Weekly News

Click on the photos to see the Facebook post 

Lest we forget

Pumpkins and gourds create a sense of wonder and curiosity in young children. Their hard, textured exterior, their slimy fibrous innards, and the vines they grow on spark scientific inquiry in even our youngest learners. As well as being great fun, carving pumpkins and exploring winter vegetables can help the children develop many skills. These include developing muscle strength, problem-solving, creative designing and testing theories, to name a few! The children have enjoyed helping carve the pumpkins and they've really loved our pumpkin potions trays!

As well as being great fun, there are so many developmental benefits of young children playing musical instruments, simple activities such as tapping a drum or shaking a maraca, provide children with an opportunity to develop their hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. Dancing, moving and wiggling to music can also help develop gross motor skills, such as balance and coordination. Musical activities are great for helping build children's confidence, encouraging them to interact with each other, and helping them learn to participate in group activities. Our children just love being part of a 'band'
Myself and all the staff team wish you a very happy half-term break. Let's hope the weather is kind to us all. We'll see you back on the 30th October, for our busiest half-term in the school calendar!

We had a sunny 'Saturday Family Drop-in' today, so many of our families came to visit us at Acorn. The nursery children love it when their mums, dads, brothers & sisters come in to play, it's very special for them. Thank you all for coming.

The children always enjoy their PE and Music & Movement sessions. They learn to negotiate space and obstacles safely, demonstrating strength, balance and coordination. They love to move energetically - running, jumping, crawling, dancing, hopping, skipping & climbing. Create an obstacle course with them at home, it's fun and free!

Our preschoolers have loved their Forest School sessions since the start of term. They've been climbing trees, making dens, making conker people, making acorn necklaces and lots of 'soups', 'stews' and mud 'pies'! As the term goes on they are looking forward to building, making and using tools, foraging, and cooking in the fire pit.

We had our first yoga session in Acorns Class last week, the theme was The Colour Monster (our book of the week).
We sang our welcome song and did some gentle stretches together.
Using coloured scarves to match each feeling we practised a variety of poses, and then moved our bodies to create different size 'jars' for each feeling (from The Colour Monster book). We finished with the 'table' pose to balance the feelings jars on, and then hands on heart to say 'namaste'.
Our young Yogis listened and were focussed.
The week's breathing activity for them to practice at home was Mountain breathing. Hold up your hand and spread your fingers and thumb out wide so you have 5 mountains. Use your finger on your other hand to climb up the mountain as you inhale and then down the mountain as you exhale.
If you don't have The Colour Monster book, do try and get it from the library. It's a lovely book to support children's understanding about their feelings.

We're so lucky to have apples and blackberries growing on the school grounds, the children had lots of fun foraging for fruit this week. Once we had a big basket full, the children washed the berries then peeled and chopped the apples. After weighing the ingredients, they were absorbed with 'rubbing-in' to make the crumble mix, before spooning the crumble over the fruit. Once it was cooked, some of the children couldn't resist eating some of their crumble before taking it home to share. Crumble is so easy to make and really yummy. We hope you managed to get a taste!

What an amazing first week of the new school year we've had, 29 two years olds have started, with the great majority coming in happily and getting straight on with their fun filled day. Our new preschoolers are thoroughly enjoying meeting up again with their friends, they are looking forward to Forest School and all the new activities they'll be doing as rising 4 year olds. How lucky we are to have such awesome children!

We were delighted that so many of our new 'Catkins' (2 year olds) families joined us for a Stay & Play today. The children played happily and their parents met other parents! It was a lovely afternoon in the sunshine.

The children love it when we get the giant teeth and toothbrushes out! As part of being a healthy eating nursery we also promote good oral health, it's essential in protecting young teeth and preventing tooth decay. It's also a requirement of the Early Years Foundation Stage, guidelines state: “All settings must promote good health, including oral health.”
As with all learning at Acorn, it's done in a fun way through play.
Don't forget the term starts next week on Monday 4th. We're looking forward to welcoming back the new preschoolers to Acorns class, and nearly 30 new starters joining our Catkins class.
Enjoy the remaining few days of the summer holidays.

All of our children love gardening, this year we've grown potatoes, beans, peas, and tomatoes. We encourage the children to love nature and they've really enjoyed the responsibility of caring for their plants. Gardening engages most of the senses and helps children to develop and recognise them without even realising. It also helps develop hand-eye coordination and builds strength. Gardening is physical and requires the body to work hard digging, carrying, lifting, sieving, watering, it's fun and productive. It’s also a fact that if you engage children in growing their own vegetables, they gain a keen interest in eating them too!

Blocks are one of the most powerful learning tools for young children. At Acorn we have several full sets of various size wooden blocks, from hand-sized mini unit blocks to large hollow blocks, both inside and out. Wooden blocks foster the open-ended, creative, constructive play that is the cornerstone of early learning. The children can problem solve, solo or with friends. They use their imagination to create amazing structures, fine and gross motor skills are being used with every creation, it's a joy watching their ideas come to life. Important Maths concepts and skills are practiced and strengthened, length, measurement, comparison, number, estimation, symmetry and balance.
To think they thought they were just playing!
We've had a fun-filled few weeks at nursery. Acorns, our preschoolers have had lots of Pirate games and activities, culminating in a fabulous family picnic and treasure hunt, which involved Captain Hook, Tinkerbell and Peter Pan. The highlight was finding Peter Pan and the Treasure! Today, the last day of term, both groups had fun at their end of year parties. The last few weeks of term are always emotional, with mixed feelings from the staff, parents and children. It's all change - Catkins, our younger children, will be moving on to preschool in September and our Acorns, our current preschoolers, will be leaving to join 'Big School'. We're so proud of our leavers, they're happy and confident learners and most certainly ready for the next chapter of their learning journeys. Myself and all the staff team thank you, all you wonderful parents, for your considerable support (and fun) during your time with us. We'll miss you!
We hope everyone has a happy summer.
All of our children have really enjoyed the Yoga sessions that we introduced just over a year ago, they are always excited to go to "Yoga"!
Yoga for toddlers and young children has so many benefits, it helps children to be calmer, more able to concentrate and focus, it promotes better breathing and relaxation (less stress!). It's teaches children about their body by exploring how it works – how they can use their strength to stretch, bend and balance.
It's completely non-competitive and they all learn at their own pace, it's all taught in a fun and playful manner. We look forward to offering additional toddler Yoga sessions in the new school year.

The sun shone for our annual Summer Outing to Bocketts Farm. There's such a lot to do there, I think the highlights were the tractor/trailer ride and the, very funny, pig race! What a great day.

Mud, Mud Glorious Mud! The 29th June, marked International Mud Day. The day aimed to bring children from all over the world together through the ground by playing in the mud. Mud play allows children to connect and interact with the natural world around them. As well as helping children develop tactile skills with sensory play, it also:
* encourages creativity
* increases brain activity
* builds a stronger immune system
* builds an adventurous spirit
At Forest School we had lots of muddy fun. We all spent time exploring the mud, digging, raking and feeling the mud. We particularly enjoyed noticing the difference between the way wet and dry mud felt. We used the mud to paint pictures, we made a mud volcano by adding bicarbonate of soda & vinegar to piles of mud, the children loved watching the volcanoes erupt. Then the children decided they would like to paint Mrs L's face with mud, this was great fun and provoked lots of laughter amongst the children. Some of the children then felt inspired and then decided to paint their own faces and that of their willing friends. The best bit of all, mud play is not only great fun - it's FREE!

What a fabulous morning we had at our Sports Day this week, with the sun shining and the majority of our 70 families taking part. The children had their very own mini Olympics. After their races they loved watching their mums, dads and grandparents race. I think the biggest cheer was for our awesome staff team, who along with the preschool children had a very funny dressing-up race, incorporating all of the races! Sports Day brings a sense of fun and comradery to the children, it helps teach them valuable skills such as teamwork and communication. We were all winners at Acorn's Sports day and we all had a great time.

We had an amazing visit to Cranleigh fire station this week. Our preschool children had a wonderful time, they tried on uniforms, climbed into the fire engine, they showed great interest in all the equipment on the engine and what the firefighters carried with them when they were called out on a 'shout'. The children loved using the hose, squirting water on the practice tower! Firefighters hold a powerful mystique for many children, so it was very exciting for the children to visit our local station and actually meet two fabulous firefighters, who told them some of the things they do to help people! We are so grateful to firefighters Jamie and Jake for giving up their valuable time to make it such a special visit.

The sun shone this morning for our termly 'Saturday Drop-in', dozens of our lovely families came to 'play'. What a wonderful time we had, thank you to all the families, and staff, that helped make it such a successful morning!

The children have been fascinated, for over a month, watching our tiny caterpillars grow fatter and fatter, eventually creating a protective shell ( chrysalis ) around themselves. Inside their chrysalis the caterpillars begin their amazing transformation into an adult butterfly. It's a wonderful life cycle for the children to witness and is always really exciting when we release the butterflies. We've read lovely stories and made great art & crafts to mirror the stages of the life cycle. It's been great fun for us all!

The children were very excited to help unpack all our new 'Community Playthings' outdoor equipment this week. The new equipment will really enhance our outdoor play. We're outside rain or shine, hot or cold it's just much nicer when the sun is shining!
Have a lovely half term break and we'll see you on 5th June, for what is our busiest half term in the school calendar!
With World Bee Day tomorrow, the children have been learning all about Bees and how these important pollinators are under threat of extinction and we need to do everything we can to stop that from happening. Bees love traditional cottage garden flowers and native wildflowers, like primrose, buddleia and marigolds, they love herbs and lavender. They especially love dandelions, rich in pollen and nectar, the children know not to dig them up as weeds. They've been told how busy Bees are and that they get tired, so when they see a bee lying down they're just tired, you can give them a little sugar water (white sugar) on a flower or plate next to them. It'll help revive them.
We've had lots of fun creating our own 'bees' this week and a bee station, which has water for bees. Our Bug Hotel provides a safe place for bees to rest. We've planted flowers that the bees can collect pollen and nectar from, so we hope to see more bees in our gardens very soon.


Our young Catkins & Squirrels (2 & 3 year olds) were keen to make their own shoe shop after some children showed us their new shoes and how you try them on in the shop!
Role play like this isn't just fabulous fun, it supports all areas of learning in the Early Years curriculum. The good news is that you don’t need lots of expensive toys and resources to encourage role playing activities. You’ll find items that you already have at home (often everyday things!) can spark children’s imaginations and prompt role playing.

We've had a busy and fun week preparing for the Coronation of King Charles III. The children made flags, bunting, crowns and enjoyed many other fun activities culminating in a fabulous 'Street Party/Fair' today, which all the children loved. Then we had a picnic lunch together before the children were given a lovely commemorative medal to celebrate this moment in history! Hope you all have a lovely Bank Holiday weekend

Spring has certainly sprung! We were fortunate to enjoy some sunny weather while we dug and planted, the children all love digging and planting, it's such great fun. Gardening is a wonderful activity for children of all ages, as well as helping develop important motor skills it stimulates all five senses, children feel different textures in the soil, seeds and plants, they are able to smell the flowers, hear the bees and birds, see the different colours of the plants and taste any vegetables, herbs or fruits we grow.

We've been doing lots of Easter arts & crafts this week, we've read Easter stories, had Easter egg hunts and made yummy chocolate Easter nests. The children discovered 'abandoned' eggs in Forest School and made nests for them. We've certainly had lots of Easter fun.
Our staff team hope you all have a lovely Easter break and let's hope the sun shines!
Our young Catkins & Squirrels (2 & 3 year olds) really enjoyed baking cakes for our Mother's Day celebration. Following on from that they made and baked bread, then we set up a Baker's Shop to 'sell' bread and cakes!
Children gain a lot from the benefits of role play; it fosters their self-esteem, creativity, communication skills, physical development, and ability to solve problems. It's a great way for children to get into character, act out real-life or imaginary performances, and have a lot of fun!

Our children love being outside making obstacle courses involving running, chasing, jumping, climbing, throwing in fact all things physical! They also love PE indoors especially when we make obstacle courses for them to enjoy. Obstacle courses help young children solve problems as they learn to maneuver up, over or through obstacles. They also learn to adjust to changing conditions and memorise the fastest way to progress through the course. They are free and fun, what's not to love!

We had a lovely Mother's Day celebration on Friday for nearly all of our 70 mummies, who came along with their children. They enjoyed coffee & cake and listened to the children sing special songs they'd learnt for this special occasion. The Acorn staff team wish mummies everywhere a wonderful, relaxing day on Sunday.

The rain stopped and the sun shone, albeit briefly, for our Saturday Drop-in. We were delighted that so many of our lovely families visited us on Saturday. The children are always so excited to show their mummies and daddies around their nursery school and play with their favourite things, it's a real confidence boost for them and great fun.

We've had lots of fun joining in with the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch. It's an important survey for us all to join in as it allows the RSBP to build a picture of how our much-loved birds are faring. All of our children, including our young 2 year olds, were really interested in spotting the birds in our gardens and Forest School area. They also made feeders to hang on our trees and enjoyed seeing how quickly the birds ate the food! We introduced block graphs to our preschoolers, to show which birds frequented our gardens the most. We mostly saw sparrows, robins and pigeons! We frequently hear a woodpecker but have only spotted it a couple of times. Birdwatch is a truly unique collective effort which helps us build the picture of how our much-loved birds are getting along.

We've had lots of extra stories this week to support World Book Day. Anything that makes books more fun for children is a good thing, both staff and children had lots of fun dressing up as their favourite book character, and they brought their favourite story book into nursery for everyone to enjoy. Having access to books and developing a love of reading for pleasure is vital for a child's future.

We celebrated ‘Pancake day' today. We learnt about what ingredients you need to make pancakes and that the day is also called ‘Shrove Tuesday’. We also learnt that on Shrove Tuesday some people choose to stop having food that they enjoy for 40 days, and they have to wait until Easter Sunday to enjoy them again! We read stories too ‘The Runaway Pancake’ and Mr Wolf's Pancakes. The children enjoyed whisking the ingredients together and really enjoyed tossing the pancakes. Who doesn't love pancakes especially with lemon and a sprinkle of sugar, the children certainly did at snack time with their fruit! Really yummy!

In recognition of 'Children's Mental Health Week' (6th -12th February), we've been talking about what makes us happy, sad, angry and worried. We enjoyed a story called 'Calm down and work through anger'. The story describes how we feel when we are angry and what may make us feel that way. The story also describes what we may look like to others when we are feeling sad or angry. It goes on to offer suggestions as to what could make us feel better in those situations.
At Forest School we continued talking about our emotions and decided to make 'worry catchers' using string tied to pine cones. The children then threaded some beads onto the string. We then hung them from a tree to 'take our worries away'. We use the 'Thrive Approach' at Acorn, which offers a whole-setting approach to supporting the social and emotional well-being of all our children.
The children chose Owl Babies as their favorite book of the week. We enhanced their storytime by providing Owl puppets, so they could retell the story to each other.They modelled impressive Owls with playdough, made fabulous wooden Owl faces in Forest School and showed great cutting skills when making Owl spoons. Providing Story sacks and making things to enhance stories like this, creates another dimension to books and allows children to make sense of what is going on in the story. Enhanced play like this encourages children to play and explore, allows them to think creatively and provides opportunities to create and think critically.
We're all looking forward to the RSPB Great Garden Bird Watch over the next couple of weeks.

We've been celebrating Chinese New Year this week, with lots of fun activities. The children have been interested in learning all about Chinese culture, about the Chinese Zodiac and the Zodiac 12 animals. They have loved trying chopsticks instead of knives and forks, and have been fascinated by the very different letters the Chinese use. They've been making Chinese lanterns, Lucky Purses, Fortune Cookies with Chinese sayings, Zodiac Puppets, and a Chinese cafe. They've really enjoyed food play with noodles and chopsticks. Chinese New Year is a perfect way to introduce early years children to different cultures and traditions that may not be familiar to them or their families.

Acorns team, in anticipation of the cold snap right now, made ice balloons with the children. They loved ripping the balloons off in the mornings, checking if the water had frozen! They also created an ice wonderland indoors, which the children had lots of fun with. There's something very exciting about water freezing for children, and sensory play like this allows for lots of unstructured learning experiences. They loved wandering around our grounds looking for ice to paint or to break up!

Role Play is such good fun, our young 2 & 3 year olds have been busy this week being builders, photographers, cafe owners, cooks and waitresses. We even had an airline pilot, who took his passengers to Canada! Role Play isn't just good fun, it develops the children's communication skills and forms their use of language. It gives them the chance to explore, experiment and encourages imagination and creativity. You've probably got all the 'props' they need at home, no need to buy anything, their imagination is all they need!

Our first day back, after the Christmas break, was great fun for us all. The children returned confidently and were really happy to see their teachers and friends, and happy to play outside in the fresh air. We had a few new children start and they were made welcome by their new friends and settled quickly. A lovely start to the spring term.

We've celebrated all things Christmas over the last couple of weeks. The children made lots of Christmas crafts, including making a lovely Nativity Scene in Forest School, they decorated Christmas trees and made their rooms look very festive, they dressed up as Santa, and his little helpers, and wrapped lots of presents in their Grotto! They've really loved the new Christmas songs and action songs which they performed for their parents today, after their party. The highlight of the party, as always, was a visit from Santa. The staff enjoyed their own, well deserved, party later!
We're so proud of the children, who've battled against so many nasty bugs, in this very busy autumn term. They are such enthusiastic learners in everything we do. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy & Healthy 2023 xxx

We held our Nativity Performance and Carol Service in the beautiful St Nicolas Church today. All of our 60+ children should have taken part, but there are some nasty bugs around and sadly our numbers were lessened! It was still a wonderful event, enjoyed by a packed Church as always. Thanks to our amazing children who made us all proud, very well done all of you. Thanks to Mr Holcombe and the Glebelands School Choir who supported us this year, what beautiful singers. Thanks to Roy and Tim, our Rector and Curate for all their help and support. Thank you to those who joined us for our post performance coffee and mince pies. We raised a fantastic £197.50 in the Christmas raffle. Finally, special thanks to our awesome staff team, without their hard work we couldn't stage such a lovely performance.

The children are loving their daily Forest School sessions. They've been having lots of fun exploring, investigating and creating in our safe, natural wooded area. This week they helped collect twigs and acorns and other natural materials to help make a wonderful Nativity Scene for the display in St Nicolas Church. The first Nativity Festival will run from Friday 2nd until Sunday 4th December, opening on Friday and Saturday 10am to 6pm and Sunday 12 noon to 5pm. Don't forget to pop in to support the event, it's definitely worth a visit.

We've been talking about hedgehogs recently. That they are nocturnal, about why and where they hibernate, what they eat and why they have spikes! We made some yummy hedgehog bread, made clay hedgehogs and created hibernation homes for our clay hedgehogs! Our younger children created lovely hedgehogs pictures using a fork to create their spikes with.

We've been busy doing activities to support Children in Need this week, we've raised over £204 and still counting! We've had lots of fun 'Working out with Joe Wicks', making Pudsey and Blush masks and yummy Pudsey shaped cookies. We've talked about who we're raising money for and why, our fabulous children were caring and thoughtful towards others less fortunate.
Thank you all for giving so generously to this very worthwhile cause, there's been so much illness this week and so many children have been off and haven't been able to bring their donation in, but there's still time to donate to this wonderful cause. Our JustGiving page is still open.

Lest We Forget

Our 2,3 and 4 year olds are all loving their weekly Yoga sessions.
The benefits of yoga for young children (and adults) are numerous, some of the benefits include developing muscle strength, balance, coordination, flexibility, relaxation, concentration to name but a few. It's lovely for them to exercise together in small groups on their "special" yoga mats!

We've been going 'Conkers' these last couple of weeks in Forest School! We've made Conker people and created a conker world, we've used conkers & paint to create awesome art, we've used conkers for maths activities and we've even made Conker soap! Conker soap is lovely and really softens your hands! The children loved peeling the conkers, they especially loved bashing them to a pulp, then a thorough mix into warm water. Strain them and you have a lovely, natural liquid soap and it's free! You could add essential oils if you'd like to change the already sweet cedar wood smell. Conker hunting is great fun, there are lots of Horse Chestnut trees around and lots of investigation to be done, getting the seed (conker) out of its spiky shell. A great half-term (24th-28th November) activity!

Our young 2 year olds (Catkins) have all settled now and are thoroughly enjoying themselves at nursery. They love all the autumn activities, playing outside come rain or shine, making new friends, problem solving, creating, climbing, balancing, throwing, reading, instruments, singing and much, much more. How lucky we are to have such lovely, interested and happy children.

What a gorgeous day it was today for our 'Saturday Drop-in'. So many families joined us in the sunshine to enjoy playing with their children at nursery. The children love these 'Saturday Drop-ins', and are always so happy to show their mummies & daddies their favourite things.

What a fabulous time our preschoolers are having at Forest School! They've built dens, put up tents and tarps, climbed trees. They've learnt how to tie a simple overhand knot to make magic wands, learnt how to use a hammer & nails safely and had great fun learning and playing outside in the fresh air. Our Forest school sessions provide a specialised learning approach that offers our children regular opportunities to achieve and develop confidence and self-esteem through hands-on learning experiences in a natural environment. We're all excited, staff & children, that we now offer Forest School sessions every day.

Our 2 year olds and our preschool children had a great time this week making apple & blackberry crumbles. First they hunted round the grounds for fruit, climbing trees for apples, searching in bushes for blackberries. They then washed the fruit and cut the apples. Making the crumble was fun too, weighing the ingredients and rubbing them all together. Washing their bowls afterwards!
The best part, of course, was eating them! There's lots of learning going on when you bake with a young child - basic maths concepts, building language skills and improving motor skills. Baking gives children a real sense of achievement. Working on a task which produces a product that they can enjoy and share with others, gives them a real confidence boost. It's such fun too!

Our first few weeks have certainly been busy, welcoming 31 new 2 year olds to Catkins class. They're settling-in really well and are starting to look forward to seeing their teachers and playing alongside new friends, I'm sure friendships will follow soon. They are enjoying all the fabulous and fun equipment on offer. Our 28 amazing preschoolers have quickly settled into their new class and are loving being back with their friends. They're particularly excited to be able to take part in Forest School sessions.

We were delighted to welcome some of our new starters for our Stay & Play session today. It was lovely to see so many of you come along. We hope you found time to meet all the staff team and the other new parents. It was wonderful to see the children all playing so nicely with their new friends.
We're also delighted with our new frame/slide/den/sandpit, so generously bought for us by one of our families.
Print | Sitemap
© Pauline Crowder