Autumn Fun at Hampton!

Over the past few weeks Hamptons Day Nursery have enjoyed lots of different autumn themed activities. The children have enjoyed lots of walks to Bushy park and have loved collecting the conkers, acorns, and leaves. One day they all put on our wellies and went out into the park on a big bear hunt. They went around the park finding all the different areas in the story, reading the story as we went. Maxwell said “Look! Thick oozy mud” as we found a muddy puddle in the park. All the children enjoyed jumping in the muddy puddles and shouted “Squelch, squelch!”. The Woodland Gardens are perfect as the forest and they found a stream for the river in the story. Ines said “The wind is very cold, we can build a snowman in the snow like Olaf”. In the garden after a rainy day the children once again out on their wellington boots and splashed in the puddles, William and Zach ran around saying were sharks, this gave the children an idea for a new game as the sharks chased them around, Eve ran around shouting “Sharks, ahhh!” and Imani had an idea to splash in the puddle to keep the sharks away. With the children splashing they all began to laugh with Jasper watching and pointing at the splashing children saying “uh-oh” whilst Bodie covered his face. Oliver then found another puddle in their bubble and encouraged his friends to start splashing, shouting “Wet!” Great fun!

The children have also been learning about pumpkins, as they carved the pumpkins together and scooped out all the seeds. William asked “Can we grow our own pumpkin?” showing the staff the seeds that he had scooped out of the pumpkin. Zach said “I can fit my head in the pumpkin!” causing Sophia to laugh. Abigail pulled the seeds out and had some pumpkin wrapped around her fingers making her shake her hands and say “Yucky” whilst Alba enjoyed the mess, smearing the sticky seeds on to the tray.

Other activities that the children have enjoyed this week are autumn sticking, leaf printing, pumpkin pictures and making spider puppets.

The Babies have also enjoyed exploring the different textures of the pumpkin. Oliver squashed all the seeds and pumpkin insides in-between his fingers and wiped it on his face, which Freddie said made him look funny. Whilst out in the park the babies have fed the birds with some seeds, and when a bird flew down to eat the seeds Adeline copied the staff members and put her finger over her mouth and said “Sshhh”. She then copied the bird, and flapped her arms which made the other babies laugh. The babies collected some conkers, Jessie played with conkers after collecting them and tried to put them on a tree stump but they kept rolling of reach and said “Oof”. Isla then began to help her set the conkers down gently so they stayed in place. Back at nursery the babies have some fun sensory trays, including mud and vegetables which they spilt out onto the floor and then used their legs to make clear parts on the floor. As fast as we swept these into a pile, Zayne and Oliver would push the items away along the floor, making it messy all over again and laughing away turned it into a lovely game! They also had some shredded paper play, and the babies grabbed it and threw it up into the air making a fabulous shower, and Zayne said “Wow” as it fell back to the floor. Bodie began to pick it up of the floor and sprinkle it from his hands onto his head laughing. Alba spinkled it over Isla who was amazed and began to dance under it tapping her feet with excitement.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Spring Planting!

The Preschool children have enjoyed building roads this week. They worked together to set out the cones along the decking and used some wooden blocks to mark out the road. Raegan told Peter, "But now we need to mix together some cement to make more road for the cars". Max and Oscar collected the sand and Edgar collected some bark and they mixed it all in the tray. Once they had decided it had been mixed enough, they then transferred the mixture into the wheelbarrow and carefully moved it so that they could lay out the road by the cones.

The children have been observing the changes in the garden changes this week. They have been very interested in the flowers blossoming on the trees. When Ida spotted them, she said, "They look so beautiful now". The children have also found several ladybirds in the garden which got them excited about doing a bug hunt around the garden. The children are also enjoying seeing the changes in our caterpillars as they are growing each day! 

The planting has started in the children’s vegetable plot. This week the children have planted carrots, potatoes, kale, spinach, lettuce cabbage, radish and spring onion, They have been helping to water them and look for signs of growth every day.

This week, the toddlers took part in an assault course on the field in Imber Court. They had great fun trying to kick the balls into the goal which Charlie was particularly good at. The toddlers then weaved in and out of cones, with Fabian holding a cone as he ran. Ada concentrated really hard when trying this! The toddlers then played some games with parachute. Tomas called the parachute a “flat tent”. The staff were able to completely hide the toddlers underneath, counting to three to reveal their excited faces. They all screamed “weeeee” as the wind blew through their hair. Harry had the biggest grin on his face and Tomas and Sienna kept asking to be hidden again.

The toddlers were very busy making their own perfume concoctions this week. They mixed different smells, colours and textures. Jacob, George and Archie had fun pouring the coloured water from bottles and containers while Vivienne sprinkled herbs to mix with the water. Eloise poured in some herbs and Jasper helped her to mix it all together. The toddlers showed great interest in this activity and some particularly enjoyed splashing everyone around them!

The babies have been busy using the glue and the cotton wool to make some Spring pictures. Wren was very controlled when using the glue and spreader to start her picture. She then enjoyed dropping cotton wool on the paper, covering most of her picture. The babies have also used paint to make butterfly pictures, using paint brushes to experiment making dots and lines. 

When playing in the garden, the babies loved exploring the new toys, especially the building blocks, looking though the transparent coloured panels to seeing how it changed the way everything looked. Chloe and Wren discovered the mud kitchen, walking around picking up mud and dirt with their hands and studying it. Some of the babies have also been building their confidence in going through the tunnel. Chloe, Wren and Zac all took turns to have a go at crawling through the tunnel. Wren and Chloe smiled and said, "Boo" to each other as they came out the other side. Ari was keen to play with the ball and laughed as he kicked it. 

Garden fun!

This week, the children have been making their own campfires. They scooped up some bark and collected small sticks. Florence found a stick and said “Mix it up, make a campfire. We can cook some soup!” Eve joined in by finding her own stick and saying, “We’re making muddy soup.” Xanthe grabbed a stick and started to dig around in the mud saying, “I’m looking for treasure.” Using the sticks, the children also wrote their sound of the week “P” in the mud. While writing, William said “P is for pirate”. Some of the younger children joined in by making various letter sounds. James very excitedly said “James” when he heard the letter J. Freddie picked up the letter “F” and said “It’s mine! Freddie!”.

The children made their own den. They crawled inside and sang songs loudly together. They have also been showing an interest in soup making this week. Using some herbs, fruit and vegetables, they had great fun thinking up different soups to make. Isla picked up a herb pot and said “It smells like flowers. Would you like to smell?” Isla then offered it to a friend. Using scissors Roma started to snip off pieces of the herb and placed them in a bowl for Douglas to mix together. “I’m mixing lettuce soup. We have lettuce in our garden.” she told him.

This week, the babies have shown a great interest in playing with the balls. On a walk to the park, we took the balls and the babies had a lot of fun kicking the balls around on the green, running after them and trying to sit on them. Oliver went straight for the orange ball, babbling as he pointed to the ball, before kicking it to Finlay. The babies used the balls to experiment with water. They found it funny when the balls were pushed under the water and bounced straight back up! Adeline threw the ball into water saying 'Ball! Splash!' then started pushing the ball around. She noticed the bubbles it made and started shouting happily 'Bubbles!'. Zayne started to copy her and then used his fingers to pop the bubbles saying, 'Pop!'.

Owen and Bodie found a cosy, little hideaway den to read some stories together. Bodie liked to push the buttons on the book listening to sounds. Owen pointed to different pictures and opened his mouth saying, 'Ooo'.

World book week and Holi at Hampton

This week, the children took part in activities for Holi. To celebrate the festival, they threw coloured paints up into air, covering themselves and the floor!  They had a lot of fun and were very enthusiastic! Xanthe jumped up and down with excitement as she watched the paint fall. James looked down at the floor and pointed as he had noticed that he had left footprints in the paint. Roma told her friends "Holi is a festival all about colours". The children then started to giggle as they noticed that everyone had brightly coloured hair. Ines chuckled and said, "I got blue hair". William shouted with excitement, "Look! I'm a rainbow". Molly waved her hands in the paint and began to sing "I'm pink, I'm pink". Eve pointed to the floor and said, "Look! All the colours are mixing. It's different colours".

The children went on a hunt for the letter "i" as this was the sound of the week. They searched high and low in the garden. Douglas found it hiding behind a branch. He picked it up and waved it in the air and said, as loud as he could, "I found it".  Following on from this, some of the children went around the garden with clipboards to see if they could find objects that start with the letter "i". Zach held up his drawing and told everyone, "I drew an ice cream; I like ice cream. It's too cold for ice cream". 

For World Book day, some of the children came dressed as their favourite book characters. They were very excited to tell their friends what character they were. During the day, the children took part in some book related activities and listened to some of the books that they had brought in to share.

This week, the babies have been exploring outdoors, taking part in different activities to play and learn. Jasper and Adeline explored the play park, climbing up the steps and sliding down the slide. Adeline loved spinning in the teacup and shouted 'weeee'. Jasper used the rocking toys, saying 'Oh!' over and over. Lyra explored outside, playing and kicking the leaves with Bodie before balancing on a fallen tree. Oliver and Zayne liked playing football in the park. Zayne kicked the ball then picked it up handing to Oliver. Oliver had fun trying to throw the ball over his head and laughing very loudly, with Jasper joining in with a big smile on his face. Douglas looked at him and said, “Silly Oliver”.

The babies were keen to explore during the sparkle time activities with the various light toys. Jasper continuously banged and bounced the ball to make it light up. Adeline was very interested in putting the light shaker on the mirror tray and even noticed her own reflection, saying, "Adeline" as she pointed to herself smiling.

Happy Holi!

World Book day saw some different characters arriving at Preschool!  The children came dressed up as princesses, dinosaurs and even the dragon from ‘Zog’. Shyla was telling her friends, “I am the Very Hungry Caterpillar and I am going to eat all of the foods!”. Barnaby brought in ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea’ book to go with his outfit, and proudly told everyone at circle time that he was the tiger.

The children were very excited at the arrival of our caterpillars.  We have talked about how we need to care for the caterpillars and the children are fascinated watching them change and grow bigger.

The Preschool children had so much fun celebrating the Holi festival this week. They watched a video to help them understand what the festival is about and who celebrates Holi. There were some very keen participants in the paint throwing around the garden with lots of laughter as everyone got covered in coloured paint! Ezra called to Zachary and Oliver saying, “This is so much fun, I wish we could do it every day”. Oliver replied, “But I have changed colour, I’m not Oliver anymore” and started to laugh.

This week for World Book Day some of the toddlers dressed up and brought their favourite books to share. They came as princesses, a flamingo, a scarecrow, a ladybird, the Stickman and even as a Spanish dancer, complete with little heeled shoes dancing shoes! The children enjoyed listening to lots of stories being read with their friends.

During one of the free flow sessions with Preschool, the Toddler room was transformed into an obstacle course. The children had to walk across the stepping stones, lie on the floor, slide through a tunnel, then crawl under two tables, onto the climbing frame, down the steps and finally jump onto cushions the floor. Some children liked challenging themselves to keep their balance and there was a lot of laughter when one of them wobbled and fell off!

The Toddlers went on a walk around the grounds of Imber Court and focussed on jumping in all the puddles they could find. On our walk this week, we showed the toddlers a small pathway over the bridge and showed them how they could walk along it. Some of the toddlers walked normally, others put their arms out to help keep their balance, some walked really slowly and Scarlett decided it was best to walk sideways. The children loved the freedom of playing with the balls in the big field, practising their catching and throwing skills. Salvador showed us his good hand-eye coordination by catching the ball every time. Vivienne enjoyed holding the ball after she caught it, while Charlie loved to kick the ball as hard as he could, watching as it rolled along the ground. Harry, Zachary and Arthur liked being in the goal best. 

The babies had lots of fun playing with the rice this week. Faris was busy filling up a metal cooking pot, listening to the sound it made, laughing with his friends.  Ari spent some time filling up a cup and pouring the rice out, watching as it sprinkled. The babies have also enjoyed mark making, using their fingers and the other equipment. They have also helped to make colourful pictures for our The Very Hungry Caterpillar display, using paint, sticking paper, pens and crayons. 

When playing in the garden Tristan and Zac chose to play on the bikes, pushing themselves around the garden. Tristan was very excited when he spotted the wind chime, pointing to it and babbling to Melissa. Zac was also very brave and crawled through the tunnel, stopping to peer through one of the windows at his friends, before crawling out the other side. Ari and Melissa played with the ball, throwing and kicking it to each other. Ari decided to kick the ball, saying "Kick, kick”.

The babies also liked the sensory experience painting with fruit tea bags. They tried feeling and tapping the tea bags on the table and squeezing out the water, smelling, and occasionally tasting, the different flavours.