We provide new experiences and build new life skills within our Forest School at Imperial. We have recently been talking about fire safety. Our Forest School leader Lea has been showing the children how we make camp fires in a safe and controlled way. The children have enjoyed watching the sparks light the cotton and wood shavings. The children have even tried using the splints themselves, with the support from adults. The children have gained knowledge that fire is hot and can be dangerous. They understand that they are not allowed to touch it and that an adult should always be there.
At Blossom Years, we include British Values within our curriculum and provide inclusive settings for staff and children. We enjoy celebrating other languages and make sure that our EAL children are provided opportunities to access their languages and culture. We also want to make sure all of our children have moments in which they have new opportunities and experiences to build knowledge and skill, which they may not have access to at home.
Within our settings we currently have French lessons which are run by Cathy. The children take part in planned sessions, which encourage them to learn a new language and widen their knowledge. The children are like sponges and absorb the vocabulary amazingly, parents often feeding back that they have been speaking French at home!
The Preschoolers at Imperial decided to go on a bear hunt! We are currently enjoying the book ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’ so we thought we could go on our own! We headed over to the fields and took a walk through the woods. The children we able to recall the story and observed what they could see around them. They used their senses to describe the look of natural materials, the smell, the feeling and what they could hear. We had a fantastic time and even had a picnic on the field!
Our lovely Imperial got a ‘GOOD’ OFSTED report. The team are all very happy and proud of themselves. The team provide a broad and balanced curriculum, value each child, build life skills in Forest School, safeguard the children effectively and encourage children to build their confidence throughout all areas of development, and OFSTED saw this. Our management team promotes an inclusive setting, creating a working environment, which makes all staff feel valued.
Thank you to the team at Imperial for getting this great result!
In Forest School today, the children helped to plant some new potatoes ready for the new upcoming season! The children used spades to transfer the soil from the soil bag to the growing area and used their fine motor skills to push the potato bulbs into the soil. We plan on using this years potatoes in our next session and cooking them! We also made survival bracelets today, the children using amazing focusing attention when doing so and listening well to instructions.
At Imperial, the Preschoolers have adored their new camera, which they have been using in Forest School! The children have been encouraged to explore the world around them and capture what they want! The children have been taking pictures of leaves, the growing area, toys, the horses and of course… each other!
At Blossom Years, we strive to provide as many learning opportunities to the children as possible! Tuff trays are a great way to set activities up, which support a child’s learning. Here are just a few great tuff tray set ups…
-Fire station, foam and paint- the children get to explore different textures through the foam and paint, whilst also exploring their interests and encouraging conversation about jobs in our community.
-Shape sorting- providing bowls for the children to sort the shapes, challenges a child’s shape knowledge and identification of shapes. Pinchers are also provided, encouraging the children to use their fine motor skills to pick up the shapes and put them in the bowls.
-Sensory zoo- this targets the children’s interests of animals, but also provides children with a way to explore new textures.
-Cutting tray- children get to use their fine motor skills to cut out pictures/ make snips in paper and encourage their creativity and coordination.
We hope these tuff tray activities helped as inspiration!
As the weather has been warming up again, we have got the paddling pools back out to celebrate Summer! The children at Imperial have loved splashing in the pools and having water fights! For children that would prefer to not use the pools, we have been providing different water play opportunities, such as making a dinosaur swamp, putting water trays in the mud kitchen and using water to wash the dolls! We love the sunny weather in Forest School!
At Valeswood, we picked some of our vegetables that we have been growing in our garden area! We listened to our teachers instructions about what ones we could pick and then we tasted them! They were delicious!
At Imperial, we had a great Forest School session today! We made our own chocolate crepes and have them with blueberries and strawberries. Whilst we were busy flipping our pancakes, we had our much loved Graduation playlist on, meaning all of the children were singing at the top of their voices! We also got creative with paint and used clay and craft rollers to create beautiful patterns!
This week at St Marys the children have been practising their numeracy skills with dinosaurs by matching the numeral to quantity. Some of the children also took part in colour matching different dinosaurs! We also explored some heuristic play this week, using the wooden blocks to build towers!
At Valeswood, we celebrated 4th July for American Independence Day! The children had fun using potatoes and paint to mark make and create their own American flags. At snack time, the children made sparkler breadsticks using icing sugar and sprinkles! We had a fabulous day celebrating!