Learning with Music & Sounds!
Over the last couple of weeks the preschool children have been taking part in many activities around the focus of music. A group of children enjoyed decorating and using various resources such as cardboard boxes, glove boxes and straws to make their own drums, guitars, flutes and xylophones, whilst others enjoyed listening to a variety of different clips of music from around the world. Whilst playing in the mud kitchen, a couple of the children had discovered that banging a rolling pin on to a saucepan made a noise and very quickly gained the attention of several other children who soon had the spoons, trays, colanders and cake tins out, making music of their own. Some of the children went on to singing songs whilst their friends carried on with making music. The children also enjoyed many dance parties throughout the week.
The children carried on their interest of sounds whilst out on walks around the grounds and playing in the garden. A group of children lay down in the garden and were being as quiet as they possibly could to listen out for natural sounds around them. Some detected birds whilst other excitedly called out, “Aeroplane” each time one flew over. Whilst out on a walk, more aeroplanes, birds and tractors could be heard by the children and they were very excited to announce to each other each time a new sound came about!
Making Marks, Exciting Walks & Dinosaurs!
The toddlers were very shocked one morning when they walked into the room to see that some dinosaurs had made a mess in the home corner and were eating the food! A couple of children joined the dinosaurs at the table and began passing food back and forth to each other while feeding some to the dinosaurs, meanwhile others explored the other dinosaurs having a bath in the home corner sink.
On one of the toddlers walks around the Imber Court grounds the children were on the hunt for sticks, leaves and pinecones to bring back to nursery for the nature tray in toddler room. They gathered bagfuls of natural items before stopping on the field and laying down a mat to sit and play with some play dough that they could add some of their collected items into. Several of children began adding sticks to their piles of dough, pressing them in vertically like candles in a cake, while other children rolled in leaves and pine cones. A couple of toddlers enjoyed squeezing the dough as hard as they could, using both hands and shaking with the amount of effort they put in! Once the children had finished playing with the dough they cleaned their hands independently before running around on the field.
Over the last couple of week in the Under Two’s Room the children have been very busy playing, exploring and getting to know their new friends that have joined. Inside, small groups have been taking part in various mark making activities, one of which was the chalk drawing on a builder tray. The children found themselves a space on the builders tray and sat down, picking up a chalk egg as they did. Some of the children chose to lift the chalk high into the sky and then bang it back down shouting “BANG, BANG!”, as they did, creating unique marks. Others chose to manoeuvre the chalk in swirls, lines and other shapes around the tray.
Outside, the children have become builders, using teamwork to crate tall towers using foam bricks. They have also become keen investigators as they have searched for hidden objects in the sand. The children chose to use a selection of sand pit tools such as spades and scoops. Alexandra used a scoop and found a toy buried deep below the sand. As she pulled it out, she gasped and said, “Ohhh!”, smiling at her friends. On our daily walks, the children have been doing a lot of running, whether that be chasing after balls, hoops or taking part in running races. On one of our walks, after snack time the children got out the footballs. Emilia would throw one as far as she could and shout, “Ball, ball, ball!”, as she ran after it. Cassie crawled around the grass, exploring the texture as she pulled some out and placed it between both hands. As it fell through her hands back onto the grass she let out an excitable noise as she laughed.
Sun, Storms & Senses!
Recently the toddlers have been intrigued by the change weather, going from having to wear sun cream to now needing to put on waterproofs and wellies! A small group of children heard some “rumbles” of thunder and sat along the the patio door to watch and listen to the rain, as well as the rumbles and flashes of lightning until the storm had finished. Once the rain began again with the absence of thunder and lightning, the children got their waterproofs on and were off exploring the garden. A small group found a drip coming through the sand pit shelter and began catching it with their hands and laughing as the drops made a funny sound plopping on the hoods of their coats. One by one they began picking up items to collect the rain in, gathering buckets, jugs, cups and sand moulds letting the drips fill their pots and pouring them out into a big bucket. Another group made their way to the growing area where they explored the feel of the tomato plant leaves as well as the smell, and began searching for tomatoes they could see along the vines. When a few more children approached with some small world animals, they all pretended the animals were having a snack on the tomatoes, making lots of “num num num” sounds. In between the rainy spells, a couple of children were enjoying catching bubbles in the sunshine, running around, giggling and popping them; some children were using their hands while others tried to use their elbows, toes and heads!
Over the last couple of weeks the under 2’s have loved their garden time in the sunshine! The children loved building towers using the foam blocks, and then happily knocking them over when they got tall enough. Zakariya counted the blocks out as he build the tower and when he got to 7 blocks Isabella came running through to knock it down, making Zavier giggle and clap his hands, and Zakariya shout ‘Isabella!’ whilst laughing. After the children had enough of building towers, the bubbles came out and they happily began to run round the garden trying to catch them. Hope wandered over and let out a cheerful ‘Hi!’, indicating she’d like more bubbles, and happily clapped her hands together to catch the bubbles when they flew above her head.
Inside, the children loved exploring the sensory light crosses and seeing what colours they could find. Freya ran over excitedly, shouting out “Yay!” and picking up two of them, before running over to some of her friends and kindly handing them over, showing off her sharing skills! The children all sat together in a group, and with a bit of help they began to name the colours of the lights that they were turning on and off.
