Dolphin’s reflection on the month of October
Plenty of interest has been paid to autumn with the leaves falling and the children collecting them and tidying up the outdoor area. We have also set up a nature table where the children could bring in autumnal items like conkers, sticks, leaves, acorns, etc, and share them with each other. They have thoroughly enjoyed the fascination found in the change of colour of the environment. We’ve talked a lot about the golden leaves and some of the children have been able to tell us about the ‘red’ leaves that they have seen on some trees too.

Thinking about the environment always brings lots of discovery. After talking about all the things the children have been finding, we decided to go on a nature trail in our nursery play ground. In addition to all the autumn fall, we found, snails, lady birds, spiders and all sorts of bugs. We are going to need to do some more research to find out their names!

Thanks to the wonderfully mild weather, we have spent loads of time outside talking and thinking about the environment. We have talked about all sorts of things and jobs that happen outside and the children have taken on some of those things and been ‘builders’ using the large construction, ‘street sweepers’ with their plastic bags collecting leaves, etc.

The supermarket took off towards the end of October and we set up the home corner as a supermarket to support this interest. The children love it and our cook, Christine has been keeping us well stocked with boxes and jars to stock the shelves. The children have enjoyed taking on the roles of shoppers, cashiers, stockists and...dogs in the supermarket.

And our cooking this month has included:
Banana loaf, bread rolls, cereal bars, carrot cake, making assorted sandwiches.
Here is one of our little boys grating some carrot for the cake.