Learning the Life Cycle of Butterflies!

The preschool children have been observing the life cycle of a caterpillar to a butterfly over the last two weeks and have shown a large amount of interest. The children have been learning about the four stages of the process, starting off as an egg, turning in to the larva (caterpillar), forming a cocoon and then eventually a butterfly. When the caterpillars first arrived, the children helped to separate the food in to individual pots where the caterpillars would be placed in to for them to be able to start the cocoon process. Tilly had seen the caterpillars in the box when they arrived and curiously asked, “But why are they caterpillars and not eggs?”. Phoebe explained to Tilly that, “The eggs have hatched already and now they are caterpillars!”. The children observed patiently over the next few days, waiting for the caterpillars to start cocooning. They also took part in many activities including making their own stories of ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’, making 3D butterflies using various materials including paper mache, paper plates and shredded paper and enjoyed using their bodies to move in many ways to pretend to be a caterpillar and butterfly. 

Otto noticed when he came in to nursery on Monday morning that all of the caterpillars had cocooned, he called Joseph over to start and then one by one called a few more friends over, “Be careful not to shake the net, the cocoons might fall down!”. The children silently stared at the net of cocoons, almost in amazement. Joseph asked, “Why are they smaller than the caterpillars?” Otto suggested, “Maybe they have squeezed their legs together to be cosy?”, to which Basti reassured him, “Yes, that’s right”. A few more days went by before the first butterfly emerged and whilst Arlo was putting some art work away in his tray below the butterflies, he very excitedly called out, “Everyone, a butterfly has come out!”, and within a few hours lots more butterflies had hatched from their cocoons which was the focus of the next group time. Margot was very kind to chop some of her orange at snack time, putting it aside and asked, “Can I put it in the net for the butterflies to eat?”

When it was time to release the butterflies, Gabriel was so excited to be able to hold the butterfly on his hand, letting out a little giggle, he said to Sadie, “That tickled my hand”. Emmy gently held her hand out and also giggled when the butterfly walked across the back of her hand. Marlow and Isla clapped and waved as the butterflies flew off and when seeing one had landed on a flower in the garden, a small group of the children crouched down, holding out their hands and Ethan let out a big smile when the butterfly crawled back on to his hand. 

Mother's Day Tea Party!

The preschool children have been very excited on the build up to our annual Mother’s Day Tea Party event and have been busy preparing gifts and cards to give to their mummies! After Francis had finished decorating his plant pot, he picked it up, held it in front of him, let out a little smile and said, “My mummy will like this I think”. Cooper and Isla were eager to get their cards on the drying rack, ready to give to their mums, whilst Marlow loved getting his hands deep in to the compost to fill up the pot with some flower seeds. Otto was so excited to see the bunting be put up in preschool and asked, “Does that mean the party is today?”. This followed by a great big smile and clap when the answer was a yes. He couldn’t wait to get back outside to the garden to tell his friends it was party day.

As usual, the children love to show their parents where their favourite place to play is, and they did just this when all the mums to started to arrive. Isla was so excited to finally be able to gift her mummy a card, a present and even a cupcake that the children had made that morning. Some of the other children ventured straight to the garden to show their mummies around and some of them got stuck straight in to the sandwiches and sat together around the tables, with lots of happy conversations going ahead. 

The toddlers were so excited in the lead up to the tea party, with lots of chatter about their mummies coming to play! Sebastian commented, “My mummy’s coming and we going to play in toddlers…. And have sandwiches!”. As the Mums arrived the children’s faces were beaming and lots of excited cuddles were had. Just as Clara was tucking into a sandwich her mummy turned up; she quickly put it to the side for a big, big cuddle before taking her plate to eat with her in the garden! Henry showed his Mummy all around the toddler room, spending time reading stories together in the book corner and Henry showed off his favourite cat puppet, with a small, “Meow”. Sienna enjoyed showing her mummy the different areas of the garden, spending lots of time doing one of her favourite things, playing in the mud kitchen! Clara and Emily had only seen each other five minutes before their mum’s arrived but were so excited to be reunited by the sand pit with them present, and shouted each others names as they ran together for a big cuddle. 

The Under 2’s loved welcoming their mummies to the nursery at the Mother’s Day Tea Party and were really keen to show off their room! As Zakariya’s mum arrived, he smiled happily and looked up with a beaming smile, excited at the chance to give her a tour around the garden and room! After Emilia turned up with her mum, she indicated that she would like to go over to the sandpit and proudly showed off how she plays in it to all the mothers around! Lowen, Lyra and Lydia all happily ventured out into the big garden to show off their football skills to their mums, and played really nicely together, proudly exhibiting their excellent sharing skills! 

Caterpillar Visitors & Weighing Scales!

Over the last couple of weeks, the preschool children have been very excited to be able to track the life cycle of a butterfly. When the caterpillars arrived, Margot was eager to take a look at what they looked like, asking, “Are they spiky, or are they hairy and fluffy?”. When taking a closer look, Francis picked up one of the magnifying glasses and, after taking a close look, offered a turn to Margot and said, “If you look closely, their legs are so small!” and started to count them alongside his friends. Once the caterpillars were all placed safely in their individual pots, Ollie asked, “What is that brown stuff on the bottom?” Sadie correctly answered, “That’s their dinner, they can eat that when they are hungry”. Phoebe laughed and said, “Ewww, that wouldn’t taste nice!”. 

The children were engaged in many activities throughout the week with the focus of caterpillars and butterflies including sculpting their own eggs, caterpillars, cocoons and butterflies using play dough. Gabriel rolled play dough out using his hand and when it was too long for his hand to control any more, he started to laugh and said, “It’s too tickly!”. He then showed his friends, “Look, I made a caterpillar”. Some of the preschool children also enjoyed making their own version of the story book The Very Hungry Caterpillar. They each drew their favourite parts of the story and then gathered the pictures together to make their own version of the story. 

Outside in the garden, the children have loved exploring the new weighing scales. Collecting sand to fill up the buckets, Otto and Sebastian lifted one each, Otto very quickly placing his back down and said, “I think this one is too heavy for me” to which Sebastian replied, “That’s ok, I can help you with my big muscles”. Working together to lift the bucket on to the end of one side of the scales, Ethan and Arlo lifted the other bucket and placed it on the other end. Leo quizzed them, “So which one do you think is the heaviest?” He praised the children when they selected the bucked that was closest to the floor. Freddie reassured them, “I know we are right because that one is lower down”. Harry quickly got to work collecting more sand for the lightest bucket and slowed down when he saw they were almost matching. 

The toddlers have loved watching the caterpillars as they’ve been slowly growing over the last couple of weeks, especially now as they’ve started to make their way up onto the lid of their pots to cocoon themselves. The children have been learning all about how a caterpillar transitions into a butterfly by looking at the story, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Sebastian joined in with nearly every word of the book, “He ate through four strawberries… was STILL HUNGRY!”. This made Tabitha laugh and repeat the word, “Strawberry”. Once the story was finished, the toddlers had a look at some of the caterpillars in their pots, Jenson patted his hands on his knees and said “Hands in lap”, showing that he was ready to look at the caterpillars and wasn’t going to touch them. Henry squealed as the caterpillars were brought closer to him and leaned in as close as he could with a beaming smile. Arlo pointed his finger at a particularly wiggly caterpillar and smiled, giving a little “Oh” as it gave a particularly big wiggle. The children are all so excited to see them turn into butterflies!

Over the last couple of weeks, the under 2’s have been full of excitement watching the caterpillars fill up their tummies and grow bigger and bigger each day! When the caterpillars first arrived, the children inspected the tiny little creatures. Sophia, Lydia and Calvin were the first to inspect and came for a very close look. Lydia pointed at the caterpillars and smiled as she looked around, intrigued by the wriggly creatures inside. Sophia also let out loads of giggles alongside Lydia, as she knelt down and looked closer into the jar. Her imagination sparked trying to see what could possibly be making all of those funny wriggly moves. Lowen and Calvin were spotted pointing in fascination at the tiny jars on the table, making lots of ‘Oooh!’ sounds, as this might’ve been the first time seeing such big, hungry caterpillars in person! While a little reluctant to investigate at first, Freya soon warmed up to the idea of the caterpillars, especially after seeing how interested Lowen and Calvin were. She showed everybody how brave she was by moving herself closer to the jars, admiring how amazing the caterpillars truly were. Zakariya showed everyone how excited he was to see caterpillars for the first time too, by saying ‘caterpillar’ while having a big smile beaming across his face.

Colour Hunt & Exploring the Fields!

Over the last few weeks one of the themes the toddlers have explored is colours, where they were able to experiment with colour mixing with different paints, sort some of the favourite toys into colour groups and challenge themselves with a fishing game in the water tray, trying to catch specific colours of fish with their stick fishing rods. One activity that the children enjoyed was a rainbow sensory tray with a variety of coloured toys, pom-poms, pipe cleaners and feathers among other textured items. Eliza approached and looked at the items in the tray before selecting a small piece of ribbon, which she slowly traced over the palm of her hand. Evelyn picked up a ‘nut a bolt’ toy, immediately recognising the colour, “This one’s yellow”, looking up to see that Jenson had picked up the same toy in the same colour, “Oh, Jenson’s got the same as Evie, he’s got a yellow one too” causing them to have a little giggle. However the thing that got the most laughs from all of the children at the activity was the discovery of the feathers! Jenson gasped as he picked up a feather, seemingly knowing what he was going use the it for, and gently stroked it over Eliza’s face. She pulled back, shocked for a second before squealing and picking up a feather to tickle her own face. Evelyn saw this and grabbed her own feather too, making her way around the tray tickling each of her friends, causing them to erupt into giggles!

One afternoon in the garden a group of the children playing in the sand pit,rolling cars and boats down a large tube, noticed that the outside of the tube made a noise if it has something dragged across it. This then led to an impromptu music session where a mix of the toddler and preschool children had their own sticks and began dragging them up and down the ribbed tube and requesting songs to sing. Along to the renditions of ‘Baa baa black sheep’, ‘Twinkle twinkle’ and many others Emily dragged her stick back and forth along the tube with a smile while Madeline wiggled to the beat of the music. The preschoolers tapped their sticks to make a beat and Theo used his hands to run up and down the end of the tube, giving a small round of applause at the end of each song. 

Over the last couple of weeks, the under 2s have been having an absolute blast and it’s been full of challenges, fun and laughter. Inside, the builders tray filled with sand and farm animals was a very popular activity. Calvin took inspiration from his friend and carefully built his own sand mound and checked to make sure he was doing it just right. And Emilia and Freya? What a team! They were having a smashing time (literally!) with the farm animals, lifting them up and banging them back down into the sand. 

Outside, the car and track tray was a big hit where Lowen and Lyra were so focused, carefully guiding their cars down the taped tracks. It was lovely to see them working together and problem solving. Lydia's little cheers and claps every time a car made it across made everyone happy! Our daily walks have been a lot of fun, especially with this lovely weather. Zakariya's face lit up when he spotted a flock of birds flying overhead, pointing and shouting "Bird, bird!", and with Sophia's clapping and excitement right alongside him. After snack time had finished, the children were free to explore the field, and could choose to run around, play football or play with the toy animals. 

It has been a lovely couple of weeks, filled with learning, laughter and lots of happy little faces. 

World Book Day!

All the children looked amazing this week dressed up as characters from their favourite books!

The pre school children were all very excited on the lead up to World Book Day and enjoyed engaging in many activities around some of their favourite stories throughout the week such as Snail and the Whale play dough, Elmer Duplo designs and making various habitats for the animals from Dear Zoo. As well as learning about various authors, Julia Donaldson being very popular, Leo was also keen to know, “But who drew all of those pictures?” When being told that an illustrator designs the pictures in a story, Margot was keen to let her friends know that, “Do you know that Axel Scheffler draws the Gruffalo pictures?” This led to Otto, Esme and Basti calling out all out the Julia Donaldson stories they were familiar with. The children were all so excited to show each other their outfits and Harry was so happy to see the Elmer duplo colour design activity which he laughed and said, “That looks just like me”, pointing to his own Elmer outfit. The pre school children also took part in being an author and illustrator themselves and design their own small story books to take home and share with their families. Once Blair had finished her story, she flicked through all of the pages and told her friends, “I think my mummy and daddy will love this”.

Inside, a group of children took it in turns to sit in their new quiet hide out in the book corner. Ollie was guiding two children at a time and after a few moments, was instructing, “You sit here” pointing to the sofa and then was selecting two more children to have their turn. Whilst sitting in there, Margaux was showing a book to Arthur which he was very excited to see the letter A in the book and excitedly called out, “A, A for Arthur!

In the lead up to world book day the toddlers got to enjoy some lovely activities based on their favourite books, including a ‘The very hungry caterpillar’ themed sensory tray where the children got to use spoons and scoops to feed some cardboard caterpillars. Sienna held up her caterpillar and said “This one is big!” with a big smile. Henry enjoyed putting the spoon into the caterpillars mouth and giggled each time it came out empty. When Thursday arrived the toddlers kicked off the day by excitedly greeting each other as they all arrived in their outfits. As Evelyn walked in Cara and Emily immediately recognised who she was dressed as and shouted “GRUFFALO!”. Then Tabitha arrived in her orange onesie and Clara knew straight away, pointing and saying “Zog!” The children’s wonderful outfits ranged from ‘Spot the dog’ to ladybirds, from superman to Spider-Man and even a penguin. Outside the children began making their own books. They had a range of materials including, pencils, pens, paint dabbers and stickers. Sebastian used the dabbers and pencils to make marks on his book, finishing it off with some stickers saying “This one is a face… it’s happy”.  Meanwhile Skandar enjoyed looking through the books that were on the table before making his own, flipping between the Gruffalo and Stickman. At the end of the day the children sat down to look through some story sacks of more of their favourites, such as, ‘Big yellow digger’ and ‘The Gruffalo’. With all of the characters and props inside the sacks, the toddlers were able to tell the stories all together. 

 The under 2’s have very much enjoyed their world book day and were so very excited  excitement to see each other’s costumes. After welcoming children dressed as Postman Bear and the Gruffalo, the children got a huge surprise as one of their friends walked in dressed as The Tiger Who Came To Tea. Lyra rushed over to see Isabella and pointed as she said, “Tiger, tiger, roar!”. This attracted the attention of her friend Zakariya. He moved around having a good look at the tiger costume and came across the tail, pointing and saying “Ohh!”.  The children adored exploring each others costumes and especially shouting “Roar!” whenever the tiger who came to tea was around!