Week commencing 7th October - Westmeston

This week we have celebrated all things Harvest and learnt about this important time of year. On Tuesday we were invited by our friends Gary and Tessa to visit Westmeston Church to look at their beautiful Harvest display. We were sent on a mission to find pictures of wheat sheaves that had been hidden around the church. We found so many hidden high and low; it was really fun searching. Gary read us a story about Harvest time and being thankful for the food we have. He then let us all have a go at ringing the church bells.

Back at the hall, we enjoyed our own Harvest treat. Dylan bought in a bag full of apples from his tree at home to share with us all. He had even made apple juice for us to try. It was delicious! Cheers!

Last week we made wormeries using old plastic bottles and learnt how worms help to fertilise the soil. This week we have been keeping an eye on our garden helpers, making sure the soil is moist and the worms have plenty of food. Luckily, we are never short of vegetable peelings at Acorns! It was great to see the tracks the worms had made in the sand and soil.

On Thursday we had fun playing in the hall for a while before heading outside. The doll's house has been a real hit all week and we have enjoyed using it for role play games. Mrs Spencer brought in some wonderful Moon Sand which was really interesting to squeeze and mould between our fingers.

We used our pipes and stands to make some very impressive conker runs. We had to think carefully about balancing the pipes on an angle so that the conkers would roll down. It was great for our resilience and resourcefulness.

Outside, we noticed that a pile of tree branches had been piled up in a corner of the garden. We examined the leaves and tried to work out where the branches had been cut down from. It took a bit of searching, but then we found a tree stump that gave us our answer. It was interesting to look closely at the tree stump and see the rings in the trunk. We guessed that the tree wasn't very old.

Whilst on our search around the garden, we found some different types of seeds: sycamore, acorns, conkers and pine cones. We thought it would be interesting to plant them and see if they might begin to grow into new plants. Mia had the good idea of also planting an apple seed from our lunchtime apples. We will keep an eye on them over the next few weeks.

The weather wasn't quite so kind to us on Friday. It was a very rainy day! When we weren't outside in the rain, we had a lot of fun in the hall drawing, playing and completing a huge amount of jigsaws! We also played some board games and practised taking turns, counting and matching. We all really enjoyed the pirate treasure game.

Some of us helped to prepare a Harvest soup for our afternoon snack. We carefully peeled and chopped the carrots, leeks, sweet potatoes and potatoes. We added some stock and then left it to cook in the oven all day!

Despite the rain, we were still keen to get outside, so we put on our wet weathers and set out for a walk.

As we were wet anyway, we thought it would be fun to visit the giant puddle down the lane. Mrs Tubb brought along some rubber ducks and toy sea animals in her bag and we loved playing with them in the water.

"My duck is called Mucky Duck Face."

"The sharks are stuck!"

"The ducks are coming to help! The sharks won't eat them because they're friends."

We certainly made the most of the wet weather! We returned to the warm, dry hall with some wet socks, muddy faces but big smiles!

To go with our Harvest soup, we made our own soda bread. We measured out flour, baking powder and some salt and mixed it all together. We then poured in a yogurt and milk mixture to make the dough. We all made our own bread roll by kneading and shaping a piece of dough.

The hall smelt wonderful as the bread rolls cooked and they tasted delicious too. It was lovely to enjoy a completely homemade meal of soup and bread at the end of a wet and windy day.

It looks as if the autumnal weather is here to stay, so please make sure that we have a good amount of named, waterproof clothing and spare clothes in our bags - and slippers or cosy shoes to change into after our wet walks are a good idea as well.