Snake Sock Puppets & Firework Paintings!

The toddlers have had a great time learning all about the Lunar New Year this past week, by joining in with lots of themed activities including using chopsticks in the home corner, making lanterns and paint splatting firework pictures. One day, the children all brought in their own socks to make a snake in the form of a sock puppet, to represent the year of the snake. Lots of the children walked in with happy smiles showing off their different coloured socks that they were going to decorate after breakfast. Whilst eating her toast and cereal, Sienna told each of her friends that walked in “Making a sock puppet”, informing them of the days plans with a big excited grin. Sebastian said, “I got lots of socks.. sharing” while holding out a big handful of spare socks to show everybody he had extras, just in case anyone forgot their own! While decorating her sock, Emily began hissing like a snake “Ssssss” which made her friends giggle. Evie explained, “We going to put our arm inside when it’s dry” as she decorated her sock with colourful paint and lots of pom-poms and googly eyes.

Outside, the children enjoyed role playing as dragons and stomping around the garden with big almighty roars. As the weather was cold and the children’s breaths were visible this added to the effect, with Cora pointing to her mouth as she watched her the white clouds float across the garden and saying “Like a dragon!”. The toddlers had a great time attempting to take part in a dragon dance that quickly turned into an impromptu dance party! Imogen began bending at the knees to the beat of the music while Clara and Leo jumped up and down together. Charlotte continued on stomping and roaring as she moved in circles along with the music.

Over the last couple of weeks the under 2’s have loved getting involved in a wide range of activities inside and out, exploring nature and introducing them to Chinese New Year! Whilst out on daily walks, they have explored different types of weather and nature, seeing what materials could be found. The children would stop off at different points of the grounds to come out of the buggies and collect items such as sticks, bark and leaves, to be used to make pictures. Meanwhile, the walkers of the room also went on a trip of their own to explore the grounds on foot and go to feed the ducks. Lyra very excitedly shouted “Quack quack” as she saw the first duck, and then looked over happily as she watched more appear from under the bridge. Theo smiled as he waved over at the ducks, getting very excited as they approached. 

The under 2’s have also gotten involved in some activities with inspiration from Chinese New Year, focusing on the celebration colours. One of the activities they got involved in was finger painting, with paper laid across the table and paint spread along for the children to get their hands in! Sophia quickly made her way over and slapped her hands onto the table, spraying the paint everywhere and giggling happily as she did so. They all got involved and made some beautiful pictures on the paper, showing off their artistic skills! Another Chinese New Year activity was making some ‘fireworks’ on the builders tray using the baby mops and chalk paint. The children were able to dip their baby mops into the pots filled with chalk paint and ‘splat’ them onto the tray, creating firework displays of all different colours! Zakariya splatted his mop and let out a quiet ‘Wow’ as he watched the paint explode off of it, smiling happily.