The children have been looking at the country of Africa on our globe and we watched some of David Attenbough’s The Greatest Show on Earth, which is all about the most magical moments of his series - please have a look too if you would like to watch it! https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01rrxdh 

The children have also been learning all about African animals and they did some super cutting to make their own African water hole collage with their favourite animals. There has also been some super imaginative play with the small world African animals and people creating homes for the animals using a range of natural materials. 

In Nursery on Monday, there was the most fabulous hairdressing salon and beauty parlour! So much imagination and very patient customers waiting for their hairstyles and treatments - Mrs Sayers and I can highly recommend  the Nursery Salon! 

Our Nursery trip to Otford library on Tuesday was a very hot walk through the village! The children were amazing as always at listening to us and walking sensibly holding our hands. We spotted the ducks having a lovely sleep under the shade of the willow tree and we were amazed at how many lily pads are on the pond, so we think there must be hundreds of frogs living in there!  At the library, Lorraine and Marianne were so delighted to see us and we listened to some lovely stories about Africa, including one of our favourites, Handa’s Surprise, and one called Jungle Jamboree and another one called Sleepy Leopard. The children sat and listened beautifully to the stories and of course, as always, they loved choosing books to bring back to Nursery. Marianne had prepared a craft activity for us to do which the children loved - they made jungle animal masks! After they had made them, the tigers and lion scared poor Marianne so much she had to go and hide! The Nursery jungle animals then went on a hunt around the library to find pictures of lions, tigers and monkeys! It was so much fun and the children were feeling tired before we even started walking back! Coming back through the village is always a slower walk with tired legs and the children were definitely ready for big glasses of cold milk and their fruity snacks. The children, as always, were on their very best behaviour - they are a pleasure to take out.

On Wednesday, the children were busy developing their fine-motor skills and hand-eye coordination when they threaded colourful pasta and wooden beads to make an African necklace. We have been looking at the beautiful brightly coloured clothes which many people wear in Africa and thought it would be lovely to have brightly coloured necklaces for ourselves.

Our Special Leaf in Pre-Prep Assembly this week was awarded for fantastic independent scissor skills. It is so lovely to see independence during adult-led activities and also during child-initiated activities. 

After the Pre-Prep assembly, we enjoyed tasting some fruit which was grown in a hot country like Africa. The children tasted pineapple, mango and watermelon, which was all very juicy and delicious. It cooled us all down in this warm sunshine!

The children are all delighted that Mr John has fixed the handles on our swing on the climbing equipment in the garden! They have been stretching up high to reach the handles and swinging their legs to get momentum. We said a big thank you to Mr John for fixing it for us.

By 9am on Thursday, before it got too hot, we were up on the field to practice our sports day races! We got all the equipment we needed and once armed with everything, we went down to the racetrack. The children were fantastic and think they have mastered all the races now, ready to show you on Tuesday! After we had put all the equipment back in the shed, we went on a happiness walk to find flowers and leaves which make us happy. We found daisies, buttercups, petals, feathers and colourful green leaves to stick onto our boards.

We are looking forward to seeing everyone at Sports Day on Tuesday. We are so excited to show you all what the children have been practising so please bring your loudest voice to cheer the children along!