Ducks & Fairy Tales in the Park!
The older children have been very busy recently. They explored Diwali by making some wonderful firework pictures. Isla pointed out that she was making fireworks, as after each splat of the dabber pen she announced “Fireworks!”. Louis was really happy with his picture, and showed it off proudly. They have also been very busy with messy play with some shiny foam making different shapes and clapping it together. Cianna had a wonderful game of clapping the foam to make snow, which Deliah got involved with as well and told her it was snow and found a new way to spread it around by blowing it. When some went on their noses they laughed and laughed as they tried to shake it off.
The children went to the woods and enjoyed climbing on some fallen logs and cut up tree trunks. George was very eager to get started and climbed on the fallen log and started walking across it. When he started to lose his balance, he would hold on very tight to the log , carefully making sure to not fall and start again! When Charlie reached the top he encouraged all of his friends to join him, as they began to shout “We are so tall!”.
Whilst outside the children have also been caring really well for the animals and wildlife, Oliver and Wilf looked through the leaves to find some bugs that might need help. They didn’t find any bugs but a bug did find our group! A small flying shield bug came and landed on an arm, and Oliver looked at the bug very excitedly and waved saying “Hello!”. Wilf was interested in looking at the bug and learning what he could about it. They discovered it had some wings and they counted the bugs legs together. When it flew off, they flew after it by following its path waving their arms. The children also enjoyed feeding some ducks and birds. Alba really liked the ducks and encouraged Jessie and Bodie to feed them as well. They began to call over more ducks by quacking, and when the ducks came over they excitedly laughed and said “Hello” before feeding them all they could eat.
This week the babies went to a magical land and explored lots of different fairy tales. The babies created their own special houses for the three little pigs. They used a variety of different materials such as felt, foil, feathers, tissue paper. Dora particularly loved the foil. “Shiny!” she said as she stuck down nearly the whole pot of foil! Theo announced “Ta Da!” he said as he held up his masterpiece. Alex loved the fluffy feathers and tried tickling Jamie with them. Honor oinked as he picked up the toy pig and made Luca laugh hysterically. Agnes loved the shiny fabrics and Mabel kissed the pigs as she invited them into her new home and Dora even tried feeding them during her snack time.
During a woodland walk, the babies went on a secret hunt for the fairies in the trees. “Tree” shouted Honor as she ran up to one. Theo laughed and picked up a bunch of fallen leaves and threw them in the air. All the other babies joined in together. Alex climbed on the logs, inviting Rouxx to come join him. Theo found some sticks and banged them together making music for the fairies. “Duck” squealed Luca as a swan swam past. “Quack quack” said Agnes as she pointed to them. “Woof woof” said Honor as a dog ran past. Jamie laughed as Dora kicked the leaves. Mabel shared her special leaf and handed it to Luca.
Diwali, Fireworks & Space!
The preschool children have been observing the changes of the trees in the garden over the past couple of weeks, noticing that a few trees in particular have lost their leaves and that the leaves have started to change colour. Henry told his friends, “It’s strange, some of these leaves have turned red, some are orange and some are still very green”. Whilst doing some observational drawings of the trees and plants in the garden, Ezmie noticed a leaf falling from the tree and quickly got her friends attention, “Quick guys, look before you miss it, the wind has blown the leaf off the tree, that’s super cool”. The children collected the leaves that had fallen on to the ground and placed them all in to a tray and were very focused on describing the similarities and differences between the leaves.
The children have been learning all about Diwali over the past week. One of the staff was informing the children all about the festival and the celebrations that take place and had brought in some clothes for the children to try on. Ada had seen that one of the staff members had put one of the outfits on and said, “You look like you are going to get married, the dress is very beautiful”. The children were then discussing special outfits that they wear on special occasions. Maya told her friends, “When it was my birthday, I had a party and I wore a very special sparkly dress!”.
The toddlers have enjoyed going up to outer space in our new ‘climbing frame’ spaceship! Alastair ran to the top and shouted “3, 2, 1, Blast Off!” which he had learnt from a song at circle time. They made rockets where they blew air into the straw and watched their rockets fly off. Rowan said “Wow, flying!” as he watched his friends rockets shoot across the room. While in space, the toddlers saw some photographs of planets and tried to make their very own by using paint, pens and sparkly sequins. Florence took her time painting her planet and was very impressed when she saw it hanging up in toddler room for everyone to see, “Look, planet up there!”.
Outside they used paper telescopes to search for UFO’s and aliens. Isaac looked deeply into his telescope and said he saw an “elephant” in outer space. While in outer space, they came across some bonfires made of spaghetti which, due to the time difference, they had forgotten fireworks night was soon approaching. Sophie enjoyed breaking up the bonfire while Tommy and Sadie said “Fire hot!” and were trying to blow it out.
Towards the end of the week, the children returned from outer space just in time for fireworks night. They quickly got on their aprons, found some paintbrushes and flicked paint across their paper and the whole of toddler room to create some fireworks. Rafferty said “Do it again” to his friends as he watched paint fly past his face to shrieks of laughter. The toddlers listened to a firework video and were asked what they could hear. Blake answered “Bang! Bang!” and her friends copied by shouting and clapping their hands to represent the sound.
The under twos have been busy celebrating Diwali by making some beautiful firework pictures using cut out cardboard tubes. Esmé, Freddie and Kitty loved getting stuck in, dipping the tubes into the dishes of brightly coloured paint then stamping them onto the paper. Margot and Amélie had lots of fun hand painting and getting really messy, making different marks using their fingers and hands and sometimes their faces too!
Ada and Youcef concentrated really well when playing with the stacking toys. They took turns sharing the pieces and taking them off and putting them back on to the poles using good hand-eye coordination. Otto and Sebastian were role playing using the food and cooking utensils. They stood up at the table and were exploring the different items, mixing and banging the spoons with the pots and pans and sharing the food with each other, saying “Ta!”, babbling and laughing together.
Pumpkins & Potions
The children have been very busy exploring Halloween and taking wonderful walks to the woodlands where they explored fallen trees and dens. Ellis said that there may be a bear in in the den, just like the bear in the cave from the book We're Going on a Bear Hunt. Ellis encouraged his friends to join him on his own bear hunt as they walked back from the woodlands they recited it as a team. Charlie went through the long wavy grass and Emma went through the mud whilst saying “Squelch squelch”.
Whilst in the woodlands the children collected some sticks to make some spooky spiders. Alba and Isla counted how many sticks we had and how many legs the spiders have. Varun and Zayne helped to stick on the spiders legs and then acted like spiders with their hands. Sienna choose to help out her friends by singing Incy wincy spider to all of her friends with a big smile, which made them smile too. After collecting some pumpkins, they cut them open and started to empty them out. Abigail enjoyed this activity, laughing when she felt the gooey insides, and when Reuben tried to scoop the insides out they flicked every where making him and everyone else doing the activity laugh and laugh. On the messy tray the children decided they would make some potions, mixing together different materials and scents. Adam liked the couscous, gently pouring it into his potion whilst Cianna liked the shiny material which make her potion sparkle. Louis wanted to have a go too, and whilst Lyra was mixing the potion she had created, Louis had tipped the water and spilt it all over the tray and laughed alongside everyone else who then decided to do some splashing in the water tray.
The babies loved listening to ‘Room On The Broom’ where the witch made a potion using pine cones and sticks. This inspired the babies to fill up a cauldron with bright green water and creepy crawlies. Theo picked up a wooden spatula and began stirring the magic mixture. Carol pointed at the insects saying “Ooh ooh” and picked up a ladle ready to scoop them up. Agnes shouted “Bug!” and dipped her hand in to potion, not worrying about the insects hiding. Dora enjoyed splashing the water, “Green” she said as it splattered over her friends. Jamie trickled the water down into the cauldron like a waterfall, this made Rouxx giggle “Yeahhhh!” he said throwing the mixture around the messy tray, “Ah, all gone!” he said when the water had disappeared. Harriet helped to stir the mixture but decided her arm was more practical than the spoons.
The babies ventured outside into the garden where a pumpkin patch was waiting for them. Mabel ran up to the pumpkins stroking and tapping them all. Luca started a game of catch with the munchkin pumpkin, “Ball ball” he said. Rouxx sat himself inside the wheelbarrow, “Cheeeese” he said, posing like a model. Alex used the pumpkins like an obstacle course, weaving in and out of them, “Weeeee” he shouted as he dodged the pumpkins. Jamie gave the biggest pumpkin a big slobbery kiss goodbye!
