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Oak Valley welcomes October!

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October is best known for Halloween festivities, but it’s also a month of national and global celebrations.

Offering a helping hand!

At the start of October we received lots of  food donations for our Harvest Festival. The Pre-School children packed and delivered the food to the local church, New Hope Community Church. While there, the children talked about the importance of helping the local community, and ate some yummy toast!

Big or Small, we love them All

To celebrate World Animal Day on the 4th October, the children went on a bear hunt, explored different animals in the tuff tray and made symmetrical butterflies. They also had a visit from Leanimals, where they got to meet guinea pigs, a mouse and many more. The children loved learning about what the animals like to eat and where they live.

 

Out of this world

For National World Space Week, Toddlers have been enjoying the book Aliens Love Underpants. They have been talking about space and what they might find, along with making their very own aliens. The children used playdough with pipe cleaners and googly eyes or paint.

 

World Mental Health Day

To Celebrate World Mental Health Day, Pre-School have been  reading The Colour Monster Book, which helped them talk about their emotions and feelings. The children talked about what made them happy and sad, and also used the loose parts to make different emotions faces.

 

Trick or Treat!

No tricks only treats this Halloween! The children at Oak Valley have celebrated Halloween; Toddlers went to the supermarket and selected their own pumpkins to carve. Babies have loved singing ‘Incey Wincey Spider’ and using Makaton, they also explored the spider sensory tray. Pre-School and Rising 3’s made potions, carved pumpkins and wore fancy dress.

 

Autumn Fun

The most memorable days end with dirty clothes! Pre-School have loved making the most of the Autumn weather. They got messy with the clay making lots of creepy crawlies. They also put on their raincoats and wellies, and jumped in the puddles, making memories with their friends.

 

 

 

May Activities at Oak Valley

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At Oak Valley we started off May with the Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla. We enjoyed celebrating to mark this special occasion. The children did lots of themed activities including crown making, decorating biscuits and even had our very own tea party. We listened to the National Anthem and dressed in red, white and blue.

As part of our HEY Award (Healthy Early Years), Pre-School have been promoting the importance of oral hygiene even more than normal. Alongside their daily toothbrushing club, they have been talking about the value of brushing your teeth twice a day, and joining in with different toothbrushing activities.

In Rising 3’s we have been doing some recycling using our recycling bins in the entrance hall, and categorising the items into the correct bin. We talked about the importance of recycling and looking after our planet, as well as talking about the different materials. We then used these materials to take part in junk modelling – we made dinosaurs, princess castles and rockets!

Toddlers have been exploring different sensory play and textures this month. We made some marks with various tools in the clay, and talked about the wonderful efforts we had made. We also used some soapy water and paint brushes to make patterns on the nursery wall.

With the weather getting warmer, and the sun starting to shine, Babies took part in ‘Sun Awareness’ activities. They talked about the importance of putting on our hats and wearing sunscreen. They did various activities to get these messages across – putting sunscreen and hats on dolls, and making a sensory sun out of coloured rice and paper to name a couple! We had so much fun exploring this!