Trolls and bridges!

The pre school children have taken a keen interest in ‘The Troll’ story book by Julia Donaldson this week. After reading the story, some of the children went off to build their own bridges. Eddie was pretending to be the troll and as he was balancing along the blocks, he was calling out, “Who’s that trip trapping over my bridge?” Each time he called it out, his friends were laughing and running away from him. William said to Eddie, “But I’m not the goat, I’m the mouse” and Millie replied, “Noooo, you’re the spider!”

The children did some planting in the raised bed this week. They planted some peas and looked through a gardening book on planting different types of seeds and where various produce grow. Ezra told his friends, “Apples grow on the trees and the potatoes under the ground”. Benjamin replied, “I know that because my mummy told me that”. They helped dig up some of the soil and each took it in turns to plant some seeds and then covered them back over with the soil. Shyla asked, “When this grows, can we climb it just like Jack and the beanstalk?”, to which Tom replied whilst watering the soil, “We need to pour loads of water to help them grow that big!”

The children also made their own versions of the story book, ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’ using their imaginations to add parts to the story and then told their stories to small groups of their friends. They then acted the book out in the garden, taking it in turns to be the bear in the tree house. When Max came out to scare his friends, he noticed his shadow on the floor as he raised his arms. The children then compared their shadow heights, Mateo telling everyone, “Mine is the tallest ever”.

This week toddlers have loved running around and exploring the outside. They went on a few trips over to the big field to have a run around and play some football, which the children loved! Zach and Rhys enjoyed kicking the ball short distances and walking after it to kick it away again. Leo found some mud and had a whale of a time digging and picking the grass, he said “Yuck it’s mud!” Ari and Leo had fun rolling around on the floor and laughing, Ari said “We laying down”. Millie went on a hunt for some leaves and secretly put them all in one staff’s pockets without her noticing! Fabian had lots of fun running as far as he could, laughing as he saw members of staff chasing after him! Toddlers also loved taking part in art activities, as usual! One day they made party masks, using the glue to stick on sequins and feathers. Connie took great care in adding the sequins one by one saying “It’s sparkly”. Ari added lots of sequins to his mask saying “No feathers”. Chloe was the opposite and got excited when she saw the feathers, grabbing handfuls to add to her mask. The children were very proud to wear their masks home as well as pose for some pictures !

This week in babies they have explored a lot of dry messy play ! They have enjoyed playing with the dry oats throwing them on the floor. Samuel, Harriet and Imogen swished the oats that’s were on the floor with their hands watching it fly around the room. When playing with the cereal Isla enjoyed mixing the cornflakes from the messy tray with the oats from the table scooping up handfuls and mixing them together. Tomas loved feeling the texture picking up handfuls of the cornflakes and squishing them in his hands, also enjoying the sound.

All of the babies explored the water play this week. Harriet loved splashing the water, making her friends around her wet. Everyone laughed, enjoying the game, and all joining in. Sophie loved it when the water was flicked in her face, closing her eyes and laughing, Alastair, Jonathan and Tomas enjoy pushing the boats around the water try watching them as they floated on the water . Babies have also made a start for Christmas, decorating candy with carious materials including stars and getting getting it stuck to their fingers !