Experiments, Volcanoes and Colours!

The pre schoolers have really enjoyed our science experiment week at nursery, especially learning about volcanos and watching a volcano erupt using cola and mentos. The children all watched in anticipation, ready for the explosion and as the cola shot up out of the bottle, Maya shouted "Wow, that's gone super high in the sky!". The children also loved watching a volcano eruption from the top of the Lego volcano using baking powder and vinegar. The children watched in wonder as the liquid began to fizz and spill over the sides of the volcano. Sienna said "Ooo! its all fizzy". During science week the children also enjoyed making their own rockets using junk modelling materials and different coloured paints. "My rocket will go so high to the clouds, and then into space!" Henry said to his friend Ezmie. The children enjoyed using the dabber tools to carefully apply their chosen colours to make their wonderful creations. During this week the home corner became the centre of many of the children's exploration and play after being transformed into a space rocket. Many of the children spent a lot of time aboard the space rocket, role playing their journey into space, pushing all the buttons on the space rocket and zooming off into the sky. Joshua said to his friend William "Let's fly up to space and see all the planets and stars!".

During the last two weeks, the children also enjoyed getting messy in the cornflour, searching through it to finding the letter pebbles hidden amongst the cornflour. Leo and Emma had fun using their hands to explore the texture of the cornflour and making marks using the wooden sticks. Leo giggled and said "My hands are all sticky now.". In response Emma giggled and said "It's wet and all slimy, like slugs!" as she watched the cornflour drip off her hands and back into the messy tray. Many of the children have also enjoyed practicing their physical skills by using the scissors to cut materials and create wonderful models and pictures. The children could choose to cut different coloured papers, card and also different fabrics which they could then stick down using the glue onto their chosen junk modelling boxes or paper. Jack had lots of fun cutting up his pieces of paper. He laughed and said "I'm giving my paper a nice hair cut. My mummy cuts my hair like this.". Maya giggled and said "That's a nice hair cut Jack.". 

Over the last week, the toddlers have been learning about shapes and colours by participating in activities that support their recognition and knowledge of them. Alastair thoroughly enjoyed making his rainbow collage where he stuck down each shape individually and named the colours he knew. James enjoyed being asked questions while he was making his rainbow and was asked if he could find the orange triangle and he pointed correctly and said “Orange triangle”. Emily enjoyed hiding the coloured shapes and waiting for someone to find them before sticking them down on her collage.

Outside, the toddlers explored colours and shapes through a colour hunt where a name was shouted and they had to run through the garden to find it. Sammy screamed “I found red!” finding the colour hidden behind the sandpit. Sophie found green but didn’t want to tell anyone so hid the colour under her top and ran away. In the sandpit Rowan and Lana were digging to try and find some hidden shapes. Their faces lit up when they found one as if it was as good as treasure! Back inside the toddlers have enjoyed getting messy with potato printing. Tommy found this funny as he splatted the potato down really hard causing the paint to jump and hit his face! Charlotte loved painting and noticed she had printed a yellow star which she proudly named.  

The babies have been busy exploring different materials in the messy tray. When playing with shredded paper, Kitty liked to pick up individual strands while Margot preferred to grab small handfuls, looking at the different colours. Youcef got really stuck in, excitedly pulling out the paper and throwing it around and over his head. The under two’s also loved playing with the light up sensory shakers in the dark. Margot held them close to her face, watching the colours change as she moved the beads inside. Kitty and Otto were really engaged by the rotating projector, looking at the shapes it made on the ceiling and walls as it turned and the image change. 

The children have been for some lovely walks in the pushchairs where they saw the big horses in the field and fed the ducks on the river. They also helped collect some colourful autumn leaves which they later used to make a lovely collage. Margot held a huge brown leaf and was waving it around like a flag and Kitty really studied her green leaf, holding it close to her face. Otto liked feeling the cool, sticky glue on his fingers as he tried to get it from the spatula to the paper and was confused and amazed when his leaf got stuck to his fingers!

Back inside, the more mobile children have been using their physical skills to climb up the stairs of the climbing frame, coming back down on the slide. Sebastian, Otto and Amélie had great fun following each other around, paying peek-a-boo and looking at each other in the big mirror, then playing with the walker together, using their fingers to move the cogs around on the frame.