Insect Walks & Under Sea Exploration!

The toddlers have been absolutely loving their Thursday sessions of interactive singing and story telling with the entertainer, Ellie. As soon as tidy up time is called and the children notice tables being moved to make space the excitement begins. Harry asked “Is the bubble lady coming?”, remembering the bubble machine from last time. Once Ellie arrived and began setting up, all of the toddlers gathered into the big space and with a little guidance sat in a perfect circle with their listening ears switched on. Once the ‘hellos’ began and the first song started to play, Rafe held up both index fingers and began swishing them from side to side, doing the sign for music. Henrietta smiled as she stomped her feet to the music and Ethan wiggled his head from side to side as he smiled happily. Arlo found it absolutely hilarious to shout along to the funny noises as they squeezed their toes, giggling away as he said “Boop Boop” and “Beep Beep”. Emily loved the musical instrument section and dived in straight away to gather some instruments to play. Once the shaking, tapping and banging had finished she helped to tidy them all away. The session was ended with a goodbye song and each child was given a ‘star’ on their hand for all of their participation. 

The children were so excited to go for a walk, each with their own explorer bag containing a clipboard, pen, insect checklist, a magnifying glass and pair of binoculars. As they set off around the Imber Court grounds holding their little bags, Leo commented, “Got Leo’s bag.. got lots stuff in it” while holding it out for everyone to see. At the first stop the children all placed their bags on the floor to remove either their magnifying glass or binoculars to investigate some flowers. Arlo retrieved his magnifying glass and held it right up to his face, looked at the nearest member of staff and said “Oh hello Alice, nice to see you!” before redirecting his gaze into the sky and shouting “AEROPLANE!”. Maximilian then shouted “HELP!” as he struggled to pull his binoculars out of his bag in a rush to see the aeroplane, once assisted he held them up to one eye and commented, “LOOK!…Big one up there!”. Megan’s attention was elsewhere as she noticed a small grasshopper had jumped onto a staff members leg, after looking at it closely with Joseph they both squealed as it jumped back into the grass to hide. Joseph explained to Megan as she began searching the grass “Oh no it gone now, hiding in the grass.. bye bye hopper”. Ava pulled out her clipboard and pen which influenced the others to do the same. As she began drawing on her checklist along with her friends she paused, shouting “Ah!” and pointing to the spider picture “It’s a spider!” and Joseph reassured her “It not scary”.

In recent weeks the under twos have had an amazing time exploring the book of the month ‘Elmer’ and all things under the sea! One activity that the under twos were particularly interested in was the ‘under the sea’ sensory bags! Each bag was filled with a different sea related malleable material, such as string and water creating a look of seaweed! Charlotte was particularly intrigued by this one, pushing both hands and hard as she could into the bag, watching as the ‘seaweed’ wiggled and squished out of the way. She giggled as the green and blue string moved beneath her hands, and this caught the attention of some of the other children. Leo was curiously observing all of the sensory fun, whilst Cora had discovered the bag filled with blue water and oil, creating bubbles and ripples in the bag as she poked and prodded it. ‘Oooh’ she expressed, quickly followed by a clap! In the other two bags was green sand, and little toy fish, which Evie enjoyed chasing around the bag with her fingers! Later in the day these under water sensory bags were hung outside, to create a whole new way to explore them. 

In the garden the children explored all things ‘Elmer’ by digging for elephants in the sand pit and then cleaning them with crazy foam. One of the most exciting Elmer themed activities was the rainbow pom pom chutes! Attached to the chalk board was a variety of tubes of different lengths and sizes, all aiming at different angles. The under twos practiced their pincer grasp, carefully choosing which pom pom they wanted to use. Margaux was a tad unsure at first as to what to do next but after a demonstration of how to post the pom poms down the chutes and collect them from the bottom, she excitedly took a handful of them and began quickly posting as many as she could! Cora and Sebastian followed suit and copied Margaux’s actions, all of them eagerly watching as the pom poms vanished from the top and miraculously shot out of the bottom. All of this fun quickly drew the gaze of the other children and soon there was a whole group of children excitedly laughing and babbling to one another as they played! During this activity the children were helped with attempting to say the colour names as they selected their pom pom, listening and repeating it back! Margaux repeating back “blue” as she investigated the texture of the pom pom, and Sebastian “white!”.