Muddy Fun!

The children went on a walk to Bushy Park and came across a rather large puddle. Eve started to giggle with excitement and said “I’m jumping, I’m jumping in”. Douglas shouted loudly “Let’s go!” and then some children started to run towards the puddle. Hlenhaze placed his hands into water and started to flick the water up in the air smiling as he did so. As Zach ran through the puddle, he started to chuckle and said “It’s splashing everywhere!”. Xanthe began to stamp her feet in the water watching as she made big splashes. All of the children started to join in with squeals of excitement and happy chatter. They even had water race to see who could run through the puddle the fastest. Great fun!

The children have also been looking at planting and growing this week. William picked up a handful of seeds and said “I’m planting. It’s going to be big”. Some of the children then started to discuss where vegetables and fruits grow. Roma pointed out that some fruits grow on trees. Freddie picked up an onion, held it to his nose and said “Smelly” and started to chuckle and pull a funny face. Ines picked up a spade and began to dig in the soil. She picked up a carrot and said “It’s orange”. This sparked a conversation between the children about different colours and what their favourite colour is. The children then began to match the name the colours of vegetables they were playing with.

This week the babies have been taking part in mark making activities. Lyra and Adeline enjoyed a sticking activity together as they glued string and orange zest to paper. Lyra smelt the fruity zest and said 'yum' after copying a staff member. Adeline waved her string around laughing when she dropped it on the paper. Oliver made some footprints after dipping his foot into paint. When he first felt the paint, he was a little unsure and blew bubbles and wiggled his toes. He soon decided that he liked it and was happy moving his foot around on the paper and putting it back in the paint again.

Zayne and Abigail did some mark making with crayons. Hlenhaze came in to help and he drew around an animal stencil. Abigail had a go at doing this as well and proudly showed us where she had coloured in the stencil. Zayne and Jasper had a sensory dance together, listening to music from around the world while bubbles were blowing around the room. They held hands and started jumping to the music before popping bubbles together. Some of the other babies joined in and were fascinated watching the bubbles floating around.

The babies have also been to the park. They had lots of fun in the muddy puddles, copying the older children. They found some daffodils and sat amongst them looking and feeling them. Abigail and Lyra smelt the growing flowers and said 'pretty flower'.

It's a goal!

The preschool children had a brilliant sports session on the football field. They had great fun kicking the ball into the goal and cheering as it flew past Joe, who was trying his best to defend! They practised kicking and using different momentum, with some children kicking it hard and some using a more gentle touch. The children ran, walked and skipped around the field, carrying a football, searching for the best places to aim their balls at. Some decided to have a go at kicking at the goal and others had a go at kicking the ball to the trees in the distance. 

The children have also been digging for dinosaur bones in the garden. Oliver said "We need to dig very far to try and find them!" They pushed their spades deep into the mud, as far as they could go. As they scraped away at the mud, some flew up into the air and a roar of giggles began as it landed on them. There was great interest in the small bugs that they found living in the mud. The children spotted spiders and ants crawling around and watched as they scurried away from them. 

This week toddlers have enjoyed playing football in the park with the preschool children. They collected as many footballs as they could before they set off their adventure. When the children got to the park, they started kicking the balls around and Jasper said “Kick, kick, kick”, before chasing after the ball with Scarlett like it was a race! Eloise decided she wanted to try and sit on the ball. She made it into a game where she rolled off of it and then got back on, laughing with excitement! All the children sat together on the grass for a quick snack and rest, before coming back to nursery. Some of them continued to play football in the garden.

The toddlers have also played with dinosaurs in green gloopy-gloop this week! They helped to mix glue, cornflour and green food colouring together, and found it hilarious watching the gloop drip off their fingers. Sienna stamped the dinosaur’s feet through the gloop, making lots of footprints and covering the dinosaur from head-to-toe. She said, “Oh dear, dinosaur!”.  The toddlers helped to clean the dinosaurs, using soapy water and sponges. Leo and George had fun getting bubbles on each other’s hands and George said “Pop!”.

The babies have experienced lots of messy play this week. Some loved pushing their fingers into the jelly feeling the cold slimy texture while others needed a little encouragement to try! Zac tried to eat some but did not seem to like it as he pulled a funny face. Amelia, Ari and Zac got very involved with pea messy play. They picked up handfuls of peas and squashed them between their fingers, having an occasional little taste. The babies also had mashed potato to investigate with spoons, toys and their hands. Connie cautiously touched the sticky mixture with one finger, laughed and held it up to show everyone what she was doing.

The babies have enjoyed their walks around Imber Court, seeing the ducks and watching the tractors. During one of our walks a police officer and her horse stopped to talk to them. The babies were very interest watching as the horse swished its tail and bobbed its head around.

The babies have had great fun during the free flow sessions.  There was a lot of interaction between the toddlers, preschoolers and babies as they played together with lots of chattering and laughing. Amelia was really keen to go and explore the preschool room, playing happily with some preschoolers and babbling away as they talked to her. 

Fun at St Mary's House!

The children went to the visit the ladies at St Mary's House. When the ladies saw the children coming, they got excited and started to wave and smile. They showed them how to join in with their activities including drawing and how to use an abacus. William walked over to one lady and noticed she was asleep. He asked, "Why is she sleeping?" William then kept on going over to her to check if she was awake. When William noticed that she had woken up, he took her a bunch of pretty daffodils. The children then started to hand out daffodils to all of the ladies. Freddie held them out to one lady, she smiled and said, "For me?" Freddie and some other children gave each of the ladies a great, big hug.

The music was put on and the children began to show the ladies their fancy dance moves. They found this very entertaining and were clapping along, much to the children’s delight!

Some children also drew beautiful pictures which they then gave to all of the ladies. The children also made bird feeders by making shapes with lard and rolling them in bird seeds. As Molly picked up her bird feeder she said, "What's this and why do birds eat it?" Isla started to giggle and said, "They get hungry". The children and ladies went out into the garden and hung them on the branches ready for the birds to nibble. Zach said, "We need binoculars to watch them" and proudly held a pair up and said "Now I can see!”. 

This week, the babies have lots of fun during some painting activities. They experimented using finger paints to make marks on the table. Oliver loved the sensory experience of mixing his fingers around the paint. He even painted some of his face, then looked around giggling. Jasper and Lyra did some large scale painting on the floor.  There seemed to be more paint on the two children as they decided to have a go at painting their legs as they had painted on paper before. Lyra said 'Uh-oh' and laughed when the staff cleaned her up.

The babies also had some fun playing with the magnetic Grippies. Lyra, Owen and Zayne played really well with the toys. Lyra rolled a ball along the flow saying “Ball”. Zayne was determined to separate two of the magnetic pillars. He stuck them together, babbling away, and then pulled them apart with a big laugh. Owen built a tall tower, stacking the shapes on top of each other. When it got so tall that it broke, he laughed and gave some of the pieces to a staff member and they built it again together.

Domino Tumble!

This week, the preschool children really loved exploring and experimenting with the game of domino tumble. They helped to line up the big wooden blocks around the room and then watched with huge smiles on their faces as the blocks all had toppled each other over. Once they had all been knocked down, Raegan called out, "That was so much fun, let's do it again". Oliver then said, "But that was way too noisy". They all helped each other to stand the blocks up again and repeated the game several times, being careful where they placed them.

Also this week preschool have been talking and learning about various types of transport and how we get to nursery in the morning. Olivia said, "I come to nursery on an aeroplane" and grinned. The children laughed at Olivia and Lily told Olivia, "No, you go on holiday on an aeroplane, not to nursery". They went and built roads with the blocks and raced cars around the airport in the construction corner. Callum said, "Now we can go to nursery in the cars".

This week the toddlers have been explorers! The toddlers were shown how to use the magnifying glasses bringing them up to their eyes and looking through them. Benjamin and Jasper listened to instructions beautifully and then took their magnifying glasses around the garden to see what they could find. All the toddlers used the magnifying glasses in the garden to search for mini beasts and to find some toy creepy crawlies. Ada looked through hers and saw a ‘Green flower’. Isabelle kept laughing as she looked through hers.

The toddlers have also been digging for buried treasure in the sand pit. They listened well to a story about pirates coming to our nursery and hiding their treasure here to keep it safe. The pirates left a clue saying the treasure was left in the sand pit. Some of the toddlers got spades and started digging to see what they could find. Oscar really enjoyed digging and was delighted when he found a car. Scarlett found a “Shoe” and tried to put it on her foot over the top of her wellies. Jacob just kept digging to see if he could get to the bottom of the sand pit while repeating over and over “Dig, dig, dig!”. 

The babies have had fun playing with the messy cornflour this week, Connie and Wren particularly enjoyed pushing the cars and trucks through the sticky mixture, Some of the babies tried having a taste of it and others found it hilarious throwing the mixture around, resulting in covering themselves, the walls and the staff! Frankie enjoyed splashing with her hands and babbling to her friends. 

The babies have been being creative with paint using paint brushes, fingers and feet. A lot of them got very messy while enjoying the sensory experience. Frankie and Jonathan both seemed to like the taste and had pink paint around their mouths. 

The babies loved going to see the ducks during one of our walks to the duck pond. Amelia and Ari both started saying "Duck duck", pointing to the ducks as they swam around and ate the bread. The babies watched intently as a couple of the ducks in the stream were collecting sticks to make their nests and chasing each other across the water. Some of the babies were interested in the dogs that were playing in the field and watching the tractor as it slowly went past.

Gruffalo hunt!

The preschool children went for a fantastic walk around Imber court this week searching for big puddles to splash in! As they made their way over the bridge, they saw a big heap of mud and used their imagination to decide what it could be. Peter said "It's the foxes new home. The Gruffalo made him leave his home and get a new one!" Edgar said "Gruffalo look there!" Pointing to the hole in the mud. They spent a long period investigating the mud from afar then carried on their journey. There were many puddles to explore, big ones and small ones. The children were in fits of giggles, as their wellies were sticking to the mud at the bottom of the puddles. Max said "My wellies are stuck, I can't get out!" The children were very helpful, pulling each other out. They also went to feed the ducks, breaking up pieces of bread and throwing them into the stream. Ella said "There's a duck. Here duck, here's some bread!"

The children have also been practicing their letter writing in salt this week. Using their fingers and sticks, they drew the letter 'T', our sound of the week. Elodie said "It feels funny!" as she rubbed the salt between her fingers. They did very well drawing their letters and various shapes such as dinosaurs and snakes. 

This week toddlers have loved singing! During circle times we give the children the choice of what songs to sing, and Ada often requests ‘Baa baa black sheep’ and Tomas asked for ‘Crabs and starfish’. Sienna loves to sing along to ‘Twinkle twinkle’ and join in with the actions too! Toddlers also love our ‘good morning song that we sing at each morning circle time as we pat our knees, and this week Charlie, Scarlett, Sienna and Elena have began to join in with patting their knees. They have been listening to some songs on the iPad which the children love to dance along to. One of their favourites, that they often request throughout the day, is ‘Baby Shark’. We took the speaker to the garden and the children loved dancing along to ‘Baby Shark’ whilst laughing and doing some of the actions. Millie loved dancing along to the song and Elena joined in with the baby shark action, Vivienne also had lots of fun wiggling along to the music and laughing. This week we have had lots of sensory activities out that toddlers have loved exploring. Tomas and Harry loved getting stuck in with the beans and swirling their hands around the tray. Scarlett and Oscar had lots of fun squeezing the beans between their fingers and watching it fall. Jacob and Benjamin preferred to use wooden spoons to mix the peas from a distance Benjamin said “Mix” as he stirred the peas and Jacob said “Yucky” and he moved the spoon around the tray.

The babies have enjoyed playing with the playdough this week pinching it with their fingers enjoying making marks, Frankie and Ari tried some of the playdough spitting it out when the decided they didn't like the taste! Ari and Wren showed good control when using the rolling pin holding the handles and trying to make a rolling motion. Babies enjoyed making marks on paper using crayons they enjoyed being able to choose what colour they wanted by picking them out of the box. Connie and Harry loved getting messy with the foam, singing songs such as ‘Tiny Tim’ with the staff. They clapped their hands laughing at each other as the foam flew into the air, landing in their hair and all over the floor! Great fun!