Baking and outer space!

Over the last couple of weeks the toddlers have been learning about outer space and out of the many, many stories we read on a regular basis they have been  particularly loving ‘The Tiger who came to Tea”. After a few discussions about story the toddlers decided to make there own houses that would entice the tiger to come over. This of course meant the house was made from... chocolate chip cookies! While mixing the ingredients together in their own bowls the toddlers were conversing about their likes and dislikes with Margot excitedly saying “I love chocolate!”. While enthusiastically stirring her bowl Sophie said “look, I mix it really fast!” which then started a contest into who was the most speedy chef. Oliver kept secretly dipping his fingers into the cooking mixture and tasting it while he thought no one was looking with a quiet “Mmmmm” each time. As Oliver wasn’t very stealthy this made Matilda and Jasper laugh as they caught him red handed! Once their cookies were ready to go onto the baking tray Luciano used his finger to push the mixture off of the spoon. As he was so concentrated on this task he didn’t immediately notice how caked his finger was in the mixture and shouted “Uh sticky!” with a big smile.

The toddlers loved exploring the galaxy sensory tray in the garden with multi-coloured sand, different coloured play dough and a variety of art materials to create their own outer space creatures. The toddlers were all giggling and very excited to get stuck in. Joshua headed straight for the green play dough and started making a pile of little pieces, Kitty shouted “look, there’s green and blue!” and started to squash the different colours together, noticing the change in colour as the two merged “it’s turning brown”. Amèlie was enjoying making marks in the sand with her finger, drawing large circles and squiggly lines while commenting “I making circles in the blue sand” this then made her friends join in with making marks of their own. 

Over the last few weeks the under two’s have been looking at fruit and vegetables.The children really enjoyed experiencing tasting and investigating the different fruits.

Outside in the garden, the children were having fun playing with floating citrus fruits. Edward was really intrigued and began to poke his fingers into the lemons. Blair watched him for a moment and then started squeezing the oranges. After a few giggles between them both, Edward and Blair then started picking up individual items of fruit and placing them in their bowls. Amelie came to see what they were doing and picked up a bowl of water, it splashed everywhere and Harry shouted, “Oh dear Amelie!” which really made Blair laugh. Max was very intrigued at what his friends were up to pulled himself up to where they were playing, carefully standing himself at the water tray, trying to pick up the water with his hands before going on to to lick his fingers. Arlo got stuck in helping himself to slices of orange, letting the juices go everywhere.

In the mud garden, there were some vegetables hidden amongst the mud and Alex was showing the children the herb patch and giving them the opportunity to experience the individual smells. Amelie began to laugh as Alex held the herbs towards her as Ava was making, “Mmm mmm” sounds pretending to sniff the herbs. Monty was enjoying hunting out the vegetables that were hidden in the mud and using a spade began digging which gained Arthur’s attention. He saw what they were doing and came to join in sitting himself in the middle of the mud.

Inside there has been lots of beautiful fruits to taste. During snack times, the children have had the opportunity to give pineapple, kiwi, mango and papaya a try. Harry couldn’t take his eyes off the big pineapple and with big wide eyes said, “Wow “. Alex offered all of the children a touch of the pineapple. Monty was the first to be brave the touch and laughed as he did so which made Blair and Amelie giggle and want to investigate themselves. Arlo began to babble and point at the kiwi whilst Max was enjoying the texture of the papaya by poking his finger into it. 

Of course there has been opportunities for the little ones to get messy with the different fruits including painting of sweet potatoes using sponges and brushes. Eva carefully dipped her paintbrush into the pot, whilst holding the paper to stop it from moving around. As some of the paint dropped on to the table, “Mess mess” shouted Harry. 

Graduation Celebrations!

What a fantastic performance from our little graduates this week! The children worked so hard to practice their animal phrases and were so excited to show their talents to their parents at the graduation. Sophie could not wait to be a lion and call out, “The loudest roar I can, that would scare all of the mummies and daddies and make them laugh!”. Sammy was even more excited that pre-school were having a graduation party that day as it was also his birthday. At group time, he told all of his friends the news and suggested, “Maybe everyone can give me an extra clap for my birthday!”. 

Zac, Amelia and Tristan were so excited to find out they were going to be crocodiles together and were even spotted in the tree house, rehearsing their words and encouraging each other to get them right. The build up to the graduation was so much fun for the children and teachers too! There were stages made, audiences gathered together (the non graduating pre schoolers) and lots of singing rehearsals.  

The day of the show was a joy for the children. There was a real party vibe throughout the day and the children could not wait to dress up in their outfits, especially having their faces painted. Immy was so confident with her words by this point and was asking all the nursery teachers throughout the day, “Can I say my words to you?”. She then went on to asking her friends, “Do you know your words?” If their response was yes, Immy would ask, “Come on, tell them to me? Nice and loud!”. If the response was no, Immy would kindly suggest, “Go and ask a teacher to remind you”.

Once all the parents arrived and the children all dressed up, it was time to get going and the children all did an amazing job. There was big smiles each time there was a round of applause and their singing was lovely, with their words nice and loud for all to hear. The children received their certificates and school leavers books and proudly stood up one by one to show them off to their mums, dads, siblings and grandparents.

We wish all of our school leavers the best of luck at their new big schools. They are all going to be greatly missed at nursery and it has been a pleasure to look after each and every one of them!

Going on a Bear Hunt & Sea Creatures!

Over the last couple of weeks, the toddlers have been loving the book of the month ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ and have been requesting to read it at any given chance. Most of the toddlers have been joining in with the repetitive phrases, Matilda shakes her head and says “Not scared”, while Jude and Jasper point their fingers and shout out “Go through it”, while Oliver smiles and sways his body to the different movements “Splash splosh”. The toddlers also got to have a teddy bear picnic where they brought in their own bear from home or used one from the soft toy basket. Cecilia and Amelie enjoyed sharing their sandwiches with their bears, Cecilia took one bite for herself then fed her elephant toy “He want my sandwiches too it’s yummy”.

In the garden the toddlers went on a bear hunt of their own, wading through swishy swashy grass, stumbling through a dark forest, splashing through a deep cold river and sneaking through a cave all to find the hidden bears. After the first clue of paw prints was spotted, it led to a stampede of toddlers running up to the bear and celebrating their find. As the initial excitement wore off the toddlers began really incorporating the story into their search for more bears. Kitty pretended to be walking through a cave as she crept through the path, walking on tip toes and reciting part of the book “Tip toe, tip toe, tip toe” followed by a dramatic gasp and “What’s that!”. Once the children had found all of the bears a couple of them sat down to have a look at the story again. After looking at the pictures, Margot and Jack turned to the last page in the book where the bear is walking back to the cave alone, Jack said “Bear sad” and Margot replied “Aww… bear sad. Want to give him a cuddle”. 

Over the last few weeks, the under twos have really enjoyed engaging in various messy and sensory activities. When making some star fish pictures, Amelie and Blair were giggling whilst saying, “Dab dab dab” as they put paint on their pictures. Harry looked up to Kelly when he was painting and pointed, saying “Star Kelly!”. Afterwards the messy fun, some of the children were copying Alex pretending to be a star fish by laying on the floor and wriggling their arms and legs about. Monty shouted, “Wow!” before running over and laying down moving his arms and legs like a star fish. Blair started to copy Monty shrieking with delight and excitement.

Out on the field there has been a lot of running around on the grass with lots of happy faces. The little ones were trying to catch the bubbles and were chasing the flying streamers. Arlo came running over to explore and reached his arms as high as he could to try and catch the streamer as Alex waved it through the air. Ava held the handle and gave the streamer a wiggle to make the colours move, giving a big smile of satisfaction. Gabriel then copied Ava, really laughing with enjoyment. Eva was running after the bubbles and lifting her feet up to try and pop the bubbles with her shoes. 

Out in the garden, there’s been lots of exploring the water tray to find what sea animals were hidden among the bubbles. Gabriel lifted up a seal shouting, “Wow” as he splashed it back down into the water. This splashed Harry and they both looked at each other for a moment before laughing along together and saying, “Oh no!”. Eva found a lobster and held it up showing how proud she was of what she had found before then moving the bubbles some more and then found a large sea shell. Harry looked “Ell, ell!” he shouted.

The Weather and Our Growing Areas!

The last two weeks in preschool have been filled with lots of fun activities where the children have been looking at mindfulness and understanding friendships, as well as learning about different weather systems.

The children loved learning about lightening and thunder by taking part in a fun measuring activity. On the table were lots of different sized lightning bolts and the children were tasked with seeing how long each one was using the connecting blocks. Charlie connected his blocks together along the length of his lightening bolt and began to count how many blocks he had used. He turned to Ari and said “My one is five!” Ari then did the same with his and replied to Charlie, saying “Mine is only 4! Your one is bigger than mine!” Louis then added “My one is the biggest because it has 6 blocks!”

Outdoors the children have been hard at work tending to the vegetable patch and herb garden. Luna enjoyed watering the vegetables and herbs with a watering can whilst Florence added “The plants need to drink lots of water!” Zack enjoyed getting stuck in with soil, helping to replant some mint that had come loose in the soil. Zack said “I’m digging a big hole!” Once the mint was placed back in the soil, Zack scooped the soil back over using his hand and said “I have a dirty hand! I need to wash it!”

Fun with Elmer & Outdoor Adventures!

Over the last couple of weeks, the toddlers have been very busy learning all about our book of the month Elmer. Using bright and beautiful colours, the toddlers have been getting creative, using all of the skills they know to make great master pieces for our new Elmer board. Across the nursery we love to recycle and had an idea to create elephants using milk cartons. Once cut into shape and without any colour or details added, the toddlers were asked what they thought they looked like. Sophie pointed to the handle of the milk carton and said, “Big nose”, Jude added, “Big elephant nose”. The toddlers laughed together and began to realise it looked very much like an elephant. One milk carton was decorate using grey paint to represent the Elmer covered in berries and the other the children decorated using lots of different colours to show the real Elmer. Once the toddlers placed the ears and some eyes on their milk carton elephants, they began stomping them around the table, chanting, “Stomp, Stomp, Stomp!”. 

Outside, the toddlers have been loving the warm weather and spend as much of their time in the garden as possible. Some of the toddlers went on a nice long walk one morning, taking a snack along with them to have as a small picnic. Along the way, they came across the park in the grounds, Kitty jumped up and down in excitement, pointing towards the park and pleading “We go!”. Since the toddlers were having such a good time, we popped in for a play. In the park there is a new pirate ship which the toddlers ran towards. Amelie was first on and shouted to her friends, “Come aboard, come aboard, I the captain of this ship”, her friends giggled and climbed aboard. Using their hands, the toddlers make pretend telescopes to look around and see what they could see. 

Outside, the under-twos have really engaged themselves making sandcastles in the sandpit. Eva and Amelie concentrated really well when filling up their buckets, whilst India watched them and then took a bucket of her own to the mud kitchen and filled it with mud after being inspired by her friends play. Ava was intrigued and tried to help India fill up her bucket, using her hands as quickly as she could to scoop it up, laughing as she was doing so. 

As the weather has been lovely and warm, the children have spent plenty of time at the water tray outside, splashing away and having lots of fun. They were also investigating the texture of crazy foam whilst using ice cream cones to make their own ice creams. Ava watched intently as Alice showed them how to scoop up the crazy foam. Blair got all excited when pretending to eat her ice cream and then Harry looked over saying, “Oh dear“, as the foam fell out of the cone and on to the floor. Blair started to blow on her ice cream as if she was cooling it down and then looked all around and laughed when she saw that the adults were watching her.

Inside, the children have enjoyed getting messy using glue and paper to make patchwork pictures of Elmer the elephant. Max was really excited and was picking up all of the paper shapes and laying them out on the floor. Santiago watched him, before getting a handful of paper from the pot and scattered it all over the floor and then brushed his hands through all over the paper and smiling. At music and story time, Alice was using some hand puppets to really animate the story. Amelie and India watched and then picked up a puppet each and were trying to get them on their hands. They both then copied Alice, waving their hands and babbling like they were telling a story. This made Henrietta laugh who had been sat watching what they were doing.