Week commencing January 13th - Westmeston

Our book for last week was The Little Red Hen. We read the story then, in small groups, acted it out using sensory resources. We had fun choosing which characters to be and taking it in turns to say our lines, '“Not I” said the cat!' One group had the wonderful independent idea to retell the story for a second time, but this time the animals did help the Little Red Hen to make bread and they all shared it at the end. What wonderfully kind and thoughtful children we have at Acorns!

Inspired by the Little Hen, we made two types of bread during the week: flatbreads and soda bread. We worked together to measure and mix ingredients to make dough. It was fun to use our hands to make the sticky mixture into a smooth, workable dough.

We certainly looked like real bakers by the end of our bread making!

We shaped the soda bread dough into rolls and put them in the oven, but the flatbreads were made round and thin and then cooked in a frying pan. Both tasted delicious.

Bread wasn't the only thing we made. We also got busy making some new play dough. Again we measured and mixed the ingredients then added some colour - we chose pink! It was really fun to watch the dough go from mottled pink to bright pink as we kneaded it.

Outside we once again had fun in the mud! We noticed some worm casts and holes in the soil and talked about what they were. This inspired us to make piles of food for the worms using the vast amount of mud we have at Westmeston! The lucky worms even had courses - "This half is lunch, this half is dinner and this half is pudding."

Back in the dry hall we played games to help us take turns. It was also good for our listening skills as we had to follow the instructions of the games - although sometimes we thought we had better ways to play the games than the official rules. We are very creative!

Next week we will be focusing on communication and speaking. It preparation for this, we made a talking stick. We peeled a stick that we had found with a potato peeler, then painted it and added decorations.

We used the stick to pass around the circle at circle time - if we have the stick we can talk, if we don't, we listen. We followed the rules really well.

During the week we have been doing some calming activities that allow us to relax and unwind after some busy playing and exploring. We have learnt to feel our chests go up and down as we breathe deeply and how to stretch our bodies to get our wriggles out.

On Friday, Mrs Tubb had the idea of making picture frames from sticks we had collected and dried out. However, we are much more creative than Mrs Tubb and we came up with some amazing creations - windows, houses, swords and tepees! Some of us found tying the knots tricky, but we were very resilient and sure of ideas so the teachers could help us if we got stuck.

It was such a beautiful sunny day that we managed to take some lovely pictures through our stick frame!

There was also lots of fun and laughter playing outside.

We took a walk down the path and had some amazing surprises along the way. We noticed a helicopter 'parked' in a nearby garden! Unfortunately it didn't take off!

We splashed about in our favourite puddle and watched the sheep that are now in the field next to us. What a treat we had when a truck from Plumpton College stopped carrying a sheep to put back in the field. It had been found caught up in brambles and was being returned to safety. We were allowed to gentle stroke the sheep and watch as it was returned to the field. It started eating straight away, so wasn't too shocked by the whole experience.

Another muddy week! We love the mud, but we can't wait for some spring days to come along. Maybe it won't be too long - the daffodils are already out at Westmeston!