While making Poppy paintings for Remembrance Day, the Children can begin to explore British Values. As and Early years settings we are required to promote British Values actively to ensure our young people leave school prepared for life in modern Britain. British Values are embedded into everyday practice. Remembrance Day will help children make links between their lives, their freedoms, and the values in England. Democracy, Mutual Respect, Tolerance, Rule of Law, and Individual Liberty are the values that settings are expected to incorporate into their practice. They are learning about these values when:

* They make choices and decisions and know that their decisions and choices can make a difference.

* They begin to understand that everyone is entitled to have different opinions or feelings that may be different from someone else, but learning that this is ok.

* They begin to learn about the importance of being kind and respectful of similar and different people.

* When they learn about cause and effect and that actions have consequences

* When thinking about the freedoms that they have in the things that they enjoy doing every day. 

This week, we continue our season's theme by investigating Halloween. This festival signifies the move from autumn to winter and is always a great favourite for young children.

We have enjoyed reading a classic this week, “Room on a Broom” by Julia Donaldson. The story of a witch, a group of animals who help her, good manners, friendship and cooperation was fun to read aloud because of its rhythm and rhyme and opportunities for the children to join in.

The children thoroughly enjoyed the potion Station today. They measured out bicarbonate and various coloured vinegars along with a variety of Halloween-inspired pasta shapes and then watched the results. They were totally immersed in the process, which created some wonderful learning opportunities as we talked about the reactions that happened and the words we could use to describe them.

The children carried on this passion for potions within their role-play area, currently themed as ‘Meg and Mogs’ house. There have been many magic spells and rhymes as the children explored roles together. Having a selection of pumpkins around the room has offered an abundance of learning opportunities, from size ordering and counting to mark-making in various exciting ways.

 We are excited to see what next terms learning adventures bring …

Storytellers made pumpkin soup, which they enjoyed in the winter sunshine around the campfire, where they warmed their bread and watched the fire crackle and smoke. The children enjoyed scooping the pumpkin and pulling out the slippery seeds. Everyone explored the textures and smells as they prepared the soup and excitedly took the leftover peel outside for the squirrels to enjoy! This was some of the younger children’s first experience sitting around the fire and learning about our rules to keep everyone safe. They were fantastic at listening, and everyone enjoyed tucking into their soup before spending time playing with the mud kitchen

Children love to show what they can do, and cooking provides opportunities to gain a sense of accomplishment.

   Here at Storytellers, we like to provide real-life experiences. Cooking is a needed life skill. It is an authentic experience where children can gain a range of skills, specifically in Maths, as genuine opportunities for children to count, measure and calculate. Making bread gave their little hands a fabulous workout as they kneaded and shaped the dough.

It helps the children understand traditions and really aids language and communication. Today we introduced new vocabulary such as harvesting wheat, grinding wheat, dough, kneading and rising. When children can complete activities independently their confidence soars. Following a recipe also helps children to learn to read for a purpose and follow instructions. When children are involved in preparing food, they are more likely to try out new tastes and flavours. Today the children enjoyed learning how to make bread like The little Red Hen, how to knead the dough and then watch it double in size like magic! The best bit was tasting though….well done little chefs

 We have been talking about cooking in class and suggested to the children that we could make a blackberry crumble, so we jumped at the chance to take our little fruit pickers out in the sunshine to see what we could find. We are lucky at Storytellers to be blessed with a bridleway close by that is rich in bramble bushes full of large juicy blackberries. The children could pick their own and sample the trials and tribulations of foraging for these black jewels.  

When we have snacks in the Storytellers, the children receive fruit in front of them on the table. How did this fruit get to them? Where did it come from? Allowing the children to be a part of the production of their food (our nursery garden is key to this also) begins to teach them about the journey their food goes through to get it to their plates. The first task was to let our group of bouncing toddlers know what sort of adventure we were about to take; of course, as soon as we mentioned it, there was a rush of putting wellies on and getting our collection pots.

We all ventured along the tack where some were found. These weren’t immediately highlighted to the children to see if they could spot any. One little one ran over to the first blackberry bush we discovered excitedly, exclaiming: “I found a blackberry!” He understood straight away what we were looking for and showed he understood what our adventure was all about. It was clear the discovery had made him happy, and he picked one straight away. However, this Blackberry did not manage to reach the cups. It went straight into his mouth! Before all the children started picking the berries, we had to explain some important rules about foraging. Could we pick green or red blackberries? We let the children know that only blackberries would be picked, as the green and red would be very yucky in our tummies! The children noticed that the blackberries had sharp thorns and stinging nettles growing around them. A few of the older children knew the stinging nettles and brambles would hurt them, so they learnt to identify what they looked like so they could avoid harm. When we venture out of the nursery, we always explain to the children all the hazardous plants we might encounter.

When the children started to get stuck into picking the berries, they didn’t stop! We enjoyed the sunshine along the track, picking all the blackberries we could reach. Spending this time outside gave the children lots of exercise and fresh air, running back and forth from bush to bush.

During our blackberry picking, there was lots of talk between the children. Other conversations were about picking blackberries at home. Seeing the children do this activity at nursery was nice, but it is a lot more satisfying knowing that this happens at home. The sharing was also great to see between the children, passing around the pots so we all have a hold without adults having to suggest it. We then spoke about how nutritious the blackberries are, especially because they are organic and full of vitamin C, giving the children’s immune systems a good boost and containing plenty of fibre to help their digestion. When we returned to the nursery, we washed the berries and prepared them to cook the following day.

This last week has been all about settling in for our youngest class members as nursery may be the first time a child has been away from parents for a short period of time, which can be daunting for both at first. However, it gives the child the opportunity to be independent and have freedom to explore and to make other relationships, which is critical for their long-term well-being.

That added independence can nurture a child’s self-confidence, help to develop their own personality, disposition, thoughts, and ideas, and encourage them as they discover more about life outside of their family unit. Learning to complete basic tasks by themselves, taking part in activities and spending time with others, will help develop their confidence and build a foundation, which prepares them for school and life in the outside world.

Storytellers offers a wide range of activities, resources, and experiences to stimulate and engage the children. Having so many different things for them to discover and explore, helps to develop their interests and encourages them to try new things out for themselves. It’s an exciting new adventure and the bonus is you can leave the messy play to us! !

Both academically, socially, and emotionally, children will be learning new skills every day. For example, learn how to hold mark-making tools, put on their own coat, learn mathematical concepts, and help tidy up. These are all valuable life skills and build the foundations for the future in preparing your child for school.

We couldn’t be prouder of our little bunch and how well everyone has settled. We look forward to an exciting term.