Caterpillars!

Over the last couple of weeks the toddlers have been very excited at the arrival of some tiny caterpillars that they will get to watch as they go through the cycle of cocooning and turning into a butterfly. A small group of children gathered around a table to get an up close look of the caterpillars, sitting on their knees and resting their faces against the table to be eye level with them.  They watched quietly with intrigue as their eyes moved across the pots of caterpillars when all of a sudden one of the caterpillars moved, eliciting squeals of excitement from a few children and a comment of, “Ahhh he’s moving” followed by another child joining in with a statement of, “He’s so wiggly… like this” as they give a little giggle on the spot. Later on in the week the children were making their own wiggly caterpillars with sticks and pipe cleaners, winding the pipe cleaners around the sticks and adding eye stickers. One child began stroking their caterpillar once they had finished making it, “Ooh, it’s so soft” and invited their friend to feel it too as they giggled together. They then took their caterpillars to the nature tray where they began wiggling them amongst the grass and over the logs.

The Toddlers have been loving their spring themed walks around the Imber Court grounds where they have been making their own nature frames and bracelets. The children who chose to make bracelets so had some tape placed around their coat clad wrist with the sticky side out and those who chose to make the frame held onto their cardboard shapes with a sticky centre as they all began foraging for items to attach to them. A few children began adding fallen leaves to their creation while a couple found a small collection of daisies and purple flowers which they carefully began plucking and very carefully pressing down onto their bracelets and frames. One child was very happy with their bracelet and showed it to all of their friends, “I got so many pretty flowers” while another child held up their frame, “look I made this with all its leaves on.”

Over the last couple of weeks the under 2s have been exploring colours through a range of different activities. One of the activities the children got very involved with was body painting where they were able to explore the texture of the paint using tools or different parts of their bodies, including their hands and feet. The children had a selection of canvases to choose from including paper, cardboard, and themselves! A couple of the children quickly worked out how to create their own hand and footprints and did a great job painting their hands and feet and pressing them down to create their art. Some of the other children preferred to use the range of tools they were offered, and did a great job mixing the different colours together to see what they could create. One of the children created a handprint and then looked up with a smile, before pointing back at it and shouting “Red!’. Another child followed this up by pointing to a footprint and shouted “Blue!”, which led to the children making their way along the pots of paint and correctly identifying each of the colours. The children have also shown their fantastic knowledge of colours through coloured play dough, which they managed to correctly name. A couple of the children took it a step further by exploring the room until they found the duplo blocks, rifling through them until they found a colour that matched the play dough. The children were encouraged to continue this as the box of blocks were brought over to the play dough,  and they continued to match the blocks to the coloured dough. 

Out in the garden, the children have been exploring the new tube which has been added to the sandpit. Some of the children picked up the tube at each end, and began to peer at each other through, giggling. They followed this up by shouting down “Hello!” to each other through the tube, before dropping it whilst laughing. Some of the other children brought over a selection of balls which they began to drop down the tube, lifting up one end and clapping as they came out the other end. After successfully dropping down a few of the different balls, one of the children tried to feed through a larger ball, and a small group gathered and watched in confusion at why the ball wouldn’t go down the tube. When one of the practitioners let them know that it was too big, a few of the children echoed “Too big”, before going back to the smaller balls.