We have had a really enjoyable week, making the most of the breaks in the weather to play outside – we are sorry about the amount of mud!! We do put the children in waterproof trousers and wellies to minimise the mud but they just love to jump in the puddles and the garden is just so muddy at the moment!

We have kept up the bike repair shop in between the showers but we will be packing away ready to create a multicultural shop next week! We would love donations of any packaging that will support that play – food from around the world would be great and tins of food too which will help build strength in arms as they carry them around.

the sun table has been a science hub! Lots of experiments and science work, learning about concepts such as weight and floating and sinking, we have made volcanoes and tried a new experiment which we only did the once because the science part was so effective that a balloon burst spraying Andrea with white vinegar!!! A lot of laughter from the children and shrieks from us and luckily no harm to Andrea – she just smelt like she had eaten chips! We also looked up extreme weather, watched volcanoes erupt, made rain sticks and watched weather forecasts too.

We are going to be learning all about our world and planet over the term, using all of the areas of learning in the Early Years Foundation stage. The “theme” is the way that we plan in everything we want the children to learn, the skills and areas are so important and the theme just helps bring it all together. We are looking forward to Tiny Travels visiting us on Tuesday – all of the children will get to explore the items she brings from around the world and we hope the sessions will inspire the children as we learn lots about cultures over the term.

Our circle times this week have been based on “being healthy” in lots of different ways, we have talked about healthy food and treats, tasted interesting fruits and chatted about snack time, we have talked about our bodies, how to be clean, sleep, exercise, being strong and fit and what parts of the body are called. We have drawn lunchboxes and our bodies and we continue to focus on brushing our teeth every day and hand washing routines too. We will also talk about online safety and I have added some documents onto Tapestry with some advice sheets – the government are going to share some guidance on screen time for under 5’s too which we all believe is a really important area to look at.

Next week we will also be junk modelling in free flow – following our own ideas on what to make and create!

We would love donations of egg boxes please and any other items from your recycling that you think would be fun in the shop or on the carpet for making our creations!

We started our week thanking people who keep us safe – Remembrance is a hard topic for pre-school age children so we keep it simple but it is important to learn respect and to remember so we talk a lot about being safe. The staff team joined together for the two minutes silence on Tuesday and the children stood with us and it was a very touching moment in our week.

We are so thrilled today to have some sunshine! The Forest School photos are so wonderful in the sunshine and show off the garden and the team work of the children really well, they play beautifully out there and the atmosphere really comes through in the photographs.

In other parts of pre-school life we have been learning about Pudsey Bear and that his job is to help children, children who are sad, or unwell or unsafe and this message has really been understood by the Sun and Moon groups. Some have volunteered their siblings money boxes and lots have volunteered your money to help Pudsey! We know that people sometimes cannot afford to give to charity and we understand, we would love it if you can afford to and please pop anything you can spare into Pudsey’s pot tomorrow and the staff team will be dressed in bright colours instead of normal uniform.

We have used the Disney ideas and movie ideas for games in circle times and we have enjoyed a Disney Disco Thursday today which was very popular and Disco Thursday will commence weekly in January!

The Sun room has become a hospital and we have some excellent future doctors and thanks to some of the great equipment we have, new vocabulary has been learnt and new concepts too such a CPR, Blood Pressure and lots of bandaging!

Our circle times have been great fun and a real mix – Disney Bingo, Toy Story action games, Disney I Spy, Disney listening and attention games – spotting which film has which music, superhero bowling, making an Olaf and Mickey Mouse puzzles, size work, Frozen songs and matching Disney characters. We added in learning about Pudsey and Remembrance too.