Pumpkins and Autumn Social
Throughout October, the preschool children have engaged in various activities focusing on growing and harvesting as they celebrated harvest festival. Throughout group times and activities, the children were learning where certain foods come from, the importance of looking after home grown crops, as well as discussing which foods are healthy for us and why it is important for us to eat a balanced diet. Over the past couple of months, the children have helped to sow vegetable seeds and have been responsible for watering, cutting back and harvest the vegetables all whilst observing the various stages of each vegetable growing. This month the carrots were ready and a group of children were very excited to dig around the edges and pull the carrots from the soil. Once they had dug out all of the carrots, the children carefully used the vegetable peelers to peel the carrots and most importantly enjoyed the carrots as a part of their snack, proudly letting their friends know that they had dug out and peeled their own carrots.
On a rainy Friday morning, the children were very excited to get dressed up in a wetsuit and wellies to enjoy a pumpkin trail around the nursery grounds as well as finding as many puddles to jump in that they could possibly find. The children searched between willow trees, long grass and in between tree stumps until they were all able to find one each and were very excited to put them on their pegs to take home to show their families.
October also hosted the annual autumn social and the children were so excited to welcome their families in to nursery to play for the afternoon. Before the big day, the children helped decorate the room with their own leaf threaded bunting as well as placing their painted salt dough pumpkins alongside some real pumpkins around the building. When it was time for families to come in, the children eagerly waited to be able to show their parents and siblings their favourite places to play, engage in an autumn pumpkin trail and enjoy an afternoon tea together.
During the harvest season, the toddlers have been exploring different vegetables and learning about where they come from, how they grow and how eating them is important to being healthy. In the home corner one afternoon, the children came across some carrot peelings, potatoes, green beans and a large leek across the table, sink and hob. A small group immediately approached one shouting “POTATO!” as they picked one up from the sink and the other approached too with choruses of ‘potato’ as they each picked them up. One child grabbed some cutlery and began trying to cut into the leek, while another began serving out the carrot peelings.
On another day the children got to go on a pumpkin trail around the Imber Court grounds. They set off in their waterproof gear in search of puddles to splash in and pumpkins to find. After causing waves in every puddle along the way the children began scouring the floor and bushes for pumpkins until they reached the field where a couple of children spotted some pumpkins on the cleaning. They made a quick dash for them, turning around the show their friends what they had found with a smile, only to notice even more pumpkins! The toddlers began making their way to the pumpkins with shouts of “PUMPKIN!” and “I FOUND ONE!”, searching high and low to find one of their own, “I got a white one, you got an orange one!”.
The toddlers were very excited for the autumn social, with lots of children excitedly telling their friends their mummy’s and daddy’s were coming to the party. As it got closer to the party time the excitement levels got higher with lots of squeals of joy and questions of, “is my Mummy here yet?”. As the parents started arriving and the children spotted their loved ones their smiles were beaming and lots of excited laughter and greeting cuddles were had. A lot of children showed their mummy’s and daddy’s the garden, writing and posting letters in the nursery post box, scaling the balance beams and exploring the tree house. Inside, the children moved about each of the rooms, giving their families the full tour of the nursery, stopping off for some sandwiches and fruit before continuing on. Some children made play dough food for their parents while others explored the woodland nature scene with different autumnal animals.
The month of October has been an exciting time for the Under Twos, experiencing everything Autumn has had to offer. From crunchy sounding leaves during their walks, to nature filled sensory trays designed to help them explore textures, sounds and changing colours. The children have celebrated Harvest Festival their own way by finding hidden vegetables in the soil patch. Some children examined what they had found from top to bottom and others got so excited with their discovery that they lifted their hands high in celebration! Alongside vegetables, the children have also been exploring pumpkins in all different shapes and sizes. The children explored a hollowed out pumpkin filled with oobleck - a mix of corn flour and water. Some children used their hands to explore the texture and others chose to use spoons, all laughing and smiling as the slimy oobleck dropped back down over the pumpkin.
A lovely part of October is always the annual Autumn social event. The children spent the morning finger painting, creating their own bunting and decorating pumpkins using paint sticks for the room. As the children sat down for a circle time, parents began to arrive and one by one, the children’s faces lit up as they saw their parents walk into the room. As this was a first time for many of them, the children were excited to show off their room, guiding their parents around. They all enjoyed time together creating beautiful artwork to take home, as well as drawing on the chalk board and exploring the glowing lights in the sensory room!