Little Acorns- The Queens Platinum Jubilee
Today we have all had a lovely day celebrating the Queens Platinum Jubilee! We looked at the Union Jack Flag and coloured in our own using the correct colours. We became Kings and Queens for the day and made beautiful crowns to wear. During circle time we listened to a royal story about the Queen, we watched an informative video all about the Queen which explained what a jubilee is and then listened to our National Anthem. We then made our own jam sandwiches and had a royal tea party in the garden. What a fabulous way to celebrate our wonderful Queen.
The children in Little Acorns have thoroughly enjoyed learning about our current topic, Big Wide World! They have discovered all about the world in which they live in, and learnt about the different climates, animals and their habitats.
Some children and their families sent in postcards from their travels, so we looked at the different countries that they were sent from and located them on a world map. The children compared life in England with life elsewhere by sampling different food and learning new dances.
The children looked at different buildings from around the world and then constructed their own masterpieces based on the images they saw.
They looked at different patterns that are used on buildings, temples and even clothing, then they printed their own designs using available resources and different colour paints.
They looked at different flags from different countries then designed their own.
This morning for our S.C.A.R.F activity we discussed what our bodies require in order to be healthy.
We decided that our bodies need plenty of fruit and vegetables, water and milk, exercise and sleep!
We then linked this activity to our P.E lesson.
Before we started our exercise on the playground, we asked the children to place their hands on their chest to feel how their heart was beating.
The children were then asked to perform different exercises which included star jumps, hopping, galloping, running and jumping. The children were again asked to put their hands on their chest to see if their heartbeat felt different!
Their hearts were definitely beating faster after exercising! Some children felt hotter so needed to take off their jumpers and cardigans!
We then went back inside to have a big drink from our water bottles.
Once hydrated, the children lay down on rugs and blankets for 5 minutes whilst listening to some calming music in order to relax and recharge!
The Little Acorns have had so much fun exploring our new topic ‘Dangerous Dinosaurs!’ We have learnt about prehistoric animals that lived on Earth before our time. We have learnt facts about dinosaurs and realised how big some of these giant creatures actually were! We have investigated the difference between herbivores and carnivores. We became palaeontologists for the day and discovered ‘dinosaur bones’ in the sand. We then compared the sizes and put them in size order from shortest to longest. We wrote our names in the dinosaur ‘swamp’ and produced our own ammonite art on the playground!
This year for World Book Day the children came in dressed as a word. Some of the words were ‘rainbow’ ‘brave’ ‘elegant’ ‘monster’ ‘ladybird’ ‘sparkly’ ‘nocturnal’ ‘pretty.’ Don’t they all look fabulous!
The children all designed their own bunting flag based on their favourite book character. We have proudly hung the bunting in our literacy area.
In our recent Starry Night project, the children in Little Acorns have been exploring the differences between the world at night time compared with daytime, through a range of exciting and creative activities. They have learnt about nocturnal animals and how they find food when it is dark. We have looked at people who work at night and the different jobs that people do when we are asleep. We have discussed bedtime routines and the importance of a good night’s sleep. We have explored the night sky and found out about the moon and stars and even had a go at painting pictures of the moon and the night sky.
What an exciting topic!
Little Acorns have been celebrating Chinese New Year. We watched a short film about how people usually celebrate. We learnt that the colour red brings good luck! Families clean their homes to get rid of the old and bring in the new, they wear traditional clothing and eat a big Chinese buffet feast to celebrate.
So we decided to celebrate by trying Chinese food at snack time. The children enjoyed prawn crackers and noodles whilst listening to Chinese music.
In the play tray we had pebbles with red and orange tissue paper to represent a hot stone fire. We then placed a wok on top with strands of wool and the children had a go at using the chopsticks to cook the ‘noodles’.
For PE we used the school hall. We watched a short film about how the Chinese dance as if they are a Chinese Dragon. We then copied this by holding onto each other’s waists.
Finally we made our very own Chinese Dragon puppets using the traditional colours for Chinese New Year.
Today in Little Acorns we have been learning why it is dark at night time, and also how the sun provides us with light in the day time. We also spoke about other sources of light and how we can make it light again at night time in order for us to be able to see. We then explored this concept by allowing the children to investigate in the black-out tent with torches.
Today in Little Acorns, the children learnt about the importance of brushing our teeth twice every day, and the impact it can have if we don’t! We made large play teeth by cutting off the bottoms of plastic bottles and added pen marks which represented the ‘bad sugary bits’. The children cleaned the ‘teeth’ using a toothbrush whilst discussing what would happen if we didn’t brush our teeth. Some said “You get bad bits” “You must brush for 2 minutes!” “They might fall out!” “To get the bad sugary bits off!”
To commemorate Remembrance Day we made Poppy biscuits. During circle time we learnt about the importance of remembering the soldiers from past war’s and the significance of Poppies.
We have had so much fun learning about Autumn over in Little Acorns. We’ve been on a woodland walk and learnt about the seasonal changes that happen this time of year. We have learnt about birds and animals that live in the woods and how they survive as the weather gets colder. The children have taken part in practical and creative activities that have supported them with their learning.
We have been looking at size and measurement. Some of the children chose to take turns and draw around each other. They then compared their sizes and decided who was the ‘tallest’ and who was ‘shortest.’
Others decided to use the building bricks to measure their height. In pairs, the children worked together to decide how many bricks they needed to measure their height. They then looked at the difference between the towers, and using their amazing maths skills, worked out who was the ‘tallest’ as they had the ‘most’ bricks, and who was ‘shortest’ as they used ‘less’ bricks.
This week at Little Acorns we have been focusing on friendship and how we can be a good friend. We asked the children ‘What is a friend?’ ‘What can friends do together?’ ‘What would your perfect friend be like?’ ‘How can you show a friend that you care?’ ‘How can you help a friend who is upset?’ We had some amazing and thoughtful answers from our young children.
We’ve had a fantastic few weeks welcoming our new recruits into Little Acorns. They have settled in brilliantly, and are beginning to form new found friendships.
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Don’t the children look fantastic in their graduation caps and gowns?! We wish them every success as they transition onto Foundation.
This year we have made a sculpture for the art trail in Teignmouth. The sculpture features a piece of artwork from each class, Forest school, breakfast and after school club, and Little Acorns. Each class had a school value to represent on their piece and we are sure you will agree they did a fantastic job! All the children and staff, joined in by leaving their own mark or fingerprint on the artwork. Please pop down to the seafront and take a look, the sculpture is in the flower bed close to the pier. Please remember to vote for our sculpture once the voting opens. As soon as we get the voting information, we will pass it on to you.
For our Forest School session, the children took part in animal yoga. They had a wonderful session feeling the forces of nature whilst making the appropriate animal poses. We ended the session with some parachute games.
Our butterflies were ready to be released today into our garden. We hope they will come back to visit us one day.
As part of our new top ‘Sunshine and Sunflowers’, the Little Acorns created their own sunflower paintings inspired by Vincent Van Gogh. They looked carefully at the details on his painting before selecting the correct colours to create their very own masterpiece!
Over in Little Acorns, we have been planting sunflowers, sweet peas, marigolds and lobelia in the hope to make it look beautiful and bright, and to try and entice the butterflies.
The sunflower shoots that they planted, were grown from seed. The children have been really interested to learn all about the life cycle of a sunflower.
The Little Acorns have been caring for 5 caterpillars over the last 2 weeks. We have observed them carefully and watched them grow. During this incredible period of growth, they have shed their exoskeletons four times and have grow more than ten times their original size!
The caterpillars have now changed into chrysalides, so have been safely transferred to their hatching net whilst they harden. This is a very delicate time so we will let them rest peacefully whilst the amazing process takes place!
We can not wait to see them soon emerge as beautiful butterflies!
The Little Acorns children have been enjoying our new water-based mini topic- Splash! They have been exploring different types of water play and learning about the different forms of water. They have learnt about freezing and melting, they have investigated with objects to see whether they float or sink, they made their own waterfalls, and they have even made their own scented water by squeezing sliced citrus fruits.
The children enjoyed blowing bubbles in watery paint to make their own bubble paintings, and had great fun being graffiti artists by flicking and spraying coloured paint onto a large sheet of paper!
Big Wide World!
Today in Little Acorns, the children created their own ‘Planet Earth’ picture.
After studying pictures, we filled a circular dish with shaving foam. Then very carefully, the children used pipettes to slowly drip blue and green food colouring onto the foam. Next they lay a piece of paper over the foam and gently tapped their fingers around the circle. They were amazed at the prints that had formed! They look just like Planet Earth!
This week in Little Acorns, we have been continuing with our topic ‘Big Wide World’. One activity was called ‘Beautiful Buildings.’ First the children were shown images of various landmarks and buildings from around the world. Then using various cardboard boxes, tubes and plastic pots, the children tried to copy some of the buildings based on the images they had previously been shown. We had some wonderful creations of the Eifel Tower, The Taj Mahal, Big Ben, Sydney Opera House and The Parthenon.
Another activity was called ‘Flags From Around The World.’ We talked about why countries have flags and what they represent. We looked at images of different flags, then the children designed and created their own flags using a variety of different resources.
We also learnt how to say “Hello” in 9 different languages!
The Little Acorns had another fun filled afternoon at Forest School. We started the session around the fire pit. We closed our eyes and used our other senses to take in our surroundings. We then split into groups and took part in 3 different activities. The children made ladybird pictures by printing half an apple in red paint then carefully added on its features with a fine paintbrush in black paint. They made ‘flower soup’ and ‘mud pies’ in the mud kitchen and matched numeral and quantity correctly by counting the spots on each ladybird pebble and counting out the corresponding number of pinecones.
As part of our latest topic ‘Big Wide World’ the children at Little Acorns explored a variety of tasty delights from different countries. We talked about which country the food originated from and compared it to the food we eat at home. The children tried samosa’s, spring rolls, pizza’s, croissants and noodles! What tasty treats!
The Little Acorns have loved making their own music on our very own sound wall!
Today we discussed what our bodies need in order to give ourselves the best chance of staying healthy. We talked about what the benefits of eating a healthy balanced diet has on our bodies, as well as exercising regularly and getting plenty of sleep.
Following our discussion, the children prepared their own fruit kebabs! Using child friendly safety knives, they each cut pieces of melon, pineapple, banana and strawberry and added it to a wooden skewer. Don’t they look delicious!
After eating the healthy snack, the children commented on how they felt they had more energy for the rest of their fun packed day at Little Acorns!
As today is the Queen’s 95th Birthday, we decided to celebrate and have a tea party in the garden. The children prepared their own sandwiches, then enjoyed eating them outside in the sunshine with a fruit salad.
The children at Little Acorns have really enjoyed our most recent topic- Dangerous Dinosaurs! We have discovered interesting facts about herbivores and carnivores! Became palaeontologists as we dug for dinosaur fossils in the sand! We have explored frozen dinosaur eggs! We have built our own dinosaurs from junk modelling! What an exciting topic!
The children at Little Acorns have been making their own rainbow potions made from coloured water, glitter and flower petals. They have also been planting cucumbers, sunflowers, primroses and pansies to make our garden look pretty. We hope the cucumbers will grow to be nice and juicy so we can enjoy them at snack time!
Today’s Forest School session was themed around Easter. The children started with an Easter egg hunt where they each had to find a painted egg shaped pebble. The fun continued with Easter egg making, hedgehog pictures and cooking in the mud kitchens
The children have enjoyed playing outside in the recent warm, dry weather!
What a colourful week we have had in Little Acorns! The children have been exploring colour and how it can be changed by mixing different coloured paints. They have produced colourful collages from a selection of craft resources which are proudly on display, and we have looked at the Colour Monster story. The children each chose a coloured scarf which represented a different emotion from the story. They then showed the emotion into a small mirror. We had some wonderful happy, calm, surprised, loved, angry and sad faces!
The children at Little Acorns have really enjoyed our most recent topic- Dangerous Dinosaurs! We have discovered interesting facts about herbivores and carnivores! Became palaeontologists as we dug for dinosaur fossils in the sand! We have explored frozen dinosaur eggs! We have built our own dinosaurs from junk modelling! What an exciting topic!
Don’t the children look fantastic in their costumes for World Book Day!?
For our SCARF activity we discussed healthy eating and what different foods we need to eat to keep our bodies healthy, and which foods contain high amounts of fat and sugar. The children then made their own healthy food plates.
Little Acorns Nursery and Pre-school has been open for 1 year today so we thought we would celebrate and have a party! We all enjoyed party food and party games wearing our party clothes!
We have been making Valentines day biscuits at Little Acorns! The children followed a simple recipe and carefully weighed out the ingredients. We talked about how the mixture was changing as we added the different ingredients. The dough was rolled out and cut into heart shapes. Once baked in the oven, the children decorated their heart shaped biscuit with pink icing. Don’t they look delicious!
Today we celebrated Chinese New Year in Little Acorns. The children experimented with chopsticks and noodles, designed their own chinese hand held fans and tasted prawn crackers at snack time.
This week we have been making icy art pictures with frozen paint! The children used the frozen paint sticks to create their own colourful art pieces which are proudly displayed on the walls in Little Acorns.
We made our own snow! The children loved mixing and moulding the ‘snow’ into various models. Among the creations were ‘snow dogs’ ‘foxes’ ‘snowmen’ and ‘volcanoes!’
We also made bird feeders from lard and seeds. We hope to be able to observe various wildlife enjoying a yummy snack!
For Mental health week we read stories about different feelings, and we talked about our emotions. The children made mood monster puppets and designed their own emotions masks based on their feelings inside.
This week we have been honouring and recognising the inspirational Captain Sir Thomas Moore. The children coloured in their own Union Jack flags which are proudly on display in our windows at Little Acorns.
For the first part of half term our topic has been ‘Starry Night’. The children have enjoyed exploring the differences between the world at night time compared with daytime, through a range of exciting and creative activities. They have learnt about nocturnal animals and how they find food when it is dark. We have discussed people who work at night and the different jobs that people do when we are asleep, and they have learnt about bedtime routines and the importance of a good night’s sleep. The pictures you can see here are their very own creations of the sky at night time and what a full moon looks like including its craters!
Today we have learnt about the importance of cleaning our teeth! The children used toothbrushes to clean the dirty marks from the tooth moulds.
Little Acorns have been getting very creative over the last 2 weeks. We have made decorations for our classroom, Christmas cards, snowmen pictures and sparkly saltdough tree decorations.
Little Little Acorns have had a fabulous half term exploring Autumn. We have been making seed shakers, observing fallen apples, leaf rubbing, conker rolling, making hedgehog pictures and pumpkin carving.
Little Acorns have had the amazing opportunity of observing and caring for 4 wiggly caterpillars. Once the caterpillars had built their chrysalises, we waited a few days before very carefully transferring them into the hatching net. The following week they began to emerge as beautiful butterflies! We observed the butterflies for 2 days and fed them fresh fruit and sugar water, before setting them free in our garden.
This half term the Little Acorns have been learning about minibeasts. We have explored our school grounds on bug hunts, looked at differences and patterns between them, observed snails and caterpillars and made our own spider webs.