The week started with a visit to the Old Hall to collect our weekly groceries. Due to our recent cooking activities and children’s interests, we were excited to collect avocados and bagels. The children are certainly enjoying mashing the avocados and adding a teeny bit of fresh lemon. Once back in class, we worked together as a team to pack everything away. Miss Ruby and I are certainly very lucky to have so many volunteers and helpers. Thank you, Robins!

As part of this week’s topic, we spoke about seeds and how some turn into flowers and plants, whilst others turn into trees. One of our Robins kindly brought in a reusable bag as it linked to our topic. We spoke about the pictures during our Talk for Learning activities and as an extension, we ventured around the grounds to collect some of our own seeds. Perhaps you could experiment at home and see if your seeds grow. Please keep us updated!

This week’s cooking activities consisted of seeded rolls (linked to our topic), scones, banana and strawberry muffins and soup. The children persevered chopping the vegetables, but I chopped the red onions in case the children rubbed their eyes. As a special treat, we tried some of the soup for our snack and the Robins liked dipping their soldiers into the soup. Peppers were used as we were able to talk about the seeds which were hiding inside each one. We have dried them and kept them inside a brown paper bag for next year and hopefully we might be able to use them next spring. 

The children have such a varied amount of experiences during their time with us and they also learn many life skills. This includes: setting the table for snack time, clearing and tidying away, climbing trees, exploring the school grounds, nature and…hoovering! Who knew hoovering could be so much fun so perhaps next time when you’re busy at home, your child might be able to help you. 

We are getting excited for the Harvest Festival next week and we have been working very hard remembering all our songs. However, this also means that a certain spooooooky someone will be coming to visit us. There was a special envelope delivered to Mrs Tickner on Friday and it was from FunnyBones. His letter explained that he is looking forward to joining us for some more spook-tacular and fang-tastic fun this year! FunnyBones is always very sensible and he likes to see and hear children doing the right thing, so I am sure he will have lots of fun and be very happy with us all as we are kind, helpful and super sensible… in fact the Robins are all so very remarkable!

Continuing with our topic, wooden stampers were used at the playdough table and there were lots of pretty flower designs. One of the Robins shared that they liked the scent of the playdough as it contained cinnamon which we use in our healthy fruit cakes. Rolling pins, scissors, cutters, sticks and knives were used to support the children’s play whilst also working those all important finger muscles. 

Next week, our topic will be Harvest and Space. We have lots of fun activities planned to support the children’s learning. In fact, something might crash into the Long Garden… shhh… watch this space! The children are encouraged to bring in something from home (just not too big please) related to our weekly topic or anything else they would like to share or celebrate with us. The Robins enjoy sharing their objects from home during carpet time and it is a fantastic way to build effective communication and listening skills.  

Have a lovely weekend!