Dinosaurs at Molesey!

The older children have been very interested in talking about dinosaurs and have taken on a role of "Dinosaur keepers" this past week. Some of the children used the wooden blocks to make a barrier surrounding around the dinosaurs which William called "A dinosaur kingdom, just like Jurassic world". After making the surrounding around the dinosaurs, Max then started to make a track around the outside and said, "We need to go on a train to get to the kingdom". Some of the other children were making a Television with the blocks which Zachary said, "We can watch the dinosaurs on our TV" and invited his friends to come and join him to watch!

The children have really enjoyed lots of play dough fun, especially making pizzas for a pretend picnic. Parker had rolled his play dough out and told his friends, "It is a pizza, but it looks like a pancake too". Ella started to roll small bits of play dough out and placed them on her play dough pizza and said, "I have peas on my pizza because peas are very healthy for you". Dylan then said, "But the evil peas don't taste nice - They're in Supertato!" 

The children had planted sunflower seeds in their individual pots recently and watched them grow over time. Once they had grown big enough, the children transferred the sunflowers in to our outside growing patch. Edie told Ada, "This is a good idea to do this, because all of the rain will help our sunflowers grow". 

The toddlers have enjoyed exploring different textures through sensory and malleable play. Zac and Ari have loved the water play where they decided to wash the boats with bubbles. Ari said "Zac you wash the blue boat" and Zac replied "Blue boat, yay". Jonny and Sophie had great fun splashing the water by hitting the water with their hands. They laughed as this soaked them head to toe! Charlotte and Isabelle have explored the sand, rubbing it between their fingers, hair and toes! Charlie enjoyed seeing the marks he made during Lego printing "look look" he said feeling proud of himself. 

Outside the toddlers have loved taking a risk and engaging in an obstacle course. Amelia loved travelling through the tunnel on her hands and knees. Immy finally took the leap of faith off the little step with no assistance and Rhys has mastered running the obstacle course as fast as he can. The toddlers have also been experimenting with different ways to move through the obstacle course. Some did using the trial and error method. Harriet tried shuffling along the wooden beam whereas Tristan found it more appealing to jump from one side to another. 

Back inside the toddlers have been looking at different modes of transport and talking about their experiences on each one. While decorating the transport board with photos from home the children began recognising themselves, family members and friends on the different modes of transport. Isla excitedly mentioned going on ‘A boat with daddy and mummy’. Sammy recognised himself on a scooter and said "Sammy scooter". 

The youngest children have been having lots of fun exploring their new tea set and toy food. It was all set up nicely at the table and Blake, Emily and Billie loved picking up the cups, plates and spoons, mixing, pouring and shaking the different utensils. The children were saying “Cheers!” and clinking cups together, pretending to eat the toy food. 

The under two’s also had fun playing with weetabix, oats and readybrek during a messy activity. Isaac, Luna and Daniel really got stuck in, exploring the dry, crispy textures fall through their fingers and sprinkling the cereal around. Isaac was giggling when he dropped it and Ada preferred to use a spoon to scoop and pour instead.

During our daily walks around the grounds the children have been very excited to see  that the resident ducks have now got baby ducklings! There are 11 in total which the children fed some bread.  Finley said “Wow!” Rafferty said was saying “Look, quack quack” and Sophie was jumping up and down in her seat with delight.