Growing and Caterpillars at Molesey!

The pre school children have taken a very keen interest in watching the caterpillars grow over the past couple of weeks. They helped to put the caterpillars in to their individual pots, scooping the food in to the pots and then placing the caterpillars inside. Some children allowed the caterpillars to crawl across their hands and Riley told her friends, "This is their new house now". The children have learnt all about the life cycle of butterflies using our insect toys and have enjoyed listening and talking about the very hungry caterpillar story. The children have enjoyed making their own caterpillars this week using a variety of materials, textures and paints. Ella used a cotton bud to paint a face on her caterpillar., and said “Look! My caterpillar is a happy one with a nice face.” The children have also enjoyed junk modelling using lots of materials and boxes. Shyla told Ellie “This box is for mummy to put her things inside.” 

 The children have started growing vegetables in the vegetable patch. They started off with onions and garlic last week. Many more will follow this week including carrots, broccoli, lettuce , courgettes, tomatoes, beetroot. They used the spades to dig shallow holes and then placed some seeds in there and then helped to water them before covering them back over with the soil. William asked, "Can we eat them once they have grown?" Oliver replied, "Noooo, they won't taste nice like that, mummy will cook it in our food". Each time we have gone to the garden, Ada has gone over to check on them, asking, "Have they grown yet?" 

The children have also taken a keen interest in the book of the month which is “Supertato.” The children have been role playing going to the supermarket and making their shopping lists to buy lots of vegetables. Tom said “We need to get a melon like the melon bot in the story” Eddie told Tom “The Evil pea might be in the freezer!” 

Last week the toddlers had been preparing for Mother’s Day by making cards and decorating candle holders. They made a collage heart by picking different coloured paper and Amelia and Isabelle took their time and carefully chose which colour they wanted to use and where. They said “pink, blue, green” as they placed them down. 

Outside the toddlers were fortunate to have some sunshine which has made being in one big bubble that much more enjoyable. The toddlers have loved being able to explore more of the garden with all their friends. Zachary, Harriet and Isla were really engaged with the obstacle course, focusing on balancing on the beams and not falling off. They each gave a big smile as they finished the course by jumping off the tall step. Fabian and Ari explored the garden with trucks, filling the trucks up with soil, bark and leaves. The boys discussed it very privately- we wonder what the secret was?

Back inside the toddlers have been getting into spring by planting some flowers. The toddlers paired up and each got the opportunity to plant seeds in the soil in their plant pot. Connie came into nursery excited to plant some flowers and asked “When can I do planting?”. The toddlers have enjoyed watering their plants every day using the mini watering cans. The toddlers have also been watching their new caterpillars grow. Each day Immy comes in and says “Caterpillars, butterfly” and points to them. The toddlers have been learning that soon the little caterpillars will grow and turn into beautiful butterflies! 

The under two’s had fun taking part in world book day, and loved seeing all of their fantastic costumes and spent lots of time looking through different books together, reading the very hungry caterpillar pointing out the different foods and seeing how he grew.

The children got very excited when they noticed a squirrel on the fence in the garden. Alastair, Finley, Chloe and Emily were waving and pointing at the squirrel as it ate some food it had found on the ground. We asked the children what we should name it and Finley said “Momo”. The children watched Momo through the door as it scampered around the garden. 

When the children were playing outside, Ada and Blake were sharing a big jug, taking it in turns to put twigs and leaves inside before emptying it back out again. Chloe, Billie and Rafferty liked sorting through the drawers to take out the balls, throwing and rolling them down the step while Charlotte and Sadie sorted through the heuristic basket to find lots of smooth pebbles, sticks and pom poms which they played with at the table. The little ones were fascinated and love to chase and trying to pop the bubbles in the garden. Great fun!

Caterpillars and stories!

This week the big children have had a wonderful story week. They began with the Gruffalo, reading the story where Jasper repeated it, telling everyone what the Gruffalo looked like; for example the purple prickles, and poisonous wart. The children then wanted to make a Gruffalo table. They found different animals from the book and added it to a forest themed table, James flipped through the story book matching the different animals whilst Zach hid the animals in behind the tree and under the paper grass making James laugh when he picked them up and said ‘Boo!’. The children also read more stories about different vegetables and this made them want to go to the other nursery garden and see what vegetables were growing, collecting different vegetables in their wheelbarrows. Sophia then suggested that the children should make some vegetable soup in the mud kitchen. Sophia and Ines made some lovely soup in a big pan but as Ines was stirring it she made it all fly out, which made Sophia laugh and Nyra who was also walking around, who said ‘Yuck, you got me’ as if she was splashed. The children also explored different forms of transport as they used their number of the week ‘8’ to draw a race track, which they then raced their cars around. Maxwell swung round shouting ‘Beep, beep’ whilst Abigail decided to crash instead turning it into a big game of chase.

They prepared our newly arrived tiny caterpillars ready to grow. They were placed individually into pots with plenty of food, and once the caterpillars where in their homes they looked at them crawling around and spoke about what would happen next. Xanthe said they would turn into butterflies and fly far away, Elisa said ‘I like butterflies lots, they fly’. the children will observe the caterpillars as they grow bigger, and learn about their life cycle as they form into a pupa on the next stage.

The little ones at nursery read the hungry caterpillar book and then explored everything it ate. George choose the Orange as his favourite and began to roll it around the room and chase it. Ciana picked up all the fruit and favoured the apple pretending to take a big bite from it. They also read the Gruffalo and explored the mouse’s journey as they tried to copy different sounds and actions made. Isla pointed at the fox and owl saying their names proudly. The little children also explored some transport and used cars to make some lovely art work as they made marks as they rolled. George and Emma enjoyed this activity; however, instead of rolling the car through the paint to make marks they used their hands and made lots of splashy paint marks and mess, and this made George laugh and laugh whilst Emma carried on clapping her hands. Jessie and Grace liked playing with a small world road and zoo, Jessie used the car to say ‘Beep, beep’ before kindly giving the car to Grace to play with. Once Grace had rolled the car away Jessie gave her some animals naming them for her, especially ‘Sheep’. They also explored with their senses; during sparkle time they shook their cylinders, and Honor loved the different colours. Agnes loved the sensory bags to feel and smell, shaking them around.

World book week at Molesey

The pre school children dressed as lots of different characters from their favourite books for world book day as you can see! There were ‘Frozen’ characters, Gruffalo’s, witches and dinosaurs to name a few. Some of the children brought in some story books which were shared with the children at story time. They also recapped on our book of the month, ‘Supertato!’ Ella said “I remember, the author of Supertato is Sue and Paul’. Impressively she was correct! The children also made their own story books which they then shared with each other. Max told Millie, “My story is all about a hairy scary dinosaur”.

They have taken a very keen interest in building with various construction toys such as the wooden blocks, small Lego and the duplo blocks. They have been making different types of transport vehicles such as aeroplanes with the large wooden blocks, roads with the smaller wooden blocks and boats with the Lego. Oscar told Mateo, “I need to find a sailor for my boat” whilst Tomas was pretending to be a pilot and flying the big aeroplane in the garden. But before Tomas would fly the aeroplane, he told the children, “First you need to put your seatbelt on”. The children also enjoyed setting up a small obstacle course with the blocks, counting each other down to jump over the blocks. Eddie encourages Salvador on, “Go, go, go Salvador, you can do it”.

 The children have also enjoyed parachute games, Scarlett suggested, “We need some balls for the chute” and went and found some from the ball box. She threw them all in the children very excitedly shook the parachute really fast, laughing when the balls were flying up in the air. One of the balls landed on Sienna’s head which she found really funny!

This week the toddlers have enjoyed participating in world book day where they have dressed up and brought in their favourite books. We had a firefighter, a wide variety of the cat family, some Gruffalos, multiple superheroes saving the day, and even our very own Zogg and Mr Bump! Throughout the day the toddlers enjoyed reading their favourite stories such as ‘The tickle book’ and ‘The tiger came to tea’ and making bookmarks to take home. 
Back Inside the toddlers have been able to take part in many messy, painting activities, which they have thoroughly loved. One of these activities included body painting, where the toddlers could go wild and use whatever they wanted to explore the paint. Once the paper was fully set up on the floor, the toddlers counted down "three, two, one, GO!" and could hardly contain their excitement as they ran, crawled and jumped towards the paint. Isla shouted, "Paint, paint, wet" as she began using her hands to explore. Fabian found a paintbrush and paint pot and he would walk up to his friends and nod, as if to get permission, to paint on them. Fabian and his friends found this very amusing and slowly they joined in covering themselves and others in paint. Great fun!

The toddlers have enjoyed adventuring out exploring for sticks and stones! Amelia and Tristan found a stick that was so big, that they needed each other to help carry it! Amelia said “Wow!” They found it fascinating and all decided to help as well. Ethan ran to the duck bridge and shouted “Ducks! quack, quack!” and ran back to his friends, and encouraged them to run with him to the bridge to have a look. The toddlers then found the stones. They enjoyed looking at them close up and seeing there different shapes and sizes. Zachary picked one up and showed it to Ari. He said “Look, it’s a big stone”. Connie collected multiple stones and put them in her pocket hoping to show her family when she got home. The toddlers loved running along the field all the way back to nursery. 

The under two’s have enjoyed spending time outside. In the garden, Samuel and Sadie were busy building towers together with wooden blocks, balancing them on top of each other and taking turns, being careful to not knock them over. The team were counting the numbers out loud of blocks as they piled up and Samuel repeated them. As they toppled over Sadie said “Uh oh” and raised her hands in the air. On a walk to the duck pond, Alastair and Finley were excellent at throwing the ducks some bread, saying “Quack quack” and “Bye, bye” when it was time to leave. 

Inside Blake and Alastair were stacking up the coloured rings, passing them to each other and playing alongside each other. The children also had lots of fun playing with the coloured strips of paper. Samuel said “Shiny” when he saw the red tinsel and while some children picked up little pieces at a time, Charlotte and Chloe gathered up lots in their arms, watching it fall over the floor as they dropped it which they found funny

Charlotte and Rafferty liked taking their books over to the table to read. They pointed at the pictures and swapped them over, and talking about the animals and vehicles they could see. 

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.