Horses Leaves & Torches!

Whilst out on a walk around the grounds the toddlers were on the bridge saying hello to the ducks when they heard a familiar sound in the distance… it was the sound of a horse hooves on the path. They all turned their heads with Sebastian shouting, “Noise!?” And pointing with one hand while holding his other hand to his ear. Phoebe started making the clip clop sound of the horses feet with her mouth while other voices neighed. As they all moved closer the children were so excited to see a police man on one of the police horses who was kind enough to stop for a few minutes and say hello. Marlow shouted excitedly “A horse, a horse”. When it was time for the horse to go the children all waved and shouted “bye bye”.

One morning a group of toddlers approached the home corner with a cosy scene set up with the dolls. Halle immediately went over and after picking up one of the dolls she placed it onto the blanket and rubbed its back, as if she was trying to put it down for a nap. Meanwhile, Charlotte started to put a dress on her doll, giving its head a rub and then bringing it in for a cuddle once the doll was fully clothed.  Sienna started to feed her doll some bread, making a “Num num num” sound as she held the food to the dolls mouth. Once she had finished feeding her doll Sienna attempted to put some trousers on it when she paused and rubbed her hand over its tummy ‘He got belly butto’ which made her giggle and give it a little poke. 

One afternoon some of the children were drawn to the magnifying glasses and torches set up in the garden for them to explore with. Eliza and Phoebe both approached and picked up magnifying glasses, pressing them to their faces when Cara came along and picked up a torch, pointing it in their direction. Eliza then picked up a torch in her other hand and pointed it at a leaf. “Wow..leaf” leaning in as close as she could to get a good look. Phoebe watched as she did this and also picked up a leaf, instead holding it to the front of the torch, making a shocked face as the leaf glowed from the light. Marlow and Leo approached after hearing all of the gasps and ‘wows’ and straight away picked up their own torches. Leo pointed the beam of his torch up to the sky and carefully balanced a leaf on top, similarly showing a look of amazement. As he took in a deep breath and let out a whispered “Wow” his breath moved the leaf a little, causing it to wobble and Leo to say “ahh, oh no” as he extended his arm trying to maintain balance. Marlow saw this and began laughing, stating “leaf fall off” as he copied Leo’s actions with his own torch, cackling each time he was able to blow the leaf off the top. 

Over the last couple of weeks  the under 2’s have been exploring a sensory adventure with all kinds of textures and materials! 

Inside they have had the opportunity to explore chia seeds soaked in water which produces a thick, slime like material. Leo stuck his hands straight into the chia seeds and looked up with a big smile, letting them trickle through his fingers as he picked up a handful and let them fall through. When Madeleine saw him doing so, she quickly ran over and let out a ‘Wow!’ as she joined in. Another activity the children really enjoyed was playing with the oats in the sensory tray where they were given a range of tools to play with, including spoons, rakes, bowls and forks. Henry quickly got stuck in and picked up a spoon and toy ice cream cone, scooping up the oats and pouring them into the cone, making lots of ‘Oooww’ noises as he did so. Once he had filled up the cone, he tipped it upside down and watched as the oats fell out, clapping his hands in celebration. 

The children got to show off their artistic skills whilst mark making on cling film as they spread the blobs of paint over surface using a variety of tools such as rollers and brushes, and their hands. Skandar watched very closely as the paint was getting poured onto the table and very quickly got involved in the activity, slamming his hands straight down into the paint and making a huge ‘splat’ sound. Skandar looked around to see everyone with little spots of paint all over them and said “Oh.. Haha”. 

The under 2’s have loved exploring the grounds on our daily walks, particularly enjoying playing on the field with some balls and a parachute. Zachary loved playing with the parachute and let out a shout as he saw it getting pulled out, showing his excitement. He grabbed an edge of the parachute and began to flap it around, showing it proudly to his friends, and encouraging them to join in. Once a few more had got involved in waving the parachute around, they all sat down and gleefully watched as it got lifted up and thrown over them, all clapping and laughing happily.