The Learning Nest

🌱 Science Club 🌱

🌺 Last week we began our brand new topic, Plants! We enjoyed a jam-packed session full of hands-on learning and teamwork. Here’s what we got up to:

✂️ Dissecting lilies to explore the different parts of a flowering plant, which gave us the opportunity to learn lots of new scientific vocabulary.
🔁 Playing loop cards – matching plant parts with their functions through brilliant team work.
🌸 Setting up an experiment with white flowers in coloured water – we’re excited to see if the petals change colour as the water transports up the stem!

Alongside gaining new knowledge, we developed lots of key skills:
🔎 Observing closely
🧠 Using scientific vocabulary
👆🏼 Fine motor skills
👩🏾‍🤝‍👨🏼 Teamwork
🧪 Planning and predicting
💭 Scientific thinking

Well done to all of my budding Botanists – what a brilliant start to our new topic!

🏃 I have just one space available in Science Club on Tuesday mornings (10:45–11:30am). My Thursday group is currently full.

📧 Please send me a message for further details.

🐰 We’ve had an egg-cellent time at The Learning Nest this week! 🐰

Our Easter-themed sessions were packed with hands-on learning and plenty of fun. Here’s a little peek at what we got up to:

🥚 𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗖𝗹𝘂𝗯 🥚
We conducted some egg-citing investigations. A highlight was discovering that just 4 eggs could hold the weight of 26 books without cracking! This sparked a brilliant scientific discussion about structures, forces, and the surprising strength of eggs due to their shape.

🥚 𝗪𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗹𝘂𝗯 🥚
We went on an egg hunt in the paddock to find, then practise our spelling words. We then explored the features of persuasive writing before designing adverts for a local Easter Egg Hunt, all of whilst working on our own individual targets.

🥚 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝗵𝘀 𝗖𝗹𝘂𝗯 🥚
We enjoyed searching for hidden maths clues around the paddock then solving them to reveal an Easter-themed riddle. What fun!

𝑼𝒑𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒗𝒂𝒊𝒍𝒂𝒃𝒊𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒑𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒎:

🧪 𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗖𝗹𝘂𝗯 🧪
Tuesdays, 10:45am – 11:30am → 𝟭 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝘃𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲
Thursdays, 10.30am - 11.15am → 𝗙𝘂𝗹𝗹

✏️ 𝗪𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗹𝘂𝗯 ✏️
Tuesdays, 11:45am – 12:30pm → 𝟮 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝘃𝗮𝗶𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲
Thursdays, 3:45pm – 4:30pm → 𝗙𝘂𝗹𝗹

🎲 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝗵𝘀 𝗖𝗹𝘂𝗯 🎲
Thursdays, 4:45pm – 5:30pm → 𝗙𝘂𝗹𝗹

💫 Please get in touch for further details 💫

🥳 We’re back! 🥳

I am very happy to let you know that we have fully dried out after our flood and have a lovely new floor fitted.

I can’t wait to welcome my Science Club and Writing Club members back to The Learning Nest this morning for some fun-filled Easter themed sessions! 🐣

I am a little behind on admin as all of my spare time has been spent getting our learning space back up and running - if you are waiting to hear from me, you should do so this afternoon! Thanks so much for your patience.

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter break 🐰

✏️ Writing Club ✏️

We enjoyed making the most of the sunshine in our last session of Writing Club before the Easter break (come back, sun! ☀️)

Here’s what we got up to:

🌳 Spelling focus: we enjoyed a phonics hunt outside, with pictures colour coded for each learner to allow them to work on their personalised spelling targets. We then practised writing these spellings using our coloured pens. ✨

🏰 Writing focus: we rolled dice to reveal a question starter, then used this to form questions about a picture. Each learner had a picture personalised to their interests - I love that our small groups allow me to get to know each child and their interests so well! 🥰 We also all had a different target, for example, using question marks correctly.

💻 We finished with a team spelling game on the laptop.

📧 I have just 2 spaces remaining across my Writing Club groups for our next block of sessions - please send me a message for further details.

🔨 I have been very, very busy behind the scenes getting The Learning Nest back up and running after our flood - I am nearly there, and can’t wait to welcome my learners back next week for some Easter themed sessions 🐣 Pictures of our updated learning space coming soon! 📸

☔️ 😢 Closed this week 😢 ☔️

I’m so upset to let you all know that last weekend during the thunderstorm, we were very unexpectedly affected by flash flooding and The Learning Nest filled with water 😞

Thankfully, I was able to save the majority of our resources (and our precious writing journals!), but unfortunately the flooring and skirting in our room is ruined and will need replacing.

It was heartbreaking seeing our lovely learning space filled with water, however, my upset paled into insignificance when we saw the damage that our neighbours have experienced, who have lost the whole of the downstairs to their homes and their cars. It was a scary few hours, and we are so grateful that everyone is OK (alongside the surrounding animals, who I know that many of our learners are very fond of!) 🐴

All sessions are cancelled this week whilst we dry out. I am hoping to be able to re-open next week for the last week of this block of sessions. Sadly, I am now unable to welcome any new children to The Learning Nest until after the Easter break, when we resume our sessions on Tuesday 22nd April. I know that I have some enquiries to respond to from the weekend - please bear with me whilst I re-group, and I will be in touch very soon!

I have been absolutely blown away by the messages of kindness, support and offers of help from the lovely families I work with - I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; I feel SO lucky to work with the most amazing community of families ❤️

See you soon,
Rebecca x

Is anyone else feeling extra happy with all the sunshine this week? ☀️

⛅️ We have loved making the most of the brighter weather in Science Club, where we have been learning about the different types of clouds as part of our Weather topic.

🌳 The forecast looks bright for the weekend, and I can't wait to spend some time outdoors with my two boys. Will you be taking advantage of the brighter weather this weekend?

Enjoy the sunshine, everyone! ☀️

📖 🌍 Happy World Book Day! 🌎 📖

Did you know, that recent research has shown that 2 in 3 children or young people don’t enjoy reading?

Reading for pleasure is so important, as it:
✔️ Improves reading skills, which in turn improves attainment in other subjects.
✔️ Sparks imagination and creativity.
✔️ Helps develop breath of vocabulary, general knowledge, focus and attention.
✔️ Promotes healthy emotional development and relaxation.

𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐲 𝟔 𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐭𝐢𝐩𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞:

👆🏼Let Them Choose👆🏼 – Encourage your child to pick books that interest them, whether it’s about football, nature, space or any other topic! Your child may be more likely to enjoy a book if it is linked to their interests.

📰 All reading counts 📰 – Don't limit reading to just books! Try comics, magazines, recipes, children’s newspapers or online interactive books. Audiobooks are also brilliant for getting children excited about stories.

📚Make books accessible 📚 – Keep books within easy reach at home, so that your child can explore and choose what interests them. Let them discover their favourites! Remember, you don’t need a huge budget to provide books. You can borrow 10-12 at a time from your local library, for free!

❤️ Read together ❤️ – Make reading a shared bonding experience. Snuggle up with a good book and take turns reading aloud.

💡 Be a reading role model 💡– Let your children see you read for pleasure. Whether it’s a book, magazine or article; modelling the joy of reading makes a big impact. Those little eyes are always watching!

🏫 Visit the Library 🏫- Let your child explore the shelves, discover new genres and pick out books that spark their imagination.

Happy Reading!



𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑐ℎ 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑛 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑁𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝐿𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑐𝑦 𝑇𝑟𝑢𝑠𝑡 (2024)

It’s been a very Happy Pancake Day at The Learning Nest 😋🥞

After exploring the key features of instruction texts, we wrote pancake recipes using these features.

Writing Club runs on a Tuesday 11.45am - 12.30pm and on a Thursday 3.45pm - 4.30pm.

✏️ 🥞 🧑‍🍳 🥞 ✏️ 🥞 🧑‍🍳 ✏️ 🥞

I was so grateful to receive this wonderful feedback from one of my lovely Home Ed Science Club families recently 🥰

📸 𝐖𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐥𝐲 𝐑𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝-𝐮𝐩 📸

We’ve had a wonderfully busy week at The Learning Nest, with lots of fabulous learning and fun.

Here’s what we’ve been up to in our group sessions:

👁️ 𝐖𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐂𝐥𝐮𝐛 - once we had enjoyed our hands-on spelling activities, as a group we described a bowl of Rice Krispies using our senses 👁️ 👂 👃 ✋ 👄 We then picked a picture and used our senses to write about it, with everyone focusing on their individual targets. I saw some really wonderful descriptive vocabulary! 🏰 🌊 🏝️ ⛰️

5️⃣ 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐬 𝐂𝐥𝐮𝐛 - this week we started our multiplication and division topic and our focus was the 5 times table. After exploring patterns when counting up in 5’s on a hundred square, we played games to consolidate our learning, including a Monopoly style board game and Pairs. What fun!

☔️ 𝐒𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐂𝐥𝐮𝐛 - we started our new topic, weather! 🌦️ After learning about why it rains, we made our own rain cloud in jar, followed by a water cycle model in a bag 🌧️ We really enjoyed these activities, and I LOVED hearing such animated discussions about what everyone already knew about the weather. It is amazing watching everyone’s confidence grow week by week 🤗

What a jam-packed week of learning! 🤩