Sun, Storms & Senses!

Recently the toddlers have been intrigued by the change weather, going from having to wear sun cream to now needing to put on waterproofs and wellies! A small group of children heard some “rumbles” of thunder and sat along the the patio door to watch and listen to the rain, as well as the rumbles and flashes of lightning until the storm had finished. Once the rain began again with the absence of thunder and lightning, the children got their waterproofs on and were off exploring the garden. A small group found a drip coming through the sand pit shelter and began catching it with their hands and laughing as the drops made a funny sound plopping on the hoods of their coats. One by one they began picking up items to collect the rain in, gathering buckets, jugs, cups and sand moulds letting the drips fill their pots and pouring them out into a big bucket. Another group made their way to the growing area where they explored the feel of the tomato plant leaves as well as the smell, and began searching for tomatoes they could see along the vines. When a few more children approached with some small world animals, they all pretended the animals were having a snack on the tomatoes, making lots of “num num num” sounds. In between the rainy spells, a couple of children were enjoying catching bubbles in the sunshine, running around, giggling and popping them; some children were using their hands while others tried to use their elbows, toes and heads!

Over the last couple of weeks the under 2’s have loved their garden time in the sunshine! The children loved building towers using the foam blocks, and then happily knocking them over when they got tall enough. Zakariya counted the blocks out as he build the tower and when he got to 7 blocks Isabella came running through to knock it down, making Zavier giggle and clap his hands, and Zakariya shout ‘Isabella!’ whilst laughing. After the children had enough of building towers, the bubbles came out and they happily began to run round the garden trying to catch them. Hope wandered over and let out a cheerful ‘Hi!’, indicating she’d like more bubbles, and happily clapped her hands together to catch the bubbles when they flew above her head.

Inside, the children loved exploring the sensory light crosses and seeing what colours they could find. Freya ran over excitedly, shouting out “Yay!” and picking up two of them, before running over to some of her friends and kindly handing them over, showing off her sharing skills! The children all sat together in a group, and with a bit of help they began to name the colours of the lights that they were turning on and off.

Football sessions!

The pre school children have continued to enjoy their footballs sessions with Joe and over the last couple of weeks, they have been putting their skills that they have learnt to the test and enjoyed games of football together. The children organised themselves in to two groups, put their bibs on and worked very well as a part of their team to get the ball past each other and score goals, cheering each other on as they did so. A couple of the children stood in goal together, holding hands and laughing each time they were able to save the ball from going in to the goal. Some other children chose to take it in turns to shoot the ball towards the net, chanting each other’s names when it was their turn. Once the football game was over, the children went for a “water break” before going on to play a tennis game together. 

 Whilst out on a rainy day walk around the grounds, the pre school children continued with their sports theme and enjoyed running races on the field. They lined themselves up along the football lines and called out, “Ready, steady, go”! Some children choosing to run, some skip and a couple of them even rolled their way to the finish line. Whilst exploring the grounds, the children came across the map of the grounds and were discussing between themselves where they were on the map and which route they should take to get back to nursery. It was agreed by the whole group that it would be a nice idea to walk past the duck pond and have one final race on the rugby fields.

Obstacle Course & Ducks!

Last week the toddlers got to take part in a sports day where they were able to run races, take part in a bean bag toss, play football, scale obstacle courses and of course, win a medal for all of the their hard work. Henry made his way to the football set up, immediately kicking a ball across the field. As he spotted the goal he picked up the ball and took it as close to the goal as possible before placing it down and kicking it into the net, scoring a goal, which he celebrated by raising both arms into the air and shouting, “Yeah”. Evelyn instigated lots of running and approached Cara asking, “Can I chase you? Yeah? Okay, run! Go! Run fast!” And began running after her in circles around the field. As they collapsed into giggles Evelyn was quick to jump up and said, “Now you chase me”, before running away. This drew in a few other children and soon there was a small group all running around giggling together. The toddlers were so proud of their medals some continued to wear them to nursery for the rest of the week!

The toddlers have been delving into lots of different roles recently, exploring the different role play toys, ranging from cleaning tools, hair dressing kits, and office equipment. The hairdressing set up was a big hit with children sitting in front of the mirrors straight away to either do their own hair, or their friends. Halle picked up the pretend hair straighteners and snapped them together a couple of times before bringing them to Madeleines hair, “do you hair Maddie, stay still”. Madeleine kept her head very still and looked up at Halle moving around her with a smile on her face. Halle then picked up the small hand held mirror and held it up to Madeleine, “look it Maddie”. Madeleine quickly hopped up and said, “My turn” and picked the comb up off of the table and began to move it through Halle’s hair. Leo approached with a spray bottle, “I get your hair” and began pretending to spray Madeleine’s hair while she was tending to Halle, “it’s working I doing your hair”.

When the same area was turned into an office with monitors, keyboards, phones, a laptop and a mouse a few children were quick to approach. Sebastian sat himself in front of the monitor and began typing with his index finger before moving onto scrolling on the mouse, stopping suddenly with an, “Oh” as he quickly picked up the phone and held it to his ear, “Hello…. Yes..mmm” before resuming typing with his other hand as he continued on the phone. Theo, next to him, typed enthusiastically on the keyboard, giggling and quickly clicking the mouse. He turned to Sebastian, seeing that he was on the phone and picked up a phone too, bringing it to his ear.

Over the last few weeks, the under two’s have been embarking on loads of exciting activities throughout their time at nursery. The children let their imaginations run wild when they had the opportunity to play with a mountain of bright blue crazy foam. As soon as Lydia saw the mountain of foam appear, she gasped in amazement and loudly said “Wow” as she jumped up and down before she came over to play with all of her friends. Zakariya loved the bubbly sensation of the foam and used bowls and spoons to scoop up the foam before deciding that it would be a fun idea to place it upon his head! Maddie and Wilfred were spotted placing pieces of foam and blowing it off of their hands together, giggling away as the foam fell around them like snow. 

 The children were very excited to have encountered a swan on one of their recent walks too! The swan decided to walk over and a huge welcoming of “hello!’ said by a number of the under two’s, as the swan flapped its wings in response. It was smiles all round for the children, as they then seemed to love having a chance to see the swan, alongside the regular friendly ducks too, and having the chance to feed them. Emilia made sure to give ducks a big wave as she fed them peas and corn while Freya mimicked the ducks by going “quack,quack,quack” as they waddled closer to her, hoping for more tasty treats.

Fire Engine Visit!

Over the last couple of weeks, the preschool children have been very excited for the fire engine to visit nursery. At group times, the children have been discussing ‘people who help us’ and Ollie told his friends, “When I’m bigger, I’m going to be a doctor and help lots of people”. Joseph responded, “I’m going to be a policeman and take away all of the baddies”, which made his friends laugh. 

When the fire engine arrived, the children couldn’t wait to get outside to it. Matilde was the first to climb the big steps, with Finley following close behind. They sat themselves on the seats with the biggest smile on their faces, almost looking around in amazement at all of the equipment around them. Otto held back, intrigued by what one of the firemen were about to do and as he saw him lift the mask from the side of the fire engine, he asked, “What’s that?” And when explained it’s a mask that they need to use with an oxygen tank on their backs when they go in to tackle fires, Otto looked at Ollie and said, “Wow, that’s cool”. The most exciting part was being able to spray the hose, Arthur and Jenson couldn’t wait to get hold of it, with all of the children giggling away as the water was spraying back on to them. 

After the fire engine visit, outside in the garden, the children have been designing their own fire engines with the large wooden blocks and guttering pipes. Freddie sat inside the blocks and then quickly jumped out and took hold of one of the pipes announcing, “Quick guys, move out of the way, I need to put the fire out”, pretending to spray the hose at the trees above. 

Trucks, Aeroplanes and New Textures!

Recently the toddlers have explored the theme of transport and had a whale of a time looking at all of the different ways to travel! There were lots of discussions of trains, buses, boats and even helicopters. During a construction themed transport activity which consisted of soil, sand, blocks and lots of trucks and diggers, Sebastian began role playing and picked up a small digger, using his hands to manoeuvre the scoop to collect soil. “Bring it over here Mr Digger! We digging a hole”. As Henry made his way over with a much bigger truck, Sebastian squealed and said, “Oh no, quick digger run away from Mr McGregor Ahhhh!”,  quoting Peter Rabbit, and began moving his digger quickly in the other direction. Henry laughed at this and placed his hand on his chest while shaking his head, “Not ‘gregor” and placing blocks in the back of the truck.

In the garden Jenson picked up a roll of paper and held it up to his eye, saying, “I got my telescope… I can see you!” as he pointed it in different directions. This was quickly followed by a shout of, “OH…. AN AEROPLANE!” as he lowered the telescope and pointed above him, signalling to his friends what he could see. Evie picked up the binoculars hanging around her neck and held them up to her eyes, “Let me see…. Oh yes, you’re right Jenson it is an aeroplane!”. Clara then joined in on the discussion stating, “I going on a aeroplane on holiday” and Leo joined in with, “Me too on holiday!”. 

Over the last couple of weeks the under 2’s have had lots of fun getting involved with a range of materials and textures, including taking part in some sand painting. This activity involved the children using a variety of tools such as paintbrushes, sticks and sponges to mark-make using a mix of sand and paint. Together they explored the texture of the paint whilst decorating paper and recycled items like cardboard boxes. Lowen quickly ran over and pointed to the blue paint, shouting “Blue!” enthusiastically, whilst Zakariya followed him over shouting, “Painting!” with a big smile on his face! Freya stood back to begin with, but after watching her friends she then decided to join in, running over happily and letting out a little “Ooo” as she began to paint the box. 

Another texture they have been exploring is crazy foam. The children used sponges to wash the baby dolls, making sure to clean them head to toe. Sophia stood by the edge of the tray and peered in curiously, before picking up one of the sponges and quietly saying, “Baby”. She then began to carefully brush the sponge along the baby, moving it in circular motions. After showing her friends what she was doing, Wilfred came along and joined in, clapping happily when he had successfully coated the baby in the foam. 

Whilst out in the garden, the children have especially enjoyed the variety of table top activities including, crayon mark-making, finger painting and printing. During the crayon activity, Emilia made her way over to the table and sat herself down on the bench. She looked around at the range of crayon colours available and chose green and yellow. Isabella picked up her choice of crayons and said, “Look, look!”. A member of staff helped her out with identifying what colours she had chosen and Isabella repeated them confidently. After the children had picked out their colours, they began to draw their marks on the paper; these consisted of lines, circles and scribbles, all of which they were very proud of and continuously pointed their own ones out to show friends.