Father's Day Tea Party!
Over the last couple of weeks, the preschool children have been very excited on the build up to the Father’s Day tea party. The children decorated a mug for their dads and made a card. Whilst decorating his mug, Otto asked his friends, “Do you remember when it was a special day for our mummies and we made a flower for them?” Phoebe said, “Oh yes, I remember! That was so beautiful too!”. On the day of the tea party, the children were very excited to make a blueberry muffin for their dads. Esmé said, “My daddy loves cakes so I think he will like this one”. Santi cheekily laughed, “I’m going to eat my daddies one!”. When the fathers turned up to nursery, the children couldn’t wait to show them around to their favourite parts of the garden they would like to play and were giving their daddies tours of the nursery garden. The children were eager to show their dads what they had made for them, especially to give their muffin.
The toddlers were so excited for their daddies to come and play, and to have a tea party! Emily shouted “My daddy coming for party!” and to which Jenson responded, “Yeah! We having a party!” followed by a fist pump and a “Woo!”. As the food was being set up, Cara gasped, understanding that it was nearly time for the daddies to arrive. She excitedly announced, “My daddy, my daddy, MY DADDY!” getting increasingly loud and expressive. Once the Dads started arriving, there were lots of squeals and jolly faces and, after giving their Dads the tour and settling into play, everyone was so happy. Zachary, along with his brother Ethan enjoyed lots of stories with their Daddy in the book corner. While playing in the sand, Leo giggled with glee each time his Daddy pretended to feed him some sand, holding a spoon towards him and saying, “Come on eat it”, causing them both to laugh. Henry took his place in goal and played a game of football with his Daddy, running and diving to try and save the ball. Even a couple of the Dads played football between them! Halle and her dad did laps around the garden, chasing each other round the climbing frames and tables.
The under 2’s loved welcoming their daddies to the nursery for the Father’s Day tea! Isabella quickly sat down with her plate of food and showed her daddy each sandwich and snack she had to eat, before munching away on them! Lydia proudly showed her daddy both the small and big gardens, leading him over to the footballs where she was picking them up and then kicking them across the grass! Just before Lyra’s daddy turned up, she was running around the garden shouting “My daddy, my daddy!”, whilst waiting very patiently. After all the daddy’s turned up, the under 2’s all proudly showed off their room and where to find the toys, as well as exploring the rest of the rooms and the garden!
Exploring the Ocean & Feeding Animals!
Over the last couple of weeks, the toddlers have been exploring ‘under the sea’ as one of their themes, where they have been able to make their own sea creatures and investigate what lives at the bottom of the ocean. They enjoyed exploring a foamy sea themed water tray, with the foam perfectly hiding the sea creatures underneath. When asked to see what they could find, Emily dove both hands and retrieved them, holding up what she found, excitedly commenting, “It’s a crab, a crab!”, Halle pulled out a tiger shark and began singing a low tune of “duh nun, duh nun, duh nun” as she slowly wiggled it in front of her as if it was swimming. Phoebe found a shell and held it up to her ear and gasped, “I can her the ocean”, she then held it out to show her friends and Leo reached for it holding it to his ear and saying, “Hello!”, as if he was on the phone.
Outside, the perfectly rainy weather has only added to the theme and the children have loved searching the puddles for animals they learned about earlier in the week. Sebastian squealed while pointing, which was followed by a shout, “I SEE A JELLYFISH!” as he squatted down over a small puddle. Clara giggled at this and put both hands into the shallow water, “Tickle him! Tickle, tickle!” which caused a chorus of laughs and lots of attempts as splashing in the small puddle. Jenson picked up a seal lion to bring over to the puddle and announced its entrance, “Sea lion RAAWWR!” before bringing it down with an almighty splash!
Over the past two weeks, the children Under 2s have actively participated in lots of imaginative play. At a table where flour was used as a play material alongside toy animals, Lowen approached the table, uttering, "Wow!" as he showed clear intrigue with the setup. He picked up a couple of animals just as Freya approached. Picking up a sheep, she caught Lowen's attention, pointed the sheep's nose down to the table, and made a "Nom, nom, nom!" sound, imitating the sheep eating the flour. Following Freya's example, Lowen, Emilia, and Wilfred all began "feeding" their animals and giggled together amongst lots more “Nom, nom, nom!” sounds.
The children were also very enthusiastic on the daily walks, during which they were able to play with toys they selected to bring and snacks. On one such day, the children selected hoops and footballs. After arriving at the field and having finished their snack, Isabella and Calvin raced to grab a hoop. Isabella placed a hoop over her head and laughed as it fell to the ground, leaving her standing inside it. As Calvin watched her, he pointed and expressed his desire to try. With a little assistance, Calvin managed to place the hoop on his head and let it fall. The children also enjoyed rolling the hoops across the field, watching them roll away or towards their friends.
Writing Skills, Football & Music!
Over the last couple of weeks, the preschool children have been joining in with lots of activities to build on their literacy skills. In the tuff tray, Cooper and India were so excited to discover as many hidden letters as they could possibly find, with Cooper very quickly identifying, “Look, a C for Cooper! That’s for my name!”. This followed quickly by India calling out excitedly, “I found my name too! I for India!”. Freddie was keen to get involved in all of the excitement and after finding the letter F, he went on to find the letters E and D before arranging the letters in a sequence that represented his name. Isla practiced writing her name on the white board, carefully looking at each letter on her name card and then concentrating really hard to make sure she had all of the letters correctly written down. When she had finished, she was eager to show her friends that she was able to write her name and said, “My mummy and Daddy will be so proud”.
Outside in the garden, the preschool children have been practicing their football skills and have loved teaming up to play a football game. After taking it in turns to be the goalkeeper and shooting the ball in to the goal, they were ready to go. Ollie challenged Tilly, “I bet I can shoot the ball into the goal!”, whilst Tilly spread her arms out wide, ready to catch the ball. The ball bounced off Tilly’s legs which made everyone cheer, before Ollie was able to get a second kick and score a goal and the cheers grew louder. The children worked well as teams, celebrating each other with their goals and saves.
The children have also been creative and set up their own music station in the mud kitchen. Using as many different materials as possible to make a variety of sounds, Esme, Marlow and Margaux used the wooden spoons, forks and ladles to make their music and were keen to make as much noise as they could!
