Happy Diwali at Hampton!
This week the children have been celebrating Diwali!
First the children made lanterns to celebrate the festival of light. The children used paint pens and shiny materials , and James enjoyed feeling the glue between his fingers as he glued it together. Ritika much preferred the paints as she dabbed them one by one using different colours. Jasper however choose to do things differently, and instead of decorating his lantern, he grabbed handfuls of sequins and put them in the middle to fill it up! When he lifted his lantern to see what had happened, they came pouring out he said “Ooops” and put his hand other his mouth and they all laughed ! He then tidied them all back very patiently.
The children have learnt all about Rangoli patterns and made their own out of coloured rice. While making the patterns Sophia said “It’s like a big rainbow and you can eat it!”. Zach said it was a flower and that you cant eat it, Maxwell then responded “Yuck!” making the other children laugh. The children have also made some rangoli images using the pegs and boards; Ines took lots of time to ensure the pattern was just right and had lots of colours and told everyone every colour with pride. Zayne preferred to pop the pegs out, finding it rather funny as did a few other children as they joined in with pegs all over the table!
The children also took part in a light activity for the festival of light, the room went dark and the toys started to glow and light up. “Wow” said Emily. Thomas pointed at the different light tubes, he smiled when his favourite colour lite up where as Freddie tried to shine his light around the room lighting up different things.
This week the babies have also been enjoying some Diwali activities. They started by creating their own rangoli pictures using paint dabbers, Isla was very intrigued in the dabbers and different colours and choose to use her fingers to paint instead of her paper. They used some sensory light tubes to create light and explore colour. Alba buried her light tube under paper so discover lots of colours , lifting it into the air and laughing, shaking the tube which made Isla laugh also as she began to copy. Bodie loved making his lantern, he was intrigued by the sequins and the glue, and how shiny they were. Jessie was fascinated by the sequins as well, she moved them around the table.
The babies also made some tasty breakfast in the home corner. They mixed food in bowls, and Jessie gave the food to others to eat before going back to the cupboard to get more, Alba pretended to eat the food and using utensils in the sink saying “Wow!” They also explored the baby gym, and Alba walked up the stairs with a ball before pushing it down the slide, she then clapped her hands before sliding down herself whilst shouting “Yay!” Isla laughed and clapped whilst Alba was going down the slide and made great attempts to catch the ball as it rolled down .
Autumn Fun at Molesey!
Pre school had lots of fun going on a Gruffalo hunt in the nursery grounds. After coming across the tree the children have named the 'Gruffalo Tree' and discovering that the Gruffalo or any of the other animals weren't in their home, Ollie suggested, "Why don't we go and try find out where they are all hiding?" Parker thought that was a good idea and led the way. They discovered a mound of rubble which prompted William to say "I think the fox might be having his sleep in here, but we have to be quiet so we don't wake him up". Continuing on the walk, they next came across a small hill with an opening to the trees and Ollie encouraged his friends to join him climb the hill and told them, "I think this is where the Gruffalo is with the big bad mouse, but he's not scary!"
The children also went on a nature trail, and took some bags on a walk with to collect anything autumnal they could find. The children discussed between themselves the colours of the leaves on the trees and how they all looked so different. They successfully continued to match the colour of the leaves that had fallen on the floor, to the same coloured leaves that were still on the trees. Millie announced "That doesn't look the same, there are no more leaves on that tree, it's just twigs!"
It has been so much fun exploring the new wooden blocks and planks outdoor in the garden. This equipment promotes co-operation, teamwork and huge imaginations where anything is possible! The children worked together to make a car, using the round disc shape block as a steering wheel. Zachary encouraged his friends, "Quick, get in my car, I'm driving to the beach now!" Some of the other children also used the slope shapes to enable ball and toy car rolling, and Sienna and Elena were laughing each time the ball rolled away too far.
Over the past few weeks toddlers have enjoyed lots of different autumnal activities, including forest walks, spider webs and investigating pumpkins. They have explored the textures inside and out of the pumpkins, feeling the outer shell and learning to say "Pumpkin". Fabian learnt the word very quickly and proudly said "Pumpkin!" all day long. Wren also told her friends that the pumpkin is "orange". The toddlers were able to explore the different textures of the slimy pulp and hard seeds. Connie said the pulp was "wet" and Ari and Leo said "Yuck!" but that didn't phase them from getting covered head to toe in pumpkin goo!
This week the toddlers have also been preparing for bonfire night, making fireworks with their hands, chalk and even cupcake cases. Oliver shouted "Splat" when he banged his hands on to the paper to create fireworks with his paint covered hands, which meant paint splatted everywhere , including on themselves, which made the toddlers laugh Whoops! They have also been exploring fireworks through music, and discovering which instruments create a loud BANG when hit or sometimes dropped!
The new balance beams and giant stepping stones which arrived this week were very popular indeed as you can see in the photos. ! After taking a while at the edge of the tallest stepping stone, Connie finally took the leap of faith and jumped all by herself.. success!
This week the babies have loved being creative with the leaves that they collected on our walk earlier on during the week. Isla and Jonathan liked helping themselves to the glue pots to spread lots and lots of glue over their pictures to help the leaves stick. As Jonathan was dipping his glue sick into the pot, he said “Dip, dip” laughing loudly expressing his excitement. Harriet noticed Charlotte using the camera and said “Cheese, cheeeseee” to gain attention , smiling broadly as her picture was taken. When Harriet was shown the photo of herself she laughed and said “Harriet!” pointing to the camera.
During their many messy play activity babies loved playing and eating the mushy peas on one occasion. Sophie and Sam loved swishing the peas with their hands looking as the patterns the peas made in the messy play tub and on them as they spilled onto the floor! All of the babies also enjoyed tasting and eating them.
A sudden downpour of rain came at one point and it became dark outside, which was a great opportunity to turned off the lights in the room. This enabled the babies to explore the light up boxes, and the sea life projector. They loved watching the animals float around the room, which was mesmerizing and relaxing, and Sophie pointed and said “Whale” “Fish” pointing to the animals and laughing and clapping her hands showing her excitement.
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!
