Somerhill Review 2023/24

THE SOMERHILL REVIEW 2023/24

We feasted on Indian food, having a go at exploring delicacies unfamiliar to us.

The New Year brought us into our “frosty footprints” topic, as we learnt about the seasonal changes of winter.We went on sensory walks feeling the frosty grass “crunch” under our feet, watching our breath in the crisp air, tasting snowflakes on our tongues, smelling Saplings wood burner heating the yurt and hearing the birds singing to each other.We made bird feeders for our feathered friends to help them through the winter months, as we discovered how hard it is to break through icy ground during our ice excavation activity.Working as a team, the children determinedly built an amazing igloo together in the classroom, which they thoroughly enjoyed using in their imaginary play. The term finished with Nursery embracing science week with great curiosity, all eager to experiment, observe and predict.The children were happy to share their thoughts and ideas, from colour mixing to dancing raisins and recreating clouds to floating and sinking, keenly explaining what they noticed. Summer saw Nursery wholeheartedly embracing our “Down on the Farm” topic.We visited Mr Sinclair’s chickens to see how many eggs they had laid, and we went to watch the school tractor cut the grass, noticing that the grass spraying up looked like “popcorn popping”.We even got to sit inside the tractor, exploring all the levers and handles.We planted beans which we soon discovered would grow very quickly and tall if we took good care of them. One of our farming parents kindly donated a huge strawberry plant for us to investigate, and we soon learned that the flowers change into tiny yellow strawberries that grow bigger and turn red as they ripen. Picking the ripe fruit and eating it at snack time was a great delight, as was making and eating our own honey sandwiches made with honey from local bees.

17