Snow adventures at Molesey

The pre school children have had a very busy couple of weeks. They have been doing more science experiments after showing so much interest in science week. To continue our exploration, the children have learnt how to make water walk. This was by using 6 clear pots, 3 of them filled with water and food colouring and 3 of them kept empty. The pots were then all placed in a circle, alternating empty and full pots and then placing a piece of folded up kitchen roll to connect each pot. The children were so fascinated to see the coloured water travel through the kitchen roll and fill the pots that were originally empty. Whilst some of the children went off to play to wait for he process to happen, Max hung back and watched patiently, telling his friends very excitedly when he saw the small amount of water drip through, "Guys quickly, it's finally happening".

The children of course loved playing in the leftover snow after the weekend. As soon as they saw it in the garden, they were very eager to get out and play ! They all got ready in their wet suits and were off as soon as they could. Eloise, Riley and Zachary ran straight over to the biggest patch of clear snow they could find and all at the same time lay down to make some snow angels. Zachary told his friends, ‘I made these at my home with my mummy!’ Eddie then laughed and told Zachary, "But you're not an angel". After playing in the real snow, the children came in and made their own snow, mixing together baking powder,  cornflour and water. Ellie said ‘Luckily this isn't as cold as the real snow!’

The children have also taken a keen interest in our new book of the month ‘Dear Zoo’ and have asked for it to be read at many points throughout the day and even started to act it out whilst playing. Mateo and Oscar set up an animal kingdom with the blocks and animals and were telling parts of the story whilst playing. 

This past few weeks the toddlers have been reading the book “We’re going on a bear hunt”. They have been learning about our surrounding and the seasonal changes that they see in the book such as grass, water, mud, forests and snow! They have been going on many walks to experience these changes first hand. The toddlers have loved playing football on the grass, Ari shouted “Green grass!” and Zachary said “Swishy swashy” quoting the book. Sadly the toddlers haven’t been in any rivers but the puddles they found, for some, could have easily been swam in! Fabian and Immy fell in the puddles many times. Tiana shouted “Splash!” as she jumped in and out of the water. The toddlers were also able to experience getting stuck in the mud. Leo fell over and his face landed in the mud. Some would cry, but not Leo, who carried on.

The toddlers were even lucky enough to experience SNOW! They had lots of fun running around and listening to the crunch of the snow under their feet as well as looking at the ice. Earlier in the week they were wrapped up nice and warm and went for a walk in the buggies while there was still some snow and ice on the ground. The children pointed and smiled as staff held up pieces of ice for them to see and touch, Zac said “Cold” and Amelia gasped and laughed. They found it particularly funny as the ice was dropped onto the floor and smashed everywhere! Tiana said “More Ice! more ice!” with Eve joining in the chant. Great fun!

The under 2s have been busy playing with the light up shakers. The children loved watching the coloured lights which changed when they were shaken. Chloe was laughing and Alastair said “Wow!” as he held one between his hands, listening to the rattling of beads inside. Finley took one at a time over to the side and he stacked three on top of each other. He attempted a fourth, but it was too tall and tumbled down, Finley said “Uh oh!” then started to rebuild his tower again. 

In the garden the babies have been using their gross motor skills to explore the environment. Rafferty liked piling up the wood slices while Sadie and Samuel sorted through the basket of heuristic play, finding sticks, smooth stones and soft crochet balls of different sizes. Chloe and Alastair loved playing peek a boo through the tunnel, crawling through on their tummies and shouting when they came out the other end with excitement once they’d been “found”, then they went back around the outside to do it again. 

Snow play at Hampton!

Snow fell this week giving the children a great new experience to play with! Hlenhaze and Xanthe looked at roof of the tree house pointing at the snow and said ‘Snow is cold and makes your hands cold so you must wear gloves’. The children picked up some snow to throw around the garden, and when it made a big splat on the wall Zach was very happy pointing and saying ‘Wow!’ which made the other children laugh, prompting them to join in. Maxwell said ‘Look, look! ’ at his snow wall artwork and William and Zach filled a wheel barrow full of snow and using a dust pan and brush.

The children have enjoyed taking part in a Science themed week. The children spoke about how volcanoes worked. Ines said they were hot, referencing lava, and asked if they could touch it. Sophia answered ‘No!, it will hurt a lot’. The children made a small scale volcano, mixing the ingredients separately before combining them together making it foam out, William pointed and said ‘Wow, look, its going up!’, Emily said ‘Boom!’ As the children watch it spread out they began to laugh and Ines said ‘Oh no, its getting me!’ making the other children scream and laugh pretending it was going to get them.

Abi and Eve painted the planets and Abi painted a planet and correctly named it her ‘Pink planet’. The children also explored some oil and coloured water, Elisa named all the colours used whilst Hlenhaze and Ines noticed the oil made a circle in the water when it was added, pointing and saying ‘Circle’ and Elissa was very keen to add more. Oliver began using a spoon and decided that that wasn’t messy enough so began splashing in it instead which prompted laughter all round. The children also made a stage and puppets this week and were excited to do a puppet show. William’s puppet was running away from a hungry lion, whilst Xanthe’s wanted to make friends with it.

The younger children also explored the snow. Alba, Jasper and Lyra went to the park and picked up small amounts of snow to drop on the floor watching it break apart. Jasper and Lyra tried to make a snow man putting snow together. Alba stumbled and accidentally broke the snowman but this gave the children a new idea for a new snow game. They made different sculptures and stamped on them and kicked them over to break them up. Jasper loved this game and giggled , which encouraged Lyra and Alba make even more. On a rainy day recently the children splashed in the puddles in the park , enjoying the experience as you can see. They ended up splashing each other, and Isla found it very funny. Jessie wasn’t as amused to start , giving a small frown, but when Bodie got involved began to laugh as they held hands splashing together. Great fun!

Outdoor fun at Molesey!

The pre school children worked really hard together to make a car using the wooden building blocks. Millie used the circular shaped block, telling her friends. "This is what I need to drive the car, it's my steering wheel". She then asked all of her friends to sit down in the car. Oscar called out, "We need to remember our seatbelt though!". They pretended to drive to the shops and when they had arrived, Ada suggested, "How about we go and buy some soup for our lunch and then we can have some worms for pudding". Ella called out, "No, not worms, we can't eat them" and everyone laughed.

The children have also taken part in a science experiment this week, learning about planets and making their own paper mache balloon planets, Ezra very confidently told his friends, "I know which planet we live on, we live on planet Earth". They also investigated how to make their own lava lamps, mixing vegetable oil, water, food colouring and helping to add spoonfuls of salt and watching the lava bubbles form. Max started singing, “Bubble, bubble bubble, pop!” Parker said whilst laughing, “But they won’t pop, because they will pop up on to us and that won’t be funny”. They also watched how to make it rain through shaving foam clouds and using blue food colouring for the rain effect.

A walk to splash in puddles and feed the ducks was great fun and the children learn about the weather, and how the birds welcome a little help with food at this time of year.

This week in Toddler room the children have been keeping very busy inside and outside. They have been taking part in Joe Wicks's PE lessons online to keep us all fit and the children find this so exciting. Harry and Tristan really love any sort of dance or exercise and were really trying to keep up with the exercises, along with Eve and Zachary who were also copying. They have taken on the role of scientists this week and have helped create various experiments and then watch in amazement. One experiment was a homemade volcano which included, vinegar, bicarbonate of soda and food colouring of the children's choice. Once the bicarbonate of soda was added, the volcano foamed up out of the cup and into the tray! Harry and Tristan announced "Wow, look, wow!". Harry then wanted to smell the volcano and said, "Errr, that's yuk", and not impressed! The little ones have also been mark making this week using a wide variety of tools to create different effects. A particular favourite are the dabber pens. Connie showed great concentration and carefully dotted the paint about her paper, correctly naming the colours that she was using- well done!

This week in the under two’s room they have been exploring natural materials out in the garden. Chloe and Alastair enjoyed playing with the stacking pebbles in the garden, making small towers and knocking them down over and over, laughing with each other. Rafferty Billie and Chloe enjoyed exploring the treasure basket, picking up the wooden sticks and fabric balls squishing them in their hands .They have also been exploring different textures during art and craft activities. Sophie, Sam and Sadie particularly liked the paint dabbers, and bashed them down on their paper repeatedly, fascinated by the marks and sounds that they made. They also explored them with their fingers , feeling the cold wet texture, and Sadie briefly tasted the paint but decided it wasn’t nice! The under two’s are working towards making an Elmer the elephant board which will be revealed soon!

January fun at Hampton

Happy New Year to everyone! It has been lovely to welcome the children back, and a welcome also to the new children and their families. The children have been busy as usual! Oliver and Sophia created different artwork with lovely cutting and sticking. Oliver finished sticking and decided instead to make a game of rolling the pom poms off the table, which made Sophia laugh and she was eager to join in, and when one fell off Oliver said ‘Uh-oh!’ The children explored colour as they explored the peg boards and sorting dinosaurs, and Varun used the pegs and boards to make wonderful patterns. Meanwhile Zach and William used the dinosaurs and wooden blocks to make a lovely pathway through the nursery.

The Children have also played with some small world models. Jasper much preferred the cars playing with Lyra and Ines on a roadway and car park moving the cars around together, and when they crashed they all laughed and started to push their cars as far away from each other as possible, then rushing back together. Ines said ‘Look, we crashed! Hlenhaze loved the train track and spent a long time building it. Zayne came over to play and accidentally stumbled into and broke the track; however this gave the children a new idea, of racing the train around the track and when it fell off the gap created they would laugh and start again. The Children also went on walks, and on one in the park looked for different flowers pointing them out. They also spotted some tall trees, Alba pointed up and said ‘Ooow’ whilst Isla ran around babbling away. Eve and Xanthe spoke about the tree, and Eve said ‘I want to climb it’, Xanthe replied ‘Climb it? You can’t climb it!’

The babies had a good time on the baby gym. Bodie used the steering wheel to spin around whilst Jessie went down the slide shouting ‘Down!’ They have also enjoyed a light disco, and Emma loved experimenting with the light shakers as crawled around the room. Isla and Alba danced around to the music and Alba said ‘Blue!’ pointing to the blue lights. Well done!

Christmas parties and dinners week!

As this week is the last nursery news of the year, we wanted the pictures to do the talking! You will see all the lovely small group events in both nurseries to celebrate Christmas, which is always a magical time of the year for the children and staff team. There have been several parties with party games such as musical chairs and statues, pass the parcel and dancing with lots of smiles and laughter. A tasty Christmas roast lunch was served also this week and the children sat together very nicely, and sang Christmas songs afterwards.

Your children will bring home all the amazing things they have made in their Christmas bags which they have beautifully decorated. They also have a gift from Father Christmas inside which we hope they will enjoy! These will be brought home which you can treasure for years to come.

Thank you to those parents for your very kind gifts for the staff team which are greatly appreciated.

We all look forward to a more stable 2021 and to some sort of new normality, and wish you all a peaceful, happy and healthy Christmas and New Year.