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!

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'.