Dance train!

The older children were very interested in the progress of the new pergola being built in the nursery garden in the baby area. This will keep the babies dry during wet weather and enable the space to be used to a greater degree summer and winter, as it will also shield the children from the sun. we will post pictures when it is completed. The preschool children have explored chalk paint this week. They grated chalk and water mixed together to make pastel colours such as purple and green. They made various marks on the chalkboard, laughing as it splashed on their legs and feet. Olivia said "Raegan let’s make a rainbow. There are lots of colours to make one!" Raegan agreed and said "It's going to be very beautiful, like when it's in the sky!" They covered the whole chalkboard with their amazing pictures, deciding it looked better with all the colours. Some of the children even painted their hands and made handprints. The children have also had been dancing this week, showing their moves to one another. Maya shook her hips side to side, while Barnaby span around and around. They started to make a train, holding onto each other's shoulders and danced along. Oliver said "Big train, choo, choo!".

This week toddlers have enjoyed experimenting with different textures in the messy tray. They used uncooked spaghetti and oats and enjoyed feeling the different textures. George, Ada and Millie enjoyed listening to the spaghetti ‘crack’ as it was snapped in two. Oscar and Oliver enjoyed feeling the oats through the fingers and dropping it from a height. Other textures they had fun exploring were, cloud dough, crazy foam, cornflour and salt dough! When playing with the cornflour mixture they used two different colours and used their fingers as well as different tools to mix the two colours together! Toddlers also enjoyed lots of colouring this week, using crayons to colour our the first letter of their names and have used the chalks to make marks on chalkboard and easel. They also used finger puppets and soft toys to act out nursery rhymes and some stories at circle time!

The babies have been making winter animal pictures using different coloured paint and different textures, such as bubble paint for the polar bears and more usual paint for the walrus and arctic fox. They loved their sensory play activity in the sleep room, playing with the sensory light up boxes, rice in a big tub and feely bags feeling the difference between the hair gel, oats and crazy foam. When playing with the rice Zac and Emma loved filling their hands with rice and throwing it on the floor enjoying the sound that it made! Babies have been testing their fine and gross motor skills while playing with the play dough pinching it in between their fingers and trying to use the rolling pins to flatten the play dough.