Rainy days and dens!

The pre school children have been learning about different types of weather systems after many conversations around the weather we are experiencing at the minute. Last week they were learning about how rain clouds are formed. Oscar said, "I know how, the rain comes from the sea, its sucked up in to the sky and it makes a cloud". Max was then prompted to follow on to say, "Yes and I know what happens then; the cloud gets too heavy and it rains". The children made their own chalk rainbows, making patterns on the chalk board and then watching as the rain water was smudging the chalk down the board. Eloise called out, "Wow, its a real rainbow".

The children took part in a colour sorting activity using the coloured hoops in the garden. Maya suggested to her friends, "I know what we can do; we need to search the garden and find the right colours for the hoops". A lot of the children were involved in a colour hunt, searching all around the garden for various toys and materials and then placing them in the matching coloured hoop. After coming back inside, the children them enjoyed a paint mixing activity and talking about the colours they were making.

The children have been busy making dens using the wooden blocks and some blankets. Ollie suggested "We need a door so we can get in to our new house". The children worked together to move the blocks around so that they could make a small space for a door to be able to get in and out. Once they were all inside and cosy, Eddie started to tell his own story to the children. The children then took it in turns to add parts to the story.

Last week the toddlers enjoyed the home corner being transformed into an ice cream parlour. Each toddler had their own ice cream cone and was able to choose which flavour ice cream they wanted as well as their toppings. Isabelle couldn’t wait to join in. “Make ice cream” she said. Sophie loved adding sprinkles to her ice cream and Ari thought the sprinkles looked so realistic that he tried to eat them off the floor!! 

Outside the toddlers have been on kitchen duty making mud cakes and washing up the dishes. Eve enjoyed mixing the soil and water together and said “Look! Chocolate cake” as she mushed it together in a frying pan. Amelia picked up some leaves and added it to Eve’s cake and said “Yummy”. Connie put on her apron and said “I do the washing up” as she gathered the plates and put them in the soapy water. Jonny loved splashing with the cutlery and shouted “Bubbles!”. Zac laughed as the bubbles flew high up in the sky and then landed on his friend’s faces. 

Back inside, the toddlers have been getting creative and sending home lots of lovely masterpieces for their parents to keep. Alastair loved making a colourful caterpillar using glue and pom-poms which he carried so carefully out of toddler room to give to his parents. Rhys enjoyed listening to the rain through his handmade rainmaker which he continued to shake round the room. Charlie was so excited to show his parents his creation that he even corrected them when they said “It’s a lion”. Charlie said “No!, it’s a Roar!” 

The under twos were really excited to be playing with the light up shakers in the dark sleep room. Sadie was shaking them really fast listening to the loud rattling sound they made and Sophie and Billie were shrieking and shouting “Whoooo” with excitement. 

Outside, Zack, Rafferty and Emily loved exploring the garden, holding on to the rail of the wooden bridge and investigating the tunnel, taking turns going through it and laughing when someone emerged from the other side. Chloe and Blake were really engaged with mark making in the garden, using chalk on wooden slices of blackboard. 

Olivia, Billie, Chloe and Sadie explored the sensory experience of foam, and they loved squeezing it between their fingers and throwing it in the air, laughing as it fell on them.

Last week the children began learning about healthy eating and sampled some exotic fruits including kiwi, pineapple, passion fruit, papaya and cherries. They all had a plate and a little piece of each fruit to sample. Finley found the blackberries very sharp, Daniel loved all the different flavours, eating everything! Ada liked the raspberries and kiwi and Tommy was a little more cautious.

Next time the younger children will be sampling different vegetables. 

Park games at Hampton!

The older children have been exploring Elmer the Elephant as their book of the month and have incorporated the theme of diversity. This was inspired by the Elmer quote ‘In our herd, each one of us is a little different’. Some of the children took part in a group sticking activity where they made a giant Elmer the Elephant which will contribute to our book of the month display board. As he was sticking William said, ‘Elephants are grey, but Elmer’s got lots of different colours hasn’t he?’ and Xanthe replied ‘Lots of colours like a rainbow!’ Jasper then picked up a handful of tissue paper and threw it up in the air like snow; all of his friends laughed together. The children also talked about the parts of our bodies that are different, such as hair colour, skin colour and eye colour. ‘I’ve got blue eyes like my baby brother!’ said Maxwell, to which Zach replied, ‘My eyes are green!’. We also moved on to some model drawing of different animals. Bodie pointed out the stripes on the tiger and the zebra, whilst Sophia noticed that although they were both stripey, they were different colours.

The children went for a lovely walk to the park and played different activities. Emily wanted to play ‘Duck, duck, goose’. Whilst running around the park the children started singing to each other chanting for the chaser, and Oliver had a great time running away! He quickly jumped down and sat on his bottom laughing as he rolled backwards and made his other friends laugh. James and Eve had a lovely time playing ten flying saucers, and Eve ran around in circles like a saucer and trying not to tap her friends, which turned into a game and Lyra tried to catch Eve. When she eventually caught Eve they laughed and Thomas shouted ‘My turn!’

They used coloured bubbles to make some amazing pictures. Abigail noticed all the colours and called them out as she blew the bubbles. When the bubbles were put on the paper Alba laughed at them popping all the bubbles at the same time, Ines and Nyra instead choose to pick the bubbles up, and clap them making them go everywhere!

In the under 2’s room the children have been exploring different textures and noises. In the messy tray they loved playing with the farm animals hidden in oats. Theo was trying to eat all the oats while Grace made her own game of sprinkling the oats on the floor! The tray hid different farm animals and the children dug them out to find them! Sidney’s favourite animal was the cow, and squealed with delight when he found it !

We read the book ‘Elmer’ at the table before lunch, which is one of their favourite books, and the children were able to see all the different bright colours. Every time the page was turned George held up the toy elephant ! At the sensory table we put out mirrors and shakers for the children to play with. Emma looked in the mirror at herself, pointed and said “Emma happy”. George looked at himself and said “Ooowww”. Emma also made a big tower by stacking the shakers on top of each other until they fell over. She then said “Uh oh! ”. Honor loved playing with the blue cellophane ocean and shaking it above her head.

During sparkle time the children explored the lightbox and started looking at different shapes and colours, and were fascinated by the effect the light had on many dig=fferent objects. Theo decided he would like to sit on the lightbox himself to get himself to light up!

Blue coloured water created an aquarium. George went straight over, although wasn’t too keen on the apron! They loved splashing and picking up all the different sea creatures. Louis’ favourite animal was the shark and so everyone sang ‘Baby shark’ and all were dancing and wiggling to it!

Dinosaurs at Molesey!

The older children have been very interested in talking about dinosaurs and have taken on a role of "Dinosaur keepers" this past week. Some of the children used the wooden blocks to make a barrier surrounding around the dinosaurs which William called "A dinosaur kingdom, just like Jurassic world". After making the surrounding around the dinosaurs, Max then started to make a track around the outside and said, "We need to go on a train to get to the kingdom". Some of the other children were making a Television with the blocks which Zachary said, "We can watch the dinosaurs on our TV" and invited his friends to come and join him to watch!

The children have really enjoyed lots of play dough fun, especially making pizzas for a pretend picnic. Parker had rolled his play dough out and told his friends, "It is a pizza, but it looks like a pancake too". Ella started to roll small bits of play dough out and placed them on her play dough pizza and said, "I have peas on my pizza because peas are very healthy for you". Dylan then said, "But the evil peas don't taste nice - They're in Supertato!" 

The children had planted sunflower seeds in their individual pots recently and watched them grow over time. Once they had grown big enough, the children transferred the sunflowers in to our outside growing patch. Edie told Ada, "This is a good idea to do this, because all of the rain will help our sunflowers grow". 

The toddlers have enjoyed exploring different textures through sensory and malleable play. Zac and Ari have loved the water play where they decided to wash the boats with bubbles. Ari said "Zac you wash the blue boat" and Zac replied "Blue boat, yay". Jonny and Sophie had great fun splashing the water by hitting the water with their hands. They laughed as this soaked them head to toe! Charlotte and Isabelle have explored the sand, rubbing it between their fingers, hair and toes! Charlie enjoyed seeing the marks he made during Lego printing "look look" he said feeling proud of himself. 

Outside the toddlers have loved taking a risk and engaging in an obstacle course. Amelia loved travelling through the tunnel on her hands and knees. Immy finally took the leap of faith off the little step with no assistance and Rhys has mastered running the obstacle course as fast as he can. The toddlers have also been experimenting with different ways to move through the obstacle course. Some did using the trial and error method. Harriet tried shuffling along the wooden beam whereas Tristan found it more appealing to jump from one side to another. 

Back inside the toddlers have been looking at different modes of transport and talking about their experiences on each one. While decorating the transport board with photos from home the children began recognising themselves, family members and friends on the different modes of transport. Isla excitedly mentioned going on ‘A boat with daddy and mummy’. Sammy recognised himself on a scooter and said "Sammy scooter". 

The youngest children have been having lots of fun exploring their new tea set and toy food. It was all set up nicely at the table and Blake, Emily and Billie loved picking up the cups, plates and spoons, mixing, pouring and shaking the different utensils. The children were saying “Cheers!” and clinking cups together, pretending to eat the toy food. 

The under two’s also had fun playing with weetabix, oats and readybrek during a messy activity. Isaac, Luna and Daniel really got stuck in, exploring the dry, crispy textures fall through their fingers and sprinkling the cereal around. Isaac was giggling when he dropped it and Ada preferred to use a spoon to scoop and pour instead.

During our daily walks around the grounds the children have been very excited to see  that the resident ducks have now got baby ducklings! There are 11 in total which the children fed some bread.  Finley said “Wow!” Rafferty said was saying “Look, quack quack” and Sophie was jumping up and down in her seat with delight.  

Healthy bodies!

The older children have looked at healthy bodies this week,including activities and food. They have been busy exercising, including running around the garden. Eve had the idea of having a race to make them run faster, and Zach loved this idea shouting ‘Lets race!’ encouraging all of his friends to join in. Emily decided to skip during the race and Eve copied saying ‘This is fun’. When they finished William jumped up and down shouting ‘Yay!’ this made the other children laugh as they joined in. The children discussed healthy habits such as brushing teeth and washing, this led to a dinosaur cleaning activity. Ines and James used soap to wash of the dinosaurs whilst Oliver used a tooth brush. Speaking about why we clean and brush our teeth Xanthe told everyone ‘We wash to keep germs away’ and Ines agreed, adding ‘We brush our teeth to keep them clean, and healthy’. Whilst playing with the soap Jasper had lots on his hands and clapped his hands together making it snow soap, this made all the children laugh, especially when it landed on top of Alba’s head.! The other children really loved this game and got handfuls of soap to clap together and make a lovely mess. The children also tried some new fruits, such as plum and cantaloupe, Emily tried lots of the different fruit, and said ‘I love this, its yummy. I have it at home.’. In the garden the children made their own healthy food in the mud kitchen, Nyra made some tasty fruit salad that Thomas couldn’t wait to try.

The children also explored colours, starting with some cornflour play they children mixed colours, William saw some orange being mixed and he told everyone that red and yellow make orange. Lyra pointed out some green. and knew it was made from yellow and blue. Using the parachute they found different colours, and as a group children would shake the ball onto the colour asked for such as green. They also tried to find matching colours around, and Thomas found lots of green whilst Imani found lots of red. Maxwell had an idea that rainbows have lots of colours, and asked the children what colours a rainbow has. The children then made their own rainbows, and Sophia and James named all the colours they would use.

The younger children have been playing with the vegetables trying to identify the food and colours. Jessie found the carrot, bread and egg and gave it to her friends to eat, and they then tried to eat their plate of food, Emma was very surprised to find out it wasn’t really food when given it to eat and looked very surprised! Grace favoured the banana, pointing and saying what is was. The babies used their senses to explore some lights and bubbles, using the light up cylinders. They shook them around and made lots of noise whilst watching the colours change and the colours move. Laurie loved this activity and rolled it over the floor as well as turning them up and down. Edward loved the bubbles; he popped them all and babbled throughout trying to say pop, Emma ran round in circles trying to pop them. Louise loved the sensory bottles as he favoured the pink one and shook it around rolling it to Agnes. Ciana and Sidney liked the baby gym, they climbed up the stairs and went down the slide, and Sidney turned it into a game chasing Ciana up and round. When he would get close, he would love and wait for her to get away again. The babies have also drawn lots of lovely pictures using crayons, making different marks such as lines and squiggles. George and Honor loved drawing and crumpling up their paper as they explore the activity further, Honor then played Peek-a-boo with the paper holding in front of her face and laughing when she took it away. This made a new game and George loved to watch and laugh. They have also played with some farm animals in the messy tray. Jessie found lots of different animals and showed told everyone which was the cow and sheep. Theo listened to Jessie but decided he wanted to use the hay and spread it all over the room instead and when he threw it up it made Rouxx laugh. Great fun!

Sand and bubbles !

The older children have loved the sand pit being opened up again this past week for them to explore. Ollie started to make a sand castle in one of the clear buckets, and realising he could see the sand sliding down the inside, he encouraged some of his friends to come over and watch what was happening. Watching in fascination, Zachary said, “It’s all squiggly and sliding together”. Parker got straight in to the sand pit and very excitedly called out, “This is like being at the real beach!” The children also enjoyed exploring the water trays both inside and outside, using various sized jugs, funnels and water mills. Tom quickly worked out that the more water he tipped in to the mill, the quicker it would spin.

Pre school also really loved a bubble party in the garden as you can see. The bubble frog quickly fired out bubbles and the children loved chasing them around. Dylan was singing to himself, “Bubble, bubble, bubble, pop”. Eddie said to some of his friends “Nursery is so good; there’s lots of bubbles and it’s like a real party”. Once the bubble frog had run out of bubbles, Parker suggested, “That’s ok, maybe we can buy some more from the shops with our mummies and our daddies and we can have another party”.

The children have also been taking part in lots of mark making activities in all types of messy play. One of the favourite activities has been letter mark making in salt using their fingers and practising their fine motor skills. Some of the children were able to recognise the familiar letters and relating them to their own names. Ada said, “That’s an ‘A’; A for Ada, A for Apple” and attempted to make the letter A in the salt whilst encouraging Edie, “Come on Edie, you can do it too”.

Last week the toddlers have celebrated the reopening of the sandpit!! Alastair and Eve have loved filling the bucket with sand using their spades. Eve said “Look ,a castle”. Tristan used the trowel to pick up the sand and lay it on the side of the sandpit to make a smooth surface. Immy and Isla enjoyed burying themselves in the sand and saying “Where leg gone?”.A week later we are still searching for where their legs have gone! 

Outside on a walk round Imber court the toddlers were on a hunt for flowers to make a vase to send home to their families. On the hunt the toddlers came across a huge mud mound that they couldn’t resist jumping on. Amelia, Jonny and Ari were first to run up. Connie said “I can see the houses” as she stood at the very top of the hill alongside her friends. Sophie enjoyed shuffling down, Ethan raced down and Charlotte decided to surf on her tummy! Can you believe this was actually the fastest way to get down! Clever Charlotte!

Back inside the toddlers have enjoyed different sensory and malleable play. Isabelle enjoyed stomping the elephants in crunchy pasta and cornflakes whilst Sammy enjoyed the sensory bags where he watched the rice mix with paint to create different colours.

The youngest children have been exploring the sand pit. Sadie lifted two handfuls of of cool sand into the air as she sat in it, and laughed as it fell back down. Blake used her shovel to fill up her tea pot tipping it out repeating the action. Emily was very brave and explored the tunnel pointing and laughing at Melissa though the side panels, Emily also tested her balance walking over the bridge.

While on their walk the children saw horses, and Issac pointed to them and said ‘Horsie clip clop’ laughing away. Sophie and Billie pointed and clapped as they watched the horses run around their paddock. The little ones also enjoyed feeding the ducks. Finley, Tomas and Ada ripped up the bread and threw it to the ducks while Chloe, Emily Zack preferred to eat it!

 Back inside Finley, Chloe and Olivia explored the play dough. Finley said ‘Tap tap’ as he bashed his play dough with the rolling pin and Olivia pinched at the play dough pulling off small pieces and carefully placing them onto the table. Sadie and Emily played peek a book popping their heads out of the play house shrieking at each other.