May Newsletter 2022

We have had a fantastic month here at Blackberries with the children accessing a range of educational child-led activities initiated through their individual interests. The children have had fun in our outdoor environments enjoying the glorious sunshine tending to the plants within the gardens, water play, and exploring the nature garden and our forest school.

The children used channelling poles to put the guttering at different levels so they could pour the water down the guttering and see if they could catch it at the end. They have also been rolling the balls and sea creatures through the guttering into the trays.

Our baby units have been busy with colour exploration using their senses to discover new colours and textures through their play. They used their gross motor skills to discover the gardens and take part in a range of activities that have extended their learning. They enjoyed colourful gloop to make marks with their hands and splashed in the water with colourful yellow ducks. Their favourite activity has been the foam soap with a soft texture for them to mould and explore.

Our babies have also explored all things Jungle in our topic Rumble in the Jungle. They loved exploring a different animal each week, so they were able to learn about the different features of the animals. They washed the animals, explored black and white sensory trays for Zebras, explored feathers, painted pictures of crocodiles using green paint and made animals in the playdough.

We welcomed all our new babies and spent time getting to know them. We are pleased to say that they have settled well and enjoyed participating in our summer theme. They created some beautiful summer images using different textures and mediums.

Our Toddler units have had great fun exploring the outdoor environments. They have taken part in the gardening club, practising filling, and pouring the watering cans to water the flowers. The children have been investigating the different marks that they can make outside using a variety of different textured materials such as gloop, paint and shaving foam.

The Toddlers also enjoyed exploring the Rumble in The Jungle topic. They loved singing and dancing away to animal-themed music, as they act like different animals. The toddlers have been painting their favourite animals, making playdough animals, making giraffes using coloured resources and cheerio’s and making parrots using a range of coloured feathers. They also loved washing the animals with water, sponges and soap.

In our preschool units, they have been busy with their topic of transport, where they have been learning about the many ways you can travel around, which people drive the vehicles and what their occupation is called. The children linked mathematics with the topic and described the shapes they used as they designed and made their own trains. The children have been busy in our outdoor environments developing physical skills, riding bikes and scooters and taking turns with their peers.  

Following the children’s interests, they even made their own potions, creating different recipes, exploring smells and finally making the perfect potion.

The preschool children have also moved on to a day on the farm. They decorated farm animals to go on our display boards, using paint and coloured resources for each one. Farm animal puppets were made, numbers matched to the number of animals, farm exploration trays, tractor print rolling and read books all about the farm.

Within our PE sessions, the children have been encouraged to turn-taking and listen to one another as we get into our school readiness programme. The children also read our kind book during circle time and the children discussed how they can be kind to one another.