The snow made a great adventure outside, we have really enjoyed playing out in the snow. Well done all those who brought appropriate clothing! This helped us immensely, coming back inside, it has saved us changing 20 children’s trousers and socks, which is very time consuming.

Snow in the water tray gave all the children a chance to play in it, even if they did not want to go out in it.

We cut out hearts to give our friends, putting them in their drawers so they had no idea who gave them. It was great fun trying to guess, and also teaching the children how wonderful it is to give. This has also improved their cutting skills; some of our little ones are very accomplished in the art. These activities give them such a boost of self-esteem and confidence in tackling new challenges.

Ava celebrated her Birthday - Happy Birthday Ava! Katie’s ironing skills are great, what a good role model she must have. The boys have been enjoying washing the babies and drying them under the hand dryer.
Valentine’s cards have been made, and Cabin is once again covered in glitter, how wonderful!!!

Have a good week off, and see you all back on Monday, 20th February.

Jayne

The week started by making a huge Blue Castle - it was meant to be Hogwarts from Harry Potter. Action men and Barbies have had invisibility cloaks made for them, and into the castle they went! We went outside to collect sticks, and tried to gather enough of them to make a tall ladder to enable Cowboys and Indians to escape from or climb into the castle, nobody was quite sure.

The stick collecting turned into a maths adventure; the children were looking for bigger, smaller, thinner, thicker, taller ones, then we strung them together. The children were very aware that the ladder was delicate thing, and therefore had taken great care with it. They are so proud of it!

None of the above was actually planned, we just went along with the children’s interests.

We did, however, plan to make jelly, which we then played with the next day. Yuk!!! The children loved it, it was very sticky, and so is Cabin now. Later, in the home corner they gave some of it to each of the teddies.

We have also welcomed Benjamin who will be starting next week.

Next week is the last week before a week off. Colour of the week is GREY, and we will be looking at Hearts and Making cards for those we love.

Jayne

Another amazing week at Cabin started with the birth of yet another generation of stick insects. We now have about 6 babies and two adults - the children are fascinated by them.

Then it came to our Chinese New Year celebrations, with noodles made for snack, chopped up by the children and enjoyed by us all, eaten with chop sticks, well done! We made Chinese dragons using folded paper, and coloured in dragon faces and tails.

The Chinese restaurant was my favourite activity this week, we used real spaghetti cooked in the home corner with Sienna, Rubie and Jake all chefs, and Delilah, Tilly, Lillie, Leia and Harley all taking our seats to be waited on. The children took turns in writing down what they wanted, and even a dragon came to tea. Then, Oh no!, a fire alarm (made up by the children) so we had to stand on the mat to be counted. Harry Potter (alias Jack) arrived and magically put out the flames.

The children had a good try at Chinese writing, Delilah’s was especially good.
Thomas and Olivia went on Safari, really enjoying the small world corner with the safari animals.

If the children came home very messy and covered in sand, it is properly due to the fact that the new game of making a muddy puddle at the end of the ramp is growing more popular every day. We do try to go out every day; the children just love it, even in the cold and the rain, which makes wellies a must if you want to splash, as well as spare trousers and socks!

Wednesday was Burns night. We had porridge for breakfast instead of toast, a nice change which most children tried and enjoyed. Delilah had three helpings! We made flapjack, linked porridge oats to Scotland, and looked at Rhyming words and listen to Dragon poems, combining nicely the year of the Dragon and the poet Burns.

Jayne

Our yellow week was amazing; we have tried different yellow fruits and vegetables. We looked at, felt, smelt and tasted grapefruit, lemons, peppers, corn on the cob, honey and jelly. The children have played Kim’s game with yellow objects using Jack’s magic wand to remove the objects.

Jayne made lemon tarts with homemade pastry, and Sharon made cheese straws. They were all eaten for snack. We have also enjoyed sweet corn and cheese for snack, so most of the children should now be able to recognise the colour yellow.

While they were cooking with flour, we took the opportunity to use the flour on tables to write names or just make patterns - all good practice to support writing when they get to school.

Our new bigger bike and taxi have arrived! They are a great hit; we are very grateful to the Committee for letting us buy them. The children have ridden all over the playground giving each other lifts and taking turns using our 3 min sand timer to allow all the friends from Cabin a chance to have a turn.

The children have also enjoyed making puddles, and making marks on the floor – making tracks with water and then chalk. And of course the boxes that the bikes arrived in have made great dens!

We are very pleased that the new children have settled well so easily. Well done Seren, Daniel and Tirzah!

Next week is Chinese New Year, and Burns night and we will be looking at foods related to them. It is the year of the Dragon and the colour RED.

This term, we are planning to review our resources, and find out what the children here at Cabin really want and like to do.

The children started last week by thanking Santa, and thinking about their favourite presents. Many children had their work put up on the wall at Cabin, which gives them a great sense of pride, and their confidence is increasing.

This week, we have dressed figures in what we like to wear, also thinking about how to keep warm, which got everyone into a thinking mode. The children have made some people out of paper, gluing and sticking… these too are now on display. Do come in and have a look around, when you drop your children off at Cabin, most of them have some work displayed here.

We have welcomed Seren, Daniel and Terzah, and are looking forward to Benjamin and Corrin joining the Cabin later in the term.

The children have been talking about what they want to do. The highlight this week was when about five girls and a boy wanted to do ballet. So we put on some classical music, and despite my limited experience of ballet, managed very well. They danced with a lot of drama and creative action, moving around Cabin all dressed in fairy outfits. There was a bad fairy which became good thanks to a torch, and then the ballet changed from classical to fun disco dancing to the Beach Boys CD. It ended up with a game of musical cushions, what fun!!!

Another afternoon, we put down a huge piece of paper, and the children were able to choose which writing implement they would like to use. They chose felt pen, crayons chunky and thin, chalk, pastels, pencils, chunky and thin, and drew and drew a huge group masterpiece. They particularly enjoyed working together as a group, and experiencing the different textures. Two of the teachers sat on the floor with them, encouraging them all the time, so they received lots of attention too.

Next week is the colour Yellow, and we will be looking at ‘the things we like to eat’.

If any one has any food magazines they could spare, could you please get them to us early in the week, so we can cut things out of them. It would be very much appreciated.

Jayne