Horses and Rhymes!

Over the last week the toddlers have been busy exploring the theme of nursery rhymes, which has involved making music in a variety of ways, getting very creative with activities and of course lots of singing! Whilst exploring the play dough table Matilde, placed individual lolly and match sticks upright into her dough and began serenading her friends at the table with a rendition of one of her favourite songs ‘Happy birthday’. This then led to all of the children wanting a turn of having their name in the song and a good five minutes of singing happy birthday to everybody. In the garden Phoebe crawled over to a large pot and began banging on it with a spade, Sienna, Margaux and Evie all approached too, sitting next to other pots and pans collected from the mud kitchen and began joining in with the instrumental, all tapping at their pots with giggles and smiles and the occasional wiggle to the beat. 

One morning the toddlers went for a lovely peaceful walk around the Imber Court grounds, stopping off to say hello to one of the horses. The children were completely enamoured and all watched intently as the horse slowly approached the fence and nodded its head a few times, as if greeting them all. As the children watched on a member of staff put some grass on the fence to see if the horse would take some, which it did! This set of a few excited laughs and squeals followed by a couple of neighs from Imogen. The toddlers were so content watching the horse and chatting about what they could see they didn’t want to move on! After eventually saying goodbye to the horse they carried on in search of a spot to sit and have snack, but came across a tractor instead. Finley immediately shouted “Tractor!” with a point in its direction, which caused some gasps and quick head turns to find it. As they got closer Eliza commented “wow” with a look of amazement on her face, followed by a burst of excitement in the form of a squeal. The toddlers finished up their walk with their morning snack and a run around on the field. 

The under twos have been having lots of fun over the past two weeks learning about the five senses, A favourite theme throughout the week was exploring sound which involved lots of music, singing and discovering new noises and circle time was a key part in this. ‘What’s in the bag?’ proved to be excellent fun and the children were encouraged to sit on the carpet together as the activity began with the special song. At first the children were unsure of this new song, but soon Maddie and Zachary were copying the actions and tapping their legs to the beat! Inside the bag were a range of noise making toys and musical instruments which the children could reach in and pull out in. Skandar pulled out a tambourine and began shaking it around before placing it on the floor. Emily approached and knelt down next to the tambourine and used her hand to gently tap, tap, tap on top of it. Skandar looked over with joy as he had found out a whole new sound could come from this instrument and quickly joined in. 

In the outdoor environment, the under twos have been enjoying spending time exploring the grounds, laden with flowers and sights 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 soil sensory play. The children were able to explore different textures within the wet and dry soil and could use their imagination in how they chose to play with it. Lowen collected some of the sand pit toys, two different shaped castle moulds and a spade, and took them over to the mud kitchen. He began using the dry mud, which had a texture very similar to the sand, to fill the mould so when he went to tip out his castle, it didn’t hold its shape. “Ooo” said Jack who was watching nearby, as if to say ‘Oh no’ but with a little help, Lowen was able to use the wet mud to pop out a mud castle. Whilst all of this was happened in the mud kitchen, Henry stayed put in the sand pit, picking up handfuls of sand and enjoying the sensation it created when falling through his fingers.

Fun with Bubbles & Phonics!

Over the last couple of weeks, the Pre school children have continued to practise their literacy skills including taking part in small group phonics sessions. Some of the older pre schoolers have been on an adventure to find objects in the environment beginning with the letter of the week ‘U’. Joshua had noticed an umbrella on one of the children’s  pegs and excitedly called Jasper over, “Look Jasper, it’s an umbrella, u, umbrella”. Jasper and Joshua were then repeatedly going through words beginning with U. This caught the attention of Margot who quickly joined in and they were calling out words such as up, under and umbrella. Some of the younger pre schoolers have also been very keen to learn about the letter and number of the week, particularly enjoying number songs with 3 little monkeys and 5,4,3,2,1 blast off. All of the pre schoolers have also enjoyed a number hunt using the wicker hanging numbers which have been dotted in different places each day.

Outside in the garden, the children really enjoyed ball and car rolling play using the blocks and guttering. Freddie was very keen to get this going, asking around the garden, “Who wants to help me make a tall tower for the balls?”. Freddie very quickly got Edward, Arlo, Ava and Phoebe all working together to make the ramps. Freddie explained to his friends, “First we need to make the tallest tower where the ball starts” and the children collected the blocks, placing the ramped block at the top. They moved on to the next tower, Freddie instructing, “This one needs be a bit shorter”. All the way until the towers went completely down in height. Sebastian and Otto came over at this point and collected the guttering to place on top before all enjoying rolling the balls and cars down, really laughing and counting down each time they let go of the ball or car.

Thunder and Mirrors!

Over the last few weeks the toddlers have been exploring the theme of the five senses which has involved lots of music and movement, exploring textures and looking into mirrors and reflective shapes. Phoebe leaned over to look in a large mirror placed on the floor, sticking her tongue out and getting as close as she possibly could. Jenson saw Phoebe doing this and bent down to look in the mirror too, quickly cackling at his reflection, leaning away and back in again, playing peek-a-boo with himself. Charlotte laid down next to the mirror and watched as Jenson interacted with his reflection. She then began poking the mirror, at Jensons features, with “Ah” as she poked where his nose was, then his eyes, and then his hair. As they both moved their gaze away from the mirror and looked at each other Charlotte poked him on his nose and they erupted into giggles.

The children were a little sad to not be able to play in the rain, as they usually do, due to the thunder and lightening, but quickly cheered up watching and listening to it through the patio doors. Finley was the first to notice rain on the sky light and became mesmerised watching the big droplets splashing down, before pointing and signalling to his friends by saying “Look, there”. Evelyn looked up immediately and stood leaning her body on the unit as she watched the rain for a good five minutes, “Raining”. After a large clap of thunder Finley and Evelyn looked at each other with a gasp, followed by an “Oooo” and a giggle. 

Over the last couple of weeks in the under twos room, the children have been investigating bugs whilst focusing on our book of the month, The Very Busy Spider. They have also been really enjoying sensory play adventures exploring chia seed slime, made using chia seeds soaked in water. Skandar, with no hesitation, went in with his hands to explore and began pulling very funny faces in response to how the chia seeds felt. Maddie on the other hand went for a completely different approach and went straight for the taste test saying “Mmmm” as she smiled. Continuing on their sensory journey, they explored our textured tiles by crawling and walking on them or simply feeling them with their hands. Zachary walked over to one mat which had a bumpy texture to it and stepped onto it with his feet. He looked up with a shocked expression and laughed as he wiggled his toes and looked around for his friends. 

In the garden,  the children became explorers and searched within the sand pit for buried hidden bugs. Henry and Lowen chose to use spades to dig down, whilst Theo used his hands. As the children began to find the hidden bugs, the excitement began. Jack approached the sand pit and after seeing what his friends had discovered, started to dig to find some bugs. Once he’d found one, Henry clapped his hands as if to celebrate Jack’s find. 

Exercise and helping others!

Over the last couple of weeks, the pre school children have been learning about their bodies including foods that are healthy for the body and all about the effects of exercising our bodies. The children have been taking part in yoga classes and doing their own yoga in smaller groups. Whilst out on a walk, Alfie suggested to his friends, “This is a good place to run, there is so much big space and we can do some fast running and exercising”. Getting ready on the start line, Tilly organised the line before asking, “Are you ready?” When the countdown started, the children all waited for go and started to run as fast as they could whilst really giggling and looking intently at each other as the competition was on. When they got to the end, Jasper fell to the floor and took a big gasp. As the children had been learning about heart rates after exercising, they all got going feeling each others chest to see how fast their heart was beating. Alfie then reminded his friends, “Now we need to take slower breaths to slow our hearts down”. After a little rest, roly polies took place which really made the children giggle.

The pre school children also welcomed their toddler friends to pre school over the last couple of weeks and have been helping to settle them in including helping the little ones to find their named drawers to put their art work away. Ollie asked a teacher, “What does Emmy’s name begin with?” When prompting Ollie to sound out the name, Ollie thought for a moment and excitedly called out “I know, E”. Ollie then very helpfully guided Emmy to her drawer for her to put her drawing away. At lunch time, Phoebe was very patiently helping Ethan to self serve his lunch. She explained to him, “First you need two scoops of rice and then two scoops of curry”. Once he had done this process, she guided him where to find the water jug and explained, “Just fill half of your cup so you don’t spill it and then use two hands”. The children have done a very good job at helping to settle the little ones in to their new room.

Story Sacks & Colourful Adventures!

The toddlers have been thoroughly enjoying looking at story sacks recently, in particular the ‘Gruffalo’ and ‘Night Monkey, Day Monkey’. When given the choice of all of the story sacks, Maximilian immediately shouted out “GRUFFALO!” and picked up the Gruffalo character from out of the bag. As the story began, each of the children held the character of their choice in their lap, with Maximilian holding up his Gruffalo again as it made an appearance in the story. Margaux looked through some of the other characters and began making animal sounds, with a “Twoooo” as she held up the owl and a “Ssssss” as she pointed to the snake, even repeating some of their names. The next story chosen was ‘Night Monkey, Day Monkey’ and this story sack was a little bit different, as the children were able to add each of the characters to a story board as they made an appearance. To start with, Sienna asked to put the first monkey character on and after carefully taking her time to place it on she leaned in, pressing her cheek against the monkey while saying “Cuddle”. Cora was up next and attached the bats with a proud smile, while Leo attached the ‘banana shaped moon’ with the comment “Banana in the sky!”.

Outside, the children have been loving the construction area and have enjoyed using the tools throughout the garden. Joseph packed up his tool box and took it to the sand pit where he grabbed a digger which he used to scoop up sand, “I building a house for my friends!”. Leo then began using a truck to do the same thing, digging a big hole to the bottom of the sand pit. Rafe and Arlo used the tools over at one of the tables to build aeroplanes, Arlo commented “I making a big big aeroplane like the one I flied in the sky” referencing paper airplanes he had played with earlier.

Over the last couple of weeks, the under twos have had a wonderful time exploring lots of bright and colourful activities and even learning some colours themselves. They have also been on a trip around the world, from the Arctic to the sunny desert, to see what animals they could find. Inside, the children took part in a sensory activity that included animals in shredded paper. The children took a huge interest right away and began to investigate the shredded paper. Leonardo began picking up huge handfuls of the paper and dropping it on his head, laughing with excitement, whilst Zachary sat himself down, right in the middle of the activity and played with the animals. Although the paper was I intended to be hay, the children began lifting handfuls of it and sprinkling it down onto the floor. Phoebe gasped and said, “Wow, snow!”. With that, she laid herself down, spread out her arms and legs and began making a ‘snow angel’. Her friends found this very funny and all joined in.

Whilst out and about on daily walks, the children have thoroughly enjoyed their trips around the Imber court grounds on their own little adventures, whether that be playing peekaboo in the play house of the playground or exploring nature in the fields. During one trip to the park, Sienna, Cara and Charlotte all head to the play house and ran inside. Each of them found a window, poked out their heads and began saying, “Hiya! Hiya! Hiya!”, as they waved their hands about. As they were saying a kind hello to everybody that walked by, Evelyn drove past in her Little Tikes car, “Beep, beep, beep!”, she said, as she waved back at her friends.