Horses and Rhymes!

Over the last week the toddlers have been busy exploring the theme of nursery rhymes, which has involved making music in a variety of ways, getting very creative with activities and of course lots of singing! Whilst exploring the play dough table Matilde, placed individual lolly and match sticks upright into her dough and began serenading her friends at the table with a rendition of one of her favourite songs ‘Happy birthday’. This then led to all of the children wanting a turn of having their name in the song and a good five minutes of singing happy birthday to everybody. In the garden Phoebe crawled over to a large pot and began banging on it with a spade, Sienna, Margaux and Evie all approached too, sitting next to other pots and pans collected from the mud kitchen and began joining in with the instrumental, all tapping at their pots with giggles and smiles and the occasional wiggle to the beat. 

One morning the toddlers went for a lovely peaceful walk around the Imber Court grounds, stopping off to say hello to one of the horses. The children were completely enamoured and all watched intently as the horse slowly approached the fence and nodded its head a few times, as if greeting them all. As the children watched on a member of staff put some grass on the fence to see if the horse would take some, which it did! This set of a few excited laughs and squeals followed by a couple of neighs from Imogen. The toddlers were so content watching the horse and chatting about what they could see they didn’t want to move on! After eventually saying goodbye to the horse they carried on in search of a spot to sit and have snack, but came across a tractor instead. Finley immediately shouted “Tractor!” with a point in its direction, which caused some gasps and quick head turns to find it. As they got closer Eliza commented “wow” with a look of amazement on her face, followed by a burst of excitement in the form of a squeal. The toddlers finished up their walk with their morning snack and a run around on the field. 

The under twos have been having lots of fun over the past two weeks learning about the five senses, A favourite theme throughout the week was exploring sound which involved lots of music, singing and discovering new noises and circle time was a key part in this. ‘What’s in the bag?’ proved to be excellent fun and the children were encouraged to sit on the carpet together as the activity began with the special song. At first the children were unsure of this new song, but soon Maddie and Zachary were copying the actions and tapping their legs to the beat! Inside the bag were a range of noise making toys and musical instruments which the children could reach in and pull out in. Skandar pulled out a tambourine and began shaking it around before placing it on the floor. Emily approached and knelt down next to the tambourine and used her hand to gently tap, tap, tap on top of it. Skandar looked over with joy as he had found out a whole new sound could come from this instrument and quickly joined in. 

In the outdoor environment, the under twos have been enjoying spending time exploring the grounds, laden with flowers and sights to entice their senses. They have also been having lots of fun in the mud kitchen, dressing in their waterproofs and getting stuck in with some soil sensory play. The children were able to explore different textures within the wet and dry soil and could use their imagination in how they chose to play with it. Lowen collected some of the sand pit toys, two different shaped castle moulds and a spade, and took them over to the mud kitchen. He began using the dry mud, which had a texture very similar to the sand, to fill the mould so when he went to tip out his castle, it didn’t hold its shape. “Ooo” said Jack who was watching nearby, as if to say ‘Oh no’ but with a little help, Lowen was able to use the wet mud to pop out a mud castle. Whilst all of this was happened in the mud kitchen, Henry stayed put in the sand pit, picking up handfuls of sand and enjoying the sensation it created when falling through his fingers.