Pancakes and Chinese New Year at Hampton!

The Children have been exploring different cultures as they took part in some Chinese new year celebrations. They began by tasting some Chinese food, and Xanthe really liked the noodles and said they looked like worms which made the other children laugh. The children also made some lanterns; Zach and Maxwell loved this activity and excitedly choose their colours and discussed their favourites. Zach especially loved it as he got to use the scissors to make cuts, he then went all around the sides, and Maxwell said it looked good! The children also watched a Chinese Dragon dance whilst being taught about the traditions. Sophia and Eve were excited to dance like a dragon and began to move around getting other friends involved. The children also got to taste some tasty pancakes for pancake day, and had a pancake tea party as you can see! The children all chose their toppings of strawberries, honey or lemon on their pancakes. Sophia said “I love pancakes, I have pancakes at my home”.

During a walk to the park the children choose to play a little bit of football, and Ines chased the ball round and round whilst Sophia wanted to kick it away and chase it far away. Ines tried to kick the ball and kicked it very far away making all the children run away and laugh. Hlenhaze ran around the circle of children shouting and encouraging the children to join in and the got some bubbles out to start popping. Varun chased the bubbles and Jasper followed popping the bubbles and saying ‘Pop, pop!’ The children also used the magnifying glasses to find insects, bubbles and even friends! Nyra looked through the magnifying glass and said ‘I spy’ starting a new game. On the way back from nursery the children stomped like dinosaurs to get the mud of their shoes, walking along singing ‘Stomp, stomp, stomp!.’

The younger children have also taken part in Chinese food tasting. Alba really enjoyed the rice and liked to pull the noodles apart, whilst Bodie liked the noodles to slurp up., which he managed very well! On Pancake day Isla and Zayne really liked the strawberries and then they tried to make some pancakes with strawberries in the home corner with them mixing pretend pancakes and strawberries on plates and serving it to the table. Honor and George really liked the sensory bottles as they shook them around and dropped them on the floor again, rolling them by pushing them away. Jessie also liked the sensory bottles as she tried to stack them as tall as she could without knocking them down.

The younger children have also been painting on the easel, and Isla had a fabulous time painting her picture on the paper whilst Lyra preferred to paint the easel and make finger prints in the paint! She then began to high five the parts of the board that hadn’t been painted. Emma and grace liked to play with the balls, Emma got the balls out and threw them across the floor whilst Grace tried to catch them ! The little ones also went on a bear hunt. Jasper, Zayne and Lyra walked through the park going through, mud, grass and muddy puddles mimicking the book whilst they helped to narrate the story. Lyra walked through the grass saying ‘Swish’ whilst swaying sideways and Jasper said ‘Splash!’ going through the puddles. Great fun!

Chinese New Year !

The pre school children have been focussing on our book of the month 'Dear Zoo' and have incorporated animal talk and animal play in lots of their free play. The children made an aeroplane using the chairs, Eddie suggesting, "We need a pilot, who wants to be the pilot?" Tomas sat in the big chair, turned around to face the children and said, "I'm going to fly the plane, but first you need to put your seatbelt on". The children all pretended to put on their seat belts, Riley even saying, "Click" as she done so. Once the plane was ready for take off, Zachary told his friends that they were going to Africa to go and find the giraffe and elephant for our dear Zoo board. The children also enjoyed writing their own letters to the Zoo and drawing what animals they would like. Ada drew a giraffe but then laughed, "We can't have a giraffe here, silly, he will eat all of the leaves from the trees!" 

The children have been celebrating Chinese New Year and have taken a very keen interest in the story book 'The great river race' which informs you about the race of the animals to see who wins and the order in which the animals came in. When Oliver saw the dragon, he asked "But how is the dragon supposed to swim? He has wings!" and when he noticed that in fact the dragon does fly through the sky instead, he was very proud of himself, "See I told you that". The children helped to make their own Chinese dragons and lanterns to decorate the pre school room. When Riley came in to nursery, she was looking all around and said, "Wow, it's amazing".

We have been exploring more of the grounds and observing the effects that the cold weather had on the puddles. Most of them were frozen over and the children loved standing in them and Mateo said, "That noise sounds funny, listen, its like a crack". When they got to the duck pond, the children realised they had forgotten the bread and Ezra said to his friends, "Oh no, they won't have any breakfast now", so they went back later!

The toddlers have been enjoying pancake day this week by making some stainless steel pans out of paper plates and pencils and then making a pancake to go on top. The toddlers were able to create their pancake out of tissue paper, crayons or paint. Zachary’s said he wanted “melons” on top of his pancake. The children were also lucky enough to have homemade pancakes for snack which they loved! Last week the toddlers celebrated Chinese New Year by creating some beautiful lanterns from paper, sequins and red and yellow crayons. The room was also decorated in lots of colourful decorations which the toddlers enjoyed looking at. Zac said “Wow!” and pointed up at them. Meanwhile, Amelia asked to be picked up to get a better look. She held out her hand to feel the lantern and then laughed as it tickled her hand. 

The toddlers have ventured out a lot in the last week to explore the snow and ice. Fabian saw the hill was covered in snow and thought it would be fun to run up to the top and slide down on his bottom. The toddlers laughed and then followed, shouting “Wheeee!” as they slid down. On another walk the toddlers enjoyed looking for natural things. Leo, Fabian and Ari found big sticks and Connie asked the boys for help to find her one. 

Inside the toddlers have enjoyed building giant train tracks that go all the way round the room. They demonstrated good team work, each adding a piece to the track to extend it. Ethan was on damage control when anyone broke the track, he would say “Oh no, broke it” and then repair it. As Louis pushed the train around the track he said “Choo choo” and “Beep beep” if anyone was moving too slowly! 

The under two’s have been celebrating Chinese New Year by creating some lovely traditional hand held fans from paper plates, lolly sticks, red and gold paint. The children also sampled some traditional Chinese food of noodles and egg rice during snack time. They enjoyed the different flavours and textures and loved waving their new fans, Alastair, Chloe and Finley were laughing as the air whooshed over them.

Outside the children have been exploring the garden. Sadie was laughing and saying “Boo!“ as she crawled through the tunnel, Billie and Emily took an interest in the wooden bridge, crawling across to the centre then pulling themselves up to standing, waving to their teachers. Samuel and Tomas chose to play with wooden racing cars, making “brrrm” noises as they rolled them across the ground and along the outside of the tunnel. Samuel said “Race car” and Tomas said said “Uh oh” when one fell off of the tunnel. 

Back inside the room, the children had great fun building tall towers from mega blocks, they worked alongside each other with Alastair and Blake handing blocks to Samuel who built it up and they all laughed when it fell. The children also had lots of fun playing with the new sensory bottles. Sadie particularly liked the blue one filled with oil and coloured water, Billie preferred the one with green jelly inside and Tomas loved the rattling sound of the orange lentils.

Hampton Pirates!

This week the older children have been pirates! William and Nyra started to talk about treasure, which led to a drawing a map telling them where to go. Nyra wanted to find the biggest treasure whilst William wanted to find the best. After making their map, the children decided they needed pirate hats. Zach and Maxwell were very proud of theirs, wearing them for several hours, whilst Emily thought these looked more like boats! Zach replied ‘Emily, no, they are hats! We are pirates going to look for treasure. Come help us!” Emily still used her hat as a boat as she pretended it was floating next to her, making the other children laugh. The children explored the garden, following the maps clues as to where the treasure was. Maxwell shouted out ways to go, including through the bushes, and they jumped out the other side with a big roar before moving on further. Eve and Ines walked up the stairs of the tree house, where the map had started to lead but there was sadly no treasure there. Ines said “Uh-oh, no treasure” and Eve replied “Let’s keep looking!”. The map then took them to the nature area, where they finally found their treasure - a big sea shell! Eve shouted “Look, x marks the spot” and then asked what to do next. William took the children back to the tree house and decided it would be their pirate ship. Zach and Maxwell loved their pirate ship and saw sharks and fishes in the water! Zach pointed out and said “Shark!” before they started to sing ‘Baby shark’, and when they were finished they all laughed at one another and began to chase each other as some were sharks and some were pirates. Great fun!

This week the younger children have enjoyed exploring the muddy puddles at the park. Alba said “Splash, splash” laughing as she jumped up and down in the puddles, whilst Zayne and Varun looked around the park with close interest Zayne noticed and named a dog and Varun noticed and named a truck. They have all been exploring the home corner, and Jasper made a tasty dinner in the saucepan and served it onto plates as Zayne made some juice with a watermelon. Lyra ate her dinner and when she was finished rubbed her tummy and said ‘Yum!’. Isla laid down in the bed and Jasper patted her to sleep, and she closed her eyes, and Lyra sat on the sofa and read stories to Alba. The little ones went through a sensory tunnel, and Alba and Jessie were so very excited and when one of them came to the end shouting “Boo!” Honour, Grace and George have loved the music and story times. They sway when the children sing, smiling happily, and point at everything inside the book, absorbing every picture.

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!