Aquatic Animals & Under Water Adventures!
Over the last couple of weeks in pre school, the children have been learning all about what can be found under the sea. They have been very busy exploring various messy and sensory activities including a blue spaghetti coral reef scene, blue play dough, a crazy foam shark hunt and making their own 3D paper plate jellyfish and sharks! Whilst on the shark hunt, Sadie warned her friends, “Be careful guys, the sharks might bite your fingers!”. Alfie laughed and said, “Don’t worry, no they won’t, the sharks are just not real”. At the messy spaghetti, Luna wasn’t so sure if she was impressed with the texture of the spaghetti but found it very amusing that her hands had turned blue. She told Jaxx, “Now I look like a real shark!”.
The children then went on to do an observation drawing of various sized shells. Isabelle found the biggest one under the water tray and took it to the table saying, “Wow guys, look at this one, it’s gigantic!”. Sophie was very impressed with the size of the shell, telling Isabelle, “Well done Isabelle, that is a super big shell that we can all draw”. After all the busy creative work, the children moved out to the garden, taking their under the sea imagination out there. Jonny was pretending to be a crab, crawling around the floor, encouraging his friends to join in saying, “It’s fun guys, come on!”, whilst Alba was the jellyfish, wriggling her arms and legs all over the place!
World Book Day celebrations!
Over the last couple of weeks the toddlers have been learning all about different types of food and put on their chef hats to cook up a storm in the home corner. At the beginning of the week the toddlers were very excited for pancake day as they got to decorate their own pancakes at snack time. They had a variety of fruits in bowls on the table in front of them with spoons to serve themselves and were offered a small amount of sauce to go on top. Jude chose to fill his plate with bananas while Jasper licked off all of the chocolate sauce from his pancake! Esmeralda served herself some strawberries and bananas and asked for “Chocate sauce” although it looked like she had more on her face than in her tummy! Sophie was very good at flipping her pancake in the home corner, sticking her tongue out in concentration and holding the pan in front of her laughing as the pancake landed flat on the floor! Joshua was very gentle while flipping his pancake and carefully moved the pan forwards and backwards exclaiming “Oooow” when it nearly fell out.
In the garden the toddlers used the bikes, wheelbarrows and buckets to become delivery men and women! Starting off with making meals in the mud kitchen comprised of sand, mud sticks and leaves the toddlers transported their creations to the backs of their vehicles. Sebastian said “Beep beep! I’m coming through” as he scooted the bike around the garden, Otto followed closely behind exclaiming “I’m coming”. Amelie chose hand delivery and carefully balanced the food she made in her hands and said “Here you go”.
Whilst on a walk around Imber Court grounds Freddie spotted a pizza van and shouted “Pizza!” which then started a chorus of the toddlers shouting “Pizza!” and pointing at the van in hopes of a complementary slice!
Back inside they have been loving world book day as the celebrations have been spread throughout the week. Isabelle came in with her costume and tea pot as ‘the tiger who came to tea”. Each day Joshua came into nursery with a different character themed top, starting with the Gruffalo and Zog excitedly pointing the character out to his friends. Throughout the week they have been doing activities based on some of their favourite stories including ‘The colour monster’, ‘A squash and a squeeze’ and ‘The big red bath’. The toddlers got their writing pens out and made their own story books, decorating each page with a variety of colours. Eloise said “I’m drawing circles” as she doodled in her book and Cleo excitedly swapped colours after each mark she made. Cecilia decorated her book with the excitement of sharing it when she went home “For mummy daddy”.
Over the last two week the under twos have been looking at different animals. The children have enjoyed getting messy with paints painting Tigers and Zebras, Edward was really focused making his Tiger stripes across his paper holding the edge of his paper so it didn’t move, Blair found it more fun to paint her hands and then rub them together, and Oliver watched her and began to copy her with a smile on his face. Tilly and Ava were painting white stripes to make zebras, Tilly started saying “ Dab dab dab” Harry copied her saying “dab dab dab” then started to laugh.
They enjoyed exploring the crazy foam and India was the first to put her hands into the foam; she then started clapping furiously causing the foam to go everywhere! Arthur found this particularly exciting and was laughing away.
They have seen lots of the horses coming into the fields near the nursery. On one of their walks, Eva started to jump up and down in the pushchair so very excited as they walked past the amazing animals. Edward was pointing then Harry doing the same followed by lots of babbling on seeing them.
Space and Bushy park visit!
The last couple of weeks have been full of lots of fun for the preschool children where they have enjoyed a wide range of activities about space and mini beasts. The children particularly enjoyed playing with the solar system water tray activity. The water tray was filled with black water and balls to represent planets floating in space. The children made sure to wear their aprons as they enjoyed spinning and splashing the balls in the water, as well as pouring the water out of jugs and funnels. Sadie asked with a laugh “Why are there balls in the water tray?” Alastair replied “They are planets!” Ari then added “We live on planet Earth!”
A group of children also enjoyed a trip to Bushy park in the buggies. Along the way the children enjoyed looking at all the different vehicles that they could see on the roads. Zac began to count how many buses he could see, at one point exclaiming “There’s 3 buses! One, two, three!” The children sat down for a small picnic morning snack before going off to explore the park. They stopped to investigate a tree, looking for any mini beasts they might find lurking under the bark or in the crevices. Alba asked “Where are they?” Isaac replied “The beasts are all hiding from us!” They collected sticks, twigs and leaves to add to the growing collection for the new display shelving unit. The children choose and add such materials to add to their play in many areas in the preschool room. There was just enough time for a laugh filled game of ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’ before it was time to return to nursery in time for lunch.
