We started the week with a Settling-in session for our new Robin that will start in January. This was also repeated later in the week and it was lovely to meet some of our new children that will start with us after the festive break.

The children did a great job, packing their shopping bags after visiting the pop-up shop in the Main Entrance area. It was lovely to have a couple of Form 6 helpers to support the children and we all worked as a team.

The Robins learnt a new word this week… Hibernation. This special word provided lots of learning opportunities and lots of fun was had taking part in many topic-related activities. With this in mind, the children were able to colour pictures of hedgehogs and add stickers. Forks and brown paint were used to create a spiky effort for the hedgehogs. It was wonderful to see the children concentrate and focus for a set amount of time. They were all super proud of the end result.

We also learnt that bats, bumblebees, ladybirds and slow worms hibernate which is very interesting. Cyril and Myril won’t hibernate during the winter so we will still be able to spot them on our lovely class feeder. Shortly afterwards, we shared a Talk for Learning poster. This is something introduced to Russell Robins as it is a language-rich activity which provides opportunities to learn new words.

The Hibernation sensory tray was very popular and it was great to see the Robins searching for the animals and minibeasts which hibernate. To further extend our knowledge, on Thursday we played the Kim’s Game. All the items on the tray related to this week’s topic and it provided the Robins with the chance to share what they have learnt so far.

The children love number and weighing activities, so they were thrilled to discover a variety of number-related resources. We also counted the visual timetable pictures and bookbags.

This week’s cooking activities consisted of hedgehog rolls, bread, cheese sandwiches and scones. Forks were used to make the prickles on the hedgehogs and then sultanas were used for the eyes. Grating was a new skill the children learnt and they did this to add cheese to their sandwiches. Lastly, we made yummy scones and the children liked poking sultanas in the dough mixture. The Robins were able to identify that the oven was a hot place and that only adults are allowed to touch it. Very sensible, Robins!

I must say, the children all did a fantastic job, learning lots of new facts about hibernation. Perhaps you could ask your child if they remember some information.

It is great working in partnership with parents to support children’s learning. Therefore, if you have any empty cereal, biscuit or tea bag boxes, then we’d love to receive them for our home corner to update our stock. The children thoroughly enjoy using these everyday resources in their play and it is truly amazing to watch them play together, making breakfast for each other.

It was lovely to receive some wonderful feedback from one of our parents as they were able to view our bulletin on their television. This provided lots of wonderful communication and language whilst also discussing our weekly activities.

We received a special letter all the way from the North Pole. It was from our Christmas friend Elvis the Elf. The children are looking forward to meeting him next week. Apparently, he heard that next week is our special Christmas Concert and Party so he is hoping to arrive for all the festivities.

Next week’s topic is Favourite Christmas Books.  Perhaps your child might like to bring in something from home linked to our topic.