Playing with Magic, Brooms and Shadows!

Recently, the toddlers have been looking at Octobers book of the month, Room on the Broom, as well as the event of Halloween. They were able to search the Imber Court grounds for items to add to their cauldron back at nursery, some children selecting leaves while others found pine cones and the green and brown shells of conkers. Once they were brought back to nursery and added to the cauldron, a small group of children began mixing up their concoctions, using ice cream scoops, spoons and ladles while giving it their best go at saying the spell from the story, “Iggety ziggaty zaggety zoom”! A couple of children enjoyed looking at the story sack, playing with all of the different characters from the story and looking in at the book. While one child pointed out the dragon and gave a mighty roar, another child pointed to the frog and began jumping on the spot saying, “Ribbet ribbet!”. Once the page was turned to show all of the characters on the broom, one of the toddlers went and retrieved a broom from the home corner and placed it on the table where they then, along with the other children at the table, placed all of the characters on top, emulating the scene from the story perfectly!

In the garden, a group of toddlers were enamoured with the new periscopes that were added near the sandpit, bending down to have a look through at their friends across the garden. This was a perfect opportunity for them to search the skies and garden for dogs, cats, frogs, birds and dragons from the story. When one of the children called out, “Ahh a dragon… I see it!” and pointed to the end of the garden, inciting squeals and choruses of “Dragon!” as they ran around the garden. 

Over the last couple of weeks in the Under 2s room, the children have been exploring all of the different things Autumn has had to offer. Whilst out and about on daily walks, the children were always eager to get out of the buggies and begin their adventure. Some of the children have enjoyed searching for loose parts such as sticks, conkers, pine cones and giant leaves whilst others have chosen to explore the willow trees on site. A small group of children held onto the long branches of the tree and began waving them around, letting out little giggles in excitement. Other children chose to play amongst a huge pile of fallen leaves, admiring the many colours they had to offer. Some of the children began to scoop up the leaves in their hands, throw them into the air and jump around as they fell around them. 

Whilst indoors, the children have been mark making on giant leaves in order to create some autumnal bunting which is now proudly hung up in the Under 2s room. The children chose from paint pens, chalk and paint to decorate their leaves. Throughout this activity, the children were comparing and learning from each other. One child picked up their leaf, held it in the air and said, “leaf, leaf”. This caught on and many other children did the same thing and attempted the word, ‘leaf’. 

As the evenings get darker and cosier, the children have been enjoying the sensory room, lit up with calming colours and lots of things to explore. The children began looking around at each other and back at the wall, letting out calm ‘ohhh’ and ‘ahh’ sounds as the lights were turned on and they lit up the room. They moved their bodies around as they watched their dancing shadows appear on the wall and giggled together. Some of the smaller children chose to sit and play with glow up sensory shakers which they rolled, shook and held up to their faces to watch the glowing colours. The children also took part in a circle time, during which they sang Zoom, Zoom, Zoom and Twinkle Twinkle and followed along with the actions the best they could.