People Who Help Us!

Following up from the fire engine visit to nursery, the pre school children have been learning all about ‘People who help us’. Some of these professions have included police officers, firefighters, doctors, nurses and dentists. Some of the children really engaged an activity that gave them the opportunity to be a doctor, looking after the poorly baby dolls. Chloe wrapped one of the babies legs in a bandage and suggested to her friends, “This baby looks like the hospital dog doesn’t she? She has a poorly leg just the same”. Lana agreed, “Yes, you’re right, but she isn’t a dog, it’s a person”, which made everyone laugh. Daniel then informed his friends, “But if you are an animal, you have to go to the vets and if you’re a human you can go to the doctors or the hospital”. With the hospital dog story in mind, the conversation quickly went on to road safety and what should we do when crossing the road. Tom reminded everyone, “We should always look both ways”, which Ada followed up with, “We must always look and listen to make sure that it is safe”. When asked if the children knew what else they could do when crossing the road, Sophie very promptly said, “We should cross at the traffic lights and wait for the green man”. 

The children also really loved to be firefighters in the garden, using the hose to put out some paint and chalk drawn fires. Once Isaac was satisfied that the fire had been put out, the fun then really started with the children aiming for each other with the hose. This triggered lots of laughter amongst the children. After reassuring each other that the fires had been put out and Sadie letting them know, “It’s not hot any more, we can touch the board”, the children went around the garden just to double check that there was no more danger of fire. Remembering a conversation from group time, Florence and Chloe were pretending that there was a cat stuck in a tree and that they were the firefighters, rescuing the cat. Florence called out, “Quick, we need to get a ladder but be careful not to hurt yourself”. Pretending to climb a ladder and stretch up to get the cat, Chloe praised Florence, “Well done, we did it, that was good teamwork”. 

Woodland Walks & Muddy Animals!

Over the last few weeks, the toddlers have been learning all about the ‘healthy body, happy me’ campaign which has involved them learning about how to make the right choices for their bodies and each other. As part of this, the children have been talking about the needs of others and what they can do to help them. Whilst taking on the roles of doctors with the supplies from the home corner, Gabriel and Harry tended to a poorly dinosaur. As Harry thought on the diagnosis he put the stethoscope on his ears, held one end to the dinosaurs body and exclaimed, “He got poorly head!”. Gabriel then chimed in with “Cold compress” as his treatment plan whilst pulling out his own stethoscope. The boys then held the stethoscopes up to each other’s chests, listening to their heartbeats. Harry commented on this “It goes boom boom boom!” which made Gabriel smile.

The toddlers have also been working as a team on a multitude of activities, including collaborating with a handful preschoolers to fill a giant bucket with sand. Rafe grunted with each mound of sand he added to the bucket, really showing off his exertion! Hugo pointed and stood over the bucket whilst exclaiming, “Wow!” as he looked down on the slowly growing pile of sand. One morning, the toddlers went for a walk in the buggies to Esher woods in search of some large sticks, but instead came across a millipede. The journey started off with a challenge as they had to scale a fallen tree to get to their chosen area to hunt for sticks. Once they came across the millipede, it caused all sorts of excitement and squealing with Joseph doing just that before turning serious asking, “Ahh! What that!” with a frown. Arlo T and Arlo W stared with fascination as they watched the millipede crawl around the leaf, jumping back in sync with an, “Oh Oh!” as is crawled in their direction.

The under twos have been having lots of fun over the past two weeks getting involved with circle times, a great opportunity for the children to sit together and engage in a short group activity. ‘What’s in the bag?’ proved to be excellent fun, as the children were encouraged to sit on the carpet together and began with the special song. At first, the children were unsure of this new song, but soon Cora and Finley were copying the actions and tapping their legs to the beat! Inside the bag are a range of highly engaging sensory toys, that are not usually available during play, creating a sense of excitement and surprise when these new toys are pulled from the bag. The first toy to appear was a stretchy pop tube, cracking and popping as it’s pulled open. Margaux and Leo began to giggle at the loud noises the tube was making, reaching their hands out to touch it, but before they could it was squashed back down ready to go again. The under twos have been learning many non-verbal signs over the last few months and they were encouraged to use these to ask for ‘more’ or show us they were ‘all done’. Sebby quickly tapped his hands together, demonstrating that he wanted more of the stretchy tube, so pop and crack it went again as it was pulled open.  Captivated by this new activity the under twos continued asking for ‘more’ and were introduced to a slinky spring, a hand spun fan, and a sloshy water toy! 

In the outdoor environment, the under twos have been enjoying spending time exploring the new growing area, laden with flowers and herbs to entice their senses. They have also been having lots of fun in the mud kitchen, dressing in their waterproofs and getting stuck in with some muddy animals. Using lots of brushes, water and towels, the young farmers were encouraged to take their animal for a bath and scrub it until it was nice and clean! Matilde was the first to pick up a very mucky horse, taking it to the water and throwing it in with a splash, she quickly got to work dunking the horse into the water and washing away the soil! ‘All done’ she informed her friends, using her hands to show them the sign, and taking the clean horse out of the water. During this Leo was ensuring that the bath was worth it, covering his animal is as much mud as possible, pushing it deep into the soil and covering it over, before pulling it back out and admiring how dirty it was. Soon all of the children were having a splash around in the water, cleaning all of their mucky animals and enjoying watching the mud disappear! 

Firefighters Visit!

This week the pre school children had a very special visit from some firefighters in their fire engine and the children were so excited on the build up to it. Before the visit, the children have been learning all about fire safety and the very important job that firefighters do. On the morning of the visit Rowan asked, “Is it finally the day we get to see the fire engine yet?” And instantly had excitement beaming from his face when he knew it was! As soon as the children went outside to explore the fire engine, Isaac gasped with excitement and Sophie jumped up and down telling her friends, “This is so exciting, I’m so happy”. The pre schoolers took it in turns to carefully climb the large steps in to the fire engine, some of them choosing the back seat and some eager to be the driver. Freddie couldn’t wait to get in the drivers seat, smiling away whilst pretending to steer the wheel.

After lots of questions asked by the children, including Daniel asking, “Where does the water come from?” Whilst looking around the back of the fire engine. Flo suggested, “I think it comes from the ground”. After investigating and learning that there is a tank in the middle of the fire engine, Sadie excitedly asked, “Can we spray the water from the hose?” And the children all did a big cheer when the answer was yes. The children couldn’t wait to have a go, waiting patiently for their turn to help fireman Jack release the water and then helping to stop the water come out and also learning how to change the pressure of the water spraying out.

Once the children had had their fun aiming for the trees and cars, they were asked if they would like to hear the sirens of the engine as it drove away which of course received a very loud, “Yes” from everyone alongside some clapping and cheering. They all had the biggest smiles on their faces as they waved goodbye to the firefighters and the fire engine, with Lana and Madan talking about how much fun they had. When the children got back in to pre school, ready for lunch time, the conversation was flowing between the children and Chloe telling her friends, “I wish we could do that again”.

The firefighters plan to visit again in the summer and we can’t wait!

Ducks, Dens, Owls & New Smells!

Over the last 2 weeks the toddlers have been focusing on the story “Owl Babies” and learning about different animals and the environments and homes they live in. 

Inside, the children had lots of fun exploring a den made from blankets, cushions and tables, just like the den the Owl Babies live in. Harry looked at the den and said “Look! It’s a house!” while showing his friend Blair who couldn’t contain her excitement, rushing to be the first to crawl through whilst giggling loudly. At first George was a little unsure about going in, but as soon as he peeked under the blanket and saw Arthur and Cooper smiling back at him, he crawled right in and started to explore. Ava decided she wanted to bring her favourite cat puppet to explore the den with her while Ethan couldn’t stop zooming in and out of the blankets shouting “BOO!”.

One afternoon the toddlers enjoyed observing the rain and hail from the patio door. When it turned from rain to hail Arlo gasped excitedly and said with his hands out beside him, “What’s that noise?” Joseph responded “It’s raining!” And pointed to the sky to show his friends. Monty heard all the commotion and went over to join in chanting, “Rain, rain”. Santiago and Henrietta were mesmerised by the sound the hail made on the decking and stood watching and listening. After asking the toddlers what songs we know about rain, Hugo started to point outside and sing “Rain, rain go away”. The children couldn’t wait to get on their wetsuits to splash in all of the puddles. 

Over the last couple of weeks, the under twos have been engaging in a great deal of activities to help develop their fine and gross motor skills. The children used their imagination by taking flowers we found on a walk and using them to create a floral perfume during a small group activity. Leo particularly enjoyed scooping the flowers and water into the cup, taking a big sniff of the floral scent! Margaux enjoyed using the cups and utensils to stir, pour and splash the pretend perfume mixture, giggling as the water flowed down her hands. The children continued mixing until the water began to turn yellow and red with the colourful flowers and the beautiful smell filled the room! 

Using dry spaghetti pasta the children got to work, developing their fine motor skills by poking it through the holes of a sieve. Matilde and Lottie immediately began picking up the pasta with both hands and carefully navigating how to place it into the holes. Imogen was very intrigued by the crunchy texture of the dried pasta, and crunched down on a piece, giggling as it snapped and broke into pieces. She had a quick look around and noticed her friends placing the spaghetti through the holes. “Ooh!” she exclaimed as she pointed over before copying their actions. 

The under twos also had the opportunity to explore the natural surroundings in our local area. Beginning with a trip to the duck pond, the children were very happy looking around as they headed towards the area, even passing some of their homes on the way! Sienna saw her front door and began excitedly bouncing her legs, the other children waving as we approached. Once they had arrived at the pond, the children were encouraged to throw some bread in for the ducks. Soon the ducks came out of the water and started to waddle over, this made Finley and Sebby laugh, and begin to imitate the sound they were making! On a picnic blanket the children enjoyed eating a delicious snack of pear, banana and breadsticks, and afterwards they explored the grass area, some of them running through the fields chasing each other! 

World Book Day!

The preschool children have been very excited on the build up to World Book day with so many of the children letting their friends know what they were planning to dress up as. Isaac and his friends were discussing what superhero they were going to be and which one was their favourite over one lunch time. Max was a little more secretive and told his friends, “It’s a secret, you will just have to wait”, with a smile on his face. Daniel tried to encourage him, “Tell us, tell us” but Max was keeping his secret close to his chest.

On the day, the preschool children couldn’t wait to get inside to show off their outfits to their friends and enjoyed many activities including making their own version of the story book ‘The very hungry caterpillar’. Ada was very proud of what she had created and made sure that she showed it to all of the teachers as well as her friends. Cypher, Joshua and Jasper all took their books outside to the garden and chose to do their drawing in the tree house whilst Flo and Sadie were doing observational drawings of the trees in their books.

At group time, the children also enjoyed learning about authors and illustrators. This is something that is discussed when the new book of the month is introduced and Youcef very quickly and excitedly called out, “I know the author writes the story” and Sophie continued, “The illustrator writes the pictures for the book”. Rowan let out a little chuckle and suggested, “No you mean they draw the pictures, not write them”.

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The toddlers loved world book day, spending the entire week building up to it by doing lots of inspired activities. Some of the toddlers were very excited at the idea of making their own story and got to work straight away. George flipped opened and closed his book, turning it around and looking at the pages as if deciding where to start his story. Emily pick up a pen and opened the book, decidedly making lots of marks, telling her story with circles and swirls. Arthur and Cooper took a different approach and made small lines and dots with an assortment of colours.

The children loved getting to read and explore many stories and story sacks, repeatedly choosing to look at the ‘The Gruffalo’ and ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ story sacks. They loved telling the different stories through the props and enjoyed searching the pages to find the characters. When the day arrived, we had quite a few children dressed up and even those who weren’t were able to sift through the dressing up clothes to find an outfit to show off to their friends. They had a great time dressing up and looking at each other’s costumes. There was Santiago dressed as Spiderman who showed off how fast he could be with his extra powers, Blair serenading everybody as Elsa, George wrapped in bandages as Mr Bump, Leo made sure everyone heard him as he took on the role of his dinosaur costume, and Arlo.W who took a more laid back approach and wore a Jane Austin t-shirt. Gabriel spent the day as The Highway Rat and ran around accosting people with his sword while declaring “I’m.. THE HIGHWAY RAT!”

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The under twos also celebrated World Book Day and came fully kitted out in their amazing costumes, from The Hungry Caterpillar to Peter Rabbit and everything in between! The children enjoyed investigating their friends outfits, squishing Sienna’s many caterpillar legs, and watching Matilde’s Snow White dress twirl as she span in circles. Leo the Tiger particularly loved singing a special rendition of ‘row, row your boat’ in which the children roared like a tiger at the end of the song!