Beautiful colours at Molesey

This week the preschool children have been joining in with an obstacle course. They practiced balancing, kicking a ball and jumping. Firstly they walked across balance beams, holding their arms out high and slowly made their way over. Some children lost their balance, laughing as they wobbled along. They then lowered themselves under a bridge, ready to jump through hoops scattered along the floor. Their favourite part was when they kicked the ball into the cones, trying to knock them over. Ezra said "Woo hoo! Look I did it!" Eddie replied "Uh oh all gone!"

The children have also been painting with the watercolours, exploring the garden and natural world. They dipped their paintbrush into water and picked a colour of their choice. Lily painted a rainbow "Rainbows are in the sky. They have lots of pretty colours!" Amelie decided to paint some flowers "Like the ones in the nursery garden!"

The younger children have been continuing with our colours of the month topic. One of the maths focused activities this week was numbered colour building blocks to encourage number and colour recognition. Zachary said "1,2,3,4" as he built a great big tower. The toddlers have also been doing literacy focused activities like rice mark making with lollipop sticks to create a fun and active way of learning. The children used the lollipop sticks to create marks in the rice and some children used their senses to describe how the rice felt in their hands. For example, Oliver said "It feels hard" and questioned why the rice we eat at dinner is not hard like this rice, which lead to the topic of cooking food and how rice turns soft once cooked. The toddlers have also been singing colour songs and lots of art and craft activities to improve colour recognition.

The babies have enjoyed a walk around Imber Court and stopped to play on the field with some balls. They enjoyed rolling and kicking the balls and chasing after them. They also visited the ducks in the river. They explored the foam in the large tray and used their hands to move the foam around.

Stick hunt at Molesey!

Dinosaur café at Hampton!

This week the children visited the nursery Dinosaur café, and were fascinated by all the dinosaurs they could see.  They decided to feed the dinosaurs as well as each other! Amelia pointed out a dinosaur who was hiding behind some pine cones, and laughed and said, “He’s looking at me!”. William began to roar like a dinosaur much to Sienna’s amusement. She giggled and said, “It’s scary” and put her hands over her eyes. They sat down together and served dishes such as dinosaur soup and porridge!

The children created their own story through talk for writing, and made their own version of the 3 little pigs, Darcey and Elara chanted “ Little pig, little pig, let me come in”. Robyn became very excited and responded with “ The big bad wolf is coming to get you piggies!”. This prompted much laughter.

The babies explored ice with interest using their hands, and a few of them even wanted to eat it! Ines placed her hand in and giggled, she then pulled her hand out quickly! Norah-Mae spotted the ice and said “It looks like snow; you can make snowmen”. Some of the babies explored the coloured dinosaurs by filling up pots and using the pincers to pick them up. Thomas began to stamp his feet with excitement as he spotted a pot full of dinosaurs and began to make his way over to play with them.

'Whats the time Mr Wolf?' at Hampton

The children have had a great time in the garden this week playing favourite games such as Hide and seek, What's the time Mr wolf? and Duck, duck, goose. The children screamed with excitement as the Wolf turned around and said ‘Dinner time!’ and ran as fast as they could!

This week the children decided they would like a cafe in the home corner. They had a menu so they could choose what they would like to eat. Robyn said “Mmmm, I would like chips please”.

The rain filled one of the tufty trays and the children decided to put the cars in it so they could drive through it like puddles. Damon said “Splash, its a big puddle” as he pushed the car through it.

The children have also been practising writing letters and making marks developing their fine motor skills by using paint brushes in the sand. Darcey said look “D for Darcey” and proudly showed her friends.

We're going on a bear hunt!

This week the pre-school and toddler children have been focussing on 'We're going on a bear hunt'. The children have enjoyed lots of activities related to this and have been on a bear hunt around the garden looking for the bear.  They showed great imagination whilst walking though the long wavy grass, Peter said "It’s hard to get through this grass!". 

Pre-school have been exploring in the garden in the sun and rain. Whilst the sun was shining the children have been enjoying the sand pit and have been jumping in and out seeing who could jump the highest. Amelie said "Watch me! I am going to the sky" as she jumped in the air putting her arms out. They have also been enjoying the big cardboard tube in the water area where they have been watching the water flow through pushing down pieces of bark. Ezra said "This is really tricky" as he scooped water into the tube. 

Toddlers have been enjoying the tufty tray in the toddler room exploring the different textures such as shaving foam and rice using the Happy Street people to spread it around. They have also been exploring cornflour with food colouring mixing it all together watching the colours disappear in the water.

Zachary really enjoyed putting the train track together moving the trains around the train track saying "Choo Choo". The children have enjoyed singing songs at carpet time and have been copying the actions to the ‘Wheels on the bus’ and ‘If your happy and you know it’. 

Babies have had a lovely week exploring different sensory bags which have been filled with custard, raisins and water. They used their hands to push the mixture around. They also enjoyed going for a walk around Imber court and watching the horses. Oscar was waving to the horses as they went past. They have all shown great confidence whilst climbing the baby gym this week showing great control as they go up and down the steps independently and crawling down the slide.