Zoom!...........We're going to the moon!

This week the children have been exploring and learning about Space. They looked at planets and made marks representing the terrain using different spices. Orange colour was a favourite for Mars as they used toothbrushes to spread the spice dyed water along the paper.

They have also been name writing and moulding shapes in moon sand. Damon moulded a ball and told us proudly it was the Moon, whilst Douglas happily identified the letter D and wrote it saying ‘Look, it's my name'. Hlenhaze and Eve used some play foam to hide and find stars, Xanthe got involved using a spoon to scoop it all up and cleverly found the most stars! The staff also hid poms poms, (planets), and stars for the children to find and they tried to make a solar system. William and Isla pulled out the poms poms giving them a squeeze as they collected them. Avy and Dawid made a good attempt at making a rocket shop, and coloured in the ship, and Avy said ‘We need fire to make it fly!’ before taking it around the room pretending it was flying.

This week the babies have played with some bouncy balls, bouncy them around the room catching and throwing to each other, Lyra often crawled over the ball to catch it and stop it from rolling away, Ines put her hand over her mouth and said 'Oh'. Jonathan and Oliver had a try at building a marble run with Zach supporting them, as Jonathan built it up Oliver knocked it over, other making both boys laugh.

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.