Autumn Walks & Exploring Transport!

Over the last couple of weeks the toddlers have been focused on autumn and also the book of the month ‘Room on the broom’.  Inside the toddlers really enjoyed exploring the sensory tray filled with items from the story, including wands, brooms, bows and a cauldron as well as rice and scoops for potion making. First to head over was Halle who pushed both of her hands into the coloured rice and wiggled her fingers with a great big smile. Sebastian picked up a scoop and filled it with rice, he lifted it over the cauldron and waved it back and forth saying “Shake shake!” making his friends laugh as it flew out in all directions. Sienna took some time to explore the whole tray picking each thing up and looking at it, she picked up a giant Pom Pom and rubbed it on her cheek, closing her eyes and smiling at the soft texture. Imogen used her scoop to collect and place rice in a line along the side of the tray, using a broom to sweep it back in afterwards. Tabitha was so happy when she found a hat that she put it straight onto her head while Finley collected all of the wands and started to wave them in the air he shouted “star”.

Outside, the toddlers had the opportunity go on a beautiful autumn afternoon walk. They decided to stop and sit in the grass and sing some songs; when asked what song they would like to sing Evelyn shouted “Row row!” and the children knew what to do, instantly getting into their own little pairs, holding hands and rocking back and forth. After hearing “If you see a crocodile don’t forget to scream!” the toddlers put their hands to their cheeks and let out a huge scream. All of a sudden they spotted a worm in the grass. Alice picked it up for the children to look at. Phoebe leaned in mesmerised, even reaching out a finger and almost touching it. Marlow came straight over to have a look sitting down next to his friends. Eliza let out a big “Wow!” then held out her hand, bravely and gently holding the worm for her friends to see. Leo was very intrigued but happy to observe from a distance, while Jenson couldn’t stop smiling while pointing at it. The toddlers put the worm back safely and finished their circle time in the sunshine.

Over the last couple of weeks, the under 2’s room has been exploring all things transport and took a sensory trip into space! There was a large range of activities for the children to explore a range of transport methods. After a track was laid out on the floor, the bikes were brought inside and the children had a chance to try to show off their skills! Emily very excitedly shouted ‘Bikes!’ and clapped her hands. Skandar was very keen to have a go, and very carefully tried to manoeuvre round the guidelines on the floor, whilst making lots of ‘hmm’ noises, and giggled happily when he received a round of applause at the end. The children showed off their artistic skills when painting using rollers, to create bright and colourful car tracks on the paper in front of them. Lyra decided she no longer wanted to use the rollers to paint and continued the activity using her hands, smearing paint all over the paper making her very own tyre tracks. 

Outside, the under two’s have been enjoying playing with the cars and the car mat, skilfully manoeuvring the cars around bends and roundabouts. Calvin shouted happily as he picked up all the different cars and began to inspect them, before rolling over and throwing them down into the garden. The children have also loved exploring the grounds on their walks the last couple of weeks and particularly enjoyed playing with the balls on the field. Henry decided he wanted to explore so began to crawl around the grass. After a little while of crawling, Henry no long thought this was the most effective way to move around, so laid himself down and began to roll around. He rolled and rolled until he could roll no more, so he sat up, looked around and found Emily and Theo rolling after him! 

Autumn social!

This week in pre school has been a very exciting week as the children have been looking forward to their parents coming in to nursery for the annual Autumn social. Some of the children have been very creative and working together to make the decorations. Whilst Otto, Sebastian and Joseph engaged in a conker rolling activity, Esme, Freddie and Amelie were leaf printing and once all the art work was complete, they were very proud that their own pictures were being used for the bunting decorations. On the day of the party, the pre school children helped to make some cakes for their parents and siblings, Margot couldn’t wait to show off her egg cracking skills and Ethan concentrated really hard to ensure he got the mixture in to the cases with no spillages. Once the parents arrived, the children eagerly waited for them to be able to take them to their favourite place to play and River told his friends, “This is the best party ever” whilst looking at the bunting decorations in pre school.

The toddlers had a great time showing their mummies and daddies where they play, both inside and out, as well as taking them along the festively lit path at the back of the garden in search of hidden autumnal animals in a game of autumn themed bingo! 

In the build up to the parents coming the children had made some decorations for the event and were very proud to see them be put up. As it was getting closer to the arrival time Marlow, Charlotte, Halle, Margaux and Tabitha all hid under one of the A-frames in excitement, ready to pop out when their parents arrive. As they started arriving the smiles on the children’s faces were undeniable as they greeted them with hugs and kisses. After stopping by the food table for some sandwiches, salad and cake the children were off, leading the way to start the tour. Jenson took his mum and sister through each of the rooms, stopping at the dressing up box to put on one of his favourite outfits before resuming his play, while his sister prepared everyone food in the home corner. Sebastian took his parents outside and over to the balance beams, showing one of his favourite places to play. Phoebe and her grandparents explored the mud kitchen and sand pit working together to make a sand castle. A lot of the children used this time to play with their friends and siblings, Sienna and her brother Freddie sat in the baby room mud kitchen giggling together while Margaux and Charlotte ran up and down the hill together cackling. 

The under 2’s were super excited when welcoming their parents to their room and for many of them, this was their first time having Mummy and Daddy in to play. Many children enjoyed showing their parents the garden and helped search for the bright, orange pumpkins hidden high and low. 

As their parents arrived the children were sat down to have some tea, and they all welcomed their parents with big smiles. After they had finished their party food, the little ones all went off with their mummies and daddies and proudly showed off the nursery and some of their favourite toys. Calvin loved showing his parents the sandpit where they sat together playing with big smiles and Lowen showed off his skills on the trikes! Emily enjoyed playing out in the big garden and showing her mummy around.  Skandar also ventured happily to the big garden and began playing with the preschoolers, showing off his newly learned walking skills! 

Garsons Farm!

The preschool children had a great time at Garsons farm this week. On the morning of the visit, after observing the weather outside and the children noticing it was a little rainy, they were keen to get on their raincoats and wellies. Otto very excitedly let his friends know, “I’m going to jump in very, very big puddles!”. Amelie laughed and said, “But I will find the biggest puddle ever!”. Once on the coach, a chorus of ‘The wheels on the bus’ quickly broke out, followed by the children laughing at how heavy the rain was hitting the windows. When the children arrived at the farm, there was a lot of excitement with them talking about what they could see. Freddie tapped Izzy on the leg and let out a big gasp, “Look, there’s so many pumpkins, there’s big ones, there’s small ones and there’s huge ones!”. The children couldn’t hold their excitement to get closer to the pumpkins and as the coach pulled up right at the start of the pumpkin trail, the children headed straight to the pumpkins they liked the best. River spotted a small green pumpkin, telling Sebastian, “Look at this one, it’s so small and cute”, whilst Emmy found the biggest pumpkin around and attempted to pick it up. 

The children helped to select two large and two medium pumpkins to place in to the wheelbarrow which Jasper put a lot of effort into helping push around. Realising that it was just a little too heavy for him, he looked around and asked, “Who wants to help me, my muscles aren’t strong enough yet”. With the help of a few friends, they pushed the wheelbarrow to the next pumpkin to take back to nursery. Otto counted down “3, 2, 1, Go!” and with a collective heave, Otto, Isabelle, Jasper and River helped each other to lift the pumpkin into the wheelbarrow.

Once the children were happy with their selection, it was time to go through to the trail which consisted of distorting mirrors, reflective words and a variety of scenes throughout. Ollie loved a game of toss the bean bag in to the pumpkin holes whilst Arlo and Sadie sat themselves down for a game of large scale noughts and crosses. The rain didn’t put the children off, they were very excited to put their wellies to full use and find as many puddles as they could on the way back to the coach, Amelie reminding everyone, “I told you we could find big puddles at the farm”. As they approached the coach, Tilly asked, “Can we take the pumpkins back to nursery to show our friends?” And hearing the answer was yes, she jumped up and down, telling Ollie, “Our friends will love them!”. 

Once back at nursery, the children enjoyed getting involved in many activities including deseeding the pumpkins whilst exploring the different textures within the pumpkin. Harry wasn’t sure, but was encouraging the children around him, “Feel it, it feels a bit funny”. Some of the children enjoyed making their own pumpkin soup at the mud kitchen whilst others chose to draw their own pumpkin pictures whilst observing them. 

Planting & Harvesting Vegetables!

Over the last couple of weeks, the preschool children have been helping to sow some winter vegetable seeds such as onions, garlic and spring onions into the vegetable patch. Freddie, Amelie, Esmé and Isabelle were very eager to help out, asking each time a new seed was ready to be planted, “Where do these seeds need to go?” After watching a teacher use just one finger to make a line for the seeds to go in, Esmé did just the same a few centimetres over and Freddie, Isabelle and Amelie followed the same process. Once all the seeds were in place, the most fun part for the children was to get their hands as messy as they could whilst burying the seeds with the over flowing soil. Each morning the children have gone to the garden, they haven’t forgotten to water the vegetable patch and after a lot of rain, Otto suggested, “Maybe the rain water will feed our vegetables instead?” 

The children also helped picking the vegetables such as tomatoes and a large marrow that they had grown over the summer. They all had turns in holding the marrow and feeling the texture. River took hold of it when it was his turn and laughed saying, “Its very heavy but I have got big muscles so it’s ok for me”. Passing it on to Izzy, she very quickly pushed it along and said, “It feels a bit funny to me”. Once the children had finished looking at the marrow, India used the measuring tape and told her friends, “It’s 11 long”. The children then enjoyed taking it to the mud kitchen, chopping it and using it to cook a “Marrow Pie”. 

The letter of the week was W and the children loved engaging in a letter hunt game inside preschool and outside in the garden where they were finding hidden letters and words beginning with W. Watering can was one of the hidden words and when Sebastian found it, he recognised the letter W and ran straight over to a teacher to ask what the word said. He then moved straight on to the gardening area and was showing Joshua and Jasper he had found the word watering can and paired it with the actual watering can. 

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.