Giant cable machine play!

Recently the toddlers celebrated World Bee Day when they explored what bees do and how they help us, as well as looking at pictures of bee hives and read stories all about bees! A few children explored the play dough set up which had a model of a what the inside of a bee hive looks like with the aim for the toddlers to make their own bees and hives. One child began pulling off small pieces of dough and said, “I’m making lots of little ones” before adding in a higher pitched voice, “They babies!” Meanwhile another child began rolling out a large amount of dough and stated “It’s a Daddy Bee!”. On another table some of toddlers were extracting pom pom ‘honey’ from egg carton bee hives using tweezers. A discussion started about honey and if they liked it, “I like honey I have it at home”, “My daddy has honey on his breakfast” while another child added, “Mmm it’s so nummy”.

Outside a group of children explored a very exciting new piece of equipment which they could use as a pulley for their sand buckets. One child wondered over and asked what it was before taking hold of the handle and moving it from side to side. As others approached they noticed the hook on the bottom and hooked on a bucket which gave them a little giggle of success after attempting for a few moments. This was then followed by some trial and error with the handle before they were able to fully rotate it which moved the hook from one end to the other. Some toddlers watched on laughing while others began asking, “Can I have a turn?” A couple children began getting scoops of sand and adding it to the bucket as it moved along the pulley with cheers of, “I did it” and “That’s a big one!” as they successfully got their scoops into the bucket. There were a few “Uh oh”s and “Oopsy daisy”s as some of the scoops missed the moving bucket which gave them another laugh. A few toddlers standing nearby then picked up the dustpans and brushes and very helpfully began sweeping the fallen sand from the floor and returning it to the sand pit.

Over the last couple of weeks the  Under Twos have continued to enjoy outdoor play in the garden and their adventures around the grounds. Whilst out on a daily walk, the children had just finished up with their picnic snack when a couple of children stood up and went over to one of the football goals. Others soon followed and chose to take along their small footballs with them. One of the children began to kick and throw their ball into the net, followed by clapping their hands and smiling which encouraged others to join in. Other children found the base post of the goal a rather comfortable seat and sat alongside friends as they watched the balls roll past them and into the net. In the garden the children have had a lot of water play activities to keep them cool in the hotter weather including water trays, builders trays with boats and pouring on the water wall. Whilst playing with the water wall the children were giggling and helping each other work out exactly what to do. One of the older children gave a great demonstration by lifting a cup of water and pouring it slowly into the top part of the wall, then pointing out the water as it flowed down the pipes. They would then say, “All done!” once the water had reached the very bottom of the wall. 

Inside the children have been developing their fine motor control by taking part in a lot of mark making activities. This particular day it was a drawing table with chunky pencils. A lot of the children were very eager to get started and helped set the table up, by placing the paper down and applying a piece of tape to the tops of the paper. They then helped choose some pencils from the tray and got stuck in. One of the children shouted, “Pink, pink!” as they began to colour and another child said “Circle” and pointed down at the circular marks they had made on the paper. Once that was said, the whole group of children began to say the colour crayon they were using.