Science, Gummy Bears & Owls!

Over the last week the toddlers have been looking at magical materials and taking part in science experiments. The toddlers have explored solids and liquids by melting ice with jugs of warm water. Chloe would carefully hold the jug with two hands while trying to pour some of the warmer water over the ice. Florence noticed the big pieces of ice were changing, “Ice get smaller”. The toddlers also explored a magical transformation with cornflour as they played with it changing from a hard solid in the tray to a gooey substance in their hands. Sophie loved watching the gloop fall between her fingers. 

Zack, Blake and James thoroughly enjoyed the gummy bear experiment where each of the toddlers had the opportunity to throw a gummy bear into the water. The toddlers left the gummy bears over night and waited eagerly to see them the next morning. Alastair couldn’t wait to see them the next day and was asked if he could see a difference between the gummy bears out of water to the ones in the water. He noted that they were “Bigger!” as he pointed to the sweets that had been soaking. The toddlers eyes widened as they saw the gummy bears had TRIPLED IN SIZE! 

Outside, the toddlers have been using their binoculars to try and spot some real life owls as we started our new book of the month ‘Owl Babies’. Back inside, the toddlers used paint, feathers and many other materials to create their very own owl to take home to their families. Sadie said “Twit Twoooo” and held her owl high above her head as if it was flying. 

This week in the under twos room, the little ones have been painting using small sponges. Amélie knew to press her sponge straight onto the paper to make paint marks on it, whilst Jack was a little unsure of the sponge at first but soon got stuck in getting paint on his paper and best of all his hands! The children have had fun exploring the new books in the library box, and Sebastian and Ada have enjoyed learning how to get the pictures in the push and pull books to move around.

Esmé and kitty found it funny looking through the colourful wooden shapes, Esmé kept laughing each time she held it to her face. The children also been playing with the farm animals, putting them in and out of the farm house, as well as learning the name of the animals and the noises that they make. Margot and Amélie tried copying the animal sounds which made Jack laugh.

On one of their walks they came across a massive digger in the fields which they found mesmerising as you can see! You never know what you will find when out and about!

Chinese New Year!

The pre-school children have been learning all about Chinese New Year and discovering all the special celebrations that happen over this period. The children took part in noodle and rice food tasting at snack time. Shyla particularly enjoyed the egg fried rice and told her friends, “This rice is so yummy and it’s just like the rice that we have with our chilli at nursery, but this one has special nice bits in it”. The children have also been listening and dancing to Chinese music along with various types of music from all around the world. Jasper, Ethan and Salvador were all dancing together and really laughing and enjoying themselves.

Outside in the garden, the children were practicing their writing skills whilst attempting to copy some of the Chinese writing symbols. Ezmie mentioned to Sophie, “This writing isn’t like the letters we have in our names because this one is Chinese letters”. The children loved getting messy and painting some boxes to make their very own 3D dragon to hang up at nursery. Once the boxes were all connected together, Emma got very excited and called her friends over to see, “Look, it’s the Chinese dragon from the great river race story!”.

The children have also been very active and loved football, hula hoop and frisbee games over in the football field. Zac and Amelia loved chasing each other around, kicking the football and laughing together when they got it in to the goal post. Joshua, Jasper and William practiced their frisbee skills, testing each other to see how far they could throw it, together counting, “1, 2, 3, go!” and then seeing who was the quickest to collect the frisbee again.

Some of the children decided to take a more relaxed approach and have a little lay down on the grass, looking for worms inside the holes in the ground. This then set in to a challenge to see who could get the muddiest hands ! After not finding any worms, Maya suggested, “Maybe we need to find some wet soil instead” and they all moved to the tree to have a closer inspection.

A B C's, Magnets & Running Races!

Over the past week, the toddlers have been exploring different letters by singing the alphabet song during circle time. Every child was shown and given their first initial and asked if they could copy the sound along with their name. Tommy got the hang of this really quickly and copied saying “T T T for Tommy”. Then Sadie had a go “S S S for Sadie”. The toddlers had the opportunity to trace and decorate their initials which they really enjoyed. Sophie had did an excellent job tracing her initial, as she held the pencil at the top of the S and steered the pencil in the right direction until she reached the bottom. As the week went on, some of the toddlers started to learn other words that started with the same letter as their names. Alastair said “A A A for Alastair, A A A for Alice and A A A for Apple!”

Outside, the children have been taking part in running races to keep themselves warm. Max put on his flashing wellies and ran as fast as he could. Rafferty ran so fast his hat flew off in the wind, but he said “Raffy hot, don’t want hat!” and continued running without it! Later on in the week, the toddlers wrapped up warm, hopped into the buggies and went on an adventure to the park. Their faces lit up as they spotted the climbing frame, swings and slide! Lana loved the swings so much that even her snack couldn’t tempt her off the swings. Ada shouted “Higher! Higher!” waiting for a push to fly higher in the sky. Rowan loved the slide, going down it many times in all different ways… forwards, backwards and even on his tummy! 

Back inside, the toddlers have continued to read the book of the month “One Snowy Night’. Whilst reading the book, they spotted a fox and Luna described that “The fox is orange” and had a “black nose”. For a morning activity, the toddlers enjoyed trying to make their own fox using lollipop sticks, paint, tissue paper and googley eyes. Come the end of the week, they had transformed the climbing frame into a cosy bedroom. They used multiple blankets and all the cushions to ensure the toddlers and animals kept warm just like in the book. 

This week in the under twos room, the children have been exploring the magnets! Margot, Esmé, Freddie and Amélie loved trying to connect the magnets together to bring the parts together and pull them apart again.

Youcef, Kitty and Ada have made their own game of walking and crawling down the ramp on the climbing frame as fast as they can, before racing back to the steps seeing how can get there first. Youcef and kitty have been testing their balance by walking down the ramp without holding onto the side for balance. Well done you!

During one art activity, the children have been using the fruit tea bags to make patterns and artwork on their paper. Esmé said “Dab dab dab!” as she made marks on her paper. After they had finished, Esmé Margot and Cecilia loved tasting the flavours of the fruit tea bags by licking them.

Ice, Animals & Foggy Walks!

The preschool children have loved exploring ice over the past couple of weeks and talking about the winter weather, including the changes in the trees in our garden and on our walks. The children collected some ice from outside that had formed overnight and placed it in to a tray inside. Shyla very excitedly told her friends, “It’s like the real Elsa has been to nursery!”. Henry, Shyla, Vivienne and Maya were holding bits of ice, laughing and watching the ice melt slowly in the palms of their hands.

Whilst out on a foggy walk, the children found several puddles that had ice formed over the top of them and they all enjoyed jumping in the puddles, watching and listening to the crack of the ice as it broke. Riley said to her friends, “This is the most funnest walk!”. Salvador looked over on to the foggy football fields and very excitedly got his friends attention, telling them, “But we can’t see the park or the trees anymore because it’s sooooo foggy out here”. 

The children have also been exploring various jungle, sea, farm animals as well as different types of dinosaurs. They have been learning about habitats and the names of some animals offspring. In the garden, we had a safari set up where Joshua, Will, William and Benjamin enjoyed playing. Joshua was quizzing his friends, “So who remembers what this ones baby is called?” holding up a different animal each time. When the children correctly answered, Joshua was praising them, “Well done, good remembering”. 

A Warm Welcome Back!

Welcome back to everyone after the Christmas break! It is lovely to see you all again.

Last week the toddlers loved coming back to nursery to see and play with their friends. Florence ran as fast as she could into the toddler room and shouted “Hello friends!” with a big smile on her face. Alastair enjoyed giving Sophie a great big cuddle when she returned from holiday and James couldn’t wait to raid the toy boxes to find his favourite car and truck. They have enjoyed going on cold frosty buggy walks to see if we could find any frozen ice. Rafferty said “Look, look!” as he spotted an icy puddle. He enjoyed hearing the ice smash onto the floor and breaking into lots of little pieces. Chloe spotted the ducks and said “Ducks, cold!” while pointing at them in the water. 

This week the toddlers have loved looking at different shapes. At circle time, they were shown different coloured shapes and Sadie cleverly knew “Purple circle, yellow triangle and red heart”. The toddlers have had shapes incorporated in their play throughout the week when playing in the messy tray trying to find them and dig them out of different materials, for example flour, sand and crazy foam. Ada wasn’t too sure on the messy shape play but instead enjoyed playing with the puzzles where she carefully slotted each shape into the correct place. 

The toddlers have enjoyed reading ‘One Snowy Night’ every day which is their book of the month. As part of looking at this book, they have been discussing how they could keep their own animal toys warm while outside in the cold weather. The toddlers were given a hat, a pot of water, a car and a felt blanket and were left to explore what material would work best. Max tried to put the hat on the horse to keep him warm, while Blake said “Ducks go in warm car”. 

This week in the baby room, the children have been settling back in after the Christmas break. They have enjoyed exploring the puzzles, Otto showed good large and fine motor skills while connecting the cogs on the caterpillar puzzle by trying to place the cogs onto the poles and kitty tried to place the duck and the fish on the animal puzzle board by turning and pushing the pieces into the spaces. Freddie, Esmé and Sebastian liked looking through the new coloured sensory boards while pulling them down from their faces so that they could see the difference in the colours of the room with the boards up to their faces and with them down.

Freddie, Otto and Amélie enjoyed listening to the stories watching as they pushed up the flaps to see the pictures in the ‘peekaboo’ books. They all took turns to by moving the sliders to they they could see the images or the animals popping out. Esmé said “Boo” and laughed as the rabbit popped out of the top of the book.

While on the walk, Amélie, Margot and kitty enjoyed feeding themselves as well as the ducks! They threw small pieces of their bread to the ducks clapping their hands and screaming as the ducks picked up the bread and ran away to eat it all up.