Workouts!

The preschool children have really embraced the bubble system relaxation over the past week and have themselves taken on the responsibility of looking after the toddler children and showing them around to parts of the garden and in to the preschool room for them to explore. Eddie took Zac by the hand and asked him, “would you like to see all of the fun things in preschool?” Once in the preschool room, Eddie, Ezmie, Max and Jasper showed great pride when showing him around the room, especially towards the car mat area where the trains were set out. Shyla said to him, “See, it’s so much fun in here isn’t it?”

In the garden, we had set up an obstacle course to challenge the children’s physical skills, giving them opportunities to climb and balance along beams on different levels. Vivienne had seen that one of the toddler children were a little hesitant to cross the taller beam and very quickly went over to assist her, holding out a hand for them to hold on to. Maya had wobbled slightly and started to laugh and said, “I’m all wobbly like jelly on a plate”. The children all then started to wobble and giggle whilst singing ‘Jelly on a plate’.

 Some of the children enjoyed making rainbow pictures on the chalk board, carefully selecting a different colour each time they drew a line. Once they had finished, Edie told her friends, “This is a very beautiful rainbow, it’s just like the one that we see in the sky after it rains”. Ada then suggested for them to wash the rainbow away and they all looked in amazement when the water ran through the chalk, making the colours smudge down the board.

This past week the toddlers have enjoyed taking part in many different ‘body’ themed activities. They had the opportunity to explore a variety of messy activities that involved using all of their senses. Reegan tentatively explored gloop with his hands one at a time while Isla got stuck straight in, getting messy up to her elbows. Alastair had fun driving the cars through the gloop, saying “Oh no it stuck”. Immy loved the barefoot sensory tray and excitedly took her shoes off so she could jump in .“It’s in my toes” she said while Sophia enjoyed picking up the different materials and crumbling them between her fingers. Isabelle giggled as she bent down to make marks in the oats , saying “I’ll make a circle”.

Outside the toddlers were moving all parts of their body’s, limbering up with Joe Wick’s PE lessons. Zoe showed off her amazing moves as she jumped along to the workout instructions whilst telling the others “Look, I’m doing it!”. Louis showed great balance as carefully moved along the balance beams on the assault course. Tommy sped through the assault course, doing a big jump at the end alongside a countdown, “3, 2, 1, Jump!”.  Blake and Amelia had fun doing the hopscotch, laughing as they hopped on one leg along the decking, both bursting into laughter as Amelia stumbled.

Back inside the toddlers have been playing doctors with the dolls. They were able to apply bandages and plasters to the different parts of the dolls bodies. Jonny took his time carefully applying plasters to the dolls head saying “He fell over and got a scratch, he needs a plaster”. Luna applied bandages to the doll’s knee and held her leg up to show everybody. Harriet and Charlie showed great teamwork as they applied plasters and bandages to the doll’s tummy while Charlie explained “Baby has got a sore tummy”. Florence took great care of the dolls, giving them cuddles after each bandage applied.

The under twos room have been busy settling in new babies and transitioning the older ones ready for the 2-3s room. Sadie, Ada and Sophie had lots of fun playing with the big wooden stacking board, taking turns in removing the shapes from the board, handing them to each other and placing them back on. Sadie said “Share” while she waited for Ada to pass her the flower shape and she replied saying “Here, go”.

The children loved getting messy with the mashed potato play, Olivia was using the masher making big arm movements to squash the potato. Zachary preferred to use a spoon, stirring the mash and occasionally tasting it, saying “Mmm”. Chloe tried using the small plastic tongs to pick it up but got frustrated when the mash stuck to them and asked for help to clean it off to save her hands getting messy. Youcef was a little bit cautious at first but soon got stuck in, exploring the sticky mashed potato.

All of the children love story time, and always choose the books to be read to them. Rafferty chose a Gruffalo book and repeated the body parts including eyes, nose and toes and pointed them out in the story and on his own body. Chloe and Ada liked feeling the different textures, whilst Emily and Olivia enjoy reading the lift the flap books, finding the hidden animals and making sounds of them.

Rafferty and Sophie had fun playing with the different shapes sensory balls, taking them out of the box and throwing them to each other. In the garden, Amélie and Margot liked playing with the stacking boxes, banging them together and trying to fit them inside.