Mondays are special in Robins as this is when we visit the Old Hall to collect our groceries from the pop-up shop! It was wonderful to see the engagement as the children listened to the instructions and, as always, a little bit of humour was added as our Russell Robins love having fun. In true Robins style, I told the children that I couldn’t remember any of the fruits or vegetables. I held up a variety of items and they pointed to the correct one. Well done, everyone. 

Once back in class, we made a scrummy yummy chocolate brownie. The Robins enjoyed mixing the ingredients and they popped a square of chocolate inside the gooey mixture. We then spoke about hot and cold and I asked the children if the oven was hot or cold. They correctly identified it as a hot place. Miss Ruby asked the Robins if adults or children should touch the oven. I was delighted to hear that only adults should touch the oven.  

The children learn so many facts, life skills and much more during their time with us and there is a learning opportunity in everything we do. Whether it is lining up on the front court for our fire practice or taking off their shoes and socks for PE. Within our nurturing environment, our little ones flourish and they learn to share, offer support and communicate their needs. They also learn about the environment and taking care of living things. For example, watering our houseplants. 

Exploring this week’s topic was an activity for children to draw their own picture of a money plant. I explained that it is very easy to make new plants from the young of an adult plant. We then looked at my spider plant (which I brought in from home) and all the little spiderlings/ spiderettes that were growing on the ends. One of our Robins also brought in some houseplants to show. This week the children have learnt about spider plants, money plants and aloe vera. Again, I would like to say thank you for the parental support we receive each week. It is truly great to have many objects / interests for the children to share with each other and us, whilst also further developing their knowledge on our topics. 

This week’s cooking activities consisted of yummy chocolate brownies with a delicious white chocolate surprise, pizza, bread rolls, low-sugar banana cake and nature biscuits. As always, we popped our culinary creations to Mrs Tickner, Mrs Parker and Mr McCarthy. The Robins are very confident and sociable and they thoroughly enjoy visiting the teaching and support staff around the school. In particular, we love visiting Mrs Tickner to say hello and the children always enjoy asking her lots of questions. They were very lucky on Thursday, as she showed the children her special calculator and squidgy sensory apple.  

Continuing with our bird topic, we used natural resources to make a bird feeder for the front garden. Whilst exploring the school grounds, we collected different-sized sticks. Once back in class, these were used to make a feeder and inside we popped a couple of suet balls. We hope you like our natural feeder and we are looking forward to seeing many garden birds. The children have enjoyed watching nature through the birdwatching window. We love watching the great tit birds as they are so pretty and there were also robins, bluetits and pigeons.  

We have some very keen train enthusiasts so lots of fun was had, watching trains go past whilst enjoying a snack and warming drink. In fact, the train driver beeped his horn at us which made us all very happy! 

Scrimbling returned to class this week and we bopped around and made marks to music whilst dancing to The Bird Dance. Stickers were added to make their pictures even more special. 

The Form 6 children popped in each day to spend time with the children and they joined us for snack, read stories and played with them. It is always wonderful to hear the older model fabulous manners as our little ones look up to the older children. 

Miss Ruby and I are so thrilled with how independent the children are with clearing and tidying the table after snack. At the age of 2, they are able to take their plates to the kitchen and pop their water bottles back at the hydration station. The new Robins are already growing in confidence in class and in the Russell Hall during our PE sensory circuits. Before our PE sessions, we do a group exercise to warm up our bodies and muscles before exploring the equipment. 

Next week’s topic is Helping the Planet (saving energy) and we will also continue to explore nature by carrying out some more birdwatching tasks. We encourage children to bring in something from home (just not too big please). This can be related to our weekly topic or anything else they would like to share or celebrate with us. The children 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 (hopefully dry) weekend.