Pet shop !

The children visited Squires pet shop to see what different animals they could see. They were particlularly fascinated by the lizards and tortoises. Harry pointed and said "Look, a dinosaur!" The children then noticed to look at the fish. Douglas and William watched closely and looked at the different colours they could see. They then began to name the fish after their friends back at nursery. On the way back to nursery the children visited the park and decided to act out the movements of the animals they had observed.

They have been experimenting with cooking a variety of sweet and savoury dishes. The children helped to make the staff vegetable soup. They spoke about where the vegetables came from, what food they like to eat, and how they grow. Jonah spoke excitedly about the food he likes "Apples and pears are juicy, I think they grow on trees".  Douglas responded " did you know Tescos picks them up" he then started to chuckle. This promoted all of the children to talk about their favourite foods. Eve started to giggle and joined in with the conversation " I like chicken and rice, they are tasty. I"m hungry" Eve then started to rub her tummy. The children also drew pictures of the foods that they like to eat. Scarlett asked her friends if they knew potatoes live in the ground.

The babies have been mark making using crayons, The little ones tapped, and rolled the crayons on to paper and were please with the results. They also had fun exploring water, using their hands, jugs and spoons to empty, pour and fill. Arthur was very interested in pouring it out as fast as he could! Oliver placed his hands in water and began to splash about , until the suds were everywhere, which caused giggles all round.

Muddy adventures!

The preschool children have explored their new light box this week. They were mesmerised, as the light went from dim to bright with just the press of a button. The children had lots of fun, staring through the coloured paddles at the light, discussing what happened. Sophie said "Mine has turned green! Has yours?" as she asked her friends.. They all decided theirs were different colours. They have also been using various sized shapes, to build and stack. They built small towers and tall towers, looking through the point at the top to explore the colours. 

The children have also been on a walk around the lovely Imber court site, starting with the bridge and feeding the ducks, and along to the fenced fields spotting the horses to the football pitches, to practice their football skills. They ran as fast as they could, to catch the ball and were kicking them back and forth to each other. Some of the children wanted to be goalkeeper and laughed as they tried to stop the ball. Best of all was splashing about and jumping up and down in the muddy pitch puddles!

This week our toddlers joined in with the adventures while reading ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’. They created a den using tables and blankets to create a dark and cosy environment for the children to hide in. At first many were reluctant to venture in but as soon as the adults got in too they couldn't wait to pile in! The children then experienced colourful snow that was falling down onto the toddlers heads which gave everyone a big laugh as they got covered in pink and blue snow. The toddlers have also started some preparation on some Christmas baubles where they glued materials onto felt baubles to give a sparkly effect. Tomas enjoyed repeating the word "Sparkly"as he made his bauble.

The children have continued to paint lots of cardboard boxes to soon reveal a Christmas surprise come December. The toddlers mixed water, flour and salt to make some salt dough which all the children throughly enjoyed! Sienna enjoyed pinching the dough and watching the mark it left. Ada and Scarlett had rolling pins and were pretending to cook some food. The toddlers had the opportunity to dress up as builders and doctors. Eloise carried round the doctors case all morning! The toddlers and babies have spent some lovely time playing together this week during our free flow play between the two rooms. It was lovely to see the toddlers looking out for the babies while playing.

The babies loved making snow pictures using cardboard tubes cut into different shapes; dabbing them onto the paper to make their snow flake pictures. Oliver loved changing his coloured roll and using the different shaped rolls and looking at his picture at the different marks that he had made. Emma really enjoyed exploring the treasure basket exploring the bath poof feeling it between her fingers, Oscar used a wooden stick to rub it against the nail brush and listening to the sound that it made. Millie, Oscar and Fabian enjoyed getting messy with the peas, squashing them in between their fingers, exploring the texture and throwing them into the messy tray watching them bounce!

They have started to get ready for Christmas and have made snowmen pictures using glue and cotton balls and exploring the garden playing with the balls and exploring the sand.

St Mary's House Visit

The children went to visit St Mary's house to visit the elderly residents this week. They took a variety of activities to share with the ladies there. On arrival Emily waved to everyone and said "Hello, hello!" as she walked along which made all the ladies smile. Douglas was very eager to show everyone his drawing skills, and the children handed out pens to the ladies in order to join in! Sami began to cheer "They are doing it" when he noticed that everyone was drawing along with him. William proudly gave one of the ladies and a picture, he smiled and said "it's a duck" he then held his arms out to give her a great big hug. This week the children explored shapes and structures during their sparkle time. Ines placed shapes on top of one mother to build a tower, and giggled and said "All fall down". Molly began to name each of the colours she could see and stated to sing the rainbow song; everyone started to join in and helped Molly to finish the rest of the song. Zach picked up a shape and looked through the bottom, he started to chuckle and said "Everything is green, I can see green, green and green!’ Everyone found their own shape to look through this prompted a lot of laughter.

This week the babies have been exploring paint and the marks they are able to make. Jonny waved his hands through the paint, and every time the paint moved around the table he banged his hands on the table with excitement. They have also been exploring different texture from oats, foam and sand. Lyra began to fill her bucket up with sand using her hands, she then tipped the sand out of the bucket and kick her feet through the sand giggling away. Jasper used a spade to fill up his bucket, before an older friend helped him to tip it out into a sandcastle, with Jasper started over again giggling at his friend. When they were finished Jasper gave Hlenhaze a big hug. 

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!