The area has been busy at lunchtimes with children making bracelets, making animal homes and hunting for insects. We found an ants nest. We watched the ants crawling around and disappearing back down the holes to their nest.
Some Year 3 and some Year 4 children have been out with me in the afternoon. They have been learning how to keep safe during Forest School sessions. We have to remember to walk around the fire circle and stay within the grass area at all times. On Wednesday afternoon we were joined by a small bird. We think it was a Greenfinch. The children enjoyed watching it fly from branch to branch and one child commented that they had never been so close to a bird.
This week we have been reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.
The children have really enjoyed the book and have become very good at retelling the story themselves.
“he ate a nice leaf then he was a fat caterpillar”
We also found a real caterpillar outside which the children were very interested in.
We have still been busy in all other areas. Here the children had been talking about people living in caves. We searched for examples of cave paintings on the internet then the children reproduced their own.
I have been really impressed with how well the Nursery children have adapted to school life. They are now coming in confidently, waving goodbye to their parents and then getting on with being busy!
The children are accessing all the resources and asking for help when they need it. It has been lovely to see friendships developing and lots of children being kind and caring.
Here are a few of the things we have been busy doing:
The new Nursery children have made an amazing start at St Clements. It has been a pleasure to start to get to know them and see them playing confidently in all areas of EYFS.
You may have noticed some changes at the end of the playground over the summer. The area is being developed in to a natural play and Forest Schools area. The children have already been making full use of the area, as you can see by these photos.
This week we found out more about how to look after the chicks. We learned that chicks are greedy so you must not feed them too much! They need fresh water everyday. The brooder also needs to be cleaned. Mrs Grant showed us how to clean it then we all had a chance to stroke the chicks. We were all very gentle, they felt so soft!
On Monday the children in Nursery and Reception arrived at school to find some eggs had been delivered. They were in a special machine called an incubator. These were not eggs to eat, they were going to hatch!
The children watched in anticipation for signs of the eggs moving or cracking. On Wednesday morning we arrived to see that four chicks had hatched. The next day four more had joined them. We then moved the chicks into the brooder box. It has a light bulb in it to keep the chicks warm.
Over the half term holiday we had a delivery of a huge bag of sand. Some of it has been put in to our outdoor sandpit. This week we have been exploring how the sand feels, building sandcastles, practising turn taking, talking to our friends, digging for treasure, using our imaginations and practising putting our shoes and socks on. Few, what a busy week!
Well our first week back has been busy, we have crammed a lot in to three days.
In our growing areas lots had changed in a week. We were pleased to see some of the strawberries were ready to pick, they tasted delicious. The carrots are getting bigger, we pulled out some to give the others more room to grow.
Inside some children wanted to make batman masks. Mrs Grant showed us how to draw around a template then we cut them out. Then we had to use the hole punch to make holes and thread some wool through to tie it around our head.
Some children built some super models using the duplo. When we had finished we wrote our names on a post it note so that everyone knew who had made them.
We are looking forward to more fun and learning next week!
Serving the local community in the name of Christ since 1859
Greenfinch
