Exploring Computers, Making Art & Finding Ducks!
Over the last couple of weeks, the preschool children have been engaged in lots of ICT role play since developing their ICT area within the preschool room. Freddie and Isabelle sat opposite each other, both pretending to type at their keyboards. Freddie looked around his screen to see Isabelle and started to laugh, before asking, “Are you busy doing your work too?” Isabelle giggled and responded, “Nooo, I don’t do work, silly, I’m just a child, I’m finding my name!”. Isabelle was able to identify lots of the letters from her name when looking at the keyboard. Cooper approached to see what his friends were doing and instantly spotted the numbers at the top of the keyboard and excitedly called out, “That’s 3, for me and there’s my C, C for Cooper”, whilst correctly pointing at the letter c.
The children have also been getting creative and using a variety of materials to help make some wonderful creations to display on the preschool display boards. Some children chose to make a 3d patchwork elephant for the Elmer display, whilst others chose the foam to make some bee pictures to develop the summer board. Arlo particularly enjoyed an observational sunflower painting. He was looking at the colours within the picture and carefully selecting the colours he would like to use for his artwork.
Whilst exploring the nursery grounds, Gabriel had seen some ducks swimming and got the attention of Joseph and Francis, “Look, the ducks are swimming, can you see their feet in the water?”. The boys all started to laugh together and tried to copy the ducks leg motions. Tilly looked to see what they were doing and said, “But you’re not a duck, you’re a human and we swim like this”. She started to show her legs and arm motion which made everyone laugh.
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.
