Happy halloween !

With all the autumn leaves around some children have been using them to make shapes and the first letters of their names on the floor outside. The 3D tree has also been decorated for autumn
The pumpkin drawings and collages have been great, with some cool bat drawings being attempted.
We have been concentrating on scissor skills - so cutting around their art work has provided a new challenge.
At forest school we have talked about the seasons and have been learning the fire pit rules - always walk around - step over and sit at base camp - only adults in the fire pit area. Using the kelly kettle to start a fire to heat water has given some  their first real experience of fire at forest school - they were very good.

We closed now for half term and are back on Monday November the 5th for bonfire cake and bonfire paintings ( and lots of fire safety discussions!)  - see you then !

German

Our German language sessions on a Thursday morning are going really well. The children can now recognise some common animals and sing songs in German.
During the week we have made a 3D card board tree (along side the junk modelling) and have found leaves and made autumn colour hand prints to stick on. At the children's suggestion they have now painted the 'tree trunk'.
Recent fire drills have seen the children respond quickly and quietly, and after the last one on Friday, they then took this in to their role play and been playing 'evacuating the house'.

hard work !

This week we have been doing junk modelling - the children have come up with lots of different things to make - including an 'Olympic tennis rucksack' ( that can be worn!), robots , trees and helicopters - learning to use different fixings as they build, and developing positional language as they discuss their creations.

Forest school is still full of midges - so we have used the school field to run jump and explore - having outdoor snack in the gazebo. Al the children can now get themselves changed in to the forest school gear and help to fold it up to pack away at the end.  

On Friday the children worked very hard moving wood chippings form the top of the field to the forest school area. We had a couple of 'foremen' and one child insisted on pulling the wooden trolley all morning - he must have made 6 trips in all! This fantastic work is helping to develop their muscles and improve their large motor coordination and hand eye co-ordination- all the things needed for pre-writing. One child said "this is my best day !" with a big grin on his face- lovely !

autumn walks

We had a really lovely morning on Friday. We went on a short walk down through the coppice looking at the different trees and plants. We took baskets to collect "treasure" (pine cones, leaves, conkers, bark etc) and one child even spotted a "rainbow sheep"

autumn treasure

Forest school is full of midges at the moment so we have been going on nature walks an d making art installations out of the natural treasure we find.
After observing the changes to the trees and collecting conkers,seeds and leaves, we have been doing some leaf printing this week.
Children have been describing texture of leaves on both sides,choosing which coloured paint to use and seeing what print is made when painted leaves are pressed onto paper.
Much fun has been had mixing sand and water together -outdoors in tuff trays. Lots of communication going on about what sand feels like and learning to share spades,buckets and other resources.