Healthy Body Happy Me!

Over the last week, the Pre school children have had the opportunity to join in with many activities to support ‘Healthy body, Happy me’ week. During group times, the children have been discussing the importance of looking after their bodies and how they are able to do so. Some of the children were suggesting which exercises they could do such as jogging, stretching, Yoga and even “Pilates like my mummy”. Some other children were debating between themselves which foods are healthy to eat and which foods are not so healthy. This quickly turned the conversation on to which snacks the children like to eat and when one of the children suggested a biscuit, another child reminded them, “But you mustn’t eat too many of them because they have sugar in them”. The children engaged in an activity where they were able to identify foods from the home corner that they thought should be in the healthy column and which foods belong in the unhealthy foods column. One of the children looked at the unhealthy column and suggested, “But it is ok if we eat those foods sometimes, we just can’t eat them all of the time”.

Throughout the week, the children have joined in with many exercise classes, observing the effects of exercise on their bodies. After a short spout of exercising one day, some of the children held their hands to their chest and laughed together as they detected their heart beat and how fast it was beating. Remembering a previous conversation, one of the children suggested, “Remember if you take a deep breath and breathe out, your heart will slow down again, that’s because you get more air in your lungs”. When the children followed these instructions, they were soon enough ready to get going again and again, each time detecting their heart rate when they took a break. 

As well as many activities and conversations surrounding the physical side of our bodies, the children have been discussing their emotions and what makes them feel a certain type of emotion and then following up with what they think they could do to help with each emotion. The story book ‘The Colour Monster’ was used many times throughout these discussions where the children were able to identify a colour in relation to an emotion and letting each other know which colour they felt and what made them feel this way. The children were able to identify many emotions including happy, excited, worried and sad and listened intently to their friends when they spoke about how they felt. 

Caterpillars!

Over the last couple of weeks the toddlers have been very excited at the arrival of some tiny caterpillars that they will get to watch as they go through the cycle of cocooning and turning into a butterfly. A small group of children gathered around a table to get an up close look of the caterpillars, sitting on their knees and resting their faces against the table to be eye level with them.  They watched quietly with intrigue as their eyes moved across the pots of caterpillars when all of a sudden one of the caterpillars moved, eliciting squeals of excitement from a few children and a comment of, “Ahhh he’s moving” followed by another child joining in with a statement of, “He’s so wiggly… like this” as they give a little giggle on the spot. Later on in the week the children were making their own wiggly caterpillars with sticks and pipe cleaners, winding the pipe cleaners around the sticks and adding eye stickers. One child began stroking their caterpillar once they had finished making it, “Ooh, it’s so soft” and invited their friend to feel it too as they giggled together. They then took their caterpillars to the nature tray where they began wiggling them amongst the grass and over the logs.

The Toddlers have been loving their spring themed walks around the Imber Court grounds where they have been making their own nature frames and bracelets. The children who chose to make bracelets so had some tape placed around their coat clad wrist with the sticky side out and those who chose to make the frame held onto their cardboard shapes with a sticky centre as they all began foraging for items to attach to them. A few children began adding fallen leaves to their creation while a couple found a small collection of daisies and purple flowers which they carefully began plucking and very carefully pressing down onto their bracelets and frames. One child was very happy with their bracelet and showed it to all of their friends, “I got so many pretty flowers” while another child held up their frame, “look I made this with all its leaves on.”

Over the last couple of weeks the under 2s have been exploring colours through a range of different activities. One of the activities the children got very involved with was body painting where they were able to explore the texture of the paint using tools or different parts of their bodies, including their hands and feet. The children had a selection of canvases to choose from including paper, cardboard, and themselves! A couple of the children quickly worked out how to create their own hand and footprints and did a great job painting their hands and feet and pressing them down to create their art. Some of the other children preferred to use the range of tools they were offered, and did a great job mixing the different colours together to see what they could create. One of the children created a handprint and then looked up with a smile, before pointing back at it and shouting “Red!’. Another child followed this up by pointing to a footprint and shouted “Blue!”, which led to the children making their way along the pots of paint and correctly identifying each of the colours. The children have also shown their fantastic knowledge of colours through coloured play dough, which they managed to correctly name. A couple of the children took it a step further by exploring the room until they found the duplo blocks, rifling through them until they found a colour that matched the play dough. The children were encouraged to continue this as the box of blocks were brought over to the play dough,  and they continued to match the blocks to the coloured dough. 

Out in the garden, the children have been exploring the new tube which has been added to the sandpit. Some of the children picked up the tube at each end, and began to peer at each other through, giggling. They followed this up by shouting down “Hello!” to each other through the tube, before dropping it whilst laughing. Some of the other children brought over a selection of balls which they began to drop down the tube, lifting up one end and clapping as they came out the other end. After successfully dropping down a few of the different balls, one of the children tried to feed through a larger ball, and a small group gathered and watched in confusion at why the ball wouldn’t go down the tube. When one of the practitioners let them know that it was too big, a few of the children echoed “Too big”, before going back to the smaller balls. 

Mother's Day Tea Party!

The preschool children have been so excited in the build up to this years Mothers Day Tea Party and have been hard at work creating gifts and cards, as well as busy baking blueberry muffins for their Mummies. The children helped to weigh the ingredients before mixing them together, ready to be placed in muffin cases and baked in the oven. Conversations were flowing with comments of, “I can’t wait for my Mummy to eat her muffin!” and “Yeah, they are going to be so yummy!” The excitement continued to build as all the decorations went up around the nursery with children asking, “Are the flags for the party?” And pointing to the vases of flowers “I like the flowers!”

It was lovely to see such a great turnout this year, and the excitement amongst the children was palpable. There were lots of smiles and cheers as the children saw their Mummies arrive, followed by cuddles before heading to find some food. The party was filled with lots of socialising, activities and exploring. There were shouts of “My Mummy is here!” whilst others preferred to take full advantage of the buffet on offer in the preschool room! Thank you to everybody who was able to attend for making it another great Mothers Day Party; we can’t wait for the next event.

The toddlers were visibly excited for the party and for their mummies to come and play, talking about it for almost the whole week leading up to the tea party. In the days before, the toddlers painted and helped to string up bunting to decorate the room, carefully crafted their own Mother’s Day cards and painted their own pot which they filled with soil and planted some seeds in. As the afternoon began and the party music started there were lots of excited rumblings of, “My mummy’s coming now!” and “It’s nearly party time!” along with some squeals and giggles. As the Mummies began coming through the door the children’s smiles were beaming, with lots off cuddles. A lot of the toddlers gave their Mummies a tour of the whole nursery, exploring all of the rooms and resources, often ending up at the food table enjoying a plate of sandwiches and fruit. A couple of children showed their Mummies the garden, showing off how they use the balance beams and build sandcastles, as well as climb on the A-frames, jumping down with applause from their proud parents.

All week the Under 2s have been very busy crafting their Mummies a homemade gift and card. Each child took it in turns to print ‘footprint’ petals on their flower pots whilst choosing what colour they would like next. Some children were even able to talk about their Mummy whilst decorating. The our topic of conversation during morning circle time was about Mummies and one of the older children sat down and said, “For Mumma”, and then went on to say, “See Mummy, after sleep”. On Thursday afternoon, the children helped choose some of their favourite activities to set up for them and their Mummies. This included, a drawing table, cars on the car mat and Noah’s Ark with animals. Once the children’s Mummies began to arrive, each child greeted them with a huge smile and got stuck straight in with showing them around their room and introducing them to their new friends. 

World Book Day 2026!

The pre school children have been very excited to celebrate World book day this week and have been dressing up in wonderful outfits throughout the week including princesses, The Gruffalo, Tabby McTat, pirates and of course a couple of superheroes. The children have engaged in many story themed activities throughout the week such as creating 3D Elmer by using the coloured duplo blocks, dinosaur themed role play whilst creating their own helicopter stories and have also become authors and illustrators themselves, creating a story alongside some pictures in their individual homemade story books. The children have been very excited on the build up to their dress up day, discussing with each other what their outfits are going to be and couldn’t wait to show them off to each other. Whilst some children grouped off to join in with various story themed activities, some other children enjoyed a sing along to frozen whilst showing off their dancing and lovely singing to ‘Let it go’. At group times, the children have been exploring some of their favourite story books and using many story sacks to bring their stories to life. 

The toddlers were so excited for world book day and to see all of their friends dressed up. There were dragons, fairies, Paddington bears, Little Red Riding Hood, and many more! The children greeted each other with happy smiles and excited squeals as they recognised their characters. The children loved getting to read many of their favourite stories and explore lots of story sacks, using the different props and characters to role play. A few children retold the ‘Day monkey, Night Monkey’ story with the different characters; using lots of animal sounds to make the animals speak to each other, there was lots of ‘ribbiting’ for frogs and ‘oo oo ah ah’ for the monkeys. They also got to make their own stories with comments of, “I’m making a story for my mummy” and “mines got a dragon”. 

The under 2s celebrated World Book Day with lots of different stories and a “Handa’s surprise” themed food tasting. Whilst out on the daily walks, a group of the children excitedly sat down to listen as they saw the stories being taken from inside the buggies. They all sat very nicely as they listened to “3 little pigs”, “the wheels on the bus”, and “love”, joining in where they knew the words. 

The children did a great job exploring the feel and taste of lots of different fruits during the food tasting, including mango, passion fruit, and avocado. A couple of the children tucked straight in when they saw the avocado, with one shouting “Cado!”, and another giving the word ‘avocado’ their best shot! A couple of other children were more wary of the avocado, and a lot of them were slightly hesitant to try the passion fruit, however after a little bit of encouragement they all tried each of the fruits, and some of them polished off every tasty piece!

Garden Explorers, Tea Parties & Tracking!

Recently the toddlers have been delving into role play and hosting many a tea party for themselves and their friends, as well as for the dolls. A few children approached a beautiful table set up with a table cloth, napkins, plates, bowls, cups, cutlery and food, and sat themselves on the surrounding cushions before taking on their hosting duties. When one of the children brought over an armful of dolls and placed them at each of the plates the other children began feeding them. There were lots of sounds of, “Num num num” and “Mmm!” as they began emulating eating noises whilst holding food up to the dolls mouths. After food time, it was nap time, and the dolls were lowered to the cushions and gently patted to sleep by the toddlers. The children have also loved their new cosy hiding nook with many of them pairing up to venture inside and hide behind the curtain with a story or a few toys. Two children took some dolls inside along with some of the doctor’s kits and made themselves comfortable, pulling out the thermometer and stethoscope, saying “We being doctors”. It’s also been an excellent place for some of the children to play peek-a-boo, as they hide behind the curtain and pop out with a roar, or peek through the small hole on the side and surprise their friends with a giggle! 

One of the sounds the toddlers have been looking at recently is the ‘T’ sound, with one of the activities that this led to was to search the Imber Court grounds for tracks in the grass. A group of children set off for the field and were amazed to find some rather large tracks, big enough to have puddles in! This triggered instant shouts and points of, “Tractor tractor!” as some of the children worked out what had left the large tracks, while another child suggested it was a “Little car”. After bending down and taking a closer look in the grooves and waving to their reflections in the small puddles, they began walking along the lengths of the grooves of the track, stepping through the squishy mud and splashing in the puddles. There were comments of “So squishy!” and “Squelchy!” as the children stepped through the track, as well as a few shouts of, “Stuck” or “Help!” as the occasional welly got stuck in the mud!

Over the last couple of weeks, the children in the under two’s room have been exploring their bigger home corner and it’s new additions. After breakfast one morning, a few children spotted some familiar faces in the home corner. Each child now has their own portrait, framed and up on the wall inside their own little home. A small group of children began to point and name the children in the photos, along with spotting their own photo. As they’re attached to the wall with Velcro, the children are able to take them down and examine them closer, as well as moving them around on the wall. The children have also been eager to take part in our daily messy activity, including making a gooey pancake batter using flour and water, as well as a chia seed slime using chia seeds mixed with water. A child spotted the chia seed slime in the tray from across the room and shouted, “Look!”, as they approached. This sparked the attention of the other children who also came over for a look. At first the children used the scoops and spoons to explore the slime, whilst others went straight in with their hands, feeling the interesting texture. A child looked at their friend and said, “Cold, cold!” as they pushed their hand down into the slime further. Once they had pulled their hand out, it was covered in chia seeds. They held their hand in the air to show everyone and said, “Wow! Monster!” and giggled waving their hands around. 

Whilst out and about, we have also noticed the children wanting to explore things further as their minds develop with curiosity. One morning, a few children showed signs of wanting to explore the toddler and preschool garden by pointing over the fence. Since it was a very quiet morning, the gates were opened and off they went into this big, exciting space. Excitement took over as they ran to see what they could find, some choosing the tree house and some heading straight over to the giant sand pit. The route to the tree house involves a path way through an archway covered in greenery, which must have seemed like a jungle for our little under twos! A few of the children began their journey through the jungle and made their way to the tree house, taking one step at a time and smiling with friends. As they got to the bottom of the tree house steps, they were given a helping hand up by a teacher and cheered together, smiling and waving from the top. To celebrate their huge achievement, the children took part in a circle time sing-along involving their favourite song, Hammer Hammer.