Week commencing November 9th - Westmeston

This week our focus was managing our feelings and behaviour. This is something that we constantly work on at The Acorns, but to help us recognise and identify different feelings, Miss Matthews read us the story 'You're Not Ugly, Duckling". The children spoke about how the duckling might have felt throughout the story and tried to think what kind words they would have said to the duckling if they were his friend.

We commemorated Remembrance Day throughout the week by making our own poppies and decorating Remembrance Day poems. We discussed the importance of remembering and recognising people who keep our country a safe place to live.

Friday was another special day and we celebrated Children In Need by colouring Pudsey Bear pictures, We love the variety of designs on display here.

As always, we have had plenty of fun in the Westmeston garden. The leaves continue to provide entertainment and the children always have fun using the outdoor equipment. We are often impressed by the inventive ways they use the apparatus!

The mud kitchen was popular this week - the children used dried leaves and mud to make mud cake, mud pies and burgers!

Our music session with Miss Matthews on Thursday was wonderful. The children learnt a new song all about Diwali - the Indian festival of light which is being celebrated this week.

Paulina was back for our Forest School session this week which took place in the woods.

As some children now have protective gloves, they are able to use the tools. Paulina showed them how to take the bark off some twigs using potato peelers.

We also went on a very successful bug hunt. We searched through leaves on the forest floor and rolled back longs to see what we could find. There were plenty of woodlice, worms and ants, but most surprisingly, a small newt! What a find! We put the creatures in the bug box to look at more closely, then carefully released them at the end of our session.

The children always enjoy using the rope walk which Paulina sets out for them.

On Friday we made some tasty banana muffins. After washing our hands thoroughly of course, we started by mashing the banana, adding sugar and oil and giving it all a good mix. We sifted in the flour, baking powder and cinnamon and tipped in some mixed fruit and seeds. The children carefully put mixture into the paper cases and we put them in the oven to bake. They smelt delicious!

And they tasted great as well. The children enjoyed them for afternoon snack.

We had another fabulous walk to the woods and for the second week running we were able to get up close to some horses. Whilst settling down for our snack in the woods, some horse riders passed by and let the children say hello to one of the horses.