Swimming at Molesey

Some of the preschool children have begun their swimming classes, and have a great time in the lovely warm waters as you can see, having the pool to themselves! They gain water confidence and we plan to continue these classes in the New Year. They have also had fun with our new letter stones. They felt how smooth they were and explored the various letters. Lily and Ida searched through the stones to find the letters in their name. Ida placed her letters in the correct order and copied them brilliantly. They also discussed the sound of the week 'Z', holding up the 'Z' stone. Lily said "Z for zebra!" While Sophie said "Zip begins with Z!" The children have also been hiding in their own den this week, using torches to help them see. They crawled under the table, taking turns as they went and used their imaginations. They pretended that a big scary monster was chasing them but in the den they were invisible. They moved their torches around, watching the light as it flickered from side to sides 

This week the toddlers have been very busy indeed! They have been involved in tea parties with one another. The girls have enjoyed having food round the table and the boys enjoy drinking out of the cups standing up. We also made a snowy farm with flour for the children to pour over the animals to make a snowy effect. This soon turned into making the staff look like snowmen which made the children and the staff laugh a lot! Tomas enjoyed naming all the animals in the farm "Horsey, sheep, chicken", and Ada kept shouting "It's snowing!" whilst throwing it in the air over the farm. The older children have been learning to count to ten this week and Sienna has loved joining in with the actions we created for some of the numbers. We also made yellow and green salt dough which the children enjoyed moulding into different things for example stars, gingerbread men and sausages!

The babies have been getting very messy and using all of their senses by exploring the jelly! We talked about the different colours and they loved to grab it and poke it fingers to poke it. the best part of course was tasting it! We also talked about how it felt cold and sticky and that it smelled like oranges and strawberries. Faris and Harry particularly enjoyed this activity, and flicked the sticky mixture all about! They have been painting using the cottons buds, dabbing them onto paper plates using their hands to explore paint further, and very interested in the marks that they were making. On one of our daily walks, the babies took some bread to feed the ducks. Harry enjoyed throwing the bread at the ducks laughing as they swam over to eat it!

Sparklers!

This week the children had their sparkler party. They spoke about how to keep themselves safe with Eve pointing out "You can't touch them". The children were very excited about using the sparklers and having a glo band in the dark. Molly spun around excitedly showing everybody hers and Douglas held his hands up and said "I'm glowing, I'm glowing! ‘ . During the event the children were fascinated by the sparkling lights and were quite eager for a turn. Xanthe smiled as she moved her sparkler around and Zachary made shapes saying "Circle" each time he waved the sparkler around. The babies also joined with fun, with Jasper smiling from ear to ear as held the sparkler with mum.

The children have been exploring the sensory room in the gloom inside, and used the light box to look at various shapes. The children moved the shapes along the box, Isla pointed out her favourite colour was pink and began to chant "Pink, pink, pink". This caused everyone to talk about what colours they could see and what shapes they could find. William held his hand over the top saying "I can see my hand ".

This week the babies have been collecting and exploring leaves. Lyra felt the texture by scrunching the leaves in her hand and smiling. The older babies threw some of the leaves in to the air and watched them fall to the ground. They then stamped about on the , listening to the crunchy sounds underneath. They have been involved in various sensory activities this week . Oliver used his fingers to poke the play dough and Abigail used her hands to explore the bubbles waving her around in the water to make a splashing movement. The more the bubbles moved, the more Abigail began to splash!

Rockets at Hampton!

This week the children created their own shadow puppets, using a torch.The children began to make various animal shapes. Isla held her hands up in the shape of a crocodile, and started to chuckle and said 'Snip snap, I'm hungry for my tea!’. Douglas started to sing Incy wincy spider and proceeded to make a spider using his hands. This prompted the children to do their own story telling about frogs, fire engines and even a mouse! Inspired by our story of the month "Whatever next?’, the children made them own rocket using the wooden bricks, Molly placed an elephant on top, William excitedly said "he's too big to fit in there. Out in the garden the children used the cones as their rocket perching themselves on top. Ines laughed and said "We are falling" and proceeded to wobble, with her friends joining chanting ‘Wobble, wobble, wobble’ . They also pretended to be rockets by placing cones on top of their heads, with Zach announcing "You look funny.!You're going to blast off- 1,2,3 !’

We look forward to seeing you all tomorrow at our sparkler party at 5.15pm!

The babies have been exploring sound this week by using the musical instruments and seeing what sounds they can make. Oliver excitedly waved his hands around whist holding a shaker, the more it made a sound the more he smiled and shook his hands. The babies have also been on a animal hunt in oats and exploring foam. Using their hands to explore the textures they began to move their hands around in the oats looking for the animals. Thomas made each animal sound as they were found. Clever you!

Autumn Events at Molesey

It was lovely to see such a brilliant turn out, from parents at our Autumn event. The children were very excited for their parents to arrive, to join their 'Party'. Lily said "We can have music and do dancing!" Olivia said "I have my party dress on!" As the parents arrived, the children joined them in the garden, to receive a colourful glow stick and some delicious food. Sausage rolls, sandwiches and warm hot chocolate were available and the children were very excited to have a taste. The children had fun showing their parents around the garden. Some of the parents were invited up into their treehouse for a wonderful view of the garden - great fun!

The Preschool children have been focussing on the letter 'Y' this week. They thought about the different words that began with 'Y''. Olivia shouted "Yoghurt. I like yoghurt!" Lily said "Lily has a ‘Y’ in my name!" They used watercolour paints to draw their ideas, with some children drawing yoga after having their own session in the morning. The children have also been on a nature hunt around the garden, picking up leaves and bark and anything else they could find. They searched in the sandpit, the house and all the way round the back of the garden. The children placed their nature objects into a basket and sat on the decking with them. They were very excited to start sticking them onto their paper, spreading the glue all the way along. They used all the natural materials and held their pictures up with pride. Ayla said "I can't wait to show my mummy!" 

The toddlers have been painting bonfires this week as we approach bonfire and firework season. The toddlers used different coloured paints to make the fire. Ada named all the colours while painting her picture "red, yellow, orange". Eloise took great care using her paint brush to create her fire. Once the paintings were dry the children then got to paint cotton wall sticks brown to create the bonfire to go at the bottom of their fires. The children really enjoyed seeing what they had made and Shyla was very vocal with how proud she was with the finished result. The toddlers have been learning a new song 'little bunnies' which gets the children moving and listening to the song to know when to wake up from their sleep and hop/jump/roar like a certain animal. All the toddlers love to do this song and like to suggest different animals to be like.

This week the babies have used their senses to explore the world around them. They have played with some colour changing bubble bath and as the bubble bath was put into the water it was red. As Harry and Oscar mixed the water around with their splashes it turned blue, which made the water very bubbly and a lovely shade of blue. Leo joined in splashing and he bought some floating boats with him. The boats didn't float for long however as leo and Oscar used the boats to make big splashes, splashing the floor and the boys and making everyone giggle. As Harry observed all the bubbles he happily shouted 'bubble'. The babies also explored the park, we saw some lovely ducks and had a go at feeding them. Amelia and Zac looked at the ducks in amazement as Zac pointed and smiled and we all made duck sounds. The babies also took a ball to the outside with them and kicked it around, Fabian kicked the ball far away and Connie chased after it.

Pumpkin Soup and Muddy Pies!

This week the children have been looking at the letter "T" as their sound of the week. Douglas drew a picture of a tiger and began to chant "I am a tiger, I am a tiger!’ then let out a great big roar and laughed. Sami held his foot in the air and proceeded to giggle and shouted "I've got wiggly toes!". The children found this quite entertaining and they all began to wiggle their feet.

The children have been exploring pumpkins and potatoes in the mud kitchen. They used these to make a variety of vegetable pies. Sienna began to cut a pumpkin cleverly counting each time she cut off a piece. Molly held a potato up and said "This is in the garden" and began to bury it in the soil. The children have been making animal dens using the wooden bricks. Jonah created an enclosure for the lions. Jonah laughed and said "They can't escape!" Jonah then proceeded to roar!

The babies have enjoyed playing with bubbles and moving to music as they tried to catch them. Oliver smiled up as he watched the bubbles blow out of the machine really fast, with one even popping on his nose, which made him laugh. Oliver stared at this surprised as the other children giggled. Jasper couldn't wait to catch the bubbles and used various items in the room to pull himself up so he could be closer to the bubble machine and clapped his hands together to pop them! 

The babies also explored cloud dough in the malleable tray. Lyra was so intrigued and immediately tried to grasp at this new material but it slid out in between her fingers. Johny was eager to get involved, and ran to see what was in the tray. He crouched down next to his friend and pulled at the material and threw it in the air.