There is just one word that sums up our last half term EXCITING!!!!!

Spring has arrived, the days are starting to get a little warmer and we are starting to see new growth around us. New growth and life cycles have been a hot topic for us, starting just after the half term break with the exciting arrival of our frogspawn. The Little Owls have been closely monitoring their changes and there is always someone observing the tank or looking at the books and visuals. We are growing our own beanstalk and have watched excitedly as the bean burst open and sprout roots and leaves, we didn’t sell a cow but maybe just maybe we will be able to climb to the giant’s castle! But by far the most exciting life cycle we have observed has been our ducklings. From the moment the eggs arrived the children were captivated by the changes they could see happening before their eyes, (not just the children, the adults too) The ducklings’ arrival created a buzz within the local community, and they had lots of excited visitors, our Little Owls loved showing them off to friends and family. They have gone off to their new home Gladwin’s farm just up the road and we are excited to hear about their progress.

Science week is always fun and exciting. The team love becoming super scientists, highlighting chemical reactions, magnetic fields and captivating our Little Owls interest, encouraging them to be curious, experimental and develop those critical thinking skills.

I haven’t yet mentioned the excitement of the Big Garden Birdwatch, the children loved birdwatching and creating twitchers huts to watch them from, designing birdfeeders to entice the birds into the garden, keeping a tally chart to count how many we saw, listening to the sounds they make and watching them fly high in the sky, we really did have some lovely outdoor learning.

World book day happened at the beginning of March and some children dressed up in amazing costumes and some children just wanted to bring in their favourite story, it was just wonderful to celebrate it all together. Just a little Shout Out to the Thursday team for really getting involved with some fantastic costumes!

Lots of learning happened around different cultures and countries too, we celebrated Lunar New Year, Shrove Tuesday, Ramadan and Eid. We often find simple stories, or videos to share with the children around these celebrations. We baked symbolic biscuits, tried new foods, created decorations and of course excitedly practiced our pancake making and flipping!

We also shared a wonderful week with our parents, it was lovely to see so many of you in setting and to see the excitement on our Little Owls faces as they showed you to their favourite activities. It really is such a valuable time for children and adults alike. It was a great opportunity for the team to talk about each child’s progress and how they can be supported at home and how we can support you all.

I’m not 100% sure if I have remembered everything as it has been very busy but so much fun! I cannot finish the blog without mentioning the amazing fundraising efforts that have been made recently, 2 of our trustees Emily and Amy, have put a lot of time and effort into fundraising for Little Owls and you all have supported them buy buying the raffle tickets so thank you to you all, we really do appreciate it and we are very excited to see what new resources we will be blessed with after the Easter holidays.

I’m sure next term is going to be just as exciting as we continue to monitor our tadpoles and our beanstalk but maybe it will be more exciting as our topic will be people who help us, and maybe we will have some special visitors.

We hope you all have an exciting and amazing Easter Holiday, and we will see you when we return on Tuesday 22^nd April.