Cosy Books and Settling into Winter!

The toddlers have been loving stories recently, even more so than usual, and have started to gather in groups in the book corner and other cosy areas of the room to read together. During free play, a couple of children sat themselves down with a story, then a few more, and then a few more, until every child was sat looking at a book. In one area two children were pointing and smiling at a dragon in a story, while a few other children began swapping their books once they had finished looking at them, “Here go, I have that one now.. you take this”. On the other side of the book corner one child had a book held open to three friends and began telling them all the story of “Zog”.

One morning, a few of the toddlers were taking part in different activities inside toddler room when all of a sudden it was noticed that through the doors to the garden there were large flakes floating down from the skies. As soon as the words “ITS SNOWING!” were announced they all ran outside in excitement and wonder, looking up to the skies with big smiles. After being quickly wrapped up warm in coats, hats and gloves there was no stopping them. A couple of the children began running laps of the garden with big beaming smiles and squeals of excitement while a few others moved more slowly, watching the snowflakes fall and holding out their hands to catch them. There was lots of giggles and comments of “There’s one on my nose!” and “There’s one your head!” as they all pointed out where the snow was landing. Meanwhile, another group of toddlers were on a walk around the Imber court grounds and had a whale of a time running around on the field in the snow, catching the flakes and chasing after them. Even though the snow didn’t settle it was such a magical moment for the children that it was the main conversation for the rest of the day!

Over the last couple of weeks in the Under 2s Room, the children have been exploring the weather as the seasons begin the change. During morning play, a few children approached the table set up for modelling with recycled materials so they could make a snowman for the winter display. Various sized boxes were spread across the table with a selection of paints and painting tools. The children scanned the table, looking for their choice of paintbrush and the artwork began. Some children chose chunky paint brushes to dip and paint, and others chose sponges to spread and dab the paint. As the children decorated the boxes they said, “Bang-bang!”, as they hit the paint brush down, giggling as it made a very loud sound! Once the painting was complete, a small group of children took part in some sticking and helped bring the snowman to life by adding a hat, scarf, carrot nose and some paper buttons. The final touch was sticks for the arms that the children helped collect during a walk around the Imber Court grounds.

Whilst in the garden, the children have enjoyed exploring everything winter has had to offer like falling leaves, icy sticks and even snow. The children were getting ready to go in the garden and in the middle of getting their coats on, a call came form outside shouting, “Snow, snow!”. The children hurried to the door to have a look, eyes beaming as they saw the huge snowflakes falling from the sky. After working their way outside, the children gathered in the garden and reached their hands out trying to catch the snowflakes. They looked around at each other, seemingly excited and giggling as they did. Some of the children even attempted the word ‘Snow’, copying the older children and adults around them. 

Families, Fruit and Snow!

Over the last couple of weeks, the preschool children have been engaging in many activities surrounding the focus of “Our families”. A group of children particularly enjoyed a play dough activity, firstly looking at pictures of their families on the family board in preschool and then moulding the dough in to shapes to form themselves and members of their families. Some chose to do mummies and daddies, whilst others chose siblings and some children even tried to mould their pets. The children also enjoyed drawing their own family portraits whilst others chose to use natural resources such as leaves, sticks and pine cones to design 3D families. 

A group of preschool children have enjoyed a trip to the local shops this week to purchase fruits to make some fruit kebabs. The children made their lists of favourite fruits before setting off to go to the shops and took their lists with them to be able to find the fruits they would like. Once they had gathered all of the ingredients and placed them in the basket, some of the children were very excited to scan the items through the till, with a couple of children discussing how much money they think they need to pay. Once back at nursery, all of the preschool children enjoyed making their own fruit kebab skewers, selecting the fruits they would like to try. 

Outside in the garden, the children fully embraced a snowy morning. Some of the children were so eager to get out in to the snow, they had a little run around in it before returning for their coats to be able to stay out and play in the snow. Some of the children stared up almost in amazement at the sky, letting the snow fall on to their faces, some even opening up their mouths to catch the snowflakes. A couple of the children agreed that it must now be Christmas time because it was snowing! 

Fun with Lights & Rainy Play!

Over the last couple of weeks, the toddlers have been exploring light play with light up toys, torches and fairy lights. As the afternoons have darkened, the children have started taking notice, asking if the moon was coming out and if it was ‘night time’ as they pointed towards the darker skies through the patio doors. When a cosy den was set up with stories, light up toys and torches - a couple of children crawled their way in and settled on the cushions, flicking through some of their favourite stories, using the torchlight to look at the pages. Another group were over in the home corner, situated at the table and using some of the light up toys to build a tower, balancing them on top of one another and giggling as it toppled over, their faces lit up by the colourful glow. 

With the change in weather recently, the toddlers have been loving playing in the rain, excitedly grabbing their waterproofs and helping to put their own wellies on before setting off. A couple of children ran out to the open space in the garden and paused, with their arms out by their sides catching the droplets in their hands, one with their face tilted up and mouth open, deciding to catch the rain with their mouth. Meanwhile, another group of children made their way over to where a small puddle had formed and began splashing. As they stomped and splashed it turned into a dance party as some began nodding their heads and wagging their fingers while others wiggled their hips and span in circles. 

Over the last couple of weeks, the under twos have loved exploring creative activities with a range of textures and materials. One activity the children particularly enjoyed getting their hands dirty in was mud painting! They all quickly made their way over to explore the pots and brushes which had been laid out on the table, and a few of the children let their excitement be known through a chorus of “Wow!” and “Ooh!”, and clapping. One by one they reached for the variety of brushes which had been placed out, and dunked them straight into the pots of mud. They began to brush strokes across the paper, creating lines and beautiful pictures, before delving their hands into the mud and squeezing their fists together, giggling as the mud squished out through their fingers! 

The under twos have also really enjoyed discovering the different texture of wet and dry sand in the garden, and seeing the difference it makes when trying to build a sandcastle. When one of the children filled up a bucket of dry sand and tipped it upside down, they gasped as all the sand fell back into a pile and clasped their hands to their cheeks in shock. A few other children watched with curiosity, as the sand at the other end of the sand pit was wet, and clapped excitedly when the sandcastle stayed in place when the bucket was turned upside down. This led to the children all copying using the wet sand, and lots of happy giggles as the castles and moulds all stayed in place when the children tipped them out! The children also loved seeing what nature they could find in the garden, using their eyes alone as well as magnifying glasses to get a closer look at the plants and nature. When one of the children let out an excited shout, a couple others made their way over to investigate, and clapped happily when they discovered it was a ladybird! After a member of staff picked it up, the children all peered over to get a better look and making sure not to scare their new friend!. 

Measuring, Shopping & Cooking!

Over the last couple of weeks, the preschool children have been engaging in lots of baking activities and have had the opportunity to be able to measure out their own ingredients before cooking. A group of children took particular interest in to how many grams of each ingredient they would need, where as some of the other children were eager to get straight into the messy part and excitedly mixed all of the ingredients together in their bowl. Before one of the cooking activities, a group of children sat together to design a shopping list which included all of the ingredients they would need as they were looking at the recipe card. They then took this list to the local shop and were very excited to be able to find the items needed, place them in the basket and go on to pay for them and bag the items up. Some of the children looked carefully at the labels on the shelves, noticing a price tag and were able to identify the numbers. At checkout, the children were confident to scan the bar code and were working as a team to scan and bag the shopping. 

As the darker nights have been drawing in earlier, the children have been observing the sunsets through the windows and patio doors during tea time. One evening, the children very quickly identified that the sky had turned pink and were very eager to go outside and see it. The children took torches and sensory lights outside with them and watched almost in amazement as the sky turned from pink, to purple and then to dark skies. Returning to finish their tea, some of the children went on to discuss how lovely the sky looked and why they thought it could change to different colours. 

Playing with Magic, Brooms and Shadows!

Recently, the toddlers have been looking at Octobers book of the month, Room on the Broom, as well as the event of Halloween. They were able to search the Imber Court grounds for items to add to their cauldron back at nursery, some children selecting leaves while others found pine cones and the green and brown shells of conkers. Once they were brought back to nursery and added to the cauldron, a small group of children began mixing up their concoctions, using ice cream scoops, spoons and ladles while giving it their best go at saying the spell from the story, “Iggety ziggaty zaggety zoom”! A couple of children enjoyed looking at the story sack, playing with all of the different characters from the story and looking in at the book. While one child pointed out the dragon and gave a mighty roar, another child pointed to the frog and began jumping on the spot saying, “Ribbet ribbet!”. Once the page was turned to show all of the characters on the broom, one of the toddlers went and retrieved a broom from the home corner and placed it on the table where they then, along with the other children at the table, placed all of the characters on top, emulating the scene from the story perfectly!

In the garden, a group of toddlers were enamoured with the new periscopes that were added near the sandpit, bending down to have a look through at their friends across the garden. This was a perfect opportunity for them to search the skies and garden for dogs, cats, frogs, birds and dragons from the story. When one of the children called out, “Ahh a dragon… I see it!” and pointed to the end of the garden, inciting squeals and choruses of “Dragon!” as they ran around the garden. 

Over the last couple of weeks in the Under 2s room, the children have been exploring all of the different things Autumn has had to offer. Whilst out and about on daily walks, the children were always eager to get out of the buggies and begin their adventure. Some of the children have enjoyed searching for loose parts such as sticks, conkers, pine cones and giant leaves whilst others have chosen to explore the willow trees on site. A small group of children held onto the long branches of the tree and began waving them around, letting out little giggles in excitement. Other children chose to play amongst a huge pile of fallen leaves, admiring the many colours they had to offer. Some of the children began to scoop up the leaves in their hands, throw them into the air and jump around as they fell around them. 

Whilst indoors, the children have been mark making on giant leaves in order to create some autumnal bunting which is now proudly hung up in the Under 2s room. The children chose from paint pens, chalk and paint to decorate their leaves. Throughout this activity, the children were comparing and learning from each other. One child picked up their leaf, held it in the air and said, “leaf, leaf”. This caught on and many other children did the same thing and attempted the word, ‘leaf’. 

As the evenings get darker and cosier, the children have been enjoying the sensory room, lit up with calming colours and lots of things to explore. The children began looking around at each other and back at the wall, letting out calm ‘ohhh’ and ‘ahh’ sounds as the lights were turned on and they lit up the room. They moved their bodies around as they watched their dancing shadows appear on the wall and giggled together. Some of the smaller children chose to sit and play with glow up sensory shakers which they rolled, shook and held up to their faces to watch the glowing colours. The children also took part in a circle time, during which they sang Zoom, Zoom, Zoom and Twinkle Twinkle and followed along with the actions the best they could.