The Chronicle

Dormice have been whizzing around on the bikes this week, developing their movement, balance and riding skills. Some of the children decided to work together.

Badgers and Hedgehogs have been introduced to our first Forest School woodworking tool. They have each taken their turn to drill a hole in a small birch log slice, which will form ‘the tummy’ for their Christmas snowman decoration. (With the support of Mrs Whitehurst’s guiding hands, of course!) Everyone was keen to ‘watch a friend first and then do’ this rather exciting activity. It was lovely to hear some of our Badgers (who attended Nursery as Hedgehogs), spontaneously share their memory of using the drill last year and to recall how to keep ourselves safe. Our next step will be to fashion heads for the snowmen.

On the art table this week, our Little Crackers have crafted a sun-catcher candle from tissue paper and these look absolutely stunning when the last rays of Autumn sunshine stream through our big, beautiful Nursery windows.

On Remembrance Day we followed the example of the rest of the school in observing a two minute ‘silence and stillness’ in our Nursery playground. The children were amazingly respectful – we were so proud of them. Back in class we shared the gentle, silent, Cbeebies clip which uses the perspective of the birds and animals to sensitively introduce the significance of the poppy flower, with no need for follow-up discussion. We had all sorts of poppies in our curiosity cube for the children to explore and they had an opportunity to hone their hand-to-eye coordination with our dotty-spotty-poppy painting activity.

Our Nursery children are very lucky to have Crackley Hall's specialist teachers for some of their activities, one of whom is Mr Vaughan for PE. Our Dormice had immense fun last week, learning about movement to music and developing their ball skills. Playing with balls makes physical activity fun and is good for muscle development and hand-eye coordination. The youngsters tried to catch the ball by wrapping their arms around it and cradling it to their chest. It was lovely to see their accuracy developing and from the delight on their faces, we could see just how much they enjoyed themselves!