Summer Term Week 5

We have had a wonderful week, albeit a very wet one – sorry about all the wet clothes coming home but it has been worth it, the children have absolutely loved playing with the water in the exciting set ups that the staff have helped them create! We added in lots of height to help build strength lifting the cylinders and jugs of water up high! The children showed brilliant “characteristics of learning” which show us the different ways in which they explore and learn and join in with lots of imagination, working out how to move the water and how to create different runs with the gutters and the tanks and the barrels. One group worked out that they could use the big gutter and put a cylinder underneath so that when the water gushed out it sprayed them! The solar fountains are also really popular so we will be ordering more of those, a lovely way to discuss solar power and hard work to collect the water as it sprays up into the air.

Inside we have been enjoying hairdresser role play and nail salon role play and there are some lovely photos of the children playing really well together, we have also been looking at feelings and talking about them using books and other resources that we have.

Our tennis coach Nigel came back in on Monday morning for another fun session and we also had two beautiful Forest School sessions with Sophie, Eva and Louise. The Sun group will swap to going out on a Friday and the Moons will go on a Thursday after half term but just for a couple of weeks before we give the Star group a turn and then one final session before we finish where will be probably alternate over two weeks so all of the Thursday/Friday children have a “last” session out there.

We have been exploring weather in circle times this week using a mini focus of fine motor skills too so lots of brilliant learning about usual and extreme weather, great vocabulary development and craft, wonderful turn taking and painting with water outside to watch it evaporate, drawing around our shadows, making big collages and hanging out washing to dry, bumble bee craft, making bird feeders, painting with cotton buds in the star room as well as their focus has very much been on fine motor skills as well.