Ocean Exploration & Farmyard Animals!

Over the past week, the toddlers have been looking at ‘Under the Sea’. They have explored different sea creatures by watching short videos of them in their natural habitat. Florence liked the dolphins as she noted that they “Jumped in and out of water!”, before making a dolphin noise like the one she heard on the video. The toddlers spotted some jellyfish on the video swimming under the water. Alastair realised he knew a song about jellyfish and started to sing “Three jellyfish sitting on rock, one fell off... wo wo woooo SPLAAAAASH!”. Sadie and Isaac joined in with the actions, making a loud clapping noise as they shouted Splash. Some of the toddlers chose to make a jellyfish with paper plates, dabber pens, sequins and lots of different coloured paint. Later on, when their beautiful creations were dry, the toddlers were able to attach their jellyfish’s tentacles using their fine motor skills to thread pipe cleaners through holes in the paper plates.

Outside, the toddlers tried to move like an octopus by wiggling their arms and legs all over the place. Chloe enjoyed shaking her arms as hard and as fast as she could while Rowan tried to be a crab by crouching down, holding out his hands like claws and walking sideways. This made his friends laugh and James said “That’s funny”. Back inside the toddlers went fishing by using their fishing nets to try and catch some fish. Sophie got so excited when she lifted up her fishing net and spotted some colourful fish; she shouted “I got a fish! I got a fish!”. While some of the toddlers were busy fishing, Tommy, Ada and Chloe were having a boat race in the builders tray. Tommy said “My boat will win”, and Daniel said “No my boat win”. As they debated Ada pushed her boat passed her friends debating and won the race! and gave a cheeky smile. 

The under two’s have been really busy learning about farm animals and the different noises that they make. The children had a very exciting time meeting the baby chicks. As the chicks were brought into room in a box, the children became curious as they came over to have a look at what was making the chirping sound. The children all got to have a look and stroke them if they wanted to. Cecilia was unsure about touching them and kept her distance, but enjoyed watching. Esmé and Luciano were really intrigued by the chicks, pointing at that them as they hopped around the box and were held out. Esmé and Otto enjoyed stroking the baby chicks head and tried to mimic the cheeping sound. Youcef preferred to just look and was laughing when they cheated; eventually he was brave enough to touch one gently. 

The children have really enjoyed playing with the farm animal toys. They’ve been playing with the farm animals and the farmyard, trying to pass the animals through the gates and doors. Amélie and Esmé were both trying to make “Oink Oink” noises, which made Freddie laugh. Otto put the two large horses on the floor next to each other and tried to ride them with a big smile on his face, before Youcef came over to investigate and began smiling at what Otto was doing. Sophie has became very excited when she saw a dog while reading a story, shouting “Dog! Dog!” as she pointed to the picture. Later on the children did some observational mark making, looking at pigs and cows while they painted, Amélie liked the pigs curly tail. 

During one of our walks around the beautiful grounds, the babies saw lots of police horses going for a walk. As they walked past, Esmé shouted out “Wow!” and then started to clap, this made Sophie smile and point towards the horses and Jack bobbed up and down in his seat with excitement. They continued to walk along the stream on the look out for the baby ducklings, Sebastian shouted out “Quack Quack”, when all of a sudden some of the male ducks appeared from the bushes on the bank and the children tore off some bread and threw it to the ducks. 

The Chicks Have Arrived!

The chicks have arrived and the children have been so very excited, waiting patiently for this very inspiring process. On the weeks building up to the eggs being delivered to nursery, the children did plenty of art work activities including making their own paper plate hatching chicks and making some 3D clay eggs. Whilst making the hatching chicks, Ada told her friends, “This chicken is just like the chicks that are going to be at nursery soon”. The children have also been looking in to life cycles of various animals including chickens, frogs and butterflies and talking about different habitats. 

When the chicks first arrived at nursery as eggs, the children all enjoyed going to pay them a visit and were very carefully looking out for any cracks in the shells. Fabian told Tomas, “Shhhh, we need to make sure that we are not too noisy otherwise we will wake the chicks up in their shell”. Tomas laughed and replied, “But the chicks won’t be able to hear us through their shell”. Vivienne and Emma were lucky enough to be able to see one of the chicks fully hatch out of the shell. Vivienne told Emma, “He is so cute and he is now so tired from all of that hard work”.  

The children have absolutely loved seeing the chicks grow over the past week and have all been very affectionate and gentle towards them. Each day Connie and Henry have gone home, they make sure they go and say, “Goodbye and goodnight” to them. Benjamin has asked each morning if the chicks, “Can come out to play in pre-school today?” Leo hadn’t seen the chicks since they had been eggs and was very excited when he came in to pre-school and had seen them playing in the tray. He very gently stroked one of their heads and said, “They are so lovely and small”. What a fabulous experience for everyone!

Chicks, Ducks & Scavenger Hunts!

This week, the toddlers have enjoyed learning about chicks ready for our new fury friends to hatch out of their eggs. On Tuesday, when the eggs arrived, the toddlers all went to see them in their incubator. Lowri got very excited seeing the eggs and asked to “See eggs again” multiple times throughout the day, which she did! Olivia shook with excitement as she pointed towards the eggs saying “Egg, egg, egg! ”. To help the toddlers understand what was inside the egg, they were given a picture of a chick covered in whiteboard marker in a shape of an egg for them to rub off. Florence loved this as she was the first to see the chick appearing, she looked up and shouted “It’s a baby chick!”. Tommy and Lana were both very patient as they rubbed the wet wipe as hard as they could to slowly reveal the chicks underneath. Ada K enjoyed going round to her friends saying “I’m a chick, tweet tweet!”. 

Outside, the toddlers have loved having a picnic where they were able to choose which snack they wanted. Alastair said “I would like apple and a pear” while Blake asked for “Banana please”. The toddlers then went on a chick hunt, searching all round the garden. Rowan found one hiding underneath the tree house and said “Look! I found it under here!”. Sadie found one hiding in the tree and reached as high as she could to try pull it down. 

Back inside, the toddlers used clay to try and build their chicks a nest. Finley enjoyed poking his finger right through the clay saying “Holes holes”. James took his time using the rolling pin trying to get the clay as flat as it could go. Tommy had fun squeezing the clay and said it was “Cold” while Chloe excitedly tore pieces of clay off to make food to go in her frying pan. Towards the end of the week, the toddlers were able to spot changes to the incubating eggs seeing cracks appear and hearing the chicks tweet from inside. Can’t wait to see the chicks running around next week! 

The under twos have been busy exploring their senses this week. During an Easter painting activity using carrots, they dipped the carrots in paint and were rolling them across paper to make different marks and patterns. Amélie dipped her carrot into the paint and said “Dab dab dab”, Youcef then copied Amélie, smiling as he was very proud of his art work. The children also created lovely Easter eggs using cut potatoes. Some of them chose to hold on to the fork so they didn’t get as messy and Sebastian loved getting stuck in, waving it around. Otto carefully placed his potato on the paper, looking at the print it left behind. Margot held her fork up to gesture she wanted more paint and dipped it in before making different coloured patterns. 

During outside walks around the beautiful grounds and the duck pond, we went looking for the ducks to see if any ducklings had been born. Kitty kept shouting “Quack quack “, while Sebastian was pointing at the ducks swimming across the water. As the ducks came swimming over, Esmé threw the bread towards the water and began saying “Woo wee!” at the ducks. After the walk they stopped at the field and did some running, Kitty and Otto ran really fast across the grass, Kitty suddenly stopped and bent down to look at the small daisies in the grass, Amélie came over and was very curious and bent down next to Kitty to look at them too. 

The children have been popping in to look at the chicken eggs and waiting patiently for the chicks to hatch. In the meantime, they have been creating their own chicks using coloured glue and feathers. Sophie looked very confused as the sticky feathers stuck to her fingers and she shook her hands trying to get them off. Esmé and Amélie concentrated really well on where to place the feathers, holding them up to their faces to investigate them before sticking them down. 

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.