Bushy Park & New Surroundings!

Last week in toddlers, the children went on a very exciting walk to explore bushy park. They set off on their journey in the morning walking from the nursery through Hampton court and finally reaching Bushy park. The toddlers got to see lots of interesting things on the way such as the big buses and they even got to see a police car which Youcef clapped as it flew past. Youcef and Margot held hands during the walk there and babbled away to each other about all the things going on around them.

Once they reached Bushy Park they sat down in a small circle to eat their snack and have a drink of water before having a big run around to burn off some energy. Ada giggled as she chased her friends and they all ran in different directions, even Oliver gave it his best try to run away. After the toddlers had a run around they headed over to the playground as it was completely empty. Ada was the first one to brave the big slide and climbed up to the top all by herself! Her friends all watched as she then slid down the slippery slide and they decided they all wanted to have a go, so one by one the toddlers took it in turns to have a go. “Ooooo!” screamed Youcef as he pushed himself off the top of the slide. After this, the toddlers headed back to nursery however made a quick stop outside Hampton Court Palace, it was surrounded by flowers which caught the toddlers eye and Margot even gave the guards a wave goodbye when leaving with a big grin on her face. 

Over the past two weeks the toddlers have enjoyed taking part in lots of activities based around our book of the month ‘The very busy spider’. To begin the week, the toddlers sat round for a story time to give them an idea what it was all about which they all stayed very engaged throughout listening very well before they got creative with their own art. One of these activities consisted of making their own creepy crawly spider out of pipe cleaners. Ceci was very particular when it came to which colours she used making sure to pick one of each.  Zac got stuck in with our sensory activity which was finding the spider (Pom Pom) through the stringed web, he carefully maneuvered his hand through the web making sure not to touch it. “I got one I got one” he shouted with excitement once he caught his first spider.

As there has been lots of thunder storms over the last week the children have not been able to go outside quite as much to enjoy splashing around in the rain so instead the toddler room got transformed into a rainy garden ! The toddlers all put on their coats to get cosy and listen to the sound of rain hitting the roof. Otto and madan were fascinated with the rain shakers once they realised they could make lots of noise. Amelie put on her favourite unicorn wellies she has especially bought in from home to make the activity even more realistic while listening to the thunderstorm sounds. “Oh no!” Kitty said each time a loud bit of thunder struck, looking around curiously. 

Over the last two weeks the under two’s have been enjoying lots of different activities getting to know their new surroundings.

They’ve been exploring and playing with crazy foam and mashed potato in the messy tray. Isabelle came to investigate, putting her hands into the foam, Oliver saw what Isabelle was doing and was intrigued, he looked fascinated, gave a big smile and submerged his hands into the foam, Harry was a little unsure but when Sophie blew the bubbles off her hand he began giggling especially when they landed on his head.

When playing with the mashed potato in the messy tray, Blair and Luciano got involved straight away squeezing and squashing the mashed potato between their fingers, while Gabriel enjoyed eating it from the tray. 

Rose and India had a great time exploring and eating the cereal play. Gabriel carefully sat and observed what they were doing. Rose was really curious with the cereal, and squeezing the shredded wheat between her fingers. India put her hands into the messy tray the multigrain shapes stuck to her fingers, and unsure she shook her hand to get them off, and Rose watched her waving her hand and began to smile. 

Out in the garden, the children have had fun in the sandpit. Amelie liked the sand falling from her fingers whilst  Luciano was playing with the funnel, closely watching the sand fall each time he filled it up.  Oliver and Harry enjoyed playing with wooden toys, pulling the wooden puzzle stackers apart, looking intently at the different shapes, Oliver began babbling whilst holding the different wooden pieces, and Harry enjoyed banging the pieces together smiling at the loud sounds that it made. 

Insects & Worms!

The pre-school children have been learning all about habitats over the last couple of weeks and the different types of environments that certain animals and insects need to be in to be able to keep sheltered. They have also been learning about where they get their food from and what they like to eat. Another animal we have been learning about are worms. One of the children brought in a book ‘All about worms’ and Alba was very keen to show Isabelle and Amelia that if they were to lift one of the flaps in the story book, there was a worm hiding underground. Amelia said, “But worms live on the floor!”. As they continued to read the story, there was a part that explained that when the weather has been dry for a certain amount of time, the worms bury themselves far down in to the ground to find the moisture in the soil. Later on that afternoon, Joshua and Ari were watering the flower bed and told their friends, “We are helping the worms so they have some water to drink and now they can come out and say hello!”. 

The children went on to using the wooden planks, bark, tree shavings and conkers from the natural resources box and Florence told Sophie, “We need to make it nice and dark so that the worms can get some rest”. Sophie remembered, “But the worms don’t have any eyes remember, they feel brations (vibrations)”. 

In the garden, Tristan, Isla, Ethan and Charlie explored a rather different habitat. They really engaged in imaginative role play with the dinosaurs which they had set up themselves, working very well as a team to do so. Tristan decided to add leaves, whilst Isla and Charlie collected the wooden logs and stones and Ethan reminded them, “Remember they need some food too”, whilst laying some sand in front of them. 

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!