Learning with Lions, Insects & Bears!

Over the last couple of weeks, the pre-school children have had lots of fun discovering different types and species of animals. Inside the pre-school room there was a bugs and insect activity with many natural materials such as bark, logs, small tree branches and acorns. The children enjoyed looking closely through the magnifying glasses at the different marks on each of the bugs and insects. Olivia closely looked at the marks on the butterflies wings and told her friends, “It’s so pretty”. Isaac took a closer look too and agreed, “Yes it is so pretty”. Tom went on to look at the bugs that were inside their own magnifying glass and was fascinated by them for quite some time, turning them very slowly so that he could take in all of the features. When he picked up the one that had a spider in it, he jokingly screamed, “Ahh” which made his friends jump and laugh.

Outside in the garden there was a slightly different and larger type of animal set up, as there was a jungle safari in which the children really loved making lots of noise and roaring along with the lions and tigers. Whilst there was some pretend leaves in the set up, Reegan and Louis collected their own leaves that had fallen on the floor to add to the animals home. James used the giraffe to reach up to the trees and pretended that they were eating the leaves off the trees whilst saying, “Yummy, yummy”. Ari was challenging his friends with their knowledge of the jungle animals. He was asking them, “Now does anyone know what a tigers baby is called?” His friends looked at him waiting for the answer and Ari encouraged, “Just have a guess, it’s the same as a bears baby”. Louis excitedly called out, “A cub”, very proud of himself when Ari told him he was right. Ari then went on to explain, “A tiger, a bear and a lions babies are all called cubs”.

The children really love the story book ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’ and have taken a particular interest lately in trying to find the bear outside in the garden. A large group of pre-school and toddler children were very engaged in the story and were using various parts of the garden as parts of the story. The grass area was the river, the trees were the forest and the tree house was the bear cave. Joshua made sure to keep his younger brother reassured, “It’s only a pretend bear, it’s not scary”. The children then went on to create their own version of the story book.

Autumn Social & Treasure Trail!

What a lovely autumn social event this week. It was wonderful to see so many families get together, some for the first time and some regrouping whilst exploring an Autumn Trail in the nursery garden and enjoying some tasty food and drink together. The children from preschool and toddlers had previously had a dance party together to have fun and burn off some energy. The trail in the garden was very popular for the children and even some mummies and daddies! There were spiders to find and real life webs to climb through. Jonathan had spotted the first spider in the tree and called his friends over, “Here is a spider, it’s a big spider, don’t worry though it’s only a pretend paper one”, which seemed a relief for a couple of the children.

The next adventure was to climb through, under and on top of the webs to get through to see what was hidden in the tree house and through the tree and bushy areas at the back of the garden. There were many spiders found throughout the way. Youcef was very fond of the spider picture he had found and certainly wasn’t letting that go.!

The diggers were ready in the sandpit which the children used to dig for treasures such as shells and animals which was so exciting!

Although most of the event was held outside, inside the toddlers room some of the children including our recent school leavers enjoyed drawing their very own pumpkins whilst looking at a real life one. Olivia was fully engaged and thoroughly enjoyed copying what her older sister was drawing. In the preschool room, the train set with dinosaurs invading was a go to as well as the letter stamps and paint pads. Some of the toddler children really enjoyed this activity, getting as messy as they could with their hands rather than the stamps. It was lovely to see all the new baby room parents all get together and engaging in conversations too.

Exploring Seasonal Changes & Volcanoes

Over the past couple of weeks, the children have been exploring various textures and describing how they feel. One of the children’s favourite activities was comparing dry and wet sand. Half of the sand pit was dry and half wet. Florence picked up two handfuls of wet sand and squeezed her hands as tight as she could and as doing so, she very quickly realised that none of the sand was releasing through her fingers which is what had happened with the dry sand. Sadie and Emily started to copy and when Sadie released her hands, she said, “Wow, look, it’s a ball”. Rowan used the spoon to pour the dry sand over his and some of the other children’s hands. As the sand was flowing over their hands and between their fingers, he asked them, “Doesn’t it feel so soft?”, smiling at his friends reactions.

When playing in the garden, some of the leaves had started to fall and as Isla ran across the leaves, she suddenly stopped and said to Sophie “The leaves sound crunchy”. They both picked up the leaves and were very gently rubbing their fingers across the edging of the leaf. Sophie reminded Isla, “You need to be careful because it feels a little bit scratchy”. Tommy, Ethan, Zac and Ari collected the leaves that had fallen in to a little saucepan and took them over to the mud kitchen to do some cooking. Ari scattered the leaves around a large pan before adding some mud and then placed some more leaves on top. Zac told his friends, “That looks just like an apple crumble!”. Alba was very busy making leaf sandwiches whilst Zoe made a “Leaf roast dinner!”

Out in the garden, the children built their very own volcano using the wooden platforms and blocks. Jonathan was guiding the children around the outside, after making sure he had made a full circle with all the props available. When one of the children jumped in to the middle, on to the grass, Jonathan called out to them, “Quick, it’s too hot in there, you need to get out, the volcano is going to erupt”. Harry asked Jonathan, “Erupt?” and Jonathan explained, “Yes, the volcano has got so hot, all of the lava is going to spill everywhere”. The children were then pretending to go on an adventure to Africa and Spain. Alba told her friends, “Yes, that’s where I go to Spain on an aeroplane”. 

Tractors, Trains & Picnics!

This week the toddlers have been focusing on the farm. They have been watching and listening to short videos of animal noises and seeing them in their own habitats. Each day the toddlers have been able to explore parts of these habitats to understand where the animals like to spend their time. They have looked at cold grass, dry stiff hay, gloopy mud, soft sand and warm water which they have thoroughly enjoyed. Ada loved rolling the piggies in mud saying “Splash splash splash” as mud splattered over the table and onto her forehead, while Esmé and Isabelle loved feeding the horses green play dough pretending it was grass. Amélié used the brown play dough to cover the cow after watching some cows roll in mud. Throughout the week, the toddlers used lots of different materials to make some of their very own farm animals. Madan used lots of different coloured feathers to make a duck which he requested after seeing them on his morning walk. Kitty made a pig using shapes and pipe cleaners and Jasper made a sheep out of cotton wool, googly eyes and bits of cardboard. 

On Wednesday, the toddlers had a very exciting trip to see some tractors! They were all suited and booted in wetsuits and wellies ready to explore every inch of these huge tractors! Jude shouted “Tractor!” as soon as he saw it . The toddlers watched as the tractor moved forwards, backwards and round in circles. The toddlers pointed, clapped, smiled and shouted as they became more and more excited. The man on the tractor waved and pressed the horn “Beeeeeep” and the toddlers laughed and clapped their hands. Otto said “More more!” asking for the driver to do it again! The man listened but this time pressed the horn louder than before which made them jump with surprise and excitement. Jack went straight to the big round wheels and felt them with his hands, Margot enjoyed tapping the sides of the tractor as it made a loud sound. They all loved having the opportunity to sit on the tractor and take some very lovely pictures for their mummies and daddies. They were lifted up one by one to sit on the giant wheels and on the drivers seat. Sebastian wore his party hat as it was his birthday and Youcef wore his bike helmet as he priorities tractor safety! All the toddlers smiled their biggest smiles which demonstrated just how much they loved their special tractor day! 

Over the last two weeks the under two’s have been exploring different activities with an autumnal theme.

They’ve been on lots of walks to gather sticks and beautiful different coloured leaves to make collages. Whilst on their walk, they’ve seen the horses running around the fields,; Iris and Matilda were pointing and Oliver got very excited, jumping in his seat. They’ve enjoyed seeing the trains go whizzing past listening to the noises that they made, Blair began to babbling as the train pulled into the station. They then enjoyed their snack on the picnic blanket soaking up the sunshine. Iris spotted a squirrel run across the grass towards the tree, Amelie pointed and smiled as it scurried up into the branches .

They’ve had great fun getting messy using paint and glue. When painting with the leaves, Cleo and Iris made fabulous sweeping movements with the leaves across their paper, whilst India watched them intently. Gabriel carefully used his glue spreader to spread his glue over his paper, he then patted his paper with his hands this made Harry laugh and clap his hands.

The little ones have been learning how to use the climbing tower. India crawled down the steps on her tummy, whilst Matilda stood up the playing peak a boo over the top, which made Rose smile as she watched her across the room, where she was exploring the chalkboard board. Monty was trying very hard with chalk in each hand to make marks across the chalkboard.

Garsons Farm Trip!

The preschool children had lots of fun on the trip to Garsons farm this week. Jonathan asked how we were going to get to the farm and as transport has been our preschool focus topic this week, the children were calling out all kinds of ideas of how we could get there. Amelia said, "I know, we can go in a taxi". Sammy asked curiously, "A bus?" And Ari suggested, "It could even be a submarine". This made his friends laugh and Sophie said, "No Ari, a submarine is in the water, we aren't going swimming to the farm". When the children found out that actually we were going by minibus, Isla laughed and said, "I haven't been on one of them for years!" which made all of her teachers laugh. The children got going at making their very own minibus with the large blocks in the garden. They remembered they need a driver and Ethan said, "Don't forget the seat belts too!". 

On the day of the visit, the children were so excited as they waited patiently for the minibus to turn up. They couldn't wait to get up the stairs, none of them accepting help to climb the big steps. They challenged themselves successfully to pull themselves up. Chloe climbed straight in to the drivers seat, holding on to the steering wheel and smiling at the driver. Whilst on the journey, Imogen told her friends, "This is the way to my house, just down this road" and Jonathan said, "That's where my grandma lives too". Once they were there and found a good apple picking spot, the children couldn't wait to get going. They carefully picked the apples from the tree. Isabelle reminded everyone, "Guys, remember we only need the juicy looking nice apples!". After a few moments, some of the children were curiously asking, "Where are the animals, we are at the farm". They very quickly accepted the fact that there are two types of farms when it was explained to them.

The fields were huge and the weather was kind as you can see. The children made their way over to the vegetables and in particular the carrots as the pumpkins weren't quite ready yet. The children loved this, really digging away in the ground to pick the carrots that were lower down in to the ground. Alba made sure to get the ones that were closer to the top as she quickly realised they were breaking easily, and they filled their punnets to take home, The children were really very tired when they returned to the nursery after so much walking and fresh air and excitement! Cant wait to return in the spring/summer next and pick other crops next time!