When you go into the woods today...

The older children have enjoyed a lovely trip to the woods. Before going into the woods, the children looked at a map to tell them where to go. William pointed at the river on the map and said ‘That’s the river isn’t it?’ The staff showed them where they were on the map and the children helped to create a route for a walk, following the paths with their fingers. The children led us to the woodlands, and stopped on the bridge and saw a beautiful swan and its cygnets. Sophia was happy when she saw them and told everyone ‘Swans are white’ Eve said, ‘Yes, look at it’s babies’. They also saw a baby crow. Thomas copied the birds sound and cawed with Maxwell telling everyone that birds fly and acting it out flying around making his friends laugh and encouraging them to join in. Xanthe and Hlenhaze saw a nice big log and decided this was a great time to practice their balancing and climbing skills. Hlenhaze balanced well for a while before jumping down and landing safely, then he started to make a fun train. Lots of his friends joined him and Zach yelled out “Toot toot. All on the nursery train!” This inspired an activity back at nursery, where the children collectively built their own car/train and were very proud. Lyra loved being the driver and waited for all the children to sit down on their seats before facing forwards, shouting “Beep!” and turning the wheel. When a staff member stood in front to get a picture Nyra told us to ‘Move, quickly, you will get run over!’.  

With the amazing heat, the children cooled down with a little bit of ice painting. They used the coloured ice to make some beautiful pictures and Oliver said “It’s cold” as he felt the ice and Imani pointed out all the different colours as it melted on to her page. Emily and James made their pictures full of colours and had a go at mixing them, Emily pointed out that the red and yellow was making orange. In the outdoor learning area they children made a lovely feast. Jasper mixed the mud and the bark and made a tasty summer soup whilst Maxwell and Zach had a great idea to make chocolate cake which gave William the idea to make some fruit salad. When all their foods were made they laid out their plates containing bark, mud, and leaves (cake, salad, fruit and soup) on the table and called their friends over to join them. Jessie sat down for some food and pretended to eat it, after she poked her tongue out and said “Yuck” this made Zach laugh and say “It is yucky” and he helped to make something else suggesting to use the plants that were being grown, “When they are ready, we can eat them” spotting strawberries and raspberries.

This week in baby room our theme was oceans week to celebrate world ocean day! Outside, the babies splashed around in the tuff tray which was filled with water. Sidney pushed the boats around the water, concentrating very hard! Emma was using a fishing net looking for different sea creatures, shouting “Fish!” Grace and Alex were fascinated by the lobsters holding onto them tight! They used the lobster to splash themselves and their friends making them all laugh lots and turned it into a fun game. They all loved exploring in the garden to see what they could find! The babies dived into the deep dark ocean to search for seashells that needed rescuing for their ocean clean up. Using toothbrushes, they scrubbed the seashells clean and looked after them very well. Grace started to call out the word “Brush!” whilst Louis giggled at the ripples in the water that Alex was creating. Sidney on the other hand, used his toothbrush to clean his teeth, they were nice and sparkly by the end of the day! Theo enjoyed playing in the garden with all his friends, smiling when they joined him at the water tray! He loved the water tray so much that he stayed by it the whole time. They all began to splash each other and laugh, by the time they came in for lunch they were soaked!

When on a walk to the park the babies used their magnifying glasses to take a closer look around. Ciana was laughing while pushing her face up to the magnifying glass and making it look bigger, which the others decided to copy! Ciana then saw another friend and decided to play peek-a-boo, lifting the magnifying glass up and down saying shouting “Boo!”, this made Honor very happy as she laughed and tried to copy. George loved crawling around on the grass chasing after the bigger children. George and Emma played together looking for bugs.

Now Summer has arrived we have updated our display boards in the baby room. All the children helped make art work for the displays. One of our boards was themed ‘under the sea’ which tied in perfectly with our weekly theme. Ciana, Emma and Edward loved using their sponges to print orange paint for their starfish. Edward clapped his hands when he saw the marks he made with the paint. Ciana said “Oooo” and showed everyone what she had done! . Alex and Rouxx loved taking part in the bubble wrap paint printing to make gorgeous colourful scales like our ‘Rainbow fish’ book that we read earlier in the day. The babies dipped their hands in to bright red paint and printed them on to card to make crabs. Emma moved her fingers to make crab claws whilst shouting “Snap! Snap! Snap!”

Aeroplanes, Animals & New Flavours!

The older children have been learning all about the human body recently and the functions of some of our organs, in particular our hearts, lungs and brains. At group time, Ada confidently stood up in front of her friends and told them, “I know something about our brains, it sends a message to our body so that our body can move”. Parker laughed and said, “My mum sends messages too”. Oscar then told everyone, “Our lungs help us to breathe and they go up and down when you breathe in and out”. Whilst discussing our hearts, Edie said, “Our love hearts help us to love people” and Ellie smiled and added, “But our hearts also push the blood around our bodies”.

The home corner has been made in to an airport and the children have absolutely loved engaging in aeroplane role play. They made their own aeroplanes using the chairs and Max told his friends, “I am the pilot, we are going to Africa”. The children made their own passports to take on the aeroplane with them. When creating his own passport Henry said “I’m drawing my face in my passport so I can see my picture”. The children enjoyed lining the chairs up in rows and using their tickets and passports to board the plane and looked at the world map to choose where they would like to fly to. Paige pointed to a country and said “I would like to go here”, Ellie replied by saying “I would like to fly to New York.”

The children also have been enjoying talking about different types of animals, such as animals from the jungle, the safari, the farm and our pets at home. They have been learning where types of animals originate from and what their habitats are like. They have been comparing similarities in some of their patterns and also which animals have the same name babies. Oliver was able to tell his friends that, “An elephant has a calf and also that’s the same as a cow; a cow has a calf”. Mateo went on to say, “And a lion has a cub and a bear has a cub”. The children went on to making their own 3D animals using the play-dough.

The last two weeks the toddlers have explored the flavours and textures of different coloured foods each week. They started with red foods where they had the opportunity to try red onion, pomegranate, pepper, beetroot, rhubarb and cherries. Charlotte was very brave and tried the red onion first; she took a huge bite and then quickly spat it out... not sure she liked that one! Immy loved the pomegranate calling it a “Sweetie” and she gobbled it up before any of her friends could attempt to steal it.  Next up was orange foods. The toddlers were able to try balsamic vinegar on bread, grapefruit, peach, sweet potato, mango and butternut squash. Although Rhys didn’t eat much, he did pretend to eat everything on his plate saying “Nom nom nom”.  Charlie tried everything and even licked his plate clean... delicious! 

Outside the toddlers have loved spending time in the glorious sunshine.. They had fun playing in the water tray, splashing water as high as they could! Alastair enjoyed splashing so much he went through five pairs of clothes in one morning! They have also been stretching their legs playing running races. Isabelle and Isla shouted “READY, STEADY, GO!” and they all ran as fast as they could, darting side to side to avoid the others running in the opposite direction! 

The children in the under twos room loved taste testing different vegetables. They tried beetroot, mange tout, baby corn, peppers and broccoli and we talked about healthy eating. Luna and Sadie enjoyed the beetroot and looking at the pink colour it left on their hands, Zack and Billie also got stuck in but Emily was a little more cautious of trying them. 

Outside they went for one of their regular walks to see the ducks and ducklings, to feed them bread and watch them come out of the water, closer to the buggies. They also saw the horses in the fields and Blake and Isaac were very excited saying “Horsey!” as they watched the horses gallop across their enclosure. In the garden Zack was exploring the tunnel, crawling through and laughing as he came out the other side. Chloe, Olivia, Tomas and Ada spent a lot of time concentrating on playing with the stacking cars, taking the different parts off then placing them back on the base..

Sophie, Finley, and Emily chose to play with the heuristic objects, putting on gloves and giving each other high fives, playing peekaboo with flannels, looking through bamboo and feeling the rough textures of pine cones and sponges. 

Park dens and campfires!

This week the children have all been very busy exploring the outdoors and enjoying the weather. In the park they found a great den, and climbed inside , and under and over it. Elissa and Abigail loved climbing over the den, they balanced their way up well, and when Elissa got to the top she shouted to Abigail encouraging her to join her. Abigail quickly climbed up to the top and joined her further encouraging their friends to join them. They then looked out over the park spotting the deers, counting them. William helped and pointed out a dog, asking his friends if they could see any more. Zach managed to see Zayne through a small gap in the logs and shouted ‘Boo!’ into the den, and Zayne looked up and laughed before joining Zach on top. ‘It’s a bit like the bear cave! We’re going on a bear hunt ! ‘ shouted William, and they decided to make a story. Varun ran away with Jessie until they found a tree to hide behind. In the park Hlenhaze and Imani were happy to see some ducklings and feed them and ‘Mummy duck’, which reminded them of a song and on the walk back they sung ‘5 little ducks’.

In one of the garden areas they made some lovely dinner over a ‘fire’ use bark. Sophia and Ines mixed the bark and leaves around until it looked tasty enough to eat. Sophia spotted a snail on the ground and suggested they give the bowl of food to the snail. as ‘It might be hungry’. Ines pointed out the fruit growing and said ‘That will taste better’. Thinking about hungry animals and insects they made some bird feeders, Thomas liked getting messy with the seeds, but after squashing it into the lard the bird seeds stuck to his hands, he tried to shake them off, and sat shaking his hands and waving them around. This made Bodie laugh and he joined in, accidentally knocking some of the food on the floor, they said ‘Uh-oh!’ before carrying on laughing. Back at nursery, Lyra and Nyra were hiding from everyone in a cosy den, and when someone came close they jumped out and said ‘Boo!’ which made everyone laugh.

The babies have been exploring lots of different colours. There explored a rainbow wall to hide and find things in. Theo enjoyed playing peekaboo in between the colours, spying his face in the mirror between the coloured fabrics saying “Boo!” and giggling at himself! Alex loved putting the orange mesh on his head creating a lovely veil, showing all his friends. Ciana swished the fabrics to the music of ‘Wheels on the bus’. On the colour cloud Honor was fascinated by putting the different colour pegs in the slots banging them and making lots of noise. George kept a good grip on the red ones, as the seemed to be his favourite colour!

Emma and Ciana loved playing in the treehouse in the garden. Ciana would bend down and then jump up and shout ‘Boo!’. Emma smiled and waved saying ‘Hiya’. George hid inside the treehouse and giggle when others found him. George then crawled away quickly and say “bubye”, and loved being chased around the garden. Louis enjoyed climbing and exploring in the garden, climbing up and down the steps to the treehouse. He bought his friends some ‘cups of tea’ using water, and the all then decided to pour the water out and have a good splash about!. Edward thought it funny to catch the football and hid it in his arms before rolling it back out to Grace who copied him and laugh at their new game.

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!