Caterpillar Visitors & Weighing Scales!

Over the last couple of weeks, the preschool children have been very excited to be able to track the life cycle of a butterfly. When the caterpillars arrived, Margot was eager to take a look at what they looked like, asking, “Are they spiky, or are they hairy and fluffy?”. When taking a closer look, Francis picked up one of the magnifying glasses and, after taking a close look, offered a turn to Margot and said, “If you look closely, their legs are so small!” and started to count them alongside his friends. Once the caterpillars were all placed safely in their individual pots, Ollie asked, “What is that brown stuff on the bottom?” Sadie correctly answered, “That’s their dinner, they can eat that when they are hungry”. Phoebe laughed and said, “Ewww, that wouldn’t taste nice!”. 

The children were engaged in many activities throughout the week with the focus of caterpillars and butterflies including sculpting their own eggs, caterpillars, cocoons and butterflies using play dough. Gabriel rolled play dough out using his hand and when it was too long for his hand to control any more, he started to laugh and said, “It’s too tickly!”. He then showed his friends, “Look, I made a caterpillar”. Some of the preschool children also enjoyed making their own version of the story book The Very Hungry Caterpillar. They each drew their favourite parts of the story and then gathered the pictures together to make their own version of the story. 

Outside in the garden, the children have loved exploring the new weighing scales. Collecting sand to fill up the buckets, Otto and Sebastian lifted one each, Otto very quickly placing his back down and said, “I think this one is too heavy for me” to which Sebastian replied, “That’s ok, I can help you with my big muscles”. Working together to lift the bucket on to the end of one side of the scales, Ethan and Arlo lifted the other bucket and placed it on the other end. Leo quizzed them, “So which one do you think is the heaviest?” He praised the children when they selected the bucked that was closest to the floor. Freddie reassured them, “I know we are right because that one is lower down”. Harry quickly got to work collecting more sand for the lightest bucket and slowed down when he saw they were almost matching. 

The toddlers have loved watching the caterpillars as they’ve been slowly growing over the last couple of weeks, especially now as they’ve started to make their way up onto the lid of their pots to cocoon themselves. The children have been learning all about how a caterpillar transitions into a butterfly by looking at the story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Sebastian joined in with nearly every word of the book, “He ate through four strawberries… was STILL HUNGRY!”. This made Tabitha laugh and repeat the word, “Strawberry”. Once the story was finished, the toddlers had a look at some of the caterpillars in their pots, Jenson patted his hands on his knees and said “Hands in lap”, showing that he was ready to look at the caterpillars and wasn’t going to touch them. Henry squealed as the caterpillars were brought closer to him and leaned in as close as he could with a beaming smile. Arlo pointed his finger at a particularly wiggly caterpillar and smiled, giving a little “Oh” as it gave a particularly big wiggle. The children are all so excited to see them turn into butterflies!

Over the last couple of weeks, the under 2’s have been full of excitement watching the caterpillars fill up their tummies and grow bigger and bigger each day! When the caterpillars first arrived, the children inspected the tiny little creatures. Sophia, Lydia and Calvin were the first to inspect and came for a very close look. Lydia pointed at the caterpillars and smiled as she looked around, intrigued by the wriggly creatures inside. Sophia also let out loads of giggles alongside Lydia, as she knelt down and looked closer into the jar. Her imagination sparked trying to see what could possibly be making all of those funny wriggly moves. Lowen and Calvin were spotted pointing in fascination at the tiny jars on the table, making lots of ‘Oooh!’ sounds, as this might’ve been the first time seeing such big, hungry caterpillars in person! While a little reluctant to investigate at first, Freya soon warmed up to the idea of the caterpillars, especially after seeing how interested Lowen and Calvin were. She showed everybody how brave she was by moving herself closer to the jars, admiring how amazing the caterpillars truly were. Zakariya showed everyone how excited he was to see caterpillars for the first time too, by saying ‘caterpillar’ while having a big smile beaming across his face.

Colour Hunt & Exploring the Fields!

Over the last few weeks one of the themes the toddlers have explored is colours, where they were able to experiment with colour mixing with different paints, sort some of the favourite toys into colour groups and challenge themselves with a fishing game in the water tray, trying to catch specific colours of fish with their stick fishing rods. One activity that the children enjoyed was a rainbow sensory tray with a variety of coloured toys, pom-poms, pipe cleaners and feathers among other textured items. Eliza approached and looked at the items in the tray before selecting a small piece of ribbon, which she slowly traced over the palm of her hand. Evelyn picked up a ‘nut a bolt’ toy, immediately recognising the colour, “This one’s yellow”, looking up to see that Jenson had picked up the same toy in the same colour, “Oh, Jenson’s got the same as Evie, he’s got a yellow one too” causing them to have a little giggle. However the thing that got the most laughs from all of the children at the activity was the discovery of the feathers! Jenson gasped as he picked up a feather, seemingly knowing what he was going use the it for, and gently stroked it over Eliza’s face. She pulled back, shocked for a second before squealing and picking up a feather to tickle her own face. Evelyn saw this and grabbed her own feather too, making her way around the tray tickling each of her friends, causing them to erupt into giggles!

One afternoon in the garden a group of the children playing in the sand pit,rolling cars and boats down a large tube, noticed that the outside of the tube made a noise if it has something dragged across it. This then led to an impromptu music session where a mix of the toddler and preschool children had their own sticks and began dragging them up and down the ribbed tube and requesting songs to sing. Along to the renditions of ‘Baa baa black sheep’, ‘Twinkle twinkle’ and many others Emily dragged her stick back and forth along the tube with a smile while Madeline wiggled to the beat of the music. The preschoolers tapped their sticks to make a beat and Theo used his hands to run up and down the end of the tube, giving a small round of applause at the end of each song. 

Over the last couple of weeks, the under 2s have been having an absolute blast and it’s been full of challenges, fun and laughter. Inside, the builders tray filled with sand and farm animals was a very popular activity. Calvin took inspiration from his friend and carefully built his own sand mound and checked to make sure he was doing it just right. And Emilia and Freya? What a team! They were having a smashing time (literally!) with the farm animals, lifting them up and banging them back down into the sand. 

Outside, the car and track tray was a big hit where Lowen and Lyra were so focused, carefully guiding their cars down the taped tracks. It was lovely to see them working together and problem solving. Lydia's little cheers and claps every time a car made it across made everyone happy! Our daily walks have been a lot of fun, especially with this lovely weather. Zakariya's face lit up when he spotted a flock of birds flying overhead, pointing and shouting "Bird, bird!", and with Sophia's clapping and excitement right alongside him. After snack time had finished, the children were free to explore the field, and could choose to run around, play football or play with the toy animals. 

It has been a lovely couple of weeks, filled with learning, laughter and lots of happy little faces. 

World Book Day!

All the children looked amazing this week dressed up as characters from their favourite books!

The pre school children were all very excited on the lead up to World Book Day and enjoyed engaging in many activities around some of their favourite stories throughout the week such as Snail and the Whale play dough, Elmer Duplo designs and making various habitats for the animals from Dear Zoo. As well as learning about various authors, Julia Donaldson being very popular, Leo was also keen to know, “But who drew all of those pictures?” When being told that an illustrator designs the pictures in a story, Margot was keen to let her friends know that, “Do you know that Axel Scheffler draws the Gruffalo pictures?” This led to Otto, Esme and Basti calling out all out the Julia Donaldson stories they were familiar with. The children were all so excited to show each other their outfits and Harry was so happy to see the Elmer duplo colour design activity which he laughed and said, “That looks just like me”, pointing to his own Elmer outfit. The pre school children also took part in being an author and illustrator themselves and design their own small story books to take home and share with their families. Once Blair had finished her story, she flicked through all of the pages and told her friends, “I think my mummy and daddy will love this”.

Inside, a group of children took it in turns to sit in their new quiet hide out in the book corner. Ollie was guiding two children at a time and after a few moments, was instructing, “You sit here” pointing to the sofa and then was selecting two more children to have their turn. Whilst sitting in there, Margaux was showing a book to Arthur which he was very excited to see the letter A in the book and excitedly called out, “A, A for Arthur!

In the lead up to world book day the toddlers got to enjoy some lovely activities based on their favourite books, including a ‘The very hungry caterpillar’ themed sensory tray where the children got to use spoons and scoops to feed some cardboard caterpillars. Sienna held up her caterpillar and said “This one is big!” with a big smile. Henry enjoyed putting the spoon into the caterpillars mouth and giggled each time it came out empty. When Thursday arrived the toddlers kicked off the day by excitedly greeting each other as they all arrived in their outfits. As Evelyn walked in Cara and Emily immediately recognised who she was dressed as and shouted “GRUFFALO!”. Then Tabitha arrived in her orange onesie and Clara knew straight away, pointing and saying “Zog!” The children’s wonderful outfits ranged from ‘Spot the dog’ to ladybirds, from superman to Spider-Man and even a penguin. Outside the children began making their own books. They had a range of materials including, pencils, pens, paint dabbers and stickers. Sebastian used the dabbers and pencils to make marks on his book, finishing it off with some stickers saying “This one is a face… it’s happy”.  Meanwhile Skandar enjoyed looking through the books that were on the table before making his own, flipping between the Gruffalo and Stickman. At the end of the day the children sat down to look through some story sacks of more of their favourites, such as, ‘Big yellow digger’ and ‘The Gruffalo’. With all of the characters and props inside the sacks, the toddlers were able to tell the stories all together. 

 The under 2’s have very much enjoyed their world book day and were so very excited  excitement to see each other’s costumes. After welcoming children dressed as Postman Bear and the Gruffalo, the children got a huge surprise as one of their friends walked in dressed as The Tiger Who Came To Tea. Lyra rushed over to see Isabella and pointed as she said, “Tiger, tiger, roar!”. This attracted the attention of her friend Zakariya. He moved around having a good look at the tiger costume and came across the tail, pointing and saying “Ohh!”.  The children adored exploring each others costumes and especially shouting “Roar!” whenever the tiger who came to tea was around! 

Owl Babies, Mixing Bubbles & Visiting Ducks!

Over the last couple of weeks, the toddlers have been delving into February’s book of the month, ‘Owl babies’. The children made their own forest scene with paint and sticks, used natural items collected on walks to create their own owl nests. They also made their own family of owls with paint and collage items, and with play dough in a separate activity. Sienna picked up two googly eyes and pressed them in her dough saying, “These are his eyes so he can see!”, before poking her fingers into the dough to creates small holes, “This is his mouth and one for the baby”. Leo carefully poked lolly sticks into the dough and laid pipe cleaners across the top, while Cara used a rolling pin to make it “big”. The toddlers absolutely loved the story sack for Owl babies, which included a large ‘Mummy owl’ puppet and three small baby owls. As the story was read the children were able to hold and pass round the props. Tabitha held the small owl close and gave it a big cuddle, while Henry held his one in his hands before bringing it to his mouth for a kiss with a small “Mwah”. Jenson held the mummy owl puppet on his arm and waved it slowly up and down, as if flying the owl through the sky. 

Outside, the children had a whale of a time chasing bubbles. A small group took turns helping to make the bubble mixture, pouring water from a jug and squeezing out some washing up liquid into a bowl. They then began helping to “Mix, mix, mix”, which they chanted in a chorus, recognising the phrase from one of their favourite stories ‘Ready, steady, Dig’. After squeezing in some washing up liquid, pouring in a jug of water and giving it a mix, Sebastian said “Can I blow the bubbles now? Is it Sebby’s turn?”. He gave a squeal of delight when he blew his first bubble, laughing as he popped it with his finger. Skandar dipped his wand in the mixture and brought it up to his face, getting ready to blow, when the end of the wand bopped him on the nose, leaving some bubbles. He let out a big beaming smile and little giggle, causing the other nearby children to laugh too. After blowing some bubbles, Phoebe walked away and said “I blow bubbles like this” re-enacting how she blew the bubbles, followed by “..and I caught it in my hands” while holding her hands together. 

Over the last couple of weeks the Under 2’s have loved getting involved in a large range of activities, as well as making the most of a couple of slightly warmer days outside! The Under 2’s have loved playing with the indoor sandpit and using a variety of toys within it, including some blocks. As the blocks were placed into the sand, Giulia watched for a moment before coming over to assist, carefully choosing the blocks from the box and dropping them into the sand. Zakariya clapped happily at this, letting out a quiet ‘wow’ as he watched Giulia scoop up the sand in one of the blocks and sprinkle it carefully back into the tray.

Whilst out on the daily walks, the Under 2’s had the opportunity to get a closer look at the ducks and geese as they came and joined them on the field. After sprinkling a few handfuls of food on the field, the children waited patiently as they watched them slowly approaching from the other side of the path. As they got closer to the area where the food was sprinkled and began to peck it, Lowen and Calvin looked at each other happily and both let out a little ‘ooo’ noise. As more ducks approached, Lydia smiled happily and began to approach them, turning back after a couple of steps with a giggle. Finlay began exploring the more immediate area, before peering into the buggies and starting to pull out the toy animals, handing them out kindly to his friends, keeping an elephant for himself to play with. After happily exploring the fields and the birds, the babies came back to nursery and happily tucked into their tea! 

Animals & Numbers in Nature!

Over the last couple of weeks, the preschool children have been learning about various species of animals and their natural habitats. The children have had the opportunity to explore jungle dens with elephants, tigers and lions as well as farm small world areas. One activity they had the most fun getting stuck into was a cornflour “under the sea” tray activity. India was pushing one of the boats around the sea creatures and when the boat got stuck, she very quickly realised it was because the cornflour had started to set. She picked up two handfuls of the cornflour, clenched her fists tight and then released her fingers. She started to laugh which caught the attention of her friends who all then watched, almost in amazement, as the hard cornflour instantly turned to liquid and started to drip through India’s fingers. Soon enough the other children joined in, giggling whilst the cornflour seeped through their fingers. Amelie looked at Esme and said, “It tickles doesn’t it?” Esme responded, “But I like it, it feels funny”. The children started their own game and as a group they were counting “1, 2, 3” and picking up the cornflour. They were then clenching their fists with the cornflour in their grasp as tight as they could and again began to count, this time backwards, “5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Go!” releasing their hands and really laughing when the cornflour melted in their hands. 

Whilst out on a walk around the nursery grounds, the preschool children were on a nature letter hunt. Otto looked up in the sky and had seen a circular shaped cloud had formed and excitedly called out, “That’s on O! O for Otto!”. Sebastian had seen the number 5 on a road sign and explained to his friends, “That is a number 5, but it looks a little bit like a S for me”. Upon arriving to the map of the grounds, the children were pointing up at the board and was able to identify several numbers on the board.

When back at nursery, a letter and shape sorting activity with sticks, leaves, bark and stones had a large group of children engaged. Whilst Ethan made a letter E with some sticks, Freddie made a dinosaur skeleton outline with sticks and leaves. Finding a split stick, he placed it at the top of his dinosaur shape and said, “That’s the dinosaurs big mouth so he can eat lots of leaves from the trees”. Margot and Tilly used some of the smaller stones to accurately spell out all of the letters in their names, Margot reassuring Tilly, “That’s very good Tilly, it says your name”, giving her a gentle pat on her back, which made Tilly smile.