Week beginning 9 February 2026
The Investigation Hub at Sidney Grove
Characteristics of Effective Learning
‘Reading and writing float on a sea of talk’
The children continue to share an interest in creating their own stories and finding innovative ways to communicate them with us. One child created her very own story and told it using a wide range of expressive vocabulary. She then recorded the story using fabric, looking carefully at the patterns and pictures to help her to communicate her meaning.
X’s Story
“Once upon a time there was a cat called ‘Gobolino’ with lots of sisters and brothers. ‘Gobolino’ went away to the beetles’ area, Gullancy; a gloomy seaside town. The beetles jumped out and jumped around her, then she went on walking around the woods. She saw spiders, she was scared. She walked on and she saw some bears, she was looking frightened then she walked on. She saw some berries and said, “yum yum here I come” and she licked her lips and gobbled them up by herself.”
Parents as Partners
This week we have explored activities with a Personal, Social and Emotional focus. We talked about a variety of feelings and looked at our faces in the mirror, exploring how our faces change when we experience different emotions. The children made their own ‘feelings faces’ thinking about linking experiences to feelings.
I’m making excited because… a baby brother soon!
Happy when Daddy coming back home!
When I get prickles on me… I so angry
We shared our core texts ‘Kind’ and ‘A Kiss Like This’ and the children talked about the people who are special to them and why. We built on our experiences using clay last week and practised the skill of rolling, adding in using a shape cutter to create a heart shape. The children used their fingers to make small indentations in the clay to make patterns. They thought carefully about who they would choose to gift their heart to!
Outdoors Learning
The weather was a force to be reckoned with this week! Some children have noticed and explored that when the chalk gets very wet it turns into paint! They have been using paintbrushes to paint on the wall and also used muddy water to paint on the shed. Some children enjoyed combining mud and water to make bubbly, muddy water! ‘It’s like lava!’ We experimented using a whisk to make the water even more bubbly. In the garden some children worked together to make a bird’s nest at the start of the week. They thought about how birds make their nests- first using twigs to make the circle shape and then adding in leaves ‘it needs to be soft for the babies!’
Staff Training
Jill and Natalia attended a flower arranging event as part of the Gateshead Festival of Compassion on Thursday. It was a privilege to learn a new skill with Lucy Gibbs of ‘Blooming Brave’ while keeping in mind the overall theme of the festival which is ‘expressing love to people who are dying, or caring for someone with a terminal illness, or grieving’
Staff from both Sidney Grove and our Deckham Nursery attended an Early Years Open Evening at Pennywell Early Years Centre on Thursday. It is always inspiring to visit other settings and to be able to make time to talk about ‘love, connection and wellbeing’ was so useful for staff and our future practice.
Next week we are looking forward to sharing some special celebrations with the children. Just a reminder that half-term week for term time children will be Monday 23rd February to Friday 27th February!
Have a lovely weekend!