Our Trip to Bockett's Farm!

Over the last couple of weeks, the preschool children have been focusing on farm animals on the build up to a very exciting Bockett’s farm trip! The children have been discussing which type of animals live on a farm, as well as exploring Jungle, Sea and Safari animals by participating in a range of animal themed activities. Chloe, Alfie, Isaac and Caiden enjoyed making some houses for the horses using the wooden blocks, with Isaac quizzing his friends, “Do you know what a horses house is called?” When his friends thought for a moment at what Isaac had asked, he gently reminded them, “Remember it’s called a stable.”. Chloe was using a ruler to measure up their stable and, when it was at the right height, suggested to her friends, “I think we can put the roof on now”. Next it was time to make more houses for other animals and very quickly, many more friends were helping out, using rulers and tape measures to get the correct measurements. Max had a guess, “I think it needs to be two hundred, thousand, million long”, which made his friends laugh a lot. 

On the day of the farm trip, the children were so excited to show each other their lunch boxes and eagerly waited for the coach to turn up to nursery. Sadie calmly reminding some of her friends, “We need to be patient guys, it will soon be here!”. The coach trip was very exciting for the children, with Florence and Ada pointing out the directions to their houses. Once getting to the farm, Madan and Tom were very keen to get to see the pig race. Iris, Jude and Oliver jumped up and down with excitement when seeing the tractor and Freddie asking, “Is it lunch time now?” The tractor ride was a great opportunity for the children to be able to see the animals that were deeper in to the farm fields, with many of the children looking around in amazement, big smiles on their faces and taking in all of the information the tractor driver was giving about the animals they could see. When it was time for the pig race, Sadie and Iris were cheering the pigs on, clapping and calling out, “Come on piggies!”. 

On the coach journey back and at nursery, the children were all talking to each other about their favourite part of the day with Ada letting Alfie know that, “The piglets were so small and cute and I loved them” and Ollie telling Amelie, “I really really liked the pig race, it was fun”. Sadie, Lana and Chloe went on to draw their own farm pictures, Lana adding some of her preschool friends on to her farm picture and when Rowan came to investigate what they were doing, he then went off to collect the farm animal toys for his friends to be able to draw.

Streams & Dinosaur Eggs!

The toddlers absolutely loved their trip to the stream one morning and were so excited to hear what they would be doing. As they saw spare clothes, wellies, wetsuit trousers and water toys all being gathered and put into the buggies Arlo asked, “Are we going for a walk? In the buggies?” Which Max overheard and celebrated with a cheer, “Go on a walk, Yayy”.  As the two were celebrating Arlo watched as their water bottles and a snack were placed into a bag too “We having snack on the walk too, it so tasty”. Once the children had their sun cream applied and hats on they were ready to set off in the buggies and began lots of chatter about vans, trucks and police cars that they might spot along the way. As they arrived at the stream they did some fabulous listening skills as made their way along the bank and sat down beside the stream to have a quick snack. Hugo was munching on a breadstick when he all of a sudden he stopped and shouted, “Ah Duck! Duck!” and pointed down the stream where two ducks appeared. This started a chorus of “Duck” and “Quack” amongst the children along with lots of giggles as Rafe tried to feed one his breadsticks. As soon as snack was finished the children were keen to get going and made their way straight into the water. Harry immediately gravitated towards the cups to scoop and collect water while Arlo chose a net. Arlo dipped the net in and scooped up a large amount of water, giggling as it trickled through the net, followed by a gasp as he saw what was left. He held it out to Harry to have a look who replied “Wow they are little stones… can you tip them out into the water? They go splash” which Arlo did and caused a little splash. Harry was about to pour out his full cup of water but hesitated and asked “Can we put this little water back into the big water?” Whilst pointing at the stream. Once Harry was reassured he could pour it out he turned his cup upside down with a splash. Matilda and Santiago enjoyed holding hands and wading through the water together, slowly making their way along the stream, stopping occasionally to giggle as the water flowed around them. Joseph spent a lot of his time on dry land, choosing to use his hands to investigate the water as he squatted down and used the cups and nets to collect water as it flowed at the edge of the stream. The toddlers spent all morning splashing, scooping, pouring and investigating the stream with the morning finished up by bundling into the buggies and setting off back to nursery for lunch. 

Over the last couple of weeks, the under twos have had an amazing time exploring our music and movement theme and all things dinosaurs. 

Inside, the children thoroughly enjoyed making their own rain makers using a cardboard tube, decorated by them and then filling it with rice. Sienna and Leonardo approached the table curiously, wondering what they could be doing. Sienna picked up the small scoop and put it to her her mouth, pretending she was eating and saying, “Mmm yum”, which made Leonardo giggle and join in. Once a short demonstration was given, the under twos began scooping and pouring rice into their shakers and played with them all afternoon. They also adored the sensory bag drumming activity. They used their hands or drumsticks to bang on sensory bags, filled with paint, along to the beat of drumming music. Margaux threw herself into this activity and set such a great example for her friends. Using both hands, Margaux drummed on the sensory bag and mixed up the colours, getting very excited when she left a hand print in the paint too. 

Outside the under twos have had lots of water and ice play to cool down in the glorious weather we’ve had. As they were loving the dinosaur theme, we continued it into the garden and made some frozen dinosaur eggs. The little dinosaurs were frozen inside spheres of ice which the children were able to feel and play with inside a sensory bin. Charlotte approached and felt one of the eggs which made her gasp and giggle, as she pulled her hand away saying, “Oh! cold ha ha”. During this activity, the under twos began exploring the garden in order to find things which could help them break into the eggs to get to the dinosaurs. Imogen came back with a spade from the sandpit and Leo came back with a saw from the toy tool kit. All in all, they gave it a very good go and we’re taking part for such a long time, the dinosaur eggs melted and created a dinosaur swimming pool. 

Nature explorers!

The pre school children have continued to explore the nursery grounds over the last couple of weeks, using individual nature explorer bags which give the children the opportunity to investigate and record all the things they find whilst out on a walk together. On one of the walks, Rowan suggested, “I know what we can look for today”, and very quickly realising that he had gained the attention of the other children, he excitedly suggested, “How about some real bugs and insects in the trees and bushes and grass?” His idea went down very well with the other children agreeing, “That’s a good idea” and some of them clapping and smiling. The children each took responsibility of their own bag which consisted of many things including a magnifying glass, some string and some writing tools. 

As the children crossed the bridge, it didn’t take them long at all to find a spot to explore. Olivia encouraged her friends to sit with her, letting them know, “I know we will find some bugs here because they love the grass”. Sophie and Oliver set themselves up with their magnifying glasses, looking at the grass closely and when Oliver very quickly found an ant on the ground, Sophie put her hand on his back and said, “Yes, well done Oliver, you found one”, which made Oliver feel very proud. When moving along a little to find a new spot to explore, Caiden, Alfie, Finley and Lana found a comfortable spot on the grass and sat themselves down with their nature fact sheets. Whilst looking through the sheet of what they could possibly find whilst out and about, Finley was very quick to prompt his friends to tick the things they had already seen including a horse, some trees and some ducks. He then looked down the list and said, “Next we just need to find some sticks to make some more photo frames”. 

In the warmer weather, the vegetables that the children helped to plant the seeds of, have rapidly grown and this hasn’t gone unnoticed. After a weekend away from nursery, Florence, Sadie and Madan were admiring the vegetable leaves with Madan gasping and running off to find Caiden to show him the vegetables. Sadie put her arms out to the side of her and laughed, telling her friends, “They are this big now, they are nearly as big as me”. Tom looked deeper down the stalk of the plants and noticed, “There’s something red at the bottom here like a tomato”. After a closer inspection, Tom was right, but it was radish that had started to be visible. The children couldn’t wait to investigate all of the plants and also discovered some sugar snap peas had started to grow.