronation.

During topic talks we have been learning about the Royal family and we watched a clip from the Queen Elizabeth 2nd coronation.

We had a celebration picnic on Thursday lunch time and today we are having a craft session with our parents followed by refreshments on the school playground.

Its been a beautiful week and we have enjoyed playing outside and in the water and in the sand pit.

Next week we are going to be learning about Mini Beasts.
Have a lovely bank Holiday weekend, enjoy King Charles Coronation.

This week in Little Acorns we have been learning about growing. Both Badgers and Squirrels have planted potatoes, carrots and made cress heads.

We have been learning about what plants need to grow, how vegetables and fruit grow and then how they get to the shops. We have made charts of the vegetables we like. Had fun vegetable printing.

In Maths the Badgers have been using numbers, ordering and sorting numbers when singing number songs.

The squirrels loved making flower soup in the mud kitchen.

In Forest schools Badgers put on their gardening gloves and weeded the area. squirrels did some great digging in the digging area.

Badgers made an apple crumble for snack, it was yummy.

Its lovely to have all the children back after Easter.

This week we have been learning about life cycles.
Monday we learnt about the life cycle of a frog.
Tuesday we learnt about the life cycle of a butterfly.
Wednesday we learnt about the life cycle of a flower.
Thursday we learnt about the life cycle of a fruit tree
Friday we learnt about the life cycle of an animal.

What an exciting Easter fun week we have had this week!!
The Badger children have made houses using duplo for the Easter chicks, explored rolling eggs down pipes, we made plastic eggs magnetic by putting metal items inside them, we explored how to make a plastic egg sink by putting things inside them, taken part in lots of Easter party games and been on a couple of eggs hunts.

On Monday Badgers went across to school and watched the Bee musical performed by year 2,3,and 4. It was amazing! The Badger children really enjoyed going over to school.

The squirrels have explored spring flowers, made Easter hats, matched patterned eggs together, made chocolate nests, taken part in Easter eggs hunts and Easter games.

On Thursday the police officer came to show us her police car. We sat in the car, looked around the car and then listened to and saw the blue flashing lights.

Little Acorns have sprung into Spring!

We have all taken part in lots of play based Spring activities that have helped support learning of colours, numbers and counting. We have been shearing sheep, been on a spring hunt, playing a spring lotto game, learnt about the changes Spring brings and had a Spring party where we played lots of games with balloons.

On Monday we invited our Mums/Nannys into Little Acorns to celebrate Mother's Day. The adults got the chance to meet the chickens, paint play and decorate cupcakes. It was a lovely afternoon.

We have spent lots of time handling and learning about our chickens that hatched last week. Mummy hen said we have done a good job of looking after her chicks. The chicks have gone back to the farm today.

Next week we will be having an Easter week with lots of fun and games!!

What an exciting week we have had. On Monday we had living eggs delivered to us. The children watched over the eggs patiently , the eggs started to crack on Wednesday and some hatched on Thursday. Today we have 5 fluffy chickens and are hoping the others hatch over the weekend.
we are very excited for next week when we can begin to handle the chicken.

We have learnt about the life cycle of a hen, joined in with chicken crafts, made nests for plastic eggs in the sensory play and practiced balancing eggs on spoons.

On Wednesday Sarah brought baby Joshua in to visit us all. badger children even had a little cuddle with him (supported by his Mummy) It was lovely to meet baby Joshua.

We compared human babies to baby chicken. We have learnt that baby chickens come from eggs and that they can walk after a few hours of being born and human babies grow in their mummy's tummy and cannot walk until they are bigger and stronger.
In Forest schools we made a den and have been weaving branches into it to make the den stronger.

The Little Acorns have completed their Super Hero training this week and have all officially become Super Heroes!!

They started the week off by signing a Super Hero pledge. Throughout the week the children have taken part in lots of super hero training, challenges and a dress up day. We have invented our own super hero and found strengths we did not know we had.

Next week Little Acorns are having a special delivery of living eggs, within a few days the eggs will hatch.

On Friday to raise money for comic Relief we are having a dress down day- suggested donation is £1.00

I hope you are well. Did the children have a good half term?

Could you please put this week's learning onto our website?

The children have all come back refreshed and excited to learn after half term.

This week we have learnt about a different book each day and explored the characters, drawn story maps, acted out the story, used the story in our small world and sensory play. We have carried out activities from the story eg we went on a bare foot walk with the different landscapes from the Bear Hunt story, we learnt about space as baby bear went into space in the story "Whatever Next"

We had lots of fun on world book day and everyone dressed up and swapped books.

Next week our topic will be Superheroes.

On Wednesday everyone is invited to come dressed as a Super Hero.

This week in Little Acorns we have been talking about what makes a good friend, we told an alien how to be a good friend, we shared with each other what we like about our friends and we have spoken about who lives in our hearts.

On Valentine's day the children made valentines cards and chose who they wanted to send them too. They have made friendship bracelets for each other which were beautiful.

In Maths Badgers have been learning about matching quantity to numbers, sorting hearts into sizes and working out simple number problems using hearts.

The squirrels have been mark making outdoors and developing their cutting skills. In Phonics the Squirrels have been exploring musical instruments.

We will be closed for half term next week, have a lovely week off.

The children have all been sent home with a reading challenge to complete over the half term, have fun!! We look forwards to hearing about those when we come back on Monday 27th February.

On Thursday 2nd march it will be world book day. children and staff are invited to come dressed as their favourite book character.

Book Swap-The children can bring in books to swap with each other on World book day.

This week has been all about Princesses and Princes.

During topic talks the children have learnt about our Royal family, looked at different castles around the world and compared Disney princesses.

In Phonics the Badgers have started sound of the week, this week sound is s. Some of the Badgers are learning oral blending and some are learning alliteration. This learning will continue into the Summer term.

Both Badgers and squirrels have been having fun outside and making the most of the Winter sun. the squirrels have been mark making with brushes and

On Wednesday Badgers invited Squires to our castle party. They wrote invitations and made party decorations. We had party food followed by ball room dancing. The children all had a great time.

The Badgers have been developing their counting, shape recognition and cutting skills this week. They have had lots of fun dancing, chalking and taking part in exercises.

The squirrels have joined in with lots of Royal family crafts. They have been developing their colour recognition through lots of fun activities. They have also been developing their cutting skills and making their own snack by spreading butter on their crackers.

In Forest schools this week, we used the crates, tyres and planks to make a castle.

Next week we will be learning about friendships and celebrating Valentine's day. On Tuesday the children can come dressed in red, pink or love hearts.