Week commencing 15th March 2021 – Lindfield.

Welcome to our blog post.

This week our focus has been on Physical Development – Health and Self-Care.

We have been observing …

*Do the children show an awareness of bladder/bowel urges?

*Can they communicate their toileting needs?

*Can they drink from an open cup without spilling?

*Can they feed themselves and do they use cutlery effectively?

*Do they recognise danger and can they assess risk?

*Are they co-operative at dressing time or can they dress themselves?

*Can they wash their own hands effectively?

*Do they observe the effect of activity on their bodies?

*Can they make healthy food choices?

*Do they understand good practises with regard to eating, sleep, exercise and hygiene will contribute to good overall health?

We have offered many experiences and opportunities this week for the children to learn about ways in which to keep themselves healthy.

We have been exercising in the garden, chasing balls and running around.

Thank you to Giisele for bringing in some balls for us to play with.

We noticed that we feel hot after running around and sometimes we need to take our jumpers off to help us cool down.

Indoors, after a taxing tidy up time the children often come to tell us “I am hot” and ask “Can you take my jumper off?”

We have been encouraging them to take ownership over their own bodies and clothing, allowing and supporting them to make their own decisions.

We will help when arms get stuck inside out or back to front but it is so important to allow them be independent and to give them time to try.

Can your children manage their own clothing? Do they choose what they want to wear each day and dress themselves?

Hospital role play was set up in the lounge this week.

It was interesting to see the roles that the children took on - caring for each other, teddies, dolls & dinosaurs.

“Oh no, you have a baddy on your leg!”

“Are you sick with rona virus?”

“You need to have some calpol and you need to stick this (stethoscope) on your head.”

We have participated in some Yoga sessions this week, indoors and out.

We have been learning about relaxation, breathing and stretching.

We noticed that our chest puffs out when we take a deep breath and that it feels nice to slow our breathing down.

“My daddy never even relaxes!”

“I am chilling out.”

“I love to relax on the sofa.”

“We say Chillaxing at mine house.”

We have encouraged the children to make sensible food choices, understanding that foods can fuel our body with all it needs to keep us strong and healthy.

We experimented with a plate of digestive biscuits and a tray of delicious, juicy fruit …

Only 2 out of 19 children choose to have the fruit - even after a big discussion about all the health benefits.

We need to work harder but those yummy biscuits were just too tempting this time.

We tried some new and exciting fruits.

One of the children brought in a Pomegranate for us to share and we also tried a Dragon fruit this week … again, very mixed reviews.

“I haven’t had this before.”

“I love it.”

“Yuck!”

“Is it a made from Dragons?

The children have enjoyed peeling and chopping their own fruits this week.

We took the time to look at the fruits closely and discuss the difference in their skins, the fact some skins are edible, some have big stones and others have tiny seeds.

The children who stayed for child-minding made their own tea – sandwiches with their own choice of filling.

They spread the butter on to the bread (an inch thick in some cases) filled it up with cheese and ham and then used a knife to cut it into pieces.

They also washed their own dishes up afterwards!

We celebrated Jude’s birthday this week and were excited to wear the dino masks he had brought in for us to share. His dinosaur cakes were delicious. Thank You Jude!

We also celebrated Layla turning 3, she brought in some yummy cakes and superhero masks for us to share too. Thank You Layla!

Our Traditional story is ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and we had fun making our own caterpillars and butterflies.

We have displayed our work on one of the doors at The Acorns and are so proud of our lovely pictures.

We have played hungry caterpillar dominoes and have had a giant hungry caterpillar floor puzzle out each day too.

We have spent lots of time outdoor this week enjoying all that the garden has to offer.

We noticed that the sunflower seeds that we planted last week are already beginning to grow shoots.

We talked about roots and shoots. “Roots grow down and shoots grow up!”

The roots will help the plant to stay healthy; they will enable the plant to drink the water we are giving it.

We used pipettes to water the baby plants - which was a wonderful finger gym activity.

We went on bug hunts to try and find caterpillars, we think it might be a little bit too early to spot any but we did find lots of woodlouse and wiggly worms.

We teach the children to be kind and to care for the mini beasts that live in our garden. We can look, hold and watch them but we must always put the bugs back where we found them so and have to be very gentle.