We invited our parents into school this week to take part in our swimming session. The children have made a lot of progress in the water this year and it was lovely to share these achievements with parents and family members. We were really happy that so many parents took the opportunity to take part in this session and it was enjoyed by everyone involved.

We continued our ‘Under the sea’ theme this week and used our creative skills to begin to make paper plate turtles and to continue our papier-mâché octopus. The children showed good fine motor and engagement skills and focused well on what they were doing.

We took advantage of the sunny weather this week and spent lots of time outside. As well as developing our gross motor skills of running, jumping and climbing, we also practised our fine motor and problem solving skills.

We had a lovely music lesson this week. Bev brought a cello into class for us to look at and play. We were all very sensible and took care. Some of us enjoyed exploring the instrument and investigating the sounds that we could make and some of us preferred to watch Bev and listen to the sounds instead.

We have had lots of sensory experiences this week in Bumblebees. As part of our ‘Under the Sea’ topic, we have begun making a papier-mâché octopus. This has involved us working together as a team and was a lovely sensory experience, glueing the paper onto the balloon. Some of the children really enjoyed getting their hands into the glue and others preferred to watch. We are now waiting for the papier-mâché to dry, ready to paint next week. We will keep you updated on our progress with this.

Our music lesson this week involved us exploring music associated with us feeling sad. This is linked to our Colour Monster feelings work. The children had the opportunity to explore some violins. They enjoyed touching them and listening to the sounds that they made.

Another sensory experience this week was mashed potato. Some of the children enjoyed using their senses of touch, smell and taste to explore the potato, where others preferred to watch. We are getting better at exploring different textures in Bumblebees, but the mashed potato was not not as successful as the jelly last week.

We have continued to work on our fine motor skills using activities such as threading, jigsaws and posting and have practised our mark making, using crayons and pens. We have been looking after our seeds and they have now started to grow. We have also been developing our physical skills in the soft play and outside. Our Bumblebees love being active and really enjoy any physical activities.
Bryan was our Superstar this week.

This week we continued with our Under the Sea theme. We have been very busy developing our creative skills, producing a sea horse and a jelly fish. We are learning to hold paint brushes and rollers correctly and to apply glue to create collage pictures.

We explored jelly this week as our sensory activity. Some of us enjoyed touching the jelly and liked the feeling of it in our fingers, but some of us weren’t sure. We also enjoyed tasting the jelly.

We have been practising our mark making skills and are learning to develop an effective pencil grip. We have also been using our fine motor skills to complete activities such as threading, posting and jigsaws.

Jackson was our superstar this week ⭐️

This week we have celebrated King Charles’ coronation. We started the week by joining in with some coronation themed activities and by making decorations for the classroom. We used our creative skills to paint some red and blue bunting. We enjoyed sensory activities with red, white and blue rice and spaghetti. We also practised our cutting skills by snipping the spaghetti.

We made paper chains to decorate the classroom. We needed some help, but enjoyed spreading the glue and threading the paper to make the chains. The classroom looked great when we had finished.

We had a coronation themed music lesson with Bev. We enjoyed playing the drums and listening to the different rhythms that were played on them.

We all joined in with decorating a cake for the school cake competition. We enjoyed spreading on the icing and sprinkling the sprinkles onto the cake.

We were very proud of our cake 😀

On Friday, we had our coronation party. We enjoyed eating our party food from home.

This week was Eco Week. We have enjoyed spending a lot of time outside, enjoying the environment and developing our physical skills.

Our music lesson with Bev this week was a lot of fun. We went outside and joined in with playing on the junk percussion. We made lots of noise and listened to the different rhythms being played on the drums.

We planted some sunflower seeds this week and are looking forward to watching them grow. This will help us to learn how to look after seeds and what happens as they grow. We also enjoyed playing in the soil. We added some water to make it extra muddy and more fun to play with.

Layla was our Superstar of the week ⭐️

The children settled back into school this week after the Easter break. We have had lots of fun and a very busy week.

This week we have celebrated Eid, creating pictures and artwork. We have started our new topic, ‘Under the Sea’ and have enjoyed developing our early play skills, including playing in sand and water. We have started to use our new choosing boards to help us to communicate which toys we would like to play with and which songs we would like to sing. We have also taken part in 1:1 work and intensive interactions to help us to develop our engagement and communication skills.

We have started to learn a new song linked to our topic.

During the holidays, a new soft play area was installed. Bumblebees have enjoyed exploring this new space. As well as being lots of fun, this area gives the children an opportunity to develop their gross motor skills of crawling, running, climbing and jumping. I’m sure we will be enjoying this space a lot during the coming weeks.

We have also enjoyed time outside this week. The children have enjoyed exploring the signs of Spring and developing their physical skills. The staff enjoyed it too.

We have continued to learn how to brush out teeth this week, developing our independence and self care skills.

We enjoyed taking part in lots of Easter themed activities this week. We continued to learn how to make marks in different ways by using a fork to create the feathers on a chick.

We painted a paper plate to create our Easter bunny ears and we put them on to show our friends.

Some of our parents came into Bumblebee’s class to do some Easter activities with us. We did some planting and some Easter crafts. We also made chocolate nests and enjoyed eating them too!

Bumblebees have been so amazing this week, we were all Superstars of the week ⭐️. Bryan got a certificate for 100% attendance 😀

This week we made cards and pictures for our moms. We used painting and printing to make our pictures and chose the colours that we wanted to use. We are learning to hold paint brushes correctly to help us with our mark making.

On Friday, we celebrated Comic Relief. Some of us wore red and we painted pictures of red noses.

We have also been very busy this week, joining in with counting songs, looking at books, working at the work station and lots of sensory play. We have practised lots of skills, including engagement, fine motor and problem solving.

During music this week, Oscar enjoyed playing on the xylophone. This was a new word that he had learnt and enjoyed saying it and interacting with Kym.

Renesmae was our superstar this week. She is learning to play with other people and to share ⭐️

Though this week was cut short due to snowfall, we still managed to fit lots of fun and learning into three days

We have started to explore our feelings using the book ‘The Colour Monster’. We have started this by introducing the yellow colour monster, ‘happiness’. We have looked at photos of children who are happy and have used a mirror to learn about our own expressions of happiness. We also painted a picture of the yellow colour monster, making choices about which painting tool we wanted to use.

We have continued our ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’ sensory story. We are learning to join in and engage with the story, enjoying the different textures and sensory experiences. We have also been developing our play skills, playing with the cars and trains and learning to play alongside each other, sharing the toys.

Some of us have been developing several skills during 1:1 activities with an adult. We used our fine motor skills during a mark-making activity with chalks, and chose which colours we wanted to use. We communicated to the adult with symbols whether we wanted ‘more’ of the activity, or had ‘finished’.

On Wednesdays, Bev visits us for a music session, she brings lots of fun instruments for us to try. Bev sang a train song and a song about Mothers Day, we played along on the instruments and clapped. This week’s favourite instrument was the xylophone.

This week we celebrated World Book Day. Our theme was ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’ and we practised many different skills whilst having lots of fun. Some of us used art to create the different parts of the story using paint and collage. Some of us liked the feel of the paint on our hands and some of us enjoyed playing in the water.

We created our own bear hunt as a bare foot walk. Some of us enjoyed walking through the different materials, experiencing the feeling of the different textures on our feet and some of us preferred to watch.

We brought our favourite teddies into school and had a teddy bear’s picnic. We sat very well at the table, eating our snacks.

We all took part in a ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’ sensory story. This helps us to concentrate and enjoy the story and to have different sensory experiences like feeling the water and the wavy grass on our skin. We also enjoyed making our own bear cave in the classroom and mark making using mud on the wall outside. We discovered that we could use a paintbrush in the mud and make marks.

Bryan was our Superstar of the week ⭐️