Icy Investigations and Doggy Cuddles – Week Beginning 18th Sept 2017…

Ice breakers…

Hammering, smashing away to find their toys hidden in huge blocks of ice, the Gibbons used their hands and necessary tools like hammers to break away the cold exterior barriers. They enjoyed their sensory experience of ice, touching and feeling the wetness and coldness of the frozen water. Using different shades of skin ton paints, the Gibbons got stuck in with their hands and created some fantastic handprints in their skin colour. Throwing their hands in the air and wiggling their bottoms to the ‘Sticky Kids’ CD the Gibbons loved dancing along with the grown-ups and copying the actions on the tape. Bending, jumping, turning around and spinning, they all did great movements to the music. From Sticky Kids to the banana song, the children sang the song copying the actions with real bananas. They peeled, chopped and mashed the bananas and finally ate them for their snack. Finally, in the garden, the Gibbons did some chalk drawing on the floor, drawing shapes but mostly scribbling in wonderful patterns while the others crawled through the tunnel finding their way through the tyres and other materials to make the special tunnel and get through to the other side to their friends.

Abracadabra…

Decorating their starts with stickers and sequins, the Baboons stuck their shiny stars to lollipop sticks and turned into withes and wizards casting spells around the nursery. Whilst waving their magic wands, they tried on dresses to go with their new characters in this spectacular role play wizard scene. From wizards to inspectors, the Baboons used their big magnifying glasses to inspect the bugs in the soil. Digging around with their hands and spoons, they found woodlice, ladybirds and beetles. They even found a scary looking spider aggghhh! Role playing with babies is always very popular especially in the Baboon room, and this week they washed their babies with shaving foam and soapy water and dressed them and cared for them like they see their mummies and daddies do. They made them some delicious sand dinner and sand milk for them. In group, the Baboons looked at the emotion flash cards and spoke about the person the card was feeling. They spoke about how they felt and they all felt very happy as they had just met Bassie the guide dog who came in to visit the children with his owner. The Baboons loved meeting Bassie and all hugged him very affectionately.

Bassie the Guide Dog…

We had an amazing visitor come to Young Friends this week with his special companion. Bassie the Guide dog came to see the children and the Gorillas had an excellent time asking plenty of questions from how old he was, to did he use the toilet? The Gorillas learned how Bassie helped his owner cross the road safely and walk down the street and get on buses safely. Weeding as any gardener know is a tricky and frustrating task, but the Nature Kids have been on it pulling away. Racing who could weed the quickest, the Gorillas did a fantastic job and were very happy with how our allotment looks! Aswell as weeding, the children picked tomatoes, green beans and some cucumbers, to bring back to the nursery for the nursery to use and eat. Nadeem has done some fantastic sports sessions this week, with them travelling to Hove park in the mini bus and practising their skills on the balance beams and the step ladder. Showing off their incredible upper body strength, they swung and hung from the hanging poles like true Gorillas they are!