Growing area and hoop games!

Over the last couple of weeks, the pre school children have been observing the vegetables growing in the patches. After the weekend, Ollie went outside to take a look at them and very quickly noticed that the tomatoes had grown lots. He called his friends over and said, “Guys, take a look, the tomatoes have grown bigger and bigger”. A few of the children gathered round to take a look and Phoebe quickly realised that more vegetables had started to sprout. Phoebe asked her friends, “Do you think it could be garlic, or carrots, or cress?” Looking at the labels, Freddie said, “I think that says it’s cress, C, cress”. Izzy agreed, “Yes, you are right, look, c-r-e-ssss”. 

Basti, Otto and River engaged in some observational drawings of the vegetables. Otto started to draw the tomato plants and said, “Look, there are real tomatoes, tomatoes that we can eat for our lunch”. River continued with his drawing before going on to drawing a lunch box, letting his friends know, “This is going to be my school lunch box, and I am going to out the tomatoes in there”. 

Finley, Arthur and Megan enjoyed a bean bag and hoop colour matching game. Arthur collected all of the hoops and lay them in a line whilst Megan collected the bean bags. Megan shared the bags between them and Finley threw the blue one in to the blue hoop with Arthur cheering him on, “Well done, that’s right”. They all took it in turns to throw the correct colour bag in to the hoop, clapping each time it went in to the hoop. A few more friends went over to play and India said, “I have a good idea, I will lift the hoop and you have to throw it through, it will be fun”. This got the attention of even more friends who took it in turns to throw the bean bags brought the hole. 

Bear Hunts & Picnics!

One of the themes the toddlers have been exploring recently is July’s book of the month, ‘We’re going on a Bear Hunt’. One group activity the children took part in was creating a cave, just like the one where the bear is found in the story, out of papier-mâché. Maddie and Clara helped to stir the glue and water mixture together and dunk in the strips of paper, using both hands to combine it all. Evelyn watched on with a smile, not as keen to touch, but seemingly enjoying watching her friends, “Mix, mix, mix, they mixing it all up…it’s so messy!”. Tabitha and Cara got stuck in straight away, putting their hands into the bowl of paper and applying them to the cave. Cara patted both hands on top of the cave which made a splat sound, causing them both to erupt into giggles and say, “SPLAT” each time they patted a new strip of paper down.

A group of children enjoyed looking at the story together with some props from the story sack. Sebastian repeated some parts of the story as they turned through the pages, “Splash splash!” and “Squelch squelch!” before flipping to the page with the cave, which is where Jenson joined in and whispered, “Tiptoe, tiptoe, tiptoe” while holding his arms up by his sides and creeping on the spot. As they turned to the page with the bear Sebastian shouted, “AHHH ITS A BEAR!”, as Jenson screamed, triggering their other friends to scream and shout, “BEAR!” as well!Jenson smiled as his friends and said, “Again?” Before turning the page back to the bear causing them all to scream again.

Over the last two weeks, the children in the Under two’s room have been excited to explore the wide range of activities available to them. Inside, they were intrigued by a teacher laying masking tape on the floor, creating a track system. Lowen approached the activity and noticed a box of trains on the floor and said, “Look, trains!”, as he pointed down towards the box. Calvin came along and took a train out of the box, before walking towards the tracks laid out on the floor. Calvin’s friends watched on as he made the link between the trains and the tape tracks, and began guiding the train along the tracks. Lowen took his train and joined in next to Calvin, pushing his train gently along the tracks. Isabella sat down and said, “choo choo, trains, on train track!”, as she connected the carriages together to make a long train. 

On daily walks around the Imber court grounds , the children have become a lot more independent in their play, choosing what they would like to take with them and choosing how they play. On one of the days, the children chose to take a variety of balls on the walk and spent their time kicking, throwing and rolling them to each other. Lydia was running around, holding two footballs when she noticed that Alexandra did not have one of her own. Lydia walked over to her and gave her one ball saying, “Alex, Alex”. On another day, the children helped set up their picnic spot by laying down the blanket and handing out their water cups. Zakariya and Freya picked up a corner of the blanket and lifted it into the air, giggling. Zakariya said, “Put it down now, on floor”, which Freya repeated and said, “Down now”. After getting the picnic blanket down, the two celebrated with a high five and a smile, before settling down to a refreshing drink.  

Our Graduation Celebration!

This week marked graduation for our school leavers in the preschool room, and what a fantastic performance they put on for all their families! The last few weeks have been filled with lots of practice in preparation for the big day as the children learned their lines and songs. There has also been plenty of excited discussion about the performance and the costumes they would be wearing. Margot said “My Mummy and Daddy bought me a Crocodile costume!” River added “And I am going to be a Lion!” When the big day arrived the children were buzzing with anticipation and loved showing off their outfits and sitting down for their face paint. As their families began to arrive, the children sat with big smiles and waved as the play began. Everybody did a marvellous job with their words and songs before it was time to receive their graduation certificate and starting school book. It was amazing to see such a strong turnout from all who attended and it was lovely to see everyone stay behind to mingle with some food and drinks, and we should like to thank you!

The shows haven’t stopped there however, as the children have continued to recite their lines and sing their songs together as they play, and have even been making a stage with the big wooden blocks in the garden to re-enact their performance. Freddie said “We need a big stage to fit all of our friends!” Esme added one block and said “If I put my block here then I can sit here!” It’s great to see that the children enjoyed their play and we couldn’t be more proud of the show they were able to put on. We wish them all the best of luck as they transition to their schools.

Bocketts Farm Trip!

Over the last couple of weeks, the preschool children have been very excited on the build up to their trip to Bocketts Farm. The children have been taking part in many activities including engaging in imaginative play whilst playing with a farm animal set up. Ollie collected as many wooden blocks as he could possibly carry from one side of the garden to the other and started to build a little den for the animals. Tilly was intrigued and asked Ollie, “What are you making now Ollie?” To which Ollie went on to explain, “I have already made some houses for the horses but these animals need shelter from the hot sunshine, so I need to make a den to keep them safe”. This very quickly gained the attention of many others who all worked together to help make various home for different types of farm animals.

The children have also enjoyed a matching animal game where they were pairing the offspring to the adults. India found the piglet picture and instantly placed it with the pig, whilst Cora correctly identified that the kid was to match with the goat. When the children were satisfied that all of the animals were correctly together, they then enjoyed a phonics session, learning the first letter of all of the animals. When learning that a babies horse was called a foal and pronouncing the sound ‘F’, Francis excitedly called out, “F is for my name and Freddie and Finley!”.

On the day of the farm trip, the children were so excited about the whole day, but mostly about the tractor ride. As soon as the fun adventures of the coach were over, with many songs sung on the way, we arrived at the farm and the children were keen to see where we were going to have lunch. Gabriel straight away asked, “Is it lunch time now?” Which made his friends laugh. The tractor ride was lots of fun for the children, all of them looking around almost in amazement at everything could see around them. When getting to the pigs and piglets, Joseph said to Joshua, “They are so cute and small aren’t they!”. Jasper and Margot loved feeding the goats their animal food and each time the goat licked their hands to get the food, they were giggling away. Sienna was amazed by the baby goats, smiling at them each time they did something funny. The coach journey home was much quieter after a busy, fun packed day, with many children taking a short nap before getting back to nursery and discussing their favourite parts of the day with each other during afternoon tea.

Wet Play & Exploring Smells in the Garden!

The toddlers have been looking at the theme of ‘light and dark’ recently where they explored light play with torches and light up toys, as well as light and dark colours. The children had a range of coloured paint on the table, along with some white and black paint, brushes and plenty of paper. Maddie used her brush to swirl through all of the colours, excitedly point to her creation with her brush, “Mixing”. Elizabeth giggled at this and with a brush in each hand began splatting the different colours, as she noticed them mixing together she pointed to a large spread of paint, “It’s big pink!”. Lucy scooped up a big blob of paint and dropped it in front of her and began mixing in white and black and with a big smile commented, “It’s colours!”.

The toddlers went on a tour of the back of the garden, along the windy pathway and looking into each of the bird houses, bug hotels, habitat crates and planters. As a group of them stopped at one of the vegetable planters Tabitha leaned over for a closer look and saw something crawling beside her, she shouted “SPIDER!” while pointing to signal to her friends where it was. Sebastian replied, “Woah it is a spider…. it’s alright, I like spiders”. Clara pointed to a tomato plant at the back of the planter and asked, “What’s that?”, Jenson leaned in close and tilted his head to the side, looking at it from all angles before stating, “It’s a tree”. Further along the trail, the children pointed out the pictures of a ladybird, worm, snail and slug before ending up at the herb garden. Immediately knowing what to do Skandar, Theo and Evelyn leaned in close and took a deep breath in through their nose. Phoebe joined them and said, “I want to smell it!” as she reached her hand towards a mint leaf. She gently rubbed the leaf between her fingers before letting go and bringing her hand up to her nose to smell, “Mmm it smells yummy!”.

Over the last couple of weeks, the under 2’s have been exploring the pipe wall in the garden with a range of items including balls, water, and cars! Freya approached and picked up one of the balls, whilst Zavier observed for a short while before also approaching and letting out a little ‘Ooo’ as he curiously watched to see what would happen. Freya stretched up and dropped the ball at the top of the pipes, clapping her hands and watching intently as it began to roll down the tubes. When the ball reached a point where it got stuck, Freya gasped and nudged it forward to get it moving along the pipes again. 

The under 2’s have also loved splashing around in the water to cool off as the weather has warmed up! Lyra ran over and jumped straight in, shouting ‘Splash!’ as she did so, whilst Lydia who was already in the water giggled along with her. Calvin ran over to join in with the fun, laughing as he scooped up a handful of water and sprinkled it over his friends, which made them all laugh. Whilst out exploring the grounds, the under 2’s were very excited to see the ducks come out of the river heading towards them. Lowen clapped excitedly, and began to shout ‘Quack quack’ as they began to enjoy the duck food. Isabella let out a quiet ‘wow’ and then clapped her hands with a big smile on her face.