Easter!

Over the last couple of weeks, the toddlers have been getting very excited on the lead up to Easter, getting creative and making lots of arts and crafts. In our first week, the children were learning all about spring. The children used various materials to make cute little animals that are born in the spring time. Whilst making a chick, Amelie said, “Chicks go Tweet tweet” and her all of her friends joined in. Sophie picked up a yellow pom pom and said, “Aww baby chick”. One activity that the children found most interesting was a colour mixing activity. This involved different coloured paint in zip lock bags and when mixed together, it showed the children that it made a new different colour. As a treat for the children, we had a teddy bear picnic for afternoon tea. All the children had a teddy bear sat next to them on the picnic mat and enjoyed lots of different tasty foods. Isabelle made sure that every time she took a mouthful of food, her teddy bear got some too! The children’s sandwiches were cut into shapes, such as teddy bears, stars and butterflies. Otto took his plate, looked at everything and said, “Little teddy bear!”.

The children began their Easter crafts, making Easter bonnets, designing Easter eggs and little chicks. The best part of the children’s week was going on a huge Easter egg hunt around the grounds of Imber Court. The children all had an egg to find and listened beautifully to instructions when walking around. The children shouted when they found an egg and guided their friends to their eggs. Margot shouted, “Look, there’s an Easter egg under that tree!” as she ran towards it. All of the children were very impressed with their eggs and wanted to show them off. Jude asked, “Take this home to show mummy? - which they certainly did.

Over the last few weeks the under two’s have been looking at Easter, making Easter eggs using the paint dabbers. Edward and Matilda knew exactly what to do with their paint dabbers, as they quickly started to make marks on their paper eggs. Matilda was saying “Dab dab dab!” which made Blair shriek with excitement. They’ve also been enjoying making their own chicken cards using glue, paper and feathers.

The children been creating floor chalk drawings, making lots of different marks across paper that was stuck to the floor, Harry got his chalk and sat in the middle of the paper making lots markings across the paper, whilst Arlo and Amelie prefered to sit at the edge and watch Harry closely. They’ve had great fun hunting for little chickens and eggs hidden in lots of straw. Rose enjoyed lifting up lots at a time and throwing in the air, and after Eva found one of the hidden eggs, she inspected it closely before hiding it back into the pile, at which point India then climbed among the straw looking for the newly hidden egg!

They have had lots of fun exploring the mud, with Edward and Rose very occupied using the bowls and spoons to scoop up the mud. India was intrigued what they were doing, she sat next to the mud and put her hands in enjoying the texture as it fell through her fingers. Isla and Matilda were enjoying making sandcastles and using the sieve, some of the sand spilled of the sandpit, to which Matilda said “Oh dear…. mess!”.

Nature, Insects & Wriggly Worms!

Over the last couple of weeks, the pre school children have taken a very keen interest in anything that involves bugs, insects and their natural habitats. The children have been eagerly waiting for the cocoons to become butterflies. Day by day, the children have been coming in to pre-school and checking on them. They are clearly settled in their cocoons right now.

Whilst in the garden and on the nursery grounds, the children have been using magnifying glasses and special insect containers to collect and take care of the insects. In the garden, Luna, James and Jaxx had found several worms in our growing patch and bravely picked them up, Luna told her friends, “Be careful guys, they are very delicate”. Once they placed them in their special pots, Harry collected some leaves that had fallen from the trees and lay them down next to the worm pots and suggested to his friends, “Maybe we can use them as a bed for the worms so they can have a sleep”. This made his friends laugh and Rowan told him, but worms can’t sleep while it’s too light outside in the garden”. The following day, the children were so excited to see that the worms had made themselves comfortable in the pots and were fascinated and very caring when we moved them over in to a worm house full of compost, leaves, banana peels and apple cores.

On the nursery grounds, the children have been going on lots of walks to also explore nature. Alba, Zoe and Finley were collecting worms on the mounds of mud and had carefully held them in their hands all the way back to nursery to place them in the worm house.

Healthy Bodies, New Scents & Underwater Animals!

Over the past couple of weeks the toddlers have been learning all about their bodies and how to be healthy. To start with, the children practiced one of their favourite songs ‘Head, shoulders, knees and toes’ as a way to move their body and familiarise themselves with the body parts they use every day. Outside, they also played the bean game where they moved in a variety of ways to match the names of types of beans. The toddlers jumped like jumping beans, stretched up high like a string bean, made themselves as wide as possible like a broad bean, shook their whole body around like a jelly bean and ran around like a runner bean! Sophie said “I shaking!” as she moved her whole body around really fast, Otto said “I so tall!” as he stretched up high and Cleo giggled to herself as she ran up and down the garden. Next, the toddlers moved onto learning about how to be healthy by having conversations about eating lots of fruits and vegetables. Marguerite was excited to tell everybody she liked carrots by saying “Margot carrots” which then encouraged Kitty to join in “Kitty like potatoes and strawberries and cucumber and watermelons!” then Ellie joined in too by saying ”I like watermelon and broccoli”. The toddlers then used some of these vegetables to do some vegetable printing with lots of paint. Luciano got stuck in straight away and grabbed hold of a corn on the cob which he slipped straight into the paint and transferred it to his paper, squealing in delight when paint splattered all over Cecilia. Amelie chose to use carrots and rolled them across her paper “Carrot got paint on”. 

As a part of learning about how bodies work, the toddlers also began using their senses by exploring sensory bags with their hands and using their noses to smell different scents, including Marmite, fruity tea bags, ginger and lemon. Luco leaned in to smell the lemon scent and directed his head away instantly with a shocked face which gave his friends a good laugh. Isabelle and Cecilia leaned in very close to give each thing a good sniff with Isabelle retreating quick with her tongue out exclaiming “Eerrrr” after smelling the marmite. The toddlers also did some self portraits by looking in a mirror and drawing what they saw. Jude amazed everybody by drawing a big circle with two smaller circles inside which he pointed to said “Eyes”. Esmeralda filled her paper with small circles and Sebastian held his pencil perfectly to make lots of marks. 

They have been loving looking at the caterpillars which have now cocooned so they cannot wait until they become butterflies!

Over the last couple of weeks the under two’s have been exploring with lots of different animal activities within the room. They’ve had lots of fun playing with many sea creatures and fishes in the blue netting. Oliver started to lay on the netting like he was swimming, Eva then began to copy him, whilst Matilda was watching them from the edge picking up the little fishes and made out that they were swimming in the air.

They’ve had a great time exploring the play house which was made into a den with lots of animals hidden inside! India enjoyed crawling through the house and going around in circles, Rose was watching her and began babbling as she came through the tunnel. Gabriel came to see the animals inside, he picked up the Lion and held it in the air and roared!

A few of the under twos have been doing really well with their nursery rhymes, and even doing the actions. Amelie was able to join in with “Row row row your boat” with Ashley, Rose and India soon joining in, with India singing the tune as she rocked backwards and forwards.

On a walk to the duck pond, they children been fascinated with the birds and planes in the air. Harry was trying really hard to say “plane” as he pointed high into the sky, Isla spotted the plane and started to point and said “Plane”. At the duck pond Matilda and Edward were throwing bread to the ducks. Some of children started to make duck sounds and Eva used her hand to make a duck sound gesture. In fact the geese came really close looking for bread, which really excited Gabriel as he started jumping around in the pushchair.