Owl Babies – A Nurturing, Nature Inspired Story

Our book of the month might just be the perfect warm and cosy antidote to the colder November days. Owl Babies by Martin Waddell is a gentle story all about kindness and caring for others. It brings to life (in a beautifully simple way), the deep unbreakable bonds of family love. We’ve snuggled down to read all about this family of baby owls and their frightened feelings when they wake up to find their mum isn’t in their nest. This heart-warming tale reassures and comforts children as they finally see the owl babies’ mother return. This story helps remind children that loved ones are always there for them.  We love this book and how it encourages kids to talk about their feelings and family! We flew from the owl babies’ tree to exploring our own family trees as we compared where we live and what was similar (or different) to the owl babies’ nest. We then extended our learning at forest school as we explored the different habitats of animals. We designed and built our own nests and used natural materials to make owl babies too! It’s been a hoot!

 

November’s National Days and Celebrations

We love celebrating exciting days and dates that teach us about the wonderful world we live in. Mix these with activities and crafts that really engage little minds and you can see why we’ve had a blast this November. Bonfire Night was ablaze with super sensory fun as we filled the POD with the gorgeous aroma of chocolate apples and treacly parkin. With a trip back in time to learn about the historical significance of this date, we then got busy making the prettiest firework painting that whizzed, popped and banged some colour to our POD!  We took some time-out to be mindful on Remembrance Day, when we chose to think about people we love and how we can remember those that aren’t with us anymore. We looked at the significance of the poppy and had lots of junk-modelling fun crafting our own 3D poppies from egg cartons and other recycled materials. Diwali’s festival of light was a beautiful opportunity to welcome our guest Cathy from REonDemand as she introduced us to the Hindu story of Rama and Sita. We explored Diwali’s warm lamps that chase away darkness and we all enjoyed how this bright story teaches us that love and light always wins over darkness. To celebrate St Andrews Day, we got involved in some super Scottish traditions like Ceilidh (traditional Scottish dancing), Scottish poetry, designing our own tartan and of course sampling some Scottish food!

 

Getting a Kick Out of Kindness

World Kindness Day (13^th November) was the perfect time to bring to life two of our favourite things – friendship and kindness! We made lots of colourful posters and talked about what friendship is and what it means to be a good friend to someone. As part of building strong friendships in our POD community, we looked at celebrating everyone’s individuality through Odd Socks Day. This initiative which is part of the Anti-Bullying Alliance, encourages acceptance, tolerance, and awareness that everyone is different! Embracing our uniqueness is oh so important for building self-esteem and strong friendships - so, in true POD style we went to town making our very own odd socks! The results were fantastic! We then pulled out all the spots for Children in Need (17^th November) as we extended our kindness to others by raising money for this fabulous charity. From bake sales in our PJ’s raising much needed pennies to Pudsey-inspired POD fun and games like going on a spot hunt and of course our terrific teddy bears picnic, we had a spot-tacular time. The best bit? Everything we did was helping our kids learn the positive impact they can have on the world around them.

 

Exploring the Magic of Maths with Number Confidence Week

We can’t get enough of activities that make us love maths even more than we already do! Number confidence week (6^th- 10^th November) is a great way to demonstrate to kids that maths is EVERYWHERE. So, amidst all the many activities and celebrations we had going on, we snuck in some marvellous maths magic too! Bonfire night had us making some spectacular fire, rocket and firework pictures from shapes like triangles and squares. We encouraged lots of counting – whether that was of toffee apples or spots from all our Children in Need fun. We looked at patterns and lines in our Tartan designs and talked about numbers when we were weighing and measuring in the kitchen making some of our favourite foods. From getting outside to play sports, counting points and goals and adding up the scores, to singing those catchy math-themed songs we love, we made maths a major part of everything! Math-tastic eh!

 



November really has been an amazing month of activities all cosily wrapped up in the things we value the most – kindness, friendship and celebrating the community we are part of. Caring for one another is what the POD has at its heart. With Christmas just around the corner, we’ve been as busy as Santa’s elves getting a sleighful of activities, learning and of course, fun, planned! We can’t wait to get started!