We are really proud to announce we have achieved the accreditation. This has been a long journey which has been very eye opening in what we do and how we do it. It has really encouraged us to look at the children’s learning and interests bringing in resources not only to enhance their learning but to move them forward developing well rounded children. This helps them to move forward to their next stage of learning and we hope will support them in being fabulous members of our community.
Donna, our assessor said…….
Jackie and Kathryn and their staff have worked really hard to gain the accreditation. Firstly, I would like to thank them for their patience, and for providing me with lots of extra evidence and in answering my questions. They have been real stars.
There are a lot of things they can not change due to them being in a football club. They have worked with the setting to the best of their abilities.
They provide some wonderful provocations to learn and fully understand The Curiosity Approach.
They provide lots of loose parts and authentic materials.
I particularly like the apple trees they have grown in pots at the setting. They are going to take them to a local orchard that has been set up near them. This is an area that they are going to use for forest schools.
One of my favourite sentences from their submission was “We have discovered that things do not have to be beautiful to be interesting “
I would like to wish them every success for the future”.
When we do cooking, the children make their own food with help and guidance from the staff.
We scrunched up a shredded wheat biscuit. It’s really good as it looks like straw or twigs when squashed.
We added some melted dark chocolate. We worked for each shredded wheat biscuit we needed 17 dark chocolate ‘buttons’ to cover. We melted the chocolate in the microwave for around 20 seconds.
We stirred the mixture, making sure the chocolate covered all the shredded wheat.
The finished product smelt delicious and the children were eager to take their nests home.
The children have a great time in the mud kitchen area. They add water to make the mud all sloppy, measure and spoon out what they need. They have lots of discussions about what they are doing and why, then they share their ‘food’ with their friends and staff.
We used a small IKEA bowl to add the ingredients together. We halved the mixture so had 1/4 cup of flour, 1/8 cup of salt, 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar, a tablespoon of oil and 1/4 cup of water. Mix together. Put in the microwave for 30 to 40 seconds.
This term started with a bit of a bang, we had 4 new little ones join us and they settled so well. It was a delight to see how they ‘braved’ their first few days to then becoming very confident at waving goodbye at the window.
We have a very open setting in that parents, if they want to see their child’s file can just ask for it. We love showing the parents and children how their child is progressing with their play and learning at Woodentops. All staff love to talk about their key children, just ask and you’ll get given lots of information.
The room already set up for our children to come and play. We have the schedule board out ready so children can see what is going to happen through out the morning. When the activity takes place, it is taken off the board so the children can see how close snack, lunch or home time is. It really helps those that are a little anxious about routine. The little tables covered in white are for the children to put their names on so they can put any products they make- pictures, models etc; on to take home. This helps reinforce how their name looks and encourages them to recognise their name.
Building towers and bridges for the cars to go along.
Working with nuts and bolts. The children really enjoy twisting and turning the nuts and bolts into the colander. They used the loose parts to make patterns and pictures based on their ideas. They were also used as a drum. There was lots of talk about what the bolts felt like- whether they were heavy, light, cold, ridged etc.
The Children sorted through the heavy weights and the buttons, doing lots of matching games.
This was our giant man.
We made a combine harvester.
Playing with the people in the ‘meadow’.
Making a marble run- the children work which balls fit in the run and move fast. they have found out things that don’t roll, do not move in the runs.
The children use metal cutlery to play with in our kitchen area. This child has great pincer control over the knife and playdoh, super practice for when he starts to write.
Camp site making and then den building. The children are a dab hand at making dens, using their ideas, working together and supporting each other to make their dens even better.
Painting, we have been encouraging the children to wash out their paint brush after using it in one paint. this way they get to learn about waiting and taking turns and that water washes out the paint.
Building a road for the cars and lorrys.
This was a great invitation to play and learn- The children had a photo of different types of building and lots of different sized blocks.
We added wooden chess pieces to the display and the children lined them up and added them to their buildings.
We love having flowers in, the children prepare them for their little vases, any left overs or ones that were damaged are used in their loose play and often become ‘food’.
So we found a very poorly baby that needed bandaging up. The children found some micropore tape and made sure the baby was wrapped really well in the bandage and taped up. The baby felt lots better later after lots of cuddles.
Woodentops started Christmas at the end of November. Practising our songs for our alternative Carol Concert which the children had chosen. The favourites were Baby Shark, We Will Rock You- including guitars and Santa Got Stuck Up The Chimney. The carol concert was a resounding success, the children thoroughly enjoyed it which is what it was all about.
Making Christmas cards using lots of glitter.
Slime- oh my the children loved the slime. They made it with a little support from Shannon, then they squeezed it, pumelled it and stretched it. We discovered how long it could go if we stretched it carefully, all the way to the front door from the office door. There was lots of mathematical language, so impressive.
Paper chains were the next interest, again the children tried to make them as long as possible.
Building with bricks. The children worked together using the ladder to try and reach the top of their tower. Once it was too tall they added more brickwork to the different levels. There was lots of sharing of ideas, lots of reflection on how they were doing and planning for the next stage off their build. Fabulous co-operation and team work.
Christmas Candles.
The children moulded the clay and pushed in a tea light. Then they helped themselves to a variety of resources to add to their table decoration. They chatted about what they were using, discussing the textures and weight, then deciding where to put them in their clay.
Flowers- the children helped cut the flowers and put them in vases. Some of them used the left overs to make ‘dinner ‘ too.
Eddy the Elf came to visit us on the 1st December, the children looked for him every morning. He was very good at hiding.
Christmas cake making
The children iced them and took them home in their Christmas bag.
We played with the treasure box.
We had a fabulous Autumn term and we’re looking forward to the New Year and Spring term. We start back on the 7th January 2019. Can’t wait to see all out little ones and hear about what they did over the Christmas holidays.
On Monday we discovered the the toy animals and leaves in the tuff spots had all managed to get very frozen. The children worked hard together to free the animals and leaves and we ended up with a lot of ice on the grass.
Afterwards the children did some ‘obstacle course’ making use of the decking boards, crates and stepping logs. They worked really well together, listening to and sharing ideas with each other.
On Tuesday we had Simon come in from Triumph Wellbeing. The children helped tidy away the obstacle course from the day before and move the play equipment to the side ready to do lots of fun running around with Simon.
On Wednesday, we had the birds out from the RSPb, who sang beautifully, and made bird feeders for the Big Bird watch at the weekend. We hope the children managed to do some counting.
On Thursday we made donuts, oh my, they were delicious.
The children worked with Jackie, to mix the ingredients, and then watched from a safe distance whilst Jackie poured the mixture into the pans. They helped check whether the donuts were cooked and were very forward in their advice for Jackie. We made plain ones and then got a bit adventurous and made chocolate donuts- they were just as nice. They sampled the donuts for snack. Later on they iced the donuts with all the edible sparkly bits left over from Christmas.
On Friday we had the stay and players in. A fun morning was had by all. We made bird feeders using pipe cleaners and cheerios. Lots of threading and a little tasting- just to check the cheerios were ok for the birds!
Preschool Childcare. 