We have had lots of lovely feedback from so many of you about our Rainbow Fish display – thank you so much for taking the time to share this feedback with us and for taking a moment or two in the mornings to talk about the display with your child.   It has been wonderful to see the children’s reactions when they have spotted their Mer-Child swimming alongside the Rainbow Fish!

This week, we encouraged the children to develop further ownership of the display by adding a coral reef to the ocean floor.  This is a work-in-progress and we will be adding more shiny material, fabrics and coral creations next week.

To develop the children’s understanding of what this particular ocean habitat looks like, we have been watching a lovely video and song called ‘Bubbles on the Reef’ which has been taking us on a mesmerising journey under the sea.  You might like to re-watch it at home:

With Father’s Day in mind, our Splish, Splash, Splosh stories this week focused on getting out and about with our families.  We loved the story of Mr Gumpy’s Outing; Mr Gumpy accepts more and more passengers on his boat until the inevitable happens and they all end up in the water!  The children came up with some fantastic problem-solving ideas for Mr Gumpy, including “he can get a bigger boat” and “he needs a long boat”.

You can revisit the story here and, as always, I’d recommend turning the sound off and reading the story yourself.  What do you think Mr Gumpy should do next time?

We also re-read a firm favourite; ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ which follows a family on a sensory adventure as they head out together to hunt for a bear!

You can revisit it here and, this time, I would actually recommend you leave the sound on as the story is read by its author, the fantastic children’s novelist and poet Michael Rosen:

Thinking about our wonderful Daddies, we have also been busy working on a surprise for Father’s Day which each child should have brought home yesterday in a brown envelope.  Without giving anything away, I can tell you the surprise we made involved painting our hands!

Have a wonderful Father’s Day everyone whether out and about or tucked up at home.  The weather forecast is for yet more rain, so if you do head out on a bear hunt, don’t forget your wellies!