We had a lovely visit from Sally this morning. She brought a hamper basket full of apples that were sponsored the Country Store. 
The Country Store also donated some vouchers for us to spend. Thank you so much. 
The children were eager to sit under the gazebo and listen to Sally.
She showed them how to turn the Apple as it was peeled and cut. 
The skin that came off was really long. It was taller than Jackie. We hung it on the fence. 
Water ready for the children to help themselves. We have it set up inside and outside. 
What are they going to make? The ideas are endless and we encourage the children to use the curiosity to explore what we put out. Could it be potions, dinner or something else? 
Banana cakes too today 
Super necklaces to choose from. 
Our seaside provocation to explore. 
Looking forward to a fun filled day.
We had a lovely morning at Woodentops today. The children invited their special person in to celebrate with a bacon or Sausage roll. Bacon and sausages were donated by Clayton Butchers. They tasted fabulous so thank you so much. They could also have a vegetarian burger or sausage roll.
The children thoroughly enjoyed doing some flowers 
Making some strawberry or chocolate mousse
Sharing books
Drawing pictures
And they had a great time in the garden playing with their parents.
Thank you so much for coming. The children love showing you what they do at Preschool.
On Monday, the children planted out the sunflowers, tomatoes and pumpkins. 
We discovered our potatoes and strawberries had really grown over the holidays. We’ve got lots of green strawberries- we had lots of chat about how they need to be red before we can pick them. 
We made dairy and egg free cakes. The children experimented with touching, smelling and tasting the ingredients before mixing them together. 
The children built some dens, inside and outside. They made a tower for their people and had great fun in the ‘rocket’. 
With the flowers, the children produced a beautiful salad, the leaves were cut up using scissors to make the lettuce and other resources added to finish off the salad.
Water beads are so much fun. They bounce and make a lovely sound when poured. They feel lovely to hold although very slippery. 
We had the teachers visit from Potton Lower on Thursday. The children were eager to listen to what they had in their shoe boxes. They shared books with them, eagerly showed them round Woodentops including our lovely garden and played with them. The teachers were impressed with how confident our children were.
Some of our provocations set up ready for the children to explore and follow their curiosity.
On Friday we cleaned the chalk of the path. We had 3 brushes and some paint brushes. We all took turns in cleaning the path and the walls. The children were very enthusiastic. 
So much so, they cleaned the signs too.
Last week was a fabulous week with lots of learning and exploring.
I am in total awe of how our children take what we provide and move it in to a totally different dimension. It’s fantastic and all based around them and their interests.
We had a fantastic visit to the farm today. We took 26 children, 16 parents and 8 staff with us and it was fun even though the weather was a little dull.
We met some very noisy piglets with the mum and others that were sleeping through the noise!!!
We said hello to some very cute lambs and then moved on to meet some goats, a pony and a shire horse having a rest as he had a seed in his foot last night.
We met a goose trying to have a sleep and 3 drakes. 
We had snack before going to see the Kuna Kuna pigs having their lunch. 
Cilla was having a drink first.
We had a walk round the gardens and found a lovely sandpit. The children enjoyed having a play before going off to feed the lambs.
The children took turns with feeding the lambs who were very eager to have their milk. 
We all had a turn at grooming the pony, the pony liked the children’s attention.
After lunch we played in the ride ons and in the play barn before meeting some very cute ducklings and rather large guinea fowl chicks. We said hello to the huge rabbits and a few guinea pigs.
Then we had a lovely play in the play area, watched the trains go round before having an ice lolly.
Our beautiful butterflies hatched out over the weekend. 
One had wings that hadn’t formed properly so he became our little pet. We released the others on Friday with the children. 
Burgers being cooked.
Th children were using the animals in their role play. Acting out their ideas through the animals, having lots of discussions and sharing of ideas.
This was fun and a little messy. We mixed cornflour, liquid soap, PVA glue and a little water. Lots of descriptive language and discussion about how it was going to turn out. Later we took it outside to see what would happen in the sun.
The children made a walk way and then took turns to walk along it avoiding the ‘sharks’. They built a tower to see if it could go all the up to the slide. It fell down so they rethought about how they could make it stay upright. The children worked together to build it again.
Playing the music instruments. 
Parachute play. The children got the parachute out and played cat and mouse. In the end we had 5 mice and 2 cats trying to catch the mice. Lots of giggles with the rest of us trying to wriggle the parachute.
This is loose parts play. The children liked exploring the different items especially smelling the cinnamon and star anise. We had lots of talk about what they were doing and how they were using the different pieces.
This is a drawing of the flowers we had donated from Potton Tesco’s.
Pre writing practice using the laces.
Exploring with the light box.
A little bit of junk modelling using rather a lot of glue.
This week started off at Woodentops with a ‘drive’ to Tescos. Before leaving, the children thought of what they needed to buy; so each made a list, using the stubby crayons and making the paper into list shapes by cutting them up.
They sat on the sofa with the wooden steering wheel, made sure everyone was buckled in and then drove down to Tescos. Once at Tescos each child unbuckled their seat belt, got a shopping basket and with their list went round ‘Tescos’ picking the stuff they needed off the shelf. Filling their baskets very full before climbing back into the car ready for the journey back to Woodentops. Back at Woodentops they showed the members of staff what they had bought and then wanted to go back to the shops again.
The next day this was extended more, this time the children walked to the shops, and took things off the shelf (along the corridor), paid at the till (table in the corridor) and then brought all the groceries back to Woodentops.
On Wednesday when it was so beautiful outside, the children discovered our sequin cushion covers sparkled even more. They found that the sunlight made them sparkle on to the ceiling and then had a fantastic time dancing to their music in the ‘disco’.
On Thursday we did mini bootcamp inside with Simon which was a novelty- we had Storm Doris to thank for that as it was way too windy outside. The children were able to run around inside, something that is never done, not when we have a roomful of toys, equipment and children. So today the floor was cleared with the help of the children and they had a good giggle with Simon.
In the afternoon, some of us went outside to collect the fallen twigs out of the trees. We wanted to make stickmen with them. It was very fun seeing the wind swirl the leaves round in a funnel. Back inside we shared what we had found and then made stickmen, fishing rods and wands to name a few. We also found some moss and all noticed it was very soft and springy.
On Friday we had the ‘Stay and Players’ into play.
We added the sticks to the playdoh and this is what they made.
We went outside, the weather was gorgeous and the children used the leaves, sand, stones and shells to do lots of cooking in our pots and pans. Some children set up an obstacle course with the bread baskets, milk crates and the wood planks. There was lots of conversations going on- sharing ideas, working together and planning out how they were going to set everything up. Then turn taking as each child had a go on the obstacle course. The children helped tidy away all the toys before going in and having a story.
I have to say we’ve had a lovely first week back after the half term.
So this morning we set up the tuff spot with lots of pompoms, bowls, tongs and spoons. The children started off transferring the pompoms from one bowl to another using different sized spoons, scoops, tongs and measuring cups. We had lots of talk about who had the most, the sizes of the pompoms and and how they could fit into different sized pots.
The children enjoyed it so much, we decided to extend their learning by adding some hard, shiny stones. My goodness, they liked the noise of the stones in the metal bowl and colander and spent time stirring them round and round using any tool they could plus their hands. Some of the children poured the stones from one pot to another and then into their hands.
We decide to extend their learning by adding a little more variety with some very rolly marbles, again, all different sizes.
We had lots of discussion about the noises they made, the different colours they could see and the weight of them.
Today we visited the RSPB. The children moved the branches around carefully, sometimes working together to carry the branches over and then placing them up against the tree. They talked about how heavy they were, what they were going to do when planning the dens, organising each other into ‘work ‘parties to make the den they wanted.
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The children also had a paper bag each where they collected anything and everything that caught their eye. Some had big pieces of wood, others had leaves, bits of bark and feathers. We all collected some bits of wood and bark for our African Land Snails.
This is a nest they made too.
To start of June we sent a card to the Queen, to celebrate her birthday full of our hand prints and foot prints.
We had Sarah and Sarah visit from the The Potton Music Festival. They brought with them a flute and bassoon which they demonstrated to the children. We had great fun trying to guess what the instruments were being- a butterfly and elephant were 2 of the animals. Then sang some nursery rhymes to accompany the music. The children and staff listened attentively, joined in when asked and were given lovely compliments at the end from Sarah and Sarah.
Then the children decorated glasses for the special men in their lives and gave them to them on Fathers day.
We had water beads arrive at Woodentops from Saffy’s ‘The Sensory Den’. The children loved them, exploring them as they moved around the tray, putting them in cups and pots and using lots of pincer movement to pick them up.
Some of our tadpoles became frogs in the last couple of week, so far we have released 9 frogs back into the garden where they came from. We’ve still got about 10 to go. The children spend time at woodentops looking for ants to feed the frogs, they like live insects to munch.
We discovered 2 types of ants in our garden, red ones and black ones. We spent time watching the ants coming out of their nests and ‘working’ as they moved around the garden. We had lots of discussion about which ant bit and that we needed to avoid them and which one would be better to give to the frogs.
At the request of the children we got out the elastic bands and peg boards. They made some houses with windows, others made patterns across the board. They discussed with each other and the adult what they were doing and why and thought it hilarious when some of the elastic bands pinged off.
All the children planed Sunflowers in April and one of our children took a photo of hers growing. It is now double her size. The ones at Woodentops are also growing well.
We had the model making out last week, one of the children wanted to use 2 boxes to make a field for her horses. She worked really hard with the support of an adult, sticking toilet rolls together as the horses, finding paper that looked like straw and using jam jar lids as the water bowls. She even made a trough so they could eat.
Preschool Childcare. 