Transport and Feathers!

Over the last few weeks the toddlers have been learning all about their favourite thing - transport! They absolutely loved using their creative sides to make their very own versions of some of their favourite modes of transport. Margot concentrated really hard while making her train “This goes here”, Oliver covered his paper plate completely in paint to turn it into a digger and Sophie stuck down the sail of her boat with a smile “Boat swimming in the water”. By far the toddlers favourite part of the week was exploring with these modes of transport in their typical environments. Esmé and Isabelle had a great time manoeuvring the boats around the water tray and making waves with their hands, ending in Esmé getting a big wave to the face which made her giggle and say “Splash!” while wiping the water away from her face. Youcef was very busy moving the cars and tractors across some grass play dough, rolling the cars back and forth while telling his friends “It’s wheels go round and round”. The toddlers were challenged with finding some trains in cornflakes which Kitty took very seriously, exclaiming “ I found it!” each time she found one. Oliver grabbed handfuls of the cornflakes and sprinkled them through the air giving his friends a giggle when they landed on his head! The diggers in mud was a big hit with the toddlers and they spent the whole morning with their construction hats on, transporting mud from one area to another digging holes and filling them again, Sebastian explained “I’m a builder” as he made a large gap in the soil ready to fill it again using the scoop of the digger.

 As well as this the toddlers have been focussing on emotions. As the toddlers have been becoming more familiar with these they have also been learning to recognising them both on themselves and others. Whilst listening to the story ‘The Colour Monster’ at circle time (where a confused monster is helped to arrange his feelings by colour) Freddie repeated “Red is angry” while Amèlie demonstrated a perfect example of this by shouting “ROAAR”. Luciano sang “Happy happy happy” whilst being shown the yellow page that shows happiness and Cecilia demonstrated some fantastic calming deep breaths saying “ahhh” as she exhaled. Otto demonstrated a fantastic example of what to do if someone is feeling sad and leaned over to give Jasper a big cuddle. On the very last page of the story the colour monster is pink and surrounded by hearts, when the toddlers were asked what emotion the monster might be feeling Eloise answered “love”.

Recently the youngest children in the under 2’s room have been exploring sensory activities.

They have had lots of fun playing with the feathers. Blair sat herself amongst in the builders tray and began to pick up handfuls of feathers and throw them up into the air, India watched her closely and then began to join in with Blair babbling away at Blair, causing Blair to screech with delight. Rose saw the fun going on and came to investigate, she began to put the feathers in her hair. Rose smiled when staff said “ Wow! Very pretty Rose”.

They have been fishing for ducks in the water and leaves in the builders tray, each time Amélie found a duck she clapped her hands in delight in her achievement each time. Ava was really intrigued what Amélie was doing and began to hand Alice the leaves, looking pleased with herself.

The sensory table is always popular with all the different materials each time. Eva was very interested in the pine cones, while Ava was having fun banging wooden sticks on the table top enjoying the different sounds that they made. Matilda was busy looking for all the twigs and gathering them up into a pile, and started to say “ One, two “ Well done!

Out in the garden they have explored the sandpit. Matilda was experimenting filling up the star with sand then carefully emptying it out, Gabriel climbed into the sandpit and and started picking up the sand and letting it fall through his fingers, which made Matilda smile and Gabriel smiled back at her. Matilda then copied what Gabriel had been doing.