We have had so much fun in Bumblebees this week.

We have explored and celebrated all things Mexico!
We’ve danced our socks off and learnt the Mexican Hat Dance, tried Mexican food, made Tacos with Hedgehog Class, made our own Maracas, created some large scale art in the garden using the colours of the Mexican flag, decorated some Calavera’s with fluorescent sand and made some Mexican Bunting.

PHEW! What a week Bumblebees!

Some of the Bumblebees have been learning about how and why Christians celebrate Easter. We read The Story of Easter and then the children re-enacted the story using our loose parts and small world people. The children made a cross and a cave using wooden sticks, shells, stones and wood.

The children were able to retell the story of Easter using the small world people.

Freddie ‘Jesus had lots of friends.’
Nancy ‘Some bad men put Jesus on a cross because they thought he did bad things.’
Julian ‘He sad.’
Laith ‘The bad men put nails in his hands and feet to make him stay on the cross.’
Alfie ‘Jesus died on the cross.’
Rosie ‘ Some men carried Jesus to a cave.’
Tommy ‘They put a rock in front of the cave.’
Phoenix ‘Mary went to the cave and saw a man.’
Ethan ‘Jesus said ‘I am alive again.”

Bumblebees have had great fun learning all about Chinese New Year . The children have enjoyed collaging Chinese Lanterns, watching a Dragon Dance and then painting their own Chinese Dragons. Here are some of the children’s amazing Dragon paintings.

Bumblebees have been reading the story ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea’.

Take a look at some of the wonderful Tigers that have been produced, independently, by the children.

The children in Bumblebees have been learning all about the Muslim festivals of Ramadan and Eid. They enjoyed learning about why Muslims fast, when and what they eat during Ramadan and how they celebrate Eid.
The children were excited to see pictures of ladies and girls who had decorated their hands with Mehndi. Some of the children then made their own Mehndi hands with clay. Once dry, the children enjoyed painting them in bright colours, like the colours used to decorate houses for Eid celebrations.

Great work Bumblebees !

What a wonderful World Book Day we had in Bumblebees.
We read lots of stories, did lots of role playing, we discussed our favourite book characters and we learnt about the parts of a book and what authors and illustrators do.

At the end of the day we joined Hedgehog Class and had a fabulous story session with the children’s author Teresa Heapy. The children really enjoyed listening to her story ‘Very Little Cinderella’. The children then joined in with a song and Teresa introduced her puppet friends Very Little Red Riding Hood and Foxie.

What an exciting day! The children are already deciding what they’d like to dress up as for World Book Day 2024.

The children in Bumblebees have recently taken an interest in playing with our play tools. They enjoy pretending to ‘fix’ all of our toys and spend lots of time in our role play area fixing the table and chairs. We have recently extended this play by including hammers and golf tees with our playdough tools, and the children have been using ‘Tap a picture’ play kits.

Today we built on the children’s interest even more by using real hammers and nails. We discussed the risks with the children and they decided it would be best to hit the nail really gently, just in case !
Taking risks during play helps to develop children’s critical thinking skills and risk management, as they begin to understand simple ways of keeping themselves safe.

The children were all very sensible and really enjoyed taking risks, safely.

Laith – ‘ my best thing today was hammering’
Lottie – ‘I liked hammering the nails into the wood’
James – ‘The hammer was very cold and heavy’
Tommy – ‘My Dad use hammer’
Nancy – ‘ I put the nails in the logs’
Elsie – ‘I was banging the wood’

The children in Bumblebees are enjoying the sunshine. Some of them decided to lie on the floor and gaze at the clouds. They saw lots of interesting shapes in the sky and some children even thought they saw a Rocket Ship zoom past !

Lottie – ‘I lay on the grass and saw a Crocodile cloud’
Elsie – ‘I saw a line in the sky’
Jasmine – ‘I was lying on the grass and saw a dragon pattern in the sky’
James – ‘I saw a line that was moving, it looked like a Rocket on fire’
Nancy – ‘I lay down and saw a Bumblebee cloud’
Cody – ‘There was a Rocket flying in circles
Oakley – ‘I was looking at shapes in the sky’
Tommy – ‘I saw the trail from a Rocket’