It is always a real treat when a child recalls a topic or a story a significant amount of time after the initial introduction. This happened on Wednesday when one of the children asked if I could be Guy Fawkes. I think the memory was triggered as we had been discussing kings and queens and the wearing of crowns.

It was the mention of the crown I believe which started the ball rolling. One of the children immediately ran and got the candle (which had been our gunpowder prop) and asked if she could be King James and I could be that ‘bad man’ trying to blow him up and ‘can so and so be the police that caught you.’ I thought that was a marvellous idea and was more than happy to oblige to be the ‘bad’ Guy Fawkes. 

In November we had spent a week acting out the story of bonfire night. We positioned King James I wearing his crown on his throne and had two men – Guy Fawkes and Robert Catesby (who it turns out actually masterminded the whole plot) sneak in quietly to the Houses of Parliament tiptoeing their way to hide behind the throne. They were discovered by the police (modern terminology for the King’s guards who had had a tip off!) and dragged to gaol. We stopped it there and omitted the gory fate of the schemers! 

So last Wednesday we revisited this little scenario and joyously the children adapted it again and again to include more and more characters. King James was joined on his throne by princess Elsa (there ended up being about three or four Elsas at any one time) and princess Anna (from Disney’s Frozen), Rapunzel (from Disney’s Tangled), and Sleeping Beauty – there were two of those (again a signpost to Disney). The boys got involved too and represented; two were King James, one wanted to be Olaf (the snowman from Frozen) and one didn’t care who he was as long as he was in mortal danger! 

As the re-enactments continued, Fawkes' and Catesby’s rabble grew as did the police throng. 

Whilst hiding behind the royals and Olaf I asked a member of staff to get the camera and she quipped ‘to show how Guy Fawkes nearly blew up the Disney Princesses?!’ I smiled; reinvention is a wonderful thing. And they still all lived happily ever after! :-) 

We have been reading ‘The tree’ this week by Neal Layton. This has been partly brought on by laying the context down for the topic of The Story of Everything (based on  a book by Neal Layton – spot the fan!) where we will spend the best part of the term digesting and discussing the life of our universe with a focus on our very own planet. 

With the current state of our planet, the fires consuming Australia, and David Attenborough and Greta Thunberg voicing their concerns about the changing climate, it seems like a good idea to jump on the bandwagon and start a discussion with the kids. 

‘The tree’ is a gorgeously simple book about a tree which stands serenely whilst effortlessly providing  a home for different animals. A couple want to move onto the land and plan to cut down the tree to make way for a grand home for themselves. However they soon realise the impact on the animals and so change their plans, and instead build a tree house. 

The children loved the book. They all looked really concerned when the birds nest fell out of the tree when the couple initially tried to cut the tree down. At this point I asked what would they do. They all answered with the aim of conserving the tree; ‘I would find another place to build a house’. 'I would use bricks to build my house’ said another who thought that the tree was being cut down to provide wood to make the house. ‘I would live in a tent’. ‘I would go back to my old house’. Naturally the children were relieved and happy with the ending of sharing the tree. 

I asked one of the children later, 'which is your favourite picture in the book?' The girl immediately turned to the last page; ‘this one because they are all living together. I like the tree house.’ So I asked ‘Would you like to live in a tree house like that?’ She was quick to reply, ‘No, because I don’t like big ladders.’ 

Happy New Year to all as we enter into 2020!! 

As we are about to start the new term, I have been taking yet another look at the work,  philosophy and wisdom of Maria Montessori. I came across these insightful words of hers: 

'If education is protection to life, you will realise that it is necessary that education accompany life during its whole course.’

I appreciate this truth and realise that as time marches on our absorption of learning is not finite. My eldest daughter (19 years old) reminded me of this during the holidays when I tried to organise her social life and she was having none of it! Lesson in life about letting go!

Much like the tower in the picture our lessons in life are a series of building blocks which can at times collapse under the strain of thinking we know it all (picture 2)! The children don’t pretend to have all the answers as they are ambassadors for imagination and love discovering, learning and absorbing all the lessons that life has to offer. 

We naturally see a tower in the pictures but when I asked the children what they saw the answers were diverse and brilliant. They saw a person, a plant, a tooth, a rainbow and best of all some saw simply a process; a process of balance, weight, size, shape and wonder and fun – especially when it toppled over. What could be more joyful?!

So here’s to continuous discovery and learning! 

Happy 2020! 

During the Christmas of 1747 in Herrnhaag, Germany, a young bishop called Johannes de Watteville made the first Christingles from candles wrapped in red ribbons. He gave them to the children to celebrate the birth of a child who brought light into the world.

Over the years the Christingle has evolved keeping the red ribbon and the candle but adding the orange, cloves and sometimes different fruit.

Our children enjoyed making their Christingles and happily took them home. Some wanted to light them and others simply wanted to eat the orange. It made me reflect upon the original purpose of the Christingle: that children are a joy and all bring happiness, light, hope and love.

Wishing all children everywhere a happy holiday.

The past week we delved deeper into the world and lifestyle of Neanderthals. We had discussed what they made their paint from last week and this week decided to think about other aspects of Neanderthal life.
 
So! We looked at where in the world they lived. Out came the continents puzzle map and we identified all the continents and placed a man from our ‘m’ sound bag in Europe. Also in our sound bad was a ‘monkey’ and a ‘mermaid’. We debated if the Neanderthals came into contact with those and the children rationalised that the mermaid would ‘definitely not’ be found on land and anyway as one said ‘but Fawzia they are pretend’, and as for the monkey, ‘perhaps not as they like it hot’ and we had already had talked about Neanderthals living in the Ice Age.

In the pages of this wonderful book we learned that Neanderthals were actually quite clever: they made fire. One child asked ‘how’ so we looked it up in the book and found out they made sparks from striking flint or they rubbed wood; the Neanderthals made tents – again another child asked ‘how’? so we looked it up in the book and found out they used animal hides – they hunted. And again a child questioned ‘but what did they hunt with?’ so we looked it up in the book and found pictures of different types of blades they made from flint and bones. And we all concluded Neanderthals were actually pretty smart people. Funnily enough last night on TV there was a programme all about Neanderthals and it concluded what the children had thought, that Neanderthals were intelligent, cognitive and on the money!

In baking we prepared healthy snacks of roasted vegetables with garlic and herbs – rosemary and thyme plucked from the nursery garden. The children were busy, smashing garlic, plucking rosemary and chopping peppers, tomatoes and florets of broccoli. One girl said that we could find more mushrooms in the Gruffalo’s forest which was handy as we nearly ran out!

And finally! On a summery walk to the park Archie (our border collie) had fun chilling out with the children! 

This week we are painting like Egyptians! 

This past week, before we put our feet up and enjoyed the long sunny weekend, we went back in time, WAY BACK! About 40,000 years or so...

We learned about people – we named them Neanderthals (one boy insisted on calling them Neanderthals) that used to stride the Earth. They lived in caves and they hunted animals, and they painted. They painted with berries and animal fat. ‘What’s fat?’ one of the children asked. Hmmm... without wanting to fat shame myself, I ventured, ‘We all have fat – humans and animals – to keep us warm. And we have muscles which help us move’. The children and I then patted and felt our arms, legs and tummies. ‘Where were the muscles in our arms?’ We flexed our arms and found biceps and triceps, ‘And what were they hidden beneath?’ I asked. Silence and then, ‘Fat?’ suggested a girl. ‘Yes! We have layers of fat beneath our skin. They help to keep us warm’ I told them. ‘And do they help to protect us when we fall?’ a boy asked. 
‘They certainly do!’

And after that little discussion we set about making Neanderthal paints. Using berries, butter (I couldn’t source animal fat and some of us are vegetarian) and a mortar and pestle. The children loved getting stuck in! We all got wet, greasy and messy!

And what a better way to start the Summer Term than making, baking and then breaking bread?! (see photo below)

It was great to welcome back all the children, parents, friends and carers back for the start of a new term. Everyone was looking refreshed, happy to be back and full of the joys of spring! Easter had been fun according to our motley bunch. As the children volunteered their news on what they had got up to during the break the number of Easter eggs received gradually went up – one child  got one, and another child said they had got one, and another child said that they had got four as they had been on an egg hunt and finally one boy said he had acquired 100 and eaten the lot! Hmmm…
 
We revised and reviewed the rules of the nursery (which we unpinned from our display board) this week encouraging the children to phrase things positively. For example, instead of ‘Don’t run!’ it’s better to say ‘walk in the classroom’, and ‘Don’t shout’ is replaced with ‘Use inside voices.’ It was a great exercise in positive communication! I started off with our first rule of the nursery which is ‘Be Happy!’ One boy remarked, ‘That’s not a rule!’ to which I replied ‘Of course it is. We make the rules, and at the moment, there are no rules on what the rules are, so we can rule whatever we want as the rules!’ He accepted that!

We continued on; the children wanted a rule ‘Don’t hit or punch’ and between us all we rephrased it into ‘we are gentle and kind’ and thought about how we can be gentle and kind by helping each other. And finally for now, as it would be quite drawn out if I repeated all the rules here, rather than phrasing the most recent suggestion ‘Don’t take things out of other people’s drawers’ we rephrased that as ‘Only use your draw!’

This week we are going to be starting our new topic of paints and artists! I am excited as over the next few weeks we will be recreating how to make paints and tying this in with the history of art and artists. First up is Neanderthal cave paintings painted with berries and fat! So guess what I am taking in to nursery tomorrow?!

Will keep you posted!...

Continuing on from the music of last week we finished the term with our, always delightful, singing assembly.
 
The picture shows the calm before the storm, or to be more precise the calm before the cacophony of little and large voices, some lively spontaneous dancing, the sharing of hot cross buns, cakes and drinks and finally messages of happy Easter as everybody wended their way!
​
Happy Easter holidays and looking forward to more learning fun next term! 

This week saw the start of the counting down to Easter; this was done in a variety of two ways; namely singing and baking and then more singing! All wholly beneficial to the soul! 

In circle the children have begun to now sing about Isaac Newton, Marie Curie and, of course, Archimedes. Tim has written a catchy little number we call the ‘Science Song’ and our children refer to it as the ‘Eureka! /Apple on Isaac  Newton's head’ song. We have five little ducks with a usually loud quacking mother duck as well as singing for the whereabouts of the Muffin Man. We find him by passing a hat around the circle –much like pass the parcel – and whoever has the hat when the song ends is the muffin man! The children play this in a variety of ways; some are suspicious of the Muffin Man hat and ignore it, don’t want to touch it or have anything to do with it, others play the game and pass it on happily, and a few eagerly grab it and then attempt to style it out singing with gusto, not passing it on and then crowning themselves the Muffin Man when the song ends!… Will be interesting to see how it all goes in our Spring Term singing circle this coming Thursday…

Another  preparation for Easter came during baking when the children donned their newly sewn gingham aprons, courtesy of Anna, and set about making rice crispie chocolate nests. They were all very excited and what was impressive was their self restraint in not munching as they made! They popped some chicks in the nests, one child confirming ‘but we won’t eat the chicks’ and were very delighted when there was enough mix to make two each! They didn’t last long as they were tucked into at pick up time whilst going out of the gate. 

And finally to The Music Fun Day! Tim has been wanting for a while to do an event, not only to promote the nursery but also something that all parents, current and old can enjoy… and so the Music Fun Day became a thing! Very exciting and as the name says fun fun and even more fun! Tim was able to pull together some stellar, and hugely accomplished, musicians and the band played for 2 sets of about an hour. All who attended enjoyed the day and the resounding consensus was that the music was simply fantastic; not only were there were the standard nursery songs – such as 'Wind the Bobbin Up’ and ‘If you’re Happy and you Know it’ and a delightful version of ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little star’ when full audience participation happened but also there were numbers like ‘Raindrops keep falling on my head’, ‘We all live in a Yellow Submarine’ and ‘I’m the King of the Swingers’ (from Jungle Book). The richness of the music was appreciated and the band are already thinking about the next event! Roll on the festival! 

We began the week meeting up again with Archimedes who we discovered was quite the bright spark! He loved circles and spheres and best of all he liked to measure anything he could about them.

So! We took a few leaves out of Archimedes books and wondered how we would  measure round our heads and we were to call this the circumference just like Archimedes had done. The children suggested using a ruler but it wasn’t bending so we used to string to measure round our heads and then the ruler to work out how many centimetres. We had no shortage of volunteers and the children enjoyed seeing who had the biggest head and how the circumferences of our heads all compared to one another; interestingly enough there was only a few centimetres between the biggest child’s head and the adult heads. Hmmm... interesting! We speculated that this was because we are born with such large brains and would you believe it?! – clearly inspired by the genius of Archimedes, we looked it up and we were right; By 2 years of age the child’s brain is nearly 2/3rds of the size of the adult brain. This aptly brings us to fractions – another one of Archimedes' loves and of course Pi (but that would be confusing!).
 
We played around with fractions and named them, and also filled the cup up to a quarter, a third, a half and then full. We also added the stones to the water and measured in fractions how much the water was displaced. So much fun!!

And at the end of the week we had a real treat. On the eve of St Patrick’s Day we were joined in circle by a couple of Irish Dancers. They did some reels, danced with the children and then merrily jigged an exit! Some of the children tried on the very bedazzling orange dress too. The conclusion from one boy was that it was ‘too heavy and itchy’ to wear all the time!