Textures, Rain Storms & Bonfire Night!

Last week in the toddler room the children focused on exploring different painting techniques for their artwork. To start off their week based all around fireworks and bonfire night they created their very own firework display using cardboard tubes rather than brushes. Ceci loved mixing round the different colours of paint with it creating a swirl effect and was careful to not get it on her hands where as Margot got stuck in smearing paint over her picture with both the cardboard tube and her hands with a big grin on her face. Esmè shouted “Oh wow! Fireeeeworks!” and started clapping as they watched a few shorts video clips on firework displays to give them an idea on what it was all about. Towards the end of the week, the Toddlers tried out another painting technique but this time with cars! During the group activity, the toddlers were given a car each which they then dipped in their colour of choice before rolling it across the large sheets of paper making a very cool car print. “Wheeeee!” Youcef shouted as his car flew across the paper and Ada laughed as she copied. 

To mix things up last week both toddlers and pre schooled joined up to make their biggest train track yet! Both toddlers and pre school worked really well together as they added different parts to the track. Once it was completed Jude was bursting with excitement and couldn’t resist running over to test it out, Sophie collected a few of the happy land people, placing them around the track, while Otto ran straight for the trains in the box to place on the very long train tracks. “Choo Choo!” he called out as he pushed them along.  Meanwhile in pre-school, the rest of the toddlers and pre-schoolers were showing off their best dance moves in a joint dance party. Madan shook the pom poms as he danced about and Ceci began to jump up and down to the music giggling to herself. 

As there’s been lots of rain storms over the last week it has meant lots of muddy puddles for the toddlers to splash around in which they all absolutely loved. The toddlers really enjoyed sitting and listening to the loud heavy rain. The children all put on their coats and wellies before they headed out into the garden where there were giant puddles of water to explore. The toddlers collected some boats from the toy box and let them float along the water seeing which way the wind would push them, “Oh no, boat! “ Kitty said as her boat drifted off in a different direction. Madan also really enjoyed giving his dinosaurs a bath after they had stomped through the mud and bark, he giggled as it sunk under water and shouted “Dinosaur’s wet!”. 

This week, the under two’s have been really busy enjoying lots of different activities using cereal, pasta, leaves, shredded paper, chalk and paints. They’ve had lots of fun using the builders tray to experience different textures. They had cereal that had hidden farm animals in it which Rose had fun squeezing and squashing between her fingers, while India and Gabriel thought it was an extra snack, munching on the weetabix, Rose saw what they were doing and began to enjoy eating it too. Amelie was crawling around the builders tray gathering up all the toy sheep, Blair then began to crawl through the cereal looking a little confused as the cornflakes scrunched under her knees, Gabriel thought that it looked fun and started to copy her.

They’ve also enjoyed tearing up tissue paper to make a bonfire. They watched Melissa intently as they were shown what to do, Cleo and Blair were the first to get stuck into tearing the paper, Rose began to babble away as she tore up her pieces of tissue paper, while Matilda was having fun waving her paper in the air, smiling as it swished backwards and forwards in front of her.

India and Eva were really intrigued by the cornflour in the messy tray, when Charlotte began to lift up the cornflour and it fell through her fingers they stared in amazement. Eva then put her hands into the messy tray and was a little unsure as touched the cornflour, Blair copied her and screwed her face as her fingers touched the cornflour not liking the texture.

Whilst out on our morning walks, we’ve seen lots of different wildlife. Whilst watching the squirrels race up and down the trees chasing one another, Oliver was fascinated and began to point at them as they disappeared up the tree and when feeding the ducks Amelie started to get excited in the pushchair as she had spotted a little Robin sitting on the bridge waiting for some bread. The staff threw handfuls of leaves up into the air which made Gabriel and India smile with excitement as the leaves swirled and landed.