As it was the start of Advent this week, we thought it was time to put the Christmas Tree up in our class. The children were very interested when we got it out of the box. They helped put it together and decorate it. They have some unconventional ideas about what you should decorate a Christmas tree with, but it looks beautiful anyway.

On Thursday we had a little more snow and the playground was too slippery to go outside. So the Little Badgers made some fake snow from cornflour and shaving foam. They also had a tray of real snow in the classroom. Some children preferred the real snow, others the fake snow. They had lots of fun playing.

On Friday we had fun in the Immersion Room. The Little Badgers loved our new massage toy and voice changer megaphone and did some good communicating to ask for more and taking turns.

This week our Star of the Week was Haseeb. Last week he was brave enough to go in the swimming pool for the first time. This week he was really keen to go in and had a fantastic swimming lesson. Well done Haseeb!

It’s been a fantastic week in Badgers, even though we were missing a day! We have lots of lovely activities planned for the next two weeks, but we’ll try and keep our routines as normal as possible as we know some of the Little Badgers are not keen on changes.

Our Christmas Party will be on Wednesday 15th December. More details to follow.

Good morning Badgers! Sorry it’s a snow day and school is closed, but here are some ideas of things to do today.
You could watch the Gruffalo story on YouTube and sing along to the Gruffalo song. The Little Badgers love the song more than the story. If you manage to get outside at all, you could go for a Gruffalo hunt around the garden or the park.

If you prefer to stay indoors, you could make some pretend snow. Try mixing cornflour and bicarbonate of soda with some hair conditioner to make lovely, crunchy, smelly snow. It’s messy, so do it in the kitchen and close the door! You could try using white flour and add a little water so it goes a bit sticky.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/how-make-fake-snow

Try this recipe!

You could also try making your own play dough. If your Little Badger might eat large quantities of it, just mix flour and water with some food colouring. If they don’t usually eat inedible things, you could try the recipe below, but you’ll need cream of tartar from the baking section of the supermarket.

https://www.thebestideasforkids.com/playdough-recipe/

Well, have a lovely day with the Little Badgers and don’t forget to send in some photos of what they get up to, using the Postbox email address. Hopefully we’ll see them all tomorrow!

What a surprise we had on Saturday morning when we woke up to more than a sprinkling of snow! I must admit that I didn’t dash out in it as I was recovering from my covid booster jab, but I know some Little Badgers who might have done.

On Friday afternoon we went outside and got caught in a hailstorm, so the Little Badgers are learning lost about weather this week. They were very interested in the little bits of ice that landed on their coats and some discovered that it was quite good to eat. We hadn’t taken the iPad with us so unfortunately we didn’t get any photos.

Some of you have sent some photos of the Little Badgers having fun in the snow. If you haven’t sent yours, don’t worry, I can still add them into the blog.

This week the Badgers have had lots of fun developing their fine motor skills with play dough. They rolled it and cut it, pulled it, pressed it and sniffed it. We put a “Dough Disco” video on the computer and some of them began to join in.

We had two lovely sessions in the Immersion Room where The Badgers practised their turn taking and socialising skills.

We also had another fantastic swimming session, with the Little Badgers getting braver and enjoying their swim much more. They will now nearly all step over The Black Line!

Our Star of the Week was Mohamad, for excellent work in swimming, on his front and his back, and increased and more advanced interactions with staff all week. Well done, Mohamad!

Last Saturday was World Kindness Day. We celebrated this in Badger Class by learning some new songs about kindness and encouraging the Little Badgers (even more than usual) to be kind.

Some people in the other classes at Main Site have been poorly recently, so we helped the Little Badgers to make some kindness cards to take to the other classes, to cheer them up and let them know we were thinking of them. They loved taking them to the classroom doors and making people smile.

We watched out for the Little Badgers being kind and managed to spot Manraaj showing concern when his friends were upset and Noah sharing resources. They are all getting better at sharing space with each other and waiting their turn.

For Children In Need Day, some of the children and adults dressed up and we started to make some Pusey Bears out of paper plates. Unfortunately, the Little Badgers voted to go out to play rather than to finish them, so they can finish them on Monday.

The Little Badgers also did some Gruffalo activities, had a lovely swimming session and PE lesson this week. Special congratulations go to Haseeb and Rizwanul who plucked up the courage to go in the swimming pool for the first time this week.

Star of the Week award goes to Harrison for excellent efforts in PE where he controlled a football all around the hall, pedalled a bike and rode a scooter and for lovely interactions with staff this week, including joining in with morning registration. Good work, Harrison!

Hello Badgers and Badger Parents!

We’ve had another exciting and busy week in Badgers. Since half-term we have made our snack times a little more structured to try and persuade the Little Badgers to make healthy choices first. In the mornings, we have a snack at around 10am but only present the children with fruit and toast. They each have an Aided Language Board with the available choices. On the back of their board is a second Aided Language Board with their personal snack choices on. We try to save these until afternoon snack time (at about 2pm) but if the children are adamant that they don’t want fruit or toast, they are free to turn their boards over and request something different. This is working well so far and they are getting the hang of making choices.

If you think your child would like toast, you are welcome to send in a few slices of bread each day and we will toast and butter it for them.

You may have noticed your child’s snack consumption has changed slightly as they get used to the new system. This may be because they are eating some extra toast! Also, they are having to think about making choices and only choosing the things they really want. The long term plan is that they learn to make healthy choices and not just eat food because it is available. Also, that they learn to communicate effectively. For some of our children, verbal communication is difficult so the aided language boards are a big help.

This week the Badgers have been learning about Remembrance and poppies. They watched the CBeebies video, Poppies. They listened to The Last Post and looked at pictures of soldiers. They heard that many soldiers died in wars and that on Remembrance Day we remember what they did for us. We decorated the classroom with crocheted poppies and made poppies from paper plates. They also used apples to print poppies which are going on a whole school display.

Here is a special video for you, shot in Badger Class a few weeks ago, of The Little Badgers helping me read the story. Check your emails for the password.

Hello Badgers and Badger Parents! We have had a very busy first week back after half-term, celebrating Diwali and looking forward to Bonfire Night. The Little Badgers have made Diwa lamps from air-drying clay, which they will bring home as soon as they are dry enough. You will need a tea light to complete them. We used a battery operated one in the classroom. They have also made you a Diwali card and done some lovely firework pictures with paint.

It was also our first swimming session of the year. The Little Badgers did really well. Some of them had never been in the pool area before and didn’t want to go in the water, but that’s ok, they can try again next week. Others couldn’t wait to get in and had a lovely time!

We also had a fantastic PE lesson on Tuesday. The Little Badgers discovered the mini trolleys and had fun working out how to move around the hall on them. They were very active for the full session and one of them was so tired by the end that he fell asleep on the mat!

It’s a good job we only did four days! We have packed such a lot in.
We hope you all have a fantastic weekend, celebrating Bonfire Night and Diwali and keeping safe!

Next week we will be learning about Remembrance and reading our new story, The Gruffalo.

On Thursday, the Little Badgers did their Walk-a-thon at the forest. They walked really well from the bus to the forest, negotiating the slope down to the fence skilfully. They are always very pleased once we are inside the gate and they don’t have to hold hands any more.

Some of them set off at a run, keen to do their lap of the big field. They certainly earned their sponsor money and didn’t stop walking or running for the whole time we were there (about 45 minutes).

There was still time to play in the forest.

This week the Little Badgers also had fun exploring some food items during sensory play. We were donated a large pumpkin and the Little Badgers loved rolling this on some dry pasta to make it crunch. They looked inside the pumpkin and used the seeds to make pictures. We made a mixture of cornflour, water and food colouring, adding more water and cornflour as the children played to change the texture. This was very interesting and very messy! It’s a good job we have a very friendly cleaner! On another day, we mixed flour and water until it clumped together to make play dough. Some of the Little Badgers are a bit reluctant to join in with messy play, but they are getting braver with gentle encouragement.

We also collaged some leaves and acorns for the Oakwood Tree. Morgan did his really neatly. Well done Morgan!

It’s been a very busy half-term and some of the Little Badgers have been very tired this week. We hope you all manage to get some relaxing time, and maybe even some sleep! If the Little Badgers go anywhere exciting, we’d love to see some pictures.
have a great half-term break!

The Little Badgers have done lots of activities about Harvest this week. They explored vegetables and even tasted a few. They discovered that sweetcorn makes lovely patterns when rolled in paint and the outer leaves are a good substitute for a paintbrush. They explored cucumber and a white squash with a spoon. They printed with apples and potatoes too.

We had some new furniture delivered and the Little Badgers had great fun with the boxes! Morgan made a robot and played a game with Gwen, where they took turns to be the robot. There was a really big box which made a super hiding place!

We had our Harvest assembly on Teams and sang some Harvest songs. We said thank you to God for all the good things he gives us and for the people who help us.
we’d like to thank you all for sending in food for the Foodbank collection.

Next week is the last week of the half-term. We have our last Forest visit on Thursday. The Little Badgers have really enjoyed it and will be sad not to go after the holiday. But they will be going swimming every Wednesday until Christmas, so it’s time to find those swimming trunks and check they still fit!