Bug Hunts and Duck Walks!

The preschool children have been busy the last couple of weeks immersing themselves into a variety of messy play activities. The children made their own play dough portions using the different ingredients. Henry said to his friend Dylan “I like making play dough because it’s warm and very fun.” Dylan said, “I like mixing all the things together.” The children enjoyed using their hands to mix all the ingredients together and exploring the different textures. Joshua looked at the mixture on his hands, laughed and said, “I’m quite messy aren’t I ?” The children explored using the different tools and utensils to make shapes and cut the play dough into smaller pieces. Ari said, “I’m cutting up pizza” as used the cutter to cut his slices.

During the last couple of weeks, the children have had fun with colour sorting activities, number matching games, letter searching and a variety of mark making activities. One activity has them sorting the coloured bears and matching them to the appropriate number on the paper plates. Parker looked at his plate and said, “Woah that’s a big number!” after counting 7 small toys onto his plate, and after looking round the table said, “I think I need some more on here.” Rowan giggled and looked her plate, saw the number two and said, “I’m not two, I’m three years old!” Tom said to Rowan “You can have these two for your plate.” The children also immersed themselves into mark marking in the mud and salt. They enjoyed using paint brushes to make marks and copy the letters they could find amongst the different materials. Riley said, “Look I write my name Riley- see?” 

The preschool children had a great time when they went on a bug hunt around the grounds of nursery during the last couple of weeks. The children loved finding lots of different slugs and worms that had come up to the surface of the ground because of the rainy weather. Ellie said, “We’ve found babies and daddy slugs.” Eddie replied, “There is a lot of slugs out here in the water.” The children searched high and low for the different bugs that had emerged in the rain and enjoyed splashing in the puddles with their wellies. Max giggled when he found a big puddle and said, “That ones like a bath.” Ezra encouraged his friends to watch a slug and a snail race along the fence of nursery. Benjamin got very excited when the slug crossed the finish line before the snail. 

Over the last few weeks, the toddlers have been participating in music week, where they have had the opportunity to use lots of different instruments and see how they work. Rhys liked the instruments with the bells the most and said “Ding ding” as he shook them. Sammy enjoyed bashing the tambourine and asked his friends to listen as he played. The toddlers used their musical instruments at circle time where some tried to sing and play which required a lot of focus. Immy found it was easier to sing a line of ‘Miss Polly’ and then use her instrument for the next! Not only did the toddlers get to use lots of different instruments, they also had the opportunity to make their own maracas. Zac loved dancing round the room with a maraca in each hand saying, “Look at me, I’m dancing!” 

Outside, the toddlers were excited to give their baby dolls a bath. Blake said “Babies dirty” as she saw them in the water surrounded by bubbles. Harriet used sponges to wash her baby being very careful; she did not leave any part of her baby unclean. Isabelle was ecstatic splashing the water to create more bubbles, she said “Isabelle splashing water on baby”. When the rain stopped last week, they took full advantage of the nice weather and went for a play on the field with the frisbees and balls. Amelia loved watching the balls be kicked high in the sky and would run as fast as she could to retrieve them. Alastair preferred to relax by sitting on the bench alongside his friends Luna and Harry. 

Back inside, the toddlers have had a fun time with their climbing frame being transformed into a pirate ship. The toddlers were able to drive the boat with their pretend steering wheel and hunt for treasure using their telescopes. Ethan and Tristan found the treasure chest and took all the gold they could carry while Finley was more interested in pulling down the bunting so he could have a closer look at the pictures. 

The children in the under two’s room have had a very busy time outside. Olivia, Sophie and Daniel loved playing peek-a-boo together through the tunnel, crawling through the middle and waiting for each other on the other side, laughing and smiling as they emerged. When the children went for a walk around the grounds, they were fascinated to see the young ducklings which had really grown! Ada and Rafferty did a great job of tearing the bread and throwing it from the buggy to feed them. They were saying “Quack quack ducks!” and were giggling when the ducks quacked in response. 

Inside the room, the children loved investigating the feely-bags, using their senses to squeeze, smell and listen to the different textures inside. Sadie said “Mmmm” when she sniffed the bag containing raspberry conditioner, Isaac enjoyed squeezing the wet porridge oats and Emily squished the shaving foam. During a painting activity the children were using paint brushes to make marks, but Rafferty and Ada preferred to use their hands, using the brushes to paint their hands then used their hands to make marks on the paper. 

During circle time the children have been very interested in listening to stories, sitting nicely and looking at the pictures, Emily and Chloe liked pointing to the pig and lion in the books. The children loved singing the “Dingle dangle scarecrow” song, laying on cushions, with Sadie patting Chloe pretending to sleep then they all jumped up and danced around before sleeping again!