Week beginning 2 February 2026

The Investigation Hub at Sidney Grove

Characteristics of Effective Learning- creative and critical thinking!

Story Scribing – National Storytelling Week

Something we often do to support the children as early storytellers and early writers is to scribe their stories! This can be anything that the children choose to share with us; through scribing their words we show them that we value their experiences and ideas and that writing is a way to share and record them. As the child speaks and the adult writes, it is important for the former to watch, and for the adult to write exactly what the child says (even if it is grammatically incorrect).

In this way, even the youngest children learn that their spoken words can be transferred onto paper. They also see how writing is formed and what it looks like. On Tuesday, a child told me all about his experience finding coins when he was litter-picking near the Angel of the North. I began to draw the Angel but the child swiftly took the pencil from me and continued to add in details from the story as he told me more. I then wrote his story down for him onto paper. This was then shared with his group in review time and created great interest for his peers!

The Story; A’s Coins!

“”it’s such a strange thing how H found a coin! It was next to mine… it was a person who had an old coin and didn’t need it anymore! It had a 0 and 1 and it was a “round”. She found two coins that were so old! They were quite small…they were on a stinging nettle and she found them! They cut it off and they holded it in the secateurs and put it in the bin! It was so strange!” 

Parents as Partners

We developed activities around Birdwatching, exploring the core text ‘A Busy Day for Birds’ and using resources from the RSPB to help the children to identify garden birds. The children shared their knowledge and prior experiences about birds as we searched the skies for them in the garden.

‘The blue tits don’t come down onto the ground we have to look up for them’

‘Seagulls are at the beach!’

“They can’t get food… it’s too icy! It’s very hard on the floor!”

‘When it’s freezing and snowy the birds can’t get the food from the trees”

The children used clay and practised skills of rolling a ball and pinching to create a beak and a tail. They added feathers and sunflower seeds to decorate! We used apples and sunflower seeds to create bird feeders and developed fine-motor skills threading Cheerios onto pipe-cleaners to hang in the garden.

Outdoors Learning

This week in plan, do, review the children continued playing games outside. They introduced their own ideas to change one game to “What’s the time Mr Dinosaur?” The older children were so helpful and cooperative making sure that the younger children could join in.

“This is so much fun!”

With the rainy weather some of the children have been showing interest in using umbrellas. We played some target games throwing balls into the umbrellas and explored mark-making with chalk, water and white board pens onto the transparent umbrella.

Don’t forget about this weekend’s Storytelling session at the Glasshouse on Saturday- here is all the information you will need-Storytelling Sessions – National Literacy Trust | The Glasshouse

Have a lovely weekend!