Exploring the woods!
The preschool children have been getting messy and creative this week. They started by exploring textures, William thought clay would be a great material to use for making art work and he decided to make a self portrait encouraging Ellis to do the same. Ellis used leaves to make his hair whilst William choose to have two eyed and he said ‘My hair is silvery white’. Zach though playdough would be a fun texture to explore, so he got some playdough and began making some different marks. Lyra used the cutting wheel to make a track mark and felt the indents made whilst Zach pushed it through a playdough pasta maker and said it looks like pasta, he went on and said ‘I love cheese and pasta!’ so Lyra agreed and helped him make some dinner. Sophia and Xanthe noticed some new, different textured pom poms were added and began making some lovely art work with it using poms poms and feathers, Xanthe said there are so many colours and it feels so nice as she felt the feathers. Varun liked to stick the pom poms on and had a go at pushing them around the table like a football before sticking it on, when the pom poms feel of everyone at the table screamed and laughed before having a small game.
The children have also been to the park and explored the woodlands. They started by looking at the logs and searching for bugs, Emily found a woodlice and showed it to all her friends, Imani said ‘wow, it has loads of legs’ Emily laughed and said I only have two. The children then skipped around and hopped using there legs as they spoke about different movements they made and what movements animals can make. Oliver saw a duck and made a quaking noise as they tried to talk to it and pointed out the different colours, Ritika counted the ducks and suggested next time to feed them. Further into the woodlands it got very muddy and the children thought it would be fun to splash in their welly boots. Thomas jumped high and a big muddy splashy making mud go everywhere, everyone laughed and decided it would be great fun to get as messy as they could and all make big splashes.
The babies became Olympic gold medallists this week by taking part in a variety of tense Olympic Games. To start the week off, the babies participated in a rapid game of ring toss, using paper plate rings and Olympic ring coloured cardboard rolls. The babies worked together to come up with a tactic that would help them all out. “There!” Emma pointed towards the ring, “Ta” said George giving it to Emma so she could have a go. Emma took the ring with two hands and threw it on the roll, “Me, Emma!” She said proudly whilst Edward clapped for her. “Oooh ohh!” Agnes crawled over to the ring toss podium and explored what was in front of her, Agnes pointed at the colourful rolls and Louis held her hand so they could play together. Working as a team, the babies created their very own Olympic Rings by dipping their kitchen rolls in to paint. Grace made bubbles in the paint “Ooh bubble!” She said excitedly as she swirled the paint round and round. Honor loved the yellow paint and painted her hands and face as well as her paper! Rouxx decided to mix the yellow and blue together with his fingers to create a lovely green colour, perfect for our Olympic Rings.
In the park, Eesa helped setting up cones for an obstacle course. First in the running was Alex who weaved in and out of the cones with a huge a smile on his face. Next was Emma who had help from Grace who was removing the cones from the obstacle course, therefore making her an immediate winner! Theo crawled over the cones and stuck his head inside, “Hat!” Emma shouted and she gave everyone a pointy cone hat. George patted his head as he patiently waited for his hat to arrive. The babies practiced their clapping when cheering for one another, they were all very supportive and showed team spirit!
Graduation tea!
The pre school children have really enjoyed playing football games and setting up their own goals. Ezra and Eddie worked really well together to set up a goal which included a ramp for the football to go up. The children then took it in turns to “Score a goal!” be the goal keeper and were really celebrating each other’s shots and cheering each other on. Benjamin quickly realised that the ball kept going too high and knocking the top post down and cleverly suggested, “I know, we need to make it taller so the ball doesn’t knock the goal down”.
The children have also been aeroplane spotting on a cloudy day. They were listening out for when they could hear an aeroplane approaching and then working out which direction they thought it was going to come from. Ada called out, “Guys, if you are quiet, you can hear one coming now”. Tom said, “I can hear it, I think it’s coming from that direction”, pointing in the right way. The children were also counting how many aeroplanes that were flying below the clouds that they could see and how many were above the clouds that they could hear. They then enjoyed doing some observational drawings of aeroplanes.
We held a graduation picnic tea to celebrate the children that are going off to school. All be it there were thunderstorms so we moved inside, the children all had fun and were in a party spirit. They were given a certificate and a book about starting school. Each of the children confidently stood in front of their friends to receive their book and certificate and let everyone know what they are most excited about when starting school. Oscar told everyone, “I’m so excited to see all of the new toys and to see my friends from nursery”. When reading the story about school, Edie noticed that quite a few of the school activities and routines of the day were “Just the same as nursery”.
This week the toddlers have started their “holiday” theme due to the summer holidays starting. Some of the toddlers went abroad and decorated paper aeroplanes. To go on the aeroplanes the toddlers needed a passport. Together with an adult Harry and Charlotte wrote their names and signed their signature. In the messy tray the toddlers went to a foam party where Alastair got covered head to toe and came out with purple highlights in his hair! Sammy and Zac roared loudly as they enjoyed visiting the dinosaur museum where they saw dinosaurs in their sandy habitat. At story time Blake said she goes to the “farm” when she goes on holiday so the toddlers listened to ‘The Farmers Away!’. Rhys spotted the horse in the book and went and found a toy horse from the drawer to show his friends while saying “horsey neigh neigh”. Jonny tried some seaweed at the beach which he thoroughly enjoyed and asked for “more”, whereas most of his friends disliked the taste and spat it out as quickly as they could!
Outside the toddlers have enjoyed going on a walk round Imber court to collect leaves for a leaf printing activity. Ethan couldn’t wait to get out of nursery and run as fast as he could to find the first leaf in his tracks, “Found one!” he shouted as he picked it up off the floor. Immy was very proud of herself when she found two leaves, “One, two” she said and put them in the bucket. Back at nursery, the toddlers loved painting the leaves they found and printed them on the paper. “Wow” Amelia said as she saw her leaf appear in the paint. Sophia became a teacher repeating instructions to the other children “Make sure you cover it all” and “press down hard”.
The under twos have had fun this week playing with the new car mat and the new cars, pushing them over the rug and pulling the large removable parts off and trying to put them back on again, Chloe, Daniel and Olivia gave some of the parts to the staff team to help them put the parts back onto the car. Ada was able to put one piece on the car with out any adult help. Rafferty pushed his car off of the car mat causing it to fall over, Rafferty laughed and said “Oh no, fell over” and pointed to the car.
Sophie, Ada and Olivia have really enjoyed exploring the new books, taking turns to sit on an adult lap to listen to the story being read to them. Their favourites were Rabbit’s nap, A squash and a squeeze and Dear Zoo lift the flap book. While they waited for their turn they listened to the other stories and chose new books from the book case ready for their next turn.
Outside the children have enjoyed playing with the sensory basket, banging the large pebbles together and enjoying the tapping sound. Zack enjoyed taking all of the small wooden sticks out of the basket and dropping them on the floor as he got another. Sadie, Chloe and Ada enjoyed digging in the sand pit using their hands and the spades. Sophie was fascinated by her game of lifting hand fulls of sand and throwing them over her head, laughing at her new game.
Bug Hunts!
This week the older children have been on a hunt for nature and bugs. They started of in the woodland gardens looking for horses and ducks. Xanthe found the horses and she quickly called her friends over to explore. Xanthe and Wilfred began to neigh at the horse as they counted them and spoke about their different coats, pointing out one that looked like a cow because of its markings. As we got further into the park, the children found a log and began to look for some insects. They managed to find a woodlouse and some ants. Hlenhaze stopped to count the ant’s legs but it was a little bit difficult as they were so fast. The children spotted lots of butterflies, Sophia remembered how butterflies grow from when we had butterflies in the nursery. Eve added that when they had changed from caterpillars they flew away. The children then began to run around like butterflies flapping their wings.
We have also been to the woodland area in Carlisle Park and looked at the board that told us about some of the things we may find. After looking for the bugs they wanted to race as fast as the bugs they had found. Nyra started the race and she shouted that she was so fast! Back at nursery we went to the outdoor learning area where Zach found an ants home, he told everyone they must like the fruit the nursery has been growing. James and Zayne found some lovely worms and snails. James pointed to the snails shell and told Zayne the shell was the snails home.
With all the hot weather we have had lots of water play, Ritika and Lyra liked to pour the water down the marble run and watch it trickle down to the bottom. They both shouted “Yay!” when the marble came to a stop. They celebrated by splashing, but they accidentally splashed Alba who laughed and decided to splash back until there was water everywhere! Emily and Ellis instead decided to play in the sandpit, the built some lovely towers but they found much funnier to knock them down again and watch the building crumble and the sand spread everywhere.
In baby room, the babies became explorers searching for ancient, hidden dinosaurs. George loved the textured brown paper that the dinosaurs used for their beds in the messy tray. Grace let out big “roars” whilst Sidney investigated the scales of each colourful dinosaur. The little explorers painted their findings with a variety of colours and resources. Agnes chose a rectangular box and used long sweeping brush motions, Rouxx opted for a bumpy egg box which depicted the spikes of a stegosaurus’ spine. Edward was very proud of his masterpiece and gave his dinosaur a big kiss which left him wearing fabulous blue lipstick, Alex found this extremely funny and gave himself some lovely red highlights for the day.
Outside in the mud kitchen, the babies cooked food for their dinosaurs. Sidney used a wooden spoon to stir his leaves in a saucepan. Louis was sous chef and was very busy picking leaves and fetching pots and pans for chef Sidney. Ciana used a watering can to add stock to the leaves and mud that was bubbling on the hob. Eesa carefully placed the muffin tray in the oven so that the dinosaurs could have a sweet treat! Theo searched the ground and garden for any predators and Honor helped him keep lookout as she collected all the toy dinosaurs in the garden for dinner time.
