Getting back to nature!

Over the past two weeks the toddlers have enjoyed going camping and exploring nature! Together with their friends the toddlers each gathered different blankets, pillows, string and clips to try and build a tent to sleep in. Olivia and Max collected five blankets between them trying to throw them over the extended tables to cover them up to make it nice and cosy inside. Sophie was so excited she squealed “We need pillows to make it soft for sleeping” and ran to get as many as she could carry. Alfie enjoyed laying inside the tent with his car rolling it backwards and forwards. Kitty enjoyed looking at the fairy lights saying “Light, light, light” as they changed colour. After the toddlers had a nice long sleep and play in the tent they gathered up their rucksacks and went out of nursery on a hike. They were given the task of trying to find sticks, bark, leaves and flowers ready for some planned nature activities. Jude was first to pick up a stick, followed by Otto grabbing two and then Zack shouted “Look look I found a feather look look”, while being very proud of himself. 

The toddlers enjoyed using the bits of nature they collected to make stick paint brushes, where they were able to paint freely allowing the outside environment to inspire them. Youcef enjoyed pulling his stick paintbrush apart using the flowers as part of his creation by sticking them into the paint. Caiden enjoyed leaf printing, where he picked the leaves he wanted to use, painted them and splatted them down hard on the paper which made him giggle. Amèliè, Sebastian and Chloe loved roasting marshmallows around the campfire, holding their marshmallows on lollipop sticks round the fire while learning new campfire songs. Isaac sang “There once was a man named Michael Finnegan, who had ten whiskers” and then paused forgetting the next word…Emily then shouted “Chi-a-gen!” and they both carried on the song together smiling. 

As the rain finally fell the toddlers were fascinated watching the rain drops land on the windows and skylights and listening to the lovely noise the rain made on the roof. While the children watched and listened to the rain they made some mini rain shakers to take home and show their mummies and daddies. Esmè loved the noise the rice made inside the shakers saying “rain rain” as she shook them. 

The under two’s room has spent time exploring and investigating different mark making activities.

They explored paint using the paint dabbers to make different marks on their paper, and Isabelle got really excited when she chose her paper, loudly saying “ Paper! paper!” to Sophie. Sophie used two paint dabbers and made some beautiful marks, then held them up saying “ Wow, wow”.

They have also had fun using cellophane paper to make various creations. Arlo and Harry enjoyed scrunching up the cellophane, and Arlo smiled as he scrunched the cellophane between his hands at the sounds it made. Sophie looked at Arlo, intrigued at the noise, and began to copy with hers, which became a great game making the little ones laugh.

Out in the garden they been making different marks in the sand using the rake and the spades. Sophie used her spade to throw sand up into the air, and Isabelle found this really funny and copied, and as the the sand fell to the floor Isabelle said “Oops!”. Matilda and Amelie were rolling the balls around the grass, and as Amelie pushed the ball away she clapped her hands, and Matilda went after it with a big smile on her face. Luciano found the chunky garden chalks in the box next to the chalkboard, and began making marks across the chalk board, Sophie came to investigate what Luciano was doing who then copied, and Isabelle pointed at the chalkboard saying “ Pretty”.

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. 

Visits to favourite places!

Over the last week the toddlers theme has been ‘a fun day out’ based on the children’s interests when asked what they would like to do today. Rowan asked to go to the beach, Reegan asked to go on the train and Florence said “I want to go to the theatre”. Listening to each other’s interests they came up with a plan. On Monday the toddlers went shopping at Toddler-Mart to shop for supplies that they would need for their trip. Sophie picked up popcorn, wet wipes and a banana while Chloe picked up nappies, a box of tissues and some ice creams and carefully placed them on the conveyer belt. Otto A enjoyed holding onto some money and not letting anyone else take it! Tommy tried to count his money and then handed it over to his friend Sadie who was working on the tills that day.

On Tuesday, the toddlers woke up early, grabbed their bags and headed for the train station. The giant train was made using all the chairs in the room gathered in pairs one behind the other. The toddlers  picked a partner, gave the ticket man their ticket and jumped onto the train. Zack shouted “Choo choo”, while Blake waved her hands shouting “All aboard friends”. The toddlers enjoyed sharing some fruit and water while travelling. 

On Wednesday the toddlers safety arrived at the beach, unpacking their buckets and spades out of their bags and they quickly became very busy making multiple sandcastles and having a sunbathe with factor 50 suncream on of course! Ada made sure to remember “My hat to keep the sun off my face”. While Daniel just wanted to make his marble ice cream using different coloured paint and cotton buds. Sadie put on her wellies and started to jump up and down in the water singing “I’m jumping in muddy puddles”.

On Thursday, the toddlers couldn’t contain their excitement! They were going to the theatre to see a spectacular show “A Rumble in the Jungle” performed by the fantastic preschoolers. Emily showed her excitement by clapping along to the songs, while Olivia was cheering on her sister. The toddlers watched the show beautifully giving all the preschoolers a standing ovation at the end.

On Friday the toddlers were a little bit sad that their wonderful trip was coming to an end, however they made the best of it by packing their bags with all of their gifts they have bought and made ready to give to their parents once they arrived back home. They then picked a car of their choice 

The Under Two’s have been learning about different textures. 

 They have ben very busy exploring mash potato. They were really inquisitive when they first saw the mixture in the tray. They had spoons and cups so could scoop and fill and pour lift up the mash. Kitty started to squeeze it through her fingers, Esmé looked over “ Uck uck” as she watched Kitty, which made Esmé laugh. Isabelle came to look at what Amélie was laughing at, and immediately put her hands into the tray and lifted up a cup of mash potato “ Mmmm” with a big smile.

The children have enjoyed playing with the glue and different materials to stick. Sebastian wasted no time getting his glue stick straight into the glue pot and was spreading it across his paper very quickly, whereas Jack carefully held his glue stick and took his time. Inevitably all this creativity resulted in glue on the table which prompted Kitty to say “Uh oh! ” Amélie was a little unsure when the tissue paper got stuck to her fingers, Sebastian spotted Amélie’s hands with tissue paper on and gave a big frown.

 When exploring the garden Jack and Arlo enjoyed the feeling of the sand on their legs, which made Jack laugh and he began to try to pour it on his own legs, Amélie saw   Jack laughing and came over to investigate, and she sat down and started to copy Jack. As Amélie poured it over her legs she said “Oh no”, then filled a bucket with sand and poured it over her legs and Jacks legs, which then made Jack laugh! Amélie looked up saying “Oops” then laughed.  Great fun!