Starfish in the August sunshine

Starfish combined a lot of preparation for our barbecue with their art activities this month. The team cut out shapes of sea creatures for the children to paint, draw on, stick on and decorate how they chose. The children have had lots of opportunities to cut using safety scissors as well and have really enjoyed it. We have made a lovely display of some of the art works which has also inspired plenty of discussion about sunshine, weather, water and so on.

Gardening was also a feature this month, however, sadly (due to weather and circumstances beyond our control?!) our flowers have died, so the children very sensitively helped to dispatch the remains to a better place. ‘Oh-dear!

However, we have been able to take a few trips to the park this month and have been on some flower collecting journeys as well as car spotting excursions. Car spotting was a great way to talk about colours which we have placed an extra focus on this month. Most of the children are really interested in colours at the moment, so there has been a huge amount of colour spotting and naming. Our oldest Starfish children have really got to grips with some different colours and differentiating the same object by colour. They get such a thrill out of getting it right.

Washing and tidying has been a big favourite this month too. There has been lots of help on hand to tidy up and wipe down tables. They have also enjoyed their little group excursions to the Dolphin’s area where they put on the washing for the room. Jobs and 'helping' make them feel really proud. We have just got some new toy brooms in the room too and they don’t get dropped for a second before another little tidier has picked one up to start sweeping again.

We are at the end of the summer time now and it is going to be so sad to be putting our sun hats away. What started off as a difficult task having the children keep them on, has now turned into a ritual every time the children go out. They are very particular about having a hat on and readying themselves to be sun blocked. If one of them loses a hat, they will either frantically search for it themselves or a friend will be swooping up behind them informing them that their hat has come off! ‘Hat on!’ is a very much used line in Starfish.