Owl Babies, Mixing Bubbles & Visiting Ducks!

Over the last couple of weeks, the toddlers have been delving into February’s book of the month, ‘Owl babies’. The children made their own forest scene with paint and sticks, used natural items collected on walks to create their own owl nests. They also made their own family of owls with paint and collage items, and with play dough in a separate activity. Sienna picked up two googly eyes and pressed them in her dough saying, “These are his eyes so he can see!”, before poking her fingers into the dough to creates small holes, “This is his mouth and one for the baby”. Leo carefully poked lolly sticks into the dough and laid pipe cleaners across the top, while Cara used a rolling pin to make it “big”. The toddlers absolutely loved the story sack for Owl babies, which included a large ‘Mummy owl’ puppet and three small baby owls. As the story was read the children were able to hold and pass round the props. Tabitha held the small owl close and gave it a big cuddle, while Henry held his one in his hands before bringing it to his mouth for a kiss with a small “Mwah”. Jenson held the mummy owl puppet on his arm and waved it slowly up and down, as if flying the owl through the sky. 

Outside, the children had a whale of a time chasing bubbles. A small group took turns helping to make the bubble mixture, pouring water from a jug and squeezing out some washing up liquid into a bowl. They then began helping to “Mix, mix, mix”, which they chanted in a chorus, recognising the phrase from one of their favourite stories ‘Ready, steady, Dig’. After squeezing in some washing up liquid, pouring in a jug of water and giving it a mix, Sebastian said “Can I blow the bubbles now? Is it Sebby’s turn?”. He gave a squeal of delight when he blew his first bubble, laughing as he popped it with his finger. Skandar dipped his wand in the mixture and brought it up to his face, getting ready to blow, when the end of the wand bopped him on the nose, leaving some bubbles. He let out a big beaming smile and little giggle, causing the other nearby children to laugh too. After blowing some bubbles, Phoebe walked away and said “I blow bubbles like this” re-enacting how she blew the bubbles, followed by “..and I caught it in my hands” while holding her hands together. 

Over the last couple of weeks the Under 2’s have loved getting involved in a large range of activities, as well as making the most of a couple of slightly warmer days outside! The Under 2’s have loved playing with the indoor sandpit and using a variety of toys within it, including some blocks. As the blocks were placed into the sand, Giulia watched for a moment before coming over to assist, carefully choosing the blocks from the box and dropping them into the sand. Zakariya clapped happily at this, letting out a quiet ‘wow’ as he watched Giulia scoop up the sand in one of the blocks and sprinkle it carefully back into the tray.

Whilst out on the daily walks, the Under 2’s had the opportunity to get a closer look at the ducks and geese as they came and joined them on the field. After sprinkling a few handfuls of food on the field, the children waited patiently as they watched them slowly approaching from the other side of the path. As they got closer to the area where the food was sprinkled and began to peck it, Lowen and Calvin looked at each other happily and both let out a little ‘ooo’ noise. As more ducks approached, Lydia smiled happily and began to approach them, turning back after a couple of steps with a giggle. Finlay began exploring the more immediate area, before peering into the buggies and starting to pull out the toy animals, handing them out kindly to his friends, keeping an elephant for himself to play with. After happily exploring the fields and the birds, the babies came back to nursery and happily tucked into their tea!