Pumpkins & Spiders!

Over the last couple of weeks, the toddlers have been taking part in a variety of autumnal and Halloween themed activities both inside and out. Inside the focus was on sensory halloween activities. The first activity the toddlers took part in was a spider hunt that was carried out in the activity tray, which had been filled with coloured sand. The toddlers began to rummage through the sand, letting it slip through their fingers and shaking it around the tray. Whilst sifting her hand through the sand Eva was the first to come across a spider. With a surprised squeal she quickly retracted her hand while looking around at her friends with her mouth open in a shocked expression. Once the realisation hit that she found a spider her hand dived straight back in and she retrieved it shouting “Spider!” to Phoebe who responded with an excited giggle and big smile. The children really got stuck in with a fine motor bat sensory bags activity. The toddlers loved exploring the textures of these and India was very happy to point out where the bats were to all of their friends ”Bat, Bat”, which made Blair giggle and approach the activity. In one of the bags was googly eyes, and whilst moving them around in the bag, Isla proudly turned to show us that she had put them on the bats face, shouting ‘Look!’ with a big smile on her face. 

In the garden the children explored pumpkins. They were supplied with wooden spoons and scoops to dig out the inside of pumpkins and investigate the strands and seeds from inside. As they approached the table Amelie saw what was on it and excitedly shouted out ‘Scoops!’ before picking one up and inspecting it. Meanwhile Oliver was not too sure about the texture of the strands and exclaimed “It’s yucky” when he scooped them up with his hands, which made Matilda giggle happily. After the toddlers had removed all the insides from the pumpkin and placed them in the bowl, they then used them to make pumpkin soup. Arlo and Harry excitedly bought the bowls of pumpkin strands and seeds over to the mud kitchen and showed their friends how to start making the soup. They transported the ingredients out of the bowls and spread them across a smaller bowls, baking trays and cake tins. Next they added some water, sprinklings of mud and stirred it all through to make the soup. Leo pretended to take a mouthful of the soup with a spoon, and said ‘Mmmm’ which made Cooper chuckle. 

Over the last few weeks the under two’s have been intrigued by all of the different texture based activities, such as using different types of pasta in numerous forms as well as exploring paint. One of the activities in the builders tray involved a mixture of different coloured cooked spaghetti in bright colours. Finley came straight over to investigate and picked up a plastic spoon and began to scoop the pasta on to it, intrigued by all of the colours. Finley saw that Cora was picking it up and eating it, he looked at Amie smiling and then decided to follow, by placing a handful of orange pasta in his mouth! Max watched Amie intently whilst she swished the pasta around the tray using a fork before joining in and creating his own movements with the array of spaghetti colours. Max was really enjoying himself with lots of laughter and a mouthful of pasta!

In the garden the little ones were able to explore big pumpkins with the insides removed. They were interested in the textures and smells, and the seeds were used to make sensory bags. Megan picked up the bag and started to wave it around, which attracted Imogen who came over instantly to the table and started to tap the bag and squish it between her hands. She was fascinated by the way the seeds moved about and began pressing them as if they were tiny buttons. Imogen began to smile as she watched Megan and joined in pressing the bag and started growling excitedly.