This week at Oakburn –
Baking Area
This week in the baking area we have been making vegan scones, the children have been practicing their measuring, pouring, mixing and counting. We are doing this daily to allow children to experience the in-depth life skills that come with baking, the children will build confidence independence and responsibility over time and we hope that with the continuation of this experience we will have very confident little bakers who can make their own scones very soon. Well done everyone, the scones look yummy!🤩
Woodwork workshop.
This week in the woodwork area we have been designing our own self portraits. The children used a mirror to identify different parts of their face. They then went on to draw what they could see in the mirror! The children used their imagination to pick what loose parts that they would like to use for their eyes nose and mouth. The children will then make their self portraits come to life by creating them in wood work next week.
Expressive Area
In the art area this week we read the story ‘Stickman’. We then progressed by developing the character stick man from the book. We went on a nature hunt and collected sticks and leaves and put them into our basket! Next we came back inside and crafted our own stick man! We used our imagination, memory, creativity and curiosity skills throughout this experience.
Every child experiences a sense of wonder- science 🧪
This week we showed a great interest in science experiments. We decided to conduct science experiments using vinegar, baking soda, paint, cola, ketchup and mentos! The children developed their sense of wonder, problem solving, risk assessment, team work, leadership, and turn taking. Ought many great skills were developed we have had so much fun watching reactions take place, explosions and creating their own volcanos! 🌋
STEM Area 🧲
This week in the STEM area we have been investigating simple types of forces and learning about their effects using magnets!
We have been using magnets in different activities involving ice and paint. These have been great to explore and to get a simple understanding of how magnets work!
We then lay out a range of different materials and the children had to sort them into if it was magnetic or not. We displayed our findings on a graph using our literacy and numeracy skills.
Oakburn home
This week in the home corner we have been busy making our own recipes books and filling them with things we like to make and bake at home and within the centre. We have observed and asked questions whilst looking at recipes and when creating our own we used our little fingers to practice our writing skills. 
We also has some discussion about things that we have in our own home, we thought of somethings that could make our dining table look more like ours at home, the children decided to make some beautiful flowers out of lollipop sticks and tissue paper and they have turned out bright and beautiful.
The courtyard
In the courtyard we have been celebrating Lunar New Year, known as Chinese New Year. We have been looking at numbers 1-4 and learning how to write them using paint.
We also made special traditional red envelopes and, At Lunar New Year, it’s tradition to give the gift of a bright, beautiful red envelope (known as 紅包, hóngbāo) to your friends and family. … These are filled with money – and symbolize good wishes and luck for the new year ahead. The importance of the hóngbāo isn’t the cash held inside; it’s actually the envelope itself.
We are responsible citizens
Some of the children have shown great interest in reading our recycling books this week.
We have learnt why it’s important to recycle and what happens to the materials when we recycle. The children talked about what and how they recycle at home.
We made our own boxes, using recycled boxes and painting them blue – for paper recycling, orange – for plastic recycling and green- for garden waste.
We gathered a pile of recycling and the children took it in turns to sort it into the boxes.
The children have shown that they are fantastic responsible citizens ⭐️by understanding the importance of recycling to help the planet 🌎!👏
Our little hands are busy getting stronger.
This week we have been working on our fine motor development. In early years it is so important to work on the muscles within our hands and arms as it prepares our little people for when they begin to write, by providing wide ranges of fine motor experiences children can work on strengthening their muscles making holding pens/pencils easier to use when they progress into school.
This week we experiences weaving which included great concentration, some problem solving and hand eye coordination. We then progressed this onto using litter pickers and linseed to collect some little and large Pom poms this was a real favourite for the children and offered some support and challenge to their learning, next one of the children had said one of the green Pom poms was a shiny apple, we decided to add some fruit to a tuff tray and try using knives to cut it, offering bananas to start as they are smoother to cut through and offering challenge via apples and cucumbers, with some children we also discussed 1/2 and whole sizes.
