Exploring Nature and Changing Seasons!

Recently, the toddlers have been exploring the theme of autumn and the changes in the environment around us. They have been searching the garden and Imber Court grounds for leaves of different colours, conkers, pine cones and sticks, all to bring back to nursery to further investigate. When some of these items were frozen into balls and blocks of ice, a group of children immediately began investigating, touching the ice tentatively with their fingers, while a few were brave enough to pick the smaller blocks up with both hands, shivering with the sensation. When Madeline tried to pick up a large block of ice she held it with both hands and said, “Ugh it’s so heavy!”, Theo watched on and began lifting the ice up too, grunting with exertion. As the ice started to melt away and the natural items began to partially reveal themselves, some of the toddlers tried plucking them out, using their nails to scratch away the remaining ice or using large pieces of bark as a hammer, tapping on the edges. 

It was the perfectly windy day for a group of children to go on a listening walk around the grounds to see what they could hear! As they made it onto a field a big gust of wind blew, causing leaves to rustle and their hair to be blown in all different directions, causing a few giggles and “Woah’s!”. They caught the sound of some birds chirping in a nearby tree as well as a tractor going past. When the toddlers came across a collection of small fallen branches with leaves on the end, they decided that they made the perfect musical instruments! The children each picked up a branch and began waving it in the air, creating a rustling sound as the leaves on the ends shook with the movement. The wind blew, creating even more rustling amongst the trees and creating a chorus of sound!

Over the last couple of the weeks, the under 2s have joined in with lots of sensory and art activities, as well as activities to work on their fine and gross motor skills. 

Inside, the children got stuck in with some painting on cardboard boxes which were laid out around the room. A group of the children grabbed their paintbrushes, ready to show off their painting skills! They ran between each box, dabbing and swiping their brushes on the cardboard, and proudly showing off to each other the pictures they had created. The children also joined in with a singalong session within a ‘sensory cave’ filled with coloured scarves, teddies and sensory lights. They happily joined in with all the actions to their favourite songs including ‘baa baa black sheep’, ‘I had a little turtle’, and ‘row, row, row your boat’. 

Out in the garden, a group of the children loved exploring the messy tray set up with some dinosaurs and some trimmings from the herb garden. They came over quickly to investigate the activity and eagerly reached forwards to grab the different herbs, before squeezing them between their fingers and realising they had a smell! The children then showed off their great knowledge of dinosaurs by stomping them on the table and shouting out lots of “Roars!”. Another activity involved cardboard tubes laid out on the table where the children could clip pegs onto the top of the cardboard. The children wandered over and began to look at the pegs with curiosity. They were shown how to clip the pegs onto the tubes, however they decided to create their own game between them, and began to see how many they could drop into the pipes before lifting them up to watch them all fall out! A member of staff then went to get some lollipop sticks which they could use to continue their game, which was met with a round of applause. 

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. 

Busy spiders!

Over the last couple of weeks, the pre school children have been engaging in many activities around the new book of the month story which is ‘The Very Busy Spider’. Some of the children engaged themselves in an insect making play dough activity, using various items to add to their moulds. A few children used pipe cleaners for spiders legs whist other used Pom Poms for the caterpillars body. Adding some flour to the mix, some of the children pretended this was snow and they made play dough blankets for their insects to keep “Nice and warm”. Outside in the garden, a group of pre schoolers went on an insect hunt, using the magnifying glasses to take a closer look. Soothe children separated off, some of them heading over to the tree house to look underneath, whilst some others headed over to the nature area to check the bug houses. After finding a small spider in one of the nature crates, the nature area became the main area where all of the children gathered together, encouraging each other to search under logs and stones. 

The children have continued to enjoy their walks, exploring the nursery grounds including visiting the horses which they love to do daily. They were very excited when they had the opportunity to take a closer look at one of the tractors. They stood back, staring up, with one of the children letting out a, “Wow” with a big smile to go with it. The children love to explore the biggest puddles they can possibly find and we’re marching through the puddles, one by one, whilst singing, “The ants go marching one by one”. The song continued once the children were back to the nursery garden and soon enough there was a trail of children around the garden, all joining in with the song and laughing together.

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.