Frost & Lightboxes!

The toddlers have been loving the recent garden make over! They have jumped straight into the exploring every area, finding lots of excitement in the different placement of some of their favourite toys, play areas and climbing apparatus. One morning when it was particularly chilly, there was a layer of frost on one of the tables which intrigued some of the children. Eliza approached straight away and exclaimed “oh no!” at the sight of the once brown table turned white, and placed her hand on it. Madeline and Jenson followed suit, placing their hands on the table too with Madeline quickly retracting it and holding it close to her chest, giving a large shiver to show that it was cold. Jenson giggled and began stroking the table and commented, “Cold”. As Jenson moved his hand across the table, it left some marks in the frost which then encouraged the other children to touch the table and make their own marks. Eliza chose to use a stick while Jenson and Cara used their hands. Phoebe found a piece of wood and placed it on the table and began moving it back and forth, creating much larger marks which made her smile.

Back inside, the children have been enjoying using the new light boxes to investigate colourful blocks, insect toys from the nature tray as well as leaves, bark, petals and other items collected from the garden and while on walks. Imogen showed a big interest in this and immediately began carefully stacking blocks to build a tower. Leo picked up a leaf and pressed it down on the light box, leaning in close with a smile as he slid the leaf around. Evelyn watched this for a few moments, before approaching the nature tray and picking up a magnifying glass to bring over, commenting, “Ooo, what’s that?” as Leo had now swapped his leaf for a thin piece of bark. Evelyn leaned in close with the magnifying glass for a few moments before holding it up to Leo’s face, “Here Leo, you have a turn now… what can you see?”.

The under two’s have thoroughly enjoyed their first weeks of 2025 at nursery, and have been very happy in welcoming the new starters! The children have had lots of exciting activities prepared for them involving lots of fun challenges including a game where they searched for hidden animals. Farm animals were hidden under pieces of tape to reveal a new and exciting animal! Skandar and Lyra came over to have a look, intrigued by what they saw and began peeling off the tape. Bit by bit, they got closer to finding out which animal they were going to find. Lowen managed to peel off each piece of tape and found a horse. Next was a pig, which was shortly followed by a duck. A few more children came to have a look once the animals began appearing. Lyra lined up the animals on top of the tray and pointed to each one, “Neigh, oink oink, quack!”. 

In the garden and on a daily walk, the children have been experiencing the winter season, wrapping up warm, going on frosty walks in the buggy and hearing the crunchy noise of ice beneath the wheels. Whilst out a walk, Skandar came across a puddle that had completely frozen over and went to explore. He crouched down next to the puddle and touched the surface with his hand, pulling away quickly and giggling from the cold. Giulia was intrigued so checked it out for herself, leaning over and to feel the ice too. She screamed with excitement and laughter as she said, “Oh!” and leant down to touch it again.