Woodworking & Floating Pictures!
The pre-school children had lots of fun experimenting with a letter and number floating activity. They were fascinated and watched in amazement as some fish, numbers and letters were drawn on the back of a spoon using a white board marker, then able to float once the spoon was placed in the water. Joshua called more of his friends over to see, “Guys, come and look at this super cool experiment, the pen fish can really float!”. Ezmie and William came straight over to assess what was going on. Once they come over and saw the floating fish, they were very keen to get involved and draw their own pictures to float. Some of the pictures drawn on the spoon weren’t so easy to come off so we developed the activity on to some tin foil. This time all of the children had their own piece of tinfoil to write some letters and numbers, William chose to draw his mum whilst saying, “My mummy might be able to float in some water”, which really made his friends laugh. Joshua had written a ‘J’ and Ethan an ‘E’. The children all then took turns to scoop some water on to their picture and watched eagerly, waiting for their picture to come away from the tinfoil and cheered each time the picture floated away.
The children in pre-school have been using some tools at our woodwork bench, learning to saw, hammer and screw pieces of wood for us to be able to use to make a small wooden house. Each time Isabelle and Connie have asked, “Have we got enough wood to make a house yet?” Eloise said, “It sounds just like the three little pigs story, they have a wooden house too!”. Rowan praised Eloise, “You are absolutely right, that is just like the story!”. The children all concentrated and listened to instructions extremely well when learning how to use each tool. Ari told his friends, “I’m just like my daddy now, my daddy has tools like these!”.
Healthy Activities & Exploring Animals!
Over the last two weeks, the toddlers have been very busy with lots of exploratory activities and of course, sports day! The toddlers spending the morning on the field next to the nursery where they got involved with egg and spoon races, balance beams and parachute games. Sports day also tied in perfectly with our theme of sports for the week. In the garden, the toddlers worked on hand eye coordination with bat and ball games, with Caiden hitting the balls as far as he could exclaiming “Watch me!” each time he swung the bat. When the ball went too far, Lowri showed great team work by chasing after it saying “I get it for you”. Football was also a big hit as they got to score some goals over on the big field. Amelie picked up the ball and ran while Reegan and Zack passed the ball back and forth. Football was one of the main games played during the week with Daniel asking “Shall we play football?” each garden time. Tag rugby was great fun for the toddlers, as they chased each other all around the garden with Rafferty shouting “Can’t catch me!” as he raced off followed by a long line of toddlers giggling as they tried to catch up.
One afternoon the toddlers became gymnasts and showed off all their fabulous moves and rolly pollies. They started off by doing some stretches to warm up, Sophie exclaimed “I touch my toes” with excitement while Emily reached up high to touch the ceiling. Rowan particularly enjoyed rolling around and laughing saying “I so dizzy” once he finally came to a halt. When the gymnasts had worn themselves out and sat down for a water break Flo clapped her hands and said “I was good at that!”.
Back inside, the toddlers were busy looking at the book of the month ‘Handa’s surprise’ and making their own versions of the different fruits and animals from the story. Isaac was very excited to make his favourite animal, “I got an elephant!” and showed off his excellent impression. Florence drew some very accurate oranges and explained how she did it “Draw a circle first, then I colour it in” and Sadie enjoyed sticking with tissue paper “I making a rainbow banana!”. Ada showed off her knowledge of letters and stated “Z is for zebra” as she stuck stripes onto her zebra picture. Toddlers also got to try a different fruit from the story each day at morning snack time. Luna absolute loved the avocado and munched it straight away quickly asking for seconds “I want some more b’cado!”. Olivia, however, wasn’t so keen and tried to give it away after giving it a try and deciding it wasn’t for her.
This week, the under-twos been learning about jungle animals and enjoying the outside by exploring the big garden. They’ve had great fun making a crocodile painting using the mega blocks, Esmé kept shouting “Nap nap nap!”. Kitty then lifted up her mega block covered in bright green paint and copied Esmé “Snap snap!” and began to laugh. They’ve used the paint sponges and paint rollers to paint bubble wrap, to make it look like snake skin on the toilet rolls. Freddie found it more fun to look through the toilet roll after rolling in more green paint, and Amélie looked at Freddie saying “Uh-oh Eddie” with a big smile on her face.
They had great fun hunting for jungle animals under the parachute, lifting it high to look underneath. Isabelle kept bending down to look while the others lifted the parachute, Amélie then joined Isabelle in looking, she stood up saying “Gone! Oh no!”. Out in the big garden, they’ve had fun with the water tray trying to find animals amongst the boats. Esmé scooped up the water using a cup, before Amélie watched and then copied her. Sophie saw what was going on at the water tray and came over and joined in the fun.
The children have enjoyed walks around the grounds looking to see what animals they could find. Freddie got really excited seeing dog walkers walking they’re dogs down by the stream. Kitty saw the ducks coming up onto the bank shouting “Quack quack“, as she threw them some bread. Sebastian then joined in, smiling wide as he threw his bread to the birds. Cecilia was enjoying eating the bread, Otto began to shout “No Ceci, duck!”, but this did not deter her enjoying the bread!
Sports Day!
What a fun sports day we had with the pre school and toddler children this week. We set off very early as the weather was forecast to be very hot.
We were lucky enough to have the whole field to ourselves where the children were able to explore lots of physically challenging activities. There was balancing beams on different levels, egg and spoon races, bean bag on head races, parachute games and Hoopla!
Hoopla was a clear favourite for Leo, Tomas and Jack. Leo was cheering on his friends and when Tomas managed to get his hoop on the beam, there was a big cheer from all of his friends. Tristan and Ethan loved a football game together, tackling each other for the ball and really giggling whilst playing together. Tristan found it even funnier when they both tumbled to the ground together before helping Ethan back up on to his feet.
James loved the challenge of the higher levels of the balancing beams and platforms, holding his arms out by his side for extra balance and even very kindly holding on to the toddler children’s hands if he had noticed they needed a little support.
The egg and spoon race was also a big hit for the children. In groups, the children lined up at the start line, carefully balancing their eggs on their spoons and waiting for the signal to go. Very eagerly they waited for the countdown and were quick off the mark as soon as they heard ‘Go!’
The children all received a medal for their great efforts and when they returned to nursery, the running races continued.
