Sara's Munchkins

This week the weather is warmer so we are taking our family relationship books and activities out to the parks with us. Plenty of sun cream and water in addition to our picnic.

This week is World Ocean week, so as it was raining we went to the garden centre to see the fish, ponds and sandpit. The sandpit was closed as it was raining so we spent our time and energy in the soft play instead. The ball pit became our ocean with fish, the slide was a wave to move through - according to our munchkins imaginations. Before coming back for lunch we stopped and bought some more tomato compost and feed for our growing plants. Lunch today was a hidden veggie pasta bake, grated cheese, garlic bread, broccoli followed by fresh fruit in plain yoghurt

Today the weather was dry but cloudy so we had a short walk through the gardens at Belton House before having our snack in the Ride Cafe. We took some toys and balls with us so that we could have some turn taking games, rolling or throwing the ball in pairs back and forth. There were a number of other children to make friends with and join in our play which encouraged collaborative and imaginative play as well as our games. Lunch today was a pick up picnic.

This morning we have taken ourselves off to soft play to join in the music and dance morning. Some of the children love moving to music and teaching nursery rhymes is an excellent way to improve vocabulary and memory as well as coordinated movement. In addition to music and songs we have been using gross and fine motor skills to climb, hide, slide and swing all around the large soft play available. Lunch today has been pizza fingers, garlic bread slice, mashed potatoes, baked beans and side salad followed by choice of fresh fruit in Greek yoghurt.

Following our safety awareness week we have had a trip to the farm so we could use their space to create roadways in chalk. We have had stories about road and car safety, sung lots of songs on the car. Used toy cars, trucks and vehicles to drive, pedal and ride on an imaginary roadway. Picnic lunch containing cheese/ham pittas, side salad, fresh fruit, teddy faces, followed by yoghurt.

This week we will be learning about safety awareness; including road safety, fire safety, traffic safety, safe people. Today we went to one of our local parks for some self challenging and safe play - we jumped safely, landed safely, looked at the whole park display so we knew where it was safe for children to play. We looked at signs around the park which instructed us on how to stay safe, to not light fires or have BBQ's as this would be dangerous. We talked about being safe around the dog walkers, as animals like slow and quiet meetings with new children. We also collected fresh elderflower to take home to make elderflower cordial and cookies. Lunch was spaghetti bolognese, grated cheese, garlic bread, followed by fresh fruit and plain yoghurt

Our Sunflower plants are just starting to grow, so will be able to go home at the end of the week. We completed our farmer, food and bees week in May with a trip to a cafe trip and a live bee hive to see, as well as a walk around a beekeeping museum where we were able to interact with many things bee keepers need. Exploring around the hedgerows led us to finding lots of flowers and twigs we could use for natural artwork

This morning we started the day with a story about growing our own food, then talked about the farmers and how they work hard to grow animals and food for our meals. The children decided that farmers are very important and work very hard for us. We ventured out to the garden centre to buy more compost so we could finish potting up our tomato plants and some tomato feed as well. While the sun was out we took advantage of the children’s play area, sand pit and diddy farm shop, which led on to more conversations about the farmers providing our food to us and the shops. We went into the cafe area for our drink and snacks and then continued to play in their soft play area. When everyone was finished playing we went around the garden centre with our shopping list and paid for all our things before coming back for lunch.

This afternoon we have check on our tomato plants and see some of them are now growing flowers. Our sunflower seeds have started growing so we took turns to water everything and leave them is a sheltered place with lots of sunshine.

Our plan today was to go and feed the ducks on the river, however the ducks had other ideas because after walking up and down the river we could not find the ducks. So we had a lovely wander through our park which surrounds the river, stopped and watched the fountain, bought some fruit lollies to add to our snacks and then used up lots of energy in the play area. Our lunch today was spinach curry and rice followed by grapes and blueberries in Greek yogurt