We have had some lovely experiences this week! After creating our own snakes at nursery out of large logs, and other materials we showed real care and attention to our crafted creatures. This interest spread to the wider group with lots children wanting to look up snakes in particular in books and on the internet to find out where they live, what they eat and how they move. So we took a trip to our local reptile shop and saw lots of animals including snakes, lizards, geckos, turtles and frogs! We even got to take back a snake skin to show all of our friends back at nursery!

We also enjoyed making bread! We mixed the dough, kneaded and shaped it and then cooked it on a real fire!! We loved observing the cooking process and then the best part was eating it!

Lastly, we created, decorated and designed our own post box. Cut out stamps, wrote letters and posted them!

Sadly we also had to say an emotional goodbye to our lovely Early Years Teacher Steph who is starting her maternity leave and embarking on a new adventure of becoming a mummy! We wish you the very best of luck for the future Steph, We all know you are going to be wonderful. The staff and children will miss you loads and we can't wait to meet your baby son! See you soon! Lots of love all at Brookhill!​

Another week in space! The children continued their exploration of space, explore space ships and how we could get to the moon. 

We also had our first trip to the woods which was very exciting. The children were involved in some wonderful experiences including making some worms for the birds to eat. The children are encouraged to explore in a safe environment and as you can see the children had a great time climbing, balancing and hiding!

And finally we went to visit some reptiles as we continue to be fascinated by animals and their environments. 

We are looking forward to seeing what exciting adventure next week will bring

We had a very busy week at Brookhill this week! In addition to continuing to welcome new children into the nursery....we also went to the moon!!!

​The children's interest of space inspired our space display/play area which brought about a lot of discussion of wanting to visit space and what space may be like. The space rockets were going to take us everywhere, from "to the sky up high", "my house" and "Mars" to "Ealing"!

Seeing rockets was not enough, as the talk turned to fitting into an actual rocket "one big enough to fit us in and that we can get inside"

At first the children created this rocket that they decorated by painting and carefully cutting inspirational pictures and decorations out and attaching them.

We have been enjoying the exciting addition of our ducklings this week at nursery! On Monday morning 6 duckling eggs arrived, we created a safe quiet area and begun our wait to watch them hatch. On Wednesday morning our first duckling arrived.

The children have been keen to extend their enjoyment of the ducklings all around nursery, we've had some ducklings paddling in our water tray, lots of duck songs and some wonderful cards and posters being made for our special visitors.  

Throughout the week our ducklings slowly arrived!

While we weren't looking after our ducklings we had our leavers trips to Paradise Wildlife Park. Each day was a lovely experience for us all and we want to thank you for joining us on this nursery adventure.

This year we have been lucky enough to have access to Cherry Green Trees where we have been providing a Forest school experiences for some of our children.

What is Forest school?
 

• Forest School is a Scandinavian approach to learning that facilitates hands on learning opportunities, through regular interactions within a natural or woodland environment, over a period of time.
• Sessions are learner led and follow children’s ideas, curiosities and areas of interest. This fosters positive self-esteem, builds confidence and independence and promotes intrinsic motivation.
• Children are enabled to asses and manage taking supported risks through appropriate challenge and the use of real tools. Developing reasoning and problem-solving skills, supporting social and communication skills, responsibility and resilience.
• A sense of belonging is promoted, through positive relationships and closer connection with the natural world.   
• Forest school takes place all year round, with the children going out in all weathers, exploring and learning from the seasons and environmental changes.
• At the end of each session children are invited to review their time and share their experience with each other. This process of reflection supports understanding and transference of new knowledge and skills and promotes emotional intelligence and communication skills.
• Sessions are planned and run by qualified level 3 Forest School Leaders who are first aid trained.

The children who are returning in September will still have a chance to experience the woodland environment at Cherry Green Trees but we have decided to have two taster sessions in some local woods for everyone to attend and enjoy. These will be for children to attend with their Parents/Carers and will take place in Oakhill Park woods, East Barnet, on Tuesday 17th July 2018 starting at approximately  9am and 1pm.
 
The sessions will last for approximately two hours each and we will try to offer a glimpse of some of the experiences that can be offered at Forest School and maybe we can try to answer any questions you may have about the Forest School ethos and how or why it can benefit children.
 
Everyone is welcome  but so we can ensure we have enough resources please could you sign up on one of the forms around the nursery. If you have any questions please feel free to ask your key worker or Julian (star room).
 
We look forward to seeing you in the woods!

What a wonderful hot week we have had this week! We got our new paddling pool and had a great time splashing and cool down. We found cool spots in the garden to act out story ideas, enjoyed a variety of water play, made a big tent to cool down in and experimented with ice in sun room, we enjoyed feeling the different textures ice and water form and finding ways to break the ice down.

During the mornings when it was cooler, we enjoyed the sun in the garden. We experimented with different ways to climb onto our slide and ways so find our way back down. 

We are very excited for our leavers trips to Paradise wildlife park coming up and for those of us who are staying at nursery we have our ducklings arriving on Monday the 9th! We look forward to sharing these wonderful experiences with the children. 

We have had a busy week finishing off dressed in purple and a cake sale to raise awareness for Dravet Syndrome
​
https://www.epilepsy.com/learn/types-epilepsy-syndromes/dravet-syndrome


The children have been enjoying mark making this week, we've had large drawings in the garden, name badges and story telling through pictures
We've had a wonderful puppet show throughout the week in the garden, where the children have enjoyed sharing their ideas and stories with their peers. 

We have been watching the progress of the supermarket being built right across the road from nursery. On Friday afternoon we went for a closer look. We could see the builders hard at work and could feel the shaking from their equipment on the fence. 

We had a wonderful purple Friday! The children enjoyed creating purple butterflys, playing with purple water and jelly and of course the delicious cakes in our cake sale. Thank you all so much for your kind donations, the money we raised goes towards the Dravet syndrome UK charity, ​Dravet Syndrome is a rare genetic form of epilepsy and generally begins in infancy. 

The children enjoyed creating some wonderful large scale paintings in the garden. They used various different colours, discussing how to mix them together and the new colours they would make.
We've also been jetting off to space in our space rocket! We have been talking about what we might find in space, how we get there and who might be brave enough to be an astronaut one day. 
In the mud kitchen we've been making some wonderful cakes, soups and recipes.We have worked together with our friends to collect our ingredients and mixed it all together, creating some marvellous food. It didn't even matter when it began to rain as simply "its our new ingredient!"
And finally we had some fabulous shows, creating our own microphones and showcasing our talents.