This half term at Nursery we are exploring the plants and animals in our local environment, finding out about how they live and grow, and how we can take care of them.  We started this week by reading a lovely story, ‘The Extraordinary Gardener’ by Sam Boughton.  If you would like to hear it, click here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MLhaSCjFLE  In the story, Joe, a little boy with a ‘wild imagination’, plants a tiny apple seed, and with love and patience creates a more beautiful world for himself and his neighbours. We were inspired by the story to plant our own seeds, so despite the rather wet and windy weather we have all planted sunflower seeds this week – we will be looking after them indoors until the weather outside is a bit more agreeable!  We also had a look at one of Vincent van Gogh’s paintings of sunflowers together, studying the shapes and colours, and then had a go at our own ‘still life’ paintings of a vase of chrysanthemums.  We’re very proud of our creations!  Outside, we’ve been studying the plants and trees on our field and in Forest School, and we’ve enjoyed watching busy bees transferring pollen between the blossoms on our apple trees.