Exploring Senses & Visiting Ducks!

Over the past week the toddlers have been focusing on their book of the month, ‘A Squash and a Squeeze’. They have been listening the story at circle times and reading it quietly to themselves in the cosy corner. As well as this, the toddlers have been exploring some of the farm animals that feature in the story and looking at pictures and videos of them in their natural habitat. Raffy did a great cow impression and shouted “MOOO!” for all of his friends to hear, when Rowan heard this he said “I can do pig”, followed by an almighty “Oink”. Hearing all this animal talk made Sophie jump up in excitement and say “Old Macdonald! it’s old Macdonald!” before bursting into song, followed by many of her friends joining in too. Emily and Flo worked well together trying to ‘squash’ and ‘squeeze’ as many pom poms into a small pot as they could, saying “We have to squash it in, SQUEEZE!”. 

Outside, the toddlers have been going for lots of walks in search of more animals. As soon as they left the nursery Daniel spotted one of his favourite animals and said “I found a horsey”.  Ada was intrigued by the horses but a little hesitant and said “I don’t want the horse to sneeze on me” and impersonated a horse sneeze. Rowan helped Reegan find the confidence to get close to the horse and put an arm round his shoulders “It’s ok Reegan, come see the horsey”. The toddlers stopped for an impromptu story time by the river and Youcef squealed in delight as he saw some ducks approaching for a quick hello. Sadie threw the bread as far as she could, “Come on duckies, we got your lunch!”. Tommy was very proud of the ducks eating up the bread he threw, exclaiming “I did it”.

This week the under twos have had fun learning about their senses. During an art activity using glue and cotton wool balls, Kitty and Isabelle enjoyed using their glue spreaders to spread glue across the paper, while Otto and Jack were not sure when the cotton wool got stuck to their fingers. Otto began to laugh at Jack when the cotton wool wouldn’t come off his fingers, Kitty saw what Otto was laughing at and said “Oh dear!”. They have learnt how to use rollers and make different marks on paper plates.  Esmé watched Kitty use her roller to paint her hand, Esmé then copied her laughing as it tickled as it rolled across the palm of her hand. 

During one of our walks around the beautiful grounds the children came across the ducks on the side of the river bank. Jack got all excited kicking his feet and pointing at the ducks as they came closer, whilst Sophie was making duck sounds saying “Quack quack” as she threw her bread towards them. When the the ducks came closer Kitty started to count the ducks, saying “One two three” with a big smile on her face. All of a sudden Amélie began to shout and point; she had spotted a squirrel waiting for some bread. 

Out in the garden the little ones have been playing with the damp sand. Amélie was using her spade to scoop the sand and put her fingers into it as it fell from the spade, while Sebastian was using the sieve, laughing as the sand fell through the small holes. They have also been exploring our herb garden, and Sebastian and Amélie enjoyed smelling the mint and the rosemary, Kitty said “Mmmmm” as she brought the mint leaf towards her face, she then started laughing as it tickled her nose. 

Fun at Bocketts Farm!

We had an amazing day at Bocketts Farm last week! The children all had so much fun and were so excited on the build up to the farm trip. On the day the children were all super excited to come in to nursery and were very eager for the coach to come and collect everyone. Once the coach arrived, even more excitement kicked in! The whole coach journey was filled with lots of laughter, chatting and singing songs such as Old MacDonald and The Wheels on the Bus.

When they arrived, the children were greeted by their personal group tour guide and the children were very good at listening to any information and safety talks that she gave. Most importantly it seemed, the children were very keen to know where their snack and lunch boxes had been taken to and loved that they had their own little hut to keep their food and water bottles in.

Once all of the house rules had been set, they were good to go and explore the farm. Seeing all of the animals was a must! The children even got to see a pig race and cheered on all of the pigs before the yellow pig won the race! Henry called out, "Yay, that was the pig that I knew would win the race because yellow is my favourite colour!".

The children then got to see a baby goat (kid) close up and were so gentle with it, Isabelle said in a very soft voice, “Aww, he’s just a baby, isn’t he so cute!”. Next were the pigs with her piglets. The tour guide explained that the piglets were very young, only a couple of weeks old and still needed lots of rest throughout the day. Sophie said, “Yes, I need a rest too in the day, I have a nap”.

The tractor ride was also one of the favourite parts of the day. There were so many animals to see along the way and the children thought the wind and the bumpy ride was good fun. It was a really amazing day finished off with great enjoyment by bouncing on the large inflatable cushions.

The coach journey back to nursery was much quieter, with some of the children enjoyed a little nap whilst the others were chatting to each other about their favourite parts of the day.

Back at nursery, some of the children had good fun making a den in the garden using the materials they found in the play house. The children worked together very hard to make their own den, only asking for a bit of help when they couldn't quite reach where they wanted it to be tied up to. Fabian and Jasper were discussing and suggesting the best place for this, Jasper telling Fabian, "If we do it too low, we will bump our heads and it will then fall down".

Once the den was up, the children took some books in to there and enjoyed looking at the stories together.

Mini Beasts and Fun with Water!

Over the last week, the toddlers have been looking at mini beasts exploring what they look like, how they move and where they live. The toddlers started by making ladybirds where they choose which colour they wanted to use and how many spots their ladybird should have. Finley lined up four spots in a line to ensure his ladybird was symmetrical where Rafferty asked for two spots and stuck these on, he then noticed his friends had more than him so asked politely for “Two more please!”. 

Outside, the toddlers have been enjoying the hot weather by taking part in many water activities including searching for bugs in ice and fishing for newts. The toddlers loved watching the ice melt and feeling the icy water on their hands. Chloe particularly enjoyed putting her freezing hands on her bare belly and shouting “It’s COOOOLD!”. Towards the end of day, the children decided to collect water in different containers and pour water on themselves and their friends to cool down. Sadie enjoyed collecting the water in a saucepan, lifting it up to her head and pouring it all over herself. She would then say “Look, I’m all wet!” as if she was surprised! 

Back inside, the toddlers worked together to build the bees a new beehive. They used lots of different cereals including weetabix, shreddies and Cheerios to create texture and a lifelike look to their beehive. Youcef enjoyed placing one Cheerio on the beehive and then trying his hardest to eat the other without being seen. Blake made sure to cover every single gap in the beehive to ensure the “Bees can’t leave through holes” she said. 

This week, the under twos have enjoyed experiencing different textures. As we make our beach theme board. Kitty and Esmé had fun using the sand shakes to make their sandcastles. As the sand fell from the shaker, Esmé shouted “Wow!” while Luciano and Amélie made fabulous strokes using their glue spreaders, before adding their coloured sand to make the sandcastles. Whilst playing with the playdough, Sebastian and Sophie enjoyed pressing the dough cutters into the playdough, while Cecilia was having fun squeezing and squashing it between her fingers, when Kitty saw what she was doing she copied and began to laugh as she squeezed the dough between her fingers.

Out in the garden, Otto and Amélie have been using the sand to make sandcastles. Jack crawled over to the sandpit and sat inside, he reached forwards for a spade and smiled as he scooped the sand onto his spade and watched it fall off. Sebastian was enjoying using the plastic sieve, filling it with sand and watching it fall from the bottom whilst Otto was looking intrigued at what he was doing and followed along, this made Otto laugh which in turn made Sebastian smile.

It was a beautiful warm day, so we had an exciting time playing with the water tray with lots of sea animals floating in the water. Freddie found it funny to splash water using his hands, which made Sophie laugh and began to copy, making each other laugh as the water splashed their faces. Sophie was loving splashing the water getting wetter and wetter, she was laughing so much she that she fell onto her bottom. Margot was a little unsure at first, but soon enjoyed splashing around with the water, joining in so the water was going all over the place!

Father's Day Breakfast!

This week we had a very good turnout for our Father’s Day big breakfast event which was a lovely morning. The children were so excited to bring their daddies in to nursery with them when they got to nursery in the morning and were very helpful at showing them around the rooms and the garden area too. It was lovely to see the children and fathers enjoying a lovely breakfast together in the sunshine. The pre-school children were talking to each other throughout the day about they liked the most about the event, Zac told his friends at lunch time, “My daddy liked seeing my bag and my peg!”, whilst Amelia said, “And my daddy liked the garden with my baby Jack too!”. What wonderful event!

This week in preschool, the children have been making the most of the summer sunshine by getting stuck in with some water play in the garden. They filled the water tray with water from the hose and Joshua laughed as the water sprayed back out of the tray and on to him! Once the trays were filled, they experimented with different jugs and containers to see which ones held the most water and which ones poured the best. Francis lifted a small container into the air and watched as water poured out of some holes in the base of the container, exclaiming “Oh no! It’s all coming out!” In the other water tray, Joshua and William enjoyed playing with the water mills. They placed one above another and poured water into the top. The water poured down and span the mills as it did so. William said “Look, it’s working!” Joshua added “We need more water! Quick!”

The children have also had fun with some sensory jelly play, starting off with the jelly in some containers watching closely as it wobbled as they shook it gently. They the scooped the jelly out of the pots and into the builders trays, exploring its texture with their hands and fingers by squishing and squeezing it. Alastair laughed as the jelly drooped out from between his fingers and fell into the builders tray, whilst Ezmie said “This is so messy!”. They also engaged another out our senses by smelling the Jelly as we played with it. William told his friends “This jelly smells like strawberry!” 

Jubilee Celebrations!

The children have been very excited in every area of the nursery to prepare for the Jubilee Afternoon Tea Party, when parents joined the staff and children to celebrate.

Over the past few weeks the toddlers have been working hard getting ready for the Queen’s platinum jubilee. They were given lots of different red, blue and white materials to create a giant Union Jack flag to go on the display board in the toddler room. Rowan enjoyed spreading glue all over his paper and then using sand to decorate it, while Tommy chose to use only blue wax crayons. During the week, they had the opportunity to do some baking hoping that they would be able to give the Queen some cookies at their jubilee party! Alastair enjoyed mixing the flour, sugar and butter together while Chloe enjoyed blowing the flour off her hands and seeing it fly into the air. Once the cookies were made, the children were able to decorate them using icing in the royal colours. Luna couldn’t resist licking her fingers when she got icing on them, saying “It’s yummy!” with a cheeky grin on her face. 

The toddlers worked together to make beautiful crowns not only for themselves but also for their parents to wear when they came into nursery for the jubilee tea party. Blake and Sadie carefully placed each jewel on their crowns making sure to not miss any spaces. Sophie came to the tea party dressed as a princess but was sadly missing a crown. She walked into toddler room and found herself, her mummy and her daddy a crown! While at the party, the toddlers also had the opportunity to have some face paint! They each got to choose what they would like and where the face paint should go. Reegan said “Jack flag” meaning the Union Jack, where Sadie asked for a “black triangle”. The toddlers were so proud of their face paints making sure not to touch their faces so they didn’t smudge. 

The children in the under twos room have been having an amazing time getting ready for the jubilee! They have baked some wonderful jubilee cupcakes, taking turns to stir the ingredients into a large mixing bowl. Freddie carefully spooned the sugar in while Esmé mixed the butter. Cecilia was very interested in the eggs, gently holding one before helping to whisk it up. Margot loved using the big spoon, peering over the edge of the bowl. Youcef and Sophie couldn’t resist having a cheeky taste of the icing which they stirred up watching the colours change from white to blue and red. 

The babies really enjoyed creating a special platinum jubilee display board for all of the parents to see during the party. Amèlie and Esmé really got stuck into the hand painting activity, painting their own hands using a paintbrush then smearing them across the paper. Isabelle and Youcef carefully used small spatulas to spread glue then used red and blue pieces of paper to create fantastic flags. Meanwhile, Sebastian and Margot were busy mark-making in royal colours. 

The children loved having all the parents join us in the jubilee celebrations. Margot, Amélie and Ceci loved exploring the sandpit and showing her grandma around, while Freddie and Otto discovered the mud kitchen, banging the pots and plating up delicious mud pies to go with the party food! Jude and Jack enjoyed the picnic food with their parents and siblings as well as showing them around the garden. 

A great time was had by all!