Easter Celebrations and Butterflies!
The pre-school children have been looking after our caterpillars for a while now and this week saw them hatch from their cocoons as beautiful butterflies! The children were really gentle and careful whilst handling the butterflies. Joshua said “We need to be really careful to not hurt the butterflies!”, Zachary added “It tickles!” as a butterfly crawled over his hand. After feeding them and letting them gain their strength for a few days, it was time to set our butterflies free in the Garden. We took one more opportunity to hold them before letting them loose. Maya said “There is so many beautiful colours!” and Connie said “Look, they are flying away!”
The children also enjoyed taking part in a special Easter Egg hunt in the garden! They searched every nook and cranny to find the Easter Eggs left by the Easter Bunny. Henry said “I found a blue Easter Egg under the treehouse! It was really hidden!” Jasper said “I found one too! The Easter bunny is going to leave chocolate eggs in my garden too!” When the children had found an Easter Egg, they brought them to a grown up to get themselves a sticker. Riley said “We get a Easter Egg and a sticker too, wow!” They then sat down for a group photo wearing the Easter Bonnets they had made to celebrate a job well done in the Easter Egg hunt!
Healthy Habits & Exploring Textures!
Last week, the toddlers celebrated ‘Healthy Body, Happy Me’ week by moving in different ways, eating healthy food and by having lots of conversations about what makes us healthy and happy. On ‘Movement Monday’, the toddlers went on a walk round the grounds of Imber Court to stretch their legs and get their heart rates pumping. While on their walk, the toddlers came across a huge mud mound, where they had to use their hands and knees to climb up. Once at the top James tried multiple ways to get down, sliding on his tummy, bottom shuffling and trying to walk down. Rafferty stood at the top holding his hand out to his friends who were struggling climbing up kindly saying “I help you!”.
On ‘Talking Tuesday’, the toddlers explored different fruits using their hands to feel the outsides of the fruits. Ada felt the pineapple and said it was “spiky” and Luna said the melon was “soft”. When Alastair was asked “What’s this?”, being shown a kiwi he replied “It’s a potato!”. Later that day and on Wednesday the toddlers were able to try some of the fruits and vegetables they explored. Florence and Sophie loved the kiwi, while Zack and Daniel made a sour face as they tried the lime. As for the vegetables... most of the toddlers left these.
Towards the end of the week, the toddlers were reflecting on what they had learnt and were asked the question at circle time, “What makes you big and strong?”. Rowan replied “I eat apples to make me big and strong, I can run down hills”. Chloe said she eats “strawberries” and Emily bent her arms to show off her muscles she has from eating healthy and keeping moving outside.
The under twos have had a busy week learning through play. We have been learning about textures by touching, squeezing and squashing different materials.
During time out in the garden, they little ones explored and had fun in the sandpit. Freddie and Sophie loved letting the sand fall from between their fingers. Jude was scooping it up using a sailing boat and Isabelle was digging deep for buried treasure while Kitty was using a sieve to fill up a bucket, and looked confused when it didn’t fill up very quickly!
The children enjoyed potato play outside, picking up the cooked potatoes and feeling them. Otto was trying to see how many potatoes he could get on a plate, whilst Margot was squeezing the potatoes with her hands, which made her giggle! Otto then copied Margot and both were laughing and giggling at each other. Some of the children enjoyed tasting the potatoes while others weren’t too sure if they were real and pretended to lick them, Kitty was saying “Mmm” as she tried them and put them into a cup.
Whilst the children were inside, some of them enjoyed playing with the covered paint on the table. They used their hands to squeeze and squash the paint, making it move. Youcef laughed when he pressed the paint and it moved across the table. Esmé shouted ““Wow wee!” whilst squeezing the paints on the table; this made Kitty come over and explore what was going on. When the paint began to seep through the film, Amèlie was unsure and held her hands up to be cleaned while Sophie just continued to pat it with her hands, watching it splash.
Campfire Stories & Mother's Day!
Last week was our Mother’s Day event and the pre-school children were so very excited in the lead up to the event to have their mummies come to nursery. The children especially enjoyed making a special card and a clay butterfly. Shyla told her friends that she was so excited to give it to her mummy and she knows that mummy is going to love it because Shyla made it, saying “It makes it even more special when I made it myself!”. Throughout the day, the children were discussing what they would like to show their mums when they come in to nursery. Some were very enthusiastic about showing their parents the toy boxes in our construction and small world area, where as William said he was going to show his mummy where he puts his drawing and his book bag. Vivienne said that her mum was going to love the caterpillars because, “Now they are a cocoon and soon will be a butterfly and my mummy doesn’t know that yet!”. The event was a lovely as we were lucky the sun shone and so many mums were able to come along and share picnics with each other and their children and being able to explore the wonderful garden with the activities set up inside and outside.
The children have also been setting up small camps with story books. Salvador set up the chairs into a circle position and encouraged his friends to join him. Jasper said, “It’s like a real camp fire”. Salvador encouraged his friends to have a seat so that he could read them all a story. At first he chose the police officer book and once opening it up, he said to his friends, “This police man is going to catch the bad guys, that’s why you all need to be good”. Tomas then asked Salvador if he could read another story to them and chose the ants book. The children all looked together very intently at the book, taking in all of the pictures and Riley said, “Awww, they look so cute when they are babies”. Once they had finished story time, Zachary suggested, “Now we should make a real camp fire with some sticks” and they gathered the sticks from around the garden, placing them carefully in a pile and ‘cooking’ lots of tasty food to share outdoors.
