Exploring Our Senses!

Over the last few weeks the toddlers have been using their senses to explore a variety of activities revolving around the five senses. To start with the children had the opportunity to walk barefoot through three trays of different textures. Harry stepped straight into the tray of flour and wiggled his toes around giggling “It tickles my toes!”, before stepping through to the weetabix tray exclaiming “Oh, this one’s crunchy! STOMP STOMP!” as he marched on the spot. Cooper was next up and went full force stepping from one tray to the next before making his way back down and stopping to sit and play in each tray. He spent most of his time going backwards and forwards between the weetabix and cornflour tray, saying “Oh look!” each time as he noticed his footprints of weetabix left in the cornflour. Henrietta was very keen to step into the trays but had a different reaction to the cornflour and after dipping her toe into the gloop she quickly retreated, sticking her tongue out and a “Ugh!”.

In the garden, the children have been loving playing in the den in the treehouse. Arlo T said “Look! We hiding up here!” while pulling the blanket down to conceal the children’s hiding spot. Blair giggled and held up the story she was reading, “Look Arlo!” and patted the space next to her for him to join her. Ava and Rafe took this time in the den to do some quiet drawings with their clipboards and pencils. On the other side of the garden, Joseph and Monty were building with the large blocks. Joseph began stacking the smaller blocks and Monty added the larger ones while saying “So heavy! Ugh!” followed by “So strong!”. 

Over the last couple of weeks, the under two’s have been busy exploring a variety of cooked foods to stimulate their senses. They have particularly enjoyed engaging themselves in pasta play and mixing together some ingredients. By doing so, they have been able to get to grips with what foods, smell, look and feel like. The children were given their own portion of flour, along with spoons and a bowl, allowing them to investigate the flour. Margot got stuck straight in by picking up both spoons and banging them together excitedly, whilst Cora took a more laid back approach and took in what everybody else did first. To further explore, water was added to the flour and the little ones mixed it all in. Billy picked up the bowl, turned it upside down and dipped it in the mix and watched as it dropped off onto the table with a huge smile on his face! 

When on a walk around the nursery grounds, they were very excited when they came across a big, green tractor. Matilde pointed and said, “Wow!” as they went went by and waved bye bye to the tractor as the walk continued. In the garden, the children have been so keen to explore the natural resources set out. A tray included leaves, bark, small and large pieces of wood in different shapes, and small toy creatures including spiders, ants and other insects hidden at the bottom. Sebby approached, sat next to the tray and picked up a piece of wood. He held it right up in the air with a very pleased look on his face. Leo dug a bit deeper into the tray and came across some toy ants. He looked over at his friend in excitement as they had found a spider!