Planting Seeds!

As part of World Book Day, the children have taken part in various activities based around books. They have created their own fish number line with Eve declaring “I can count all my numbers” and proceeded to count from 1 to 10. They also looked at the Gruffalo’s paw prints and compared the difference in size. Zach pointed to one paw print and said, “It’s big like me”. The children took a trip to Squires Garden Centre to look at the different types of vegetable seeds they could find. Ines became very excited when she saw all the seed packets and said, “Too many” and giggled. Thomas picked up some tomato seeds and started shaking the packet with excitement.

Back at the nursery, the children planted the seeds that they had chosen in the growing area. Xanthe dug a hole in the soil and carefully placed her seeds in. She smiled and said, “I’m planting”. Roma was interested in the large plant pots and asked, “What are these for?” She also noticed a big bag of potatoes and studied the pictures on the front of the bag. The children helped to plant the potatoes making sure they were all covered in soil. Zach started to giggle and wave his hands in the air and said “My hands are really muddy”.

This week the babies have had fun working on their motor skills. They really enjoyed chasing and popping bubbles as well as waving floaty scarves around. Oliver used his fingers to poke at some bubbles before deciding to have a go using a scarf to pop them. Zayne and Abigail were very focussed playing with the large pegs and boards. Abigail tried to put the pegs into all the holes while Zayne decided he wanted to try to stack the pegs on top of each other. When Zayne’s tower fell over, Abigail laughed with him before helping to build it again, handing pieces saying 'Ta' each time.

The babies enjoyed the sensory experience of playing with flour and herbs mixed with different scents. Lyra crumbed the flour between her fingers and squashed some in her palms before bringing it to her face to smell. Lyra and Jasper laughed while giving did some floury high fives, spreading flour everywhere. Owen and Bodie built some towers together. Owen helped Bodie to straighten his tower and tried to stop it wobbling. Owen took some bricks to the park with him and, with his friend, built some towers to be as tall as the flowers.

Bubbles!

The preschool children have been very attentive doctors this week in our new doctor’s surgery role play area. Charlie was pretending to be the doctor, laying Elodie down and using the syringe saying, "I will make you better now". The children have explored x-ray pictures of parts of the body and Raegan identified the foot x-ray, telling Charlie, "My foot is hurt doctor". Barnaby took on the role of receptionist. He booked in appointments on the appointment card, asking Peter, "What time would you like to see the Doctor?"

The children also experimented with making huge bubbles in the tufty tray in the garden. They loved splashing in the bubbly water and then used the hoops to make huge bubbles with them inside. They were very intrigued as to how it was able to happen and were full of questions. Ida asked Chloe, "Wow, how did that happen?" Parker enjoyed popping the bubble as it formed around him. There was a lot of laughter during this fun science activity.

This week, the toddlers have experienced den building. They went into preschool to choose some materials to cover the climbing frame. Ada came back with army blankets and Tomas ran in with some green netting. The staff helped to cover the climbing frame to create a den. The toddlers then took turns to crawl around inside the den. George found it funny to hide behind the netting and poke his head around the side with a big smile on his face. Harry decided to join in and do the same.

The toddlers played with an obstacle course, testing their balancing skills on blocks as they moved around. They had to move really carefully so that they did not fall off the blocks. Scarlet, Vivienne and Jasper stretched out their arms wide to help them balance. Elena helped the children, who were struggling and kept falling off, by holding their hands which supported their balancing. Tomas shouted “Jump!” as he hopped off the end of the obstacle course. Oliver and Harry then said “Whee!” as they got off, sharing big smiles as they did.

This week, the babies they have enjoyed exploring the garden, kicking and throwing balls, peeking and crawling through the tunnel, popping bubbles, and digging in the sand using the buckets and spades.  Eve really liked playing with the sand, using her hands and a spade to fill a bucket while saying "Dig, dig, digging!" They have also had fun moving around the garden on the ride-ons.

During the messy play activities, the babies have explored the cloud dough by squishing, pushing and smelling it. Some of them liked breaking it up into little pieces. Faris, Chloe and Tristan loved playing with the tapioca, picking up handfuls and watching it as it dropped back into the tray. Faris tried a little taste of it and seemed to like it!

As part of our World Book day activities, the babies have been painting paper plates to make a caterpillar picture for the walls. They have also used crayons, pens and jelly to make their own pictures of different foods. 

More Pancakes Please!

The preschool children went on a walk to the Imber Court playground.  They had lots of fun taking turns on the slide and seeing who could go the fastest. They loved swinging high on the swings and Callum was excited when he spotted a motorbike to ride on, saying to Chloe, "It's a police motorbike". He was then rocking backwards and forwards saying, "Nee-nor". The children crouched underneath the climbing frame using it as a lions den. They pretended to be lions trapped behind the bars, roaring at each other and trying to escape from the cage.

The new Pancake Café roleplay area has created some fantastic imaginative play this week. The children made pancakes with playdough, with customers selecting what they wanted from a menu and paying with money.  Lily called out, "Pancakes for sale here" when she was the shop. Max asked Lily, "How much monies?" The children also had tasty pancakes at snack time, choosing to top them with golden syrup, sugar and lemon. 

This week, the toddlers have loved going on walks around the grounds of Imber Court. They got dressed in their waterproofs and wellies then went out to explore the fields and splash in all the puddles! They found some muddy grass with some of them deciding to walk over it and others deciding to walk around it. Oscar and Arthur jumped in every puddle they could find, laughing as the water sprayed up around them. Jasper found some sticks and used them to makes little splashes in the water, carefully squatting down and drumming in the puddles. Will laughed as he waded through the water saying “Deep puddle” before getting very excited when he saw the ducks and running after them. Jack, Benjamin and Scarlett said “Duck, duck” while Elena, George and Tomas quacked as they pointed to the ducks.

The toddlers have also really enjoyed engaging in magnetic activities. They played with tubes that rattled and shapes that all connected together. Ada decided to put two tubes together and said “It noisy” as she noticed it make a sound whenever she shook it. Oscar and Sienna had fun connecting the pieces and then shaking them to see if it would fall apart. Oliver said “Wow” as he rolled the ball around the table.

This week the babies have enjoyed exploring water! They have been busy filling cups and jugs with water and watching it pouring back into the water tray.  Zac loved splashing in the water getting himself and his friends wet. They shared their excitement by laughing and splashing together. There was a lot of interest in the smell of the water as it had lemon essence added to it. Some of the babies dipped their fingers in the water and sniff their fingers, or licked them!.  The babies had great, messy fun with a pile of flour. Chloe, Luca and Faris experimented using their fingers to make marks in the flour and seeing how it stuck to their hands.  Ethan tentatively prodded it with his finger and Wren liked brushing it off the table on to the floor.

The babies have been working on the drawing skills and created some lovely pictures using the coloured pens. Zac showed good control of the pens and had a look of great concentration while drawing. Jonathan was more interested in tasting the flavour of the pens!

The babies also had a go at making pancakes with playdough, using the rolling pins to spread out the dough and, after being shown how to, trying to flip them. 

Pancakes Please!

This week, the children have had great fun playing in the Pancake Shop role play area as part of the Pancake Day activities. They took their friends orders with Eve declaring "I would like a pancake with chocolate and strawberries please!" William proudly pointed out "You use eggs, flour and milk to make pancakes. I know these things". This sparked a conversation about what toppings the children like on their pancakes. Imani excitedly said "Lemon! I'm having lemon at home". Roma joined in with "I have syrup". Xanthe then proceed to count out her money to pay for her pancake and said, " This is for me". The children were excited to have tasty pancakes for their snack.

The children also enjoyed their walk to the river, watching the boats and feeding the ducks. As the birds flew down to eat the bread, the children started to count how many they could see. Florence said, " I see 3 birds". Thomas started to clap and said "Up" and pointed up to the sky showing where they were flying.

This week, the babies have been busy using all their senses to explore and learn. They had great, messy play with soil and worms (cooked spaghetti). Oliver made holes in the soil, hiding some spaghetti inside them.  He the carefully held one end and pulled it out, shaking the spaghetti before dropping it on the floor. The babies loved making splashes in the water table, watching each other and copying. Abigail made a big splash and said 'Splash'! Jasper and Abigail worked hard to bath the animals in the soapy water and used flannels to clean them.

The babies also played with herbs, leaves, lemons and limes in the water, creating a wonderful sensory experience for them. Zayne made noises by splashing in the water and saying 'Yay' and feeling the herbs that had mixed with the water. Adeline was curious and tried to squash lemons in her hands before smelling the citrus scent.

On one of their trips to the park, Jasper and Owen had great fun chasing each other around the field. When Owen caught up to Jasper, Jasper put his hand over his mouth and said 'Ooo' before giving each other big cuddles. In the play park, as they explored different ways to move and climb, Adeline went down the slide babbling happily to herself. Lyra, however, decided to have a go in the spinning chair. As it spun around, Lyra looked at the sky occasionally copying the staff by saying 'Whee!'

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'.