Can you believe we are at the half term point already!

We started the term getting to know each other and building those all-important key person relationships. The Little Owls team adapted their practice for the needs of each individual child and all of them have made so much progress, it is amazing to see. We also used this time to see how much our returning Little Owls had grown and developed and wow they breezed back into preschool like they had never been away! Lots of vehicle play and painting has been a comfort to lots of the children, so these have been readily available and they have made good use of our paint supplies!

The conker drop of 2023 started and autumn has been a big part of our learning through the half term. It becomes a bit of a competition between the team, who can come up with the best conker activity (feel free to get creative and pass on your ideas).  We have had baking, weighing, painting, rolling, floating, and sinking all with conkers. We really are lucky to have such a great resource right in the garden.

Boxted Bakery was another big hit this half term and the children really enjoyed role playing in the garden bakery. We made dough, baked cakes (including conker cakes and mud cakes), bought cakes for our friends, took telephone orders, and just had a really fun time. During this play we often saw our older children leading and supporting our younger children in their play, they sustained their play and often revisited, such lovely play to watch.

We decided to have a week dedicated to The Gruffalo as many of the children seemed captivated by the story. The team quickly flipped their plans, we made Gruffalo crumble, lots of Gruffalo dressing up, an underground house (den making), story sequencing and some of our Little Owls told the story at story time. Amazing!

Our final week was fondly named pumpkin week and yes you guessed it, it involved a lot of pumpkins! Painting, drawing, hammering, scooping, glooping, mixing, pouring, sticking, gluing, rolling and bowling! A huge thank you to Tesco for donating all the pumpkins for the children to explore, it provided so many learning opportunities.

As a team we would like to say a huge thank you for all the lovely comments you left for us on #NurseryPractionerDay.  It really means so much to us to have so much support from our families. It is a privilege that you choose us to care for your little ones.

It has been a fantastic half term and we hope you all enjoy the half term break.

Lots of plans for when we return:  Diwali, fireworks and of course Christmas!