Postpeople, Journeys to Space and Scuttling Bugs – Week Beginning 4th April 2017…

Gibbons go to Space…

The Gibbons recycling box has seen a lot of action this week (like always) but this week especially as it had been transformed into an ‘Aliens love underpants’ Small World. The very popular book was a centre focus this week whilst the children walked around the room holding space crafts and aliens. To get our Gibbons up onto their toes and toddling about their floor was revamped using tinfoil for our Gibbons to walk, crawl and roll across. The crinkling sound made the Gibbons smile and giggle with pleasure. There was a balloon popping bonanza when the children sat on balloons filled with glitter and water – sensory euphoria!  Carrying on the chaotic but great fun, the Gibbons created their Icelandic themed area using shaving foam, ice and glitter. Whilst squishing the textures in their hands and turning into ice monsters they learnt words like ’cold’ and ‘slippery’ to describe the feelings. Finally, a bit of edible paint was on the go, when they mixed together food colouring and yogurt to make patterns on the paper as well as a yummy snack in between. As you can imagine by the end of the week the Gibbon room was a lovely mess to tidy up and clean.

The Jolly Postman visited the Baboons…

Women can be post girls too! The Baboons made small figures of post boys and post girls and delivered small envelopes via cars to others in the room. Enjoying the lovely sunshine out in the garden, the Baboons collected sticks and leaves and taped together to make their own Nature hats. An army of Baboons crawling under and over, balancing and negotiating space on the obstacle course in the garden. There was lots of shouting and cheering each other on in good military chant spirit. Sage, Mint and Parsley are all great herbs and the Baboons learnt all about them and the different smells and looks herbs come in. Rules were remembered from lasts week sports session when Nadeem got the Baboons to match the coloured balls to the cones in St Ann’s Park.

Woodlice, slugs and worms what things can the Nature Kids find…

A fantastic visit this week for the Nature Kids to the allotment, where they made mini bug dens out of sticks and soil to house the slugs, ants and woodlice they discovered. The children picked dandelion weeds to feed to Sizzles and Bageerah and talked about the different colours they could see in the daffodils and tulips that we have growing. They taught Richard (our new mini-van driver) bug songs on their way and on their return to nursery. The Gorillas (and the staff) have had their tongues in a twist whilst they learnt and discovered rhyming letters “be, me fee” and read rhyming stories ‘Green eggs and ham’ and ‘The duck in the truck’. Puzzling away, some children have been playing ‘Spot the difference’ board game and others have been completing our 3d cube puzzle.  Cassie James’ focus was ‘Up toes and down toes’ teaching children new stretches and classic yoga poses based around their feet. What a glorious week.

Nature Kids…

Nature Kids Project is starting to look fab. We now have apple trees, a bay tree and a pear tree which are starting to blossom. We have some benches, kindly donated by our allotment friend and guru Elisha, and this weekend we will put in the herb garden ready for the children to take good care of. The classroom is covered and installed with guttering to collect rainwater and we have several new water buts. Oh and a row of gooseberry bushes too. All trees have piping supports for deeper watering – Elisha and Louise are rather proud of these and the children have been weeding and watering. We also have new slate boards where Louise and Elisha can chalk instructions regarding what need to be done when the children and team get up there if they are not there to advise. Oh and we are making attractive stone and stick labels for each thing for the children. We will be creating a chart with monthly parent helper days so if you are interested and willing to help you can put your name down by a certain day – we think the next one will be helping to create the fire pit area – we would love your help with this.. x