Rain & Rockets!
Over the past couple of weeks, the preschool children have ventured up in to space in their new role play space ship. When coming in to preschool, Youcef noticed that the space ship was ready and stood mesmerised, looking at all of the tin foil walls. As he looked he whispered, “Wow”, with a big smile across his face. Once the children were inside the spaceship, Rowan was very eager to get the headphones on, offering a set to Lana too. Whilst they were attempting to get the headphones working, laughing at the muffled voices, Olivia got herself comfortable at the keyboard advising her friends, “You need to sit down now, I am the pilot”. Rowan giggled at Olivia and said, “But we aren’t in a aeroplane, you are an Astronaut!” Olivia smiled at Rowan and agreed “Yes, an Astronaut”. Lana, Amèlie and Alfie discovered the masks and put them over their heads and were using the spinning dial to turn to show Olivia the direction of where to go. Iris was encouraging her friends, “We need to go this way now”. Once the children were happy that they had arrived in space, Flo remembered a very important fact to tell her friends that the children had learnt the previous week. She reminded them, “Remember there is no gravity in space, we might float away, we need to be careful!”. This then prompted the children to recall parts of a Pip and Posy story book, explaining the difference between helium and gravity.
Outside, the preschoolers have seemed to have really embraced the colder, wet weather and have not been phased by this at all. Getting their wellies and wet suits on, Isaac encouraged his friends, “Look, there is the biggest puddle to splash in!”. His friends were of course very keen to join him and made the biggest splashes they possibly could which made everyone laugh and very wet. Over on the field, the children loved a football game, taking it in turns to let each other be the goal keeper and taking shots at the goal keeper. The children were very encouraging to each other, cheering on both the goal keeper to save the goal as well as the striker. Joshua and Jasper enjoyed their own made up game which involved throwing the ball through the hoop as the hoop was tossed in to the air. Again, cheering each other on at each attempt.
Space Exploration & Seasonal Ingredients!
Over the last two weeks, the toddlers have been getting stuck into all things Autumn. As the weather transitions, the toddlers have been able to watch the leaves turn orange and begin falling to the ground and have collected lots of leaves, conkers, pine cones, twigs etc for their artwork. In the garden, the children really enjoyed an activity where they used a mix of their imagination and real items to create soup. The children were given small root vegetables and collected the garden material themselves. Using pots, pans and water gathered from the mud kitchen, they began combining the ingredients to make their soup. India poured water into a pot and said, “I use carrot, mix it, mix it”, and then went onto using a parsnip. After the soup was cooked and cooled, Blair picked up a serving spoon and began offering it out for others to try. She held the spoon out and said, “Eat, eat” and “Yum!”.
Inside, the children have been exploring outer space and engaging in exciting sensory experiences, including zooming into outer space. With the children’s help we had set up a sensory corner using blankets, netting and lots of glow up toys and lights. The children entered, sat down and we shot up to space! The children sang the song ‘Zoom Zoom’ as they flew about, looking at the lights and listening to outer space sounds and music. Oliver said, “Shhh! Listen how quiet”, as he calmed his friends down to listen to the space sounds.
The last few weeks in the under twos room have been filled with lots of different art activities. The children especially enjoyed taking part in some berry painting. Finley loved squashing the berries in his hands and spreading the juices around his piece of paper; and even snuck a little taste of the berries with a big smile on his face. Santiago looked at the berries with a puzzled look, unsure what to do. The adults demonstrated squeezing the berries as Santiago he began to use his hands to make splotches on his paper. Rafe enjoyed squeezing the berries in his hand and watching as the bits squeezed out between his fingers and dropped onto the table.
Outside, the children had lots of fun with a scooping activity in the tough tray with pasta, cups and spoons. Max watched and listened as the pasta was poured into the tray and smiled when they crashed and crunched as they landed. Margaux had fun trying to catch the pasta as it was poured from a cup, babbling away as she did so. Sienna, however, enjoyed using a spoon to mix around the pasta in the tray and using it to bump the pasta; listening to the noises as the pasta cracked and smashed.
Autumn Gathering!
It was fantastic to see such a big turnout for this years Autumn parent get together. We hope you all enjoyed the chance to come in to the nursery and meet and chat with each other. The preschool room was very busy, with lots of activities on offer inside and out for children and parents alike. It was wonderful to see the children showing off their nursery to their parents and taking them to play with what was on offer. Margot had lots of fun playing with the play dough with her mummy, using the cutters to make many different shapes, whilst Sadie enjoyed sharing stories with her Mummy and baby brother in the book corner. Outside; Finley A had lots of fun taking his Mummy on a bear hunt along the nature trail at the back of the garden.
The toddler room was rather busy with the toddlers being very excited to show their Mummies and Daddies where they spend their day as well as all of their favourite toys. Monty and Blair impressed their Mums by showing them how they independently washed their hands after getting covered in play dough. The room was also filled with children who are no longer toddlers, wanting to take a trip down memory lane and explore their old room! The majority of the children were more interested in playing in the garden, taking their parents on a tour and of course, investigating the food table! Phoebe was very keen to show her Mum where the cake table was and indulged in what seemed to be her favourite treat!
The Autumn Social is a very exciting time for the Under 2s as they use the free flow to their advantage and explore the other rooms! Max, Santiago and George all swiftly made their way into the toddlers room, pulling themselves up onto the climbing frame amazed at the size of it. George proudly showed his climbing skills on the frame as well as pointing over at each of his friends who were dotted around the room. Children and parents from the other rooms entered to come and play too. Florence quickly spotted her younger brother Finley, and took his hand and led him all the way through to Preschool so she could show him where she plays all day. It was wonderful to see the under 2s playing with their parents and exploring the big garden; Santiago enjoyed running around with his Mummy following close behind as he explored more of the garden.
