Autumn social!
This week in pre school has been a very exciting week as the children have been looking forward to their parents coming in to nursery for the annual Autumn social. Some of the children have been very creative and working together to make the decorations. Whilst Otto, Sebastian and Joseph engaged in a conker rolling activity, Esme, Freddie and Amelie were leaf printing and once all the art work was complete, they were very proud that their own pictures were being used for the bunting decorations. On the day of the party, the pre school children helped to make some cakes for their parents and siblings, Margot couldn’t wait to show off her egg cracking skills and Ethan concentrated really hard to ensure he got the mixture in to the cases with no spillages. Once the parents arrived, the children eagerly waited for them to be able to take them to their favourite place to play and River told his friends, “This is the best party ever” whilst looking at the bunting decorations in pre school.
The toddlers had a great time showing their mummies and daddies where they play, both inside and out, as well as taking them along the festively lit path at the back of the garden in search of hidden autumnal animals in a game of autumn themed bingo!
In the build up to the parents coming the children had made some decorations for the event and were very proud to see them be put up. As it was getting closer to the arrival time Marlow, Charlotte, Halle, Margaux and Tabitha all hid under one of the A-frames in excitement, ready to pop out when their parents arrive. As they started arriving the smiles on the children’s faces were undeniable as they greeted them with hugs and kisses. After stopping by the food table for some sandwiches, salad and cake the children were off, leading the way to start the tour. Jenson took his mum and sister through each of the rooms, stopping at the dressing up box to put on one of his favourite outfits before resuming his play, while his sister prepared everyone food in the home corner. Sebastian took his parents outside and over to the balance beams, showing one of his favourite places to play. Phoebe and her grandparents explored the mud kitchen and sand pit working together to make a sand castle. A lot of the children used this time to play with their friends and siblings, Sienna and her brother Freddie sat in the baby room mud kitchen giggling together while Margaux and Charlotte ran up and down the hill together cackling.
The under 2’s were super excited when welcoming their parents to their room and for many of them, this was their first time having Mummy and Daddy in to play. Many children enjoyed showing their parents the garden and helped search for the bright, orange pumpkins hidden high and low.
As their parents arrived the children were sat down to have some tea, and they all welcomed their parents with big smiles. After they had finished their party food, the little ones all went off with their mummies and daddies and proudly showed off the nursery and some of their favourite toys. Calvin loved showing his parents the sandpit where they sat together playing with big smiles and Lowen showed off his skills on the trikes! Emily enjoyed playing out in the big garden and showing her mummy around. Skandar also ventured happily to the big garden and began playing with the preschoolers, showing off his newly learned walking skills!
Garsons Farm!
The preschool children had a great time at Garsons farm this week. On the morning of the visit, after observing the weather outside and the children noticing it was a little rainy, they were keen to get on their raincoats and wellies. Otto very excitedly let his friends know, “I’m going to jump in very, very big puddles!”. Amelie laughed and said, “But I will find the biggest puddle ever!”. Once on the coach, a chorus of ‘The wheels on the bus’ quickly broke out, followed by the children laughing at how heavy the rain was hitting the windows. When the children arrived at the farm, there was a lot of excitement with them talking about what they could see. Freddie tapped Izzy on the leg and let out a big gasp, “Look, there’s so many pumpkins, there’s big ones, there’s small ones and there’s huge ones!”. The children couldn’t hold their excitement to get closer to the pumpkins and as the coach pulled up right at the start of the pumpkin trail, the children headed straight to the pumpkins they liked the best. River spotted a small green pumpkin, telling Sebastian, “Look at this one, it’s so small and cute”, whilst Emmy found the biggest pumpkin around and attempted to pick it up.
The children helped to select two large and two medium pumpkins to place in to the wheelbarrow which Jasper put a lot of effort into helping push around. Realising that it was just a little too heavy for him, he looked around and asked, “Who wants to help me, my muscles aren’t strong enough yet”. With the help of a few friends, they pushed the wheelbarrow to the next pumpkin to take back to nursery. Otto counted down “3, 2, 1, Go!” and with a collective heave, Otto, Isabelle, Jasper and River helped each other to lift the pumpkin into the wheelbarrow.
Once the children were happy with their selection, it was time to go through to the trail which consisted of distorting mirrors, reflective words and a variety of scenes throughout. Ollie loved a game of toss the bean bag in to the pumpkin holes whilst Arlo and Sadie sat themselves down for a game of large scale noughts and crosses. The rain didn’t put the children off, they were very excited to put their wellies to full use and find as many puddles as they could on the way back to the coach, Amelie reminding everyone, “I told you we could find big puddles at the farm”. As they approached the coach, Tilly asked, “Can we take the pumpkins back to nursery to show our friends?” And hearing the answer was yes, she jumped up and down, telling Ollie, “Our friends will love them!”.
Once back at nursery, the children enjoyed getting involved in many activities including deseeding the pumpkins whilst exploring the different textures within the pumpkin. Harry wasn’t sure, but was encouraging the children around him, “Feel it, it feels a bit funny”. Some of the children enjoyed making their own pumpkin soup at the mud kitchen whilst others chose to draw their own pumpkin pictures whilst observing them.
Planting & Harvesting Vegetables!
Over the last couple of weeks, the preschool children have been helping to sow some winter vegetable seeds such as onions, garlic and spring onions into the vegetable patch. Freddie, Amelie, Esmé and Isabelle were very eager to help out, asking each time a new seed was ready to be planted, “Where do these seeds need to go?” After watching a teacher use just one finger to make a line for the seeds to go in, Esmé did just the same a few centimetres over and Freddie, Isabelle and Amelie followed the same process. Once all the seeds were in place, the most fun part for the children was to get their hands as messy as they could whilst burying the seeds with the over flowing soil. Each morning the children have gone to the garden, they haven’t forgotten to water the vegetable patch and after a lot of rain, Otto suggested, “Maybe the rain water will feed our vegetables instead?”
The children also helped picking the vegetables such as tomatoes and a large marrow that they had grown over the summer. They all had turns in holding the marrow and feeling the texture. River took hold of it when it was his turn and laughed saying, “Its very heavy but I have got big muscles so it’s ok for me”. Passing it on to Izzy, she very quickly pushed it along and said, “It feels a bit funny to me”. Once the children had finished looking at the marrow, India used the measuring tape and told her friends, “It’s 11 long”. The children then enjoyed taking it to the mud kitchen, chopping it and using it to cook a “Marrow Pie”.
The letter of the week was W and the children loved engaging in a letter hunt game inside preschool and outside in the garden where they were finding hidden letters and words beginning with W. Watering can was one of the hidden words and when Sebastian found it, he recognised the letter W and ran straight over to a teacher to ask what the word said. He then moved straight on to the gardening area and was showing Joshua and Jasper he had found the word watering can and paired it with the actual watering can.
