Fun with Lights & Rainy Play!

Over the last couple of weeks, the toddlers have been exploring light play with light up toys, torches and fairy lights. As the afternoons have darkened, the children have started taking notice, asking if the moon was coming out and if it was ‘night time’ as they pointed towards the darker skies through the patio doors. When a cosy den was set up with stories, light up toys and torches - a couple of children crawled their way in and settled on the cushions, flicking through some of their favourite stories, using the torchlight to look at the pages. Another group were over in the home corner, situated at the table and using some of the light up toys to build a tower, balancing them on top of one another and giggling as it toppled over, their faces lit up by the colourful glow. 

With the change in weather recently, the toddlers have been loving playing in the rain, excitedly grabbing their waterproofs and helping to put their own wellies on before setting off. A couple of children ran out to the open space in the garden and paused, with their arms out by their sides catching the droplets in their hands, one with their face tilted up and mouth open, deciding to catch the rain with their mouth. Meanwhile, another group of children made their way over to where a small puddle had formed and began splashing. As they stomped and splashed it turned into a dance party as some began nodding their heads and wagging their fingers while others wiggled their hips and span in circles. 

Over the last couple of weeks, the under twos have loved exploring creative activities with a range of textures and materials. One activity the children particularly enjoyed getting their hands dirty in was mud painting! They all quickly made their way over to explore the pots and brushes which had been laid out on the table, and a few of the children let their excitement be known through a chorus of “Wow!” and “Ooh!”, and clapping. One by one they reached for the variety of brushes which had been placed out, and dunked them straight into the pots of mud. They began to brush strokes across the paper, creating lines and beautiful pictures, before delving their hands into the mud and squeezing their fists together, giggling as the mud squished out through their fingers! 

The under twos have also really enjoyed discovering the different texture of wet and dry sand in the garden, and seeing the difference it makes when trying to build a sandcastle. When one of the children filled up a bucket of dry sand and tipped it upside down, they gasped as all the sand fell back into a pile and clasped their hands to their cheeks in shock. A few other children watched with curiosity, as the sand at the other end of the sand pit was wet, and clapped excitedly when the sandcastle stayed in place when the bucket was turned upside down. This led to the children all copying using the wet sand, and lots of happy giggles as the castles and moulds all stayed in place when the children tipped them out! The children also loved seeing what nature they could find in the garden, using their eyes alone as well as magnifying glasses to get a closer look at the plants and nature. When one of the children let out an excited shout, a couple others made their way over to investigate, and clapped happily when they discovered it was a ladybird! After a member of staff picked it up, the children all peered over to get a better look and making sure not to scare their new friend!. 

Measuring, Shopping & Cooking!

Over the last couple of weeks, the preschool children have been engaging in lots of baking activities and have had the opportunity to be able to measure out their own ingredients before cooking. A group of children took particular interest in to how many grams of each ingredient they would need, where as some of the other children were eager to get straight into the messy part and excitedly mixed all of the ingredients together in their bowl. Before one of the cooking activities, a group of children sat together to design a shopping list which included all of the ingredients they would need as they were looking at the recipe card. They then took this list to the local shop and were very excited to be able to find the items needed, place them in the basket and go on to pay for them and bag the items up. Some of the children looked carefully at the labels on the shelves, noticing a price tag and were able to identify the numbers. At checkout, the children were confident to scan the bar code and were working as a team to scan and bag the shopping. 

As the darker nights have been drawing in earlier, the children have been observing the sunsets through the windows and patio doors during tea time. One evening, the children very quickly identified that the sky had turned pink and were very eager to go outside and see it. The children took torches and sensory lights outside with them and watched almost in amazement as the sky turned from pink, to purple and then to dark skies. Returning to finish their tea, some of the children went on to discuss how lovely the sky looked and why they thought it could change to different colours. 

Playing with Magic, Brooms and Shadows!

Recently, the toddlers have been looking at Octobers book of the month, Room on the Broom, as well as the event of Halloween. They were able to search the Imber Court grounds for items to add to their cauldron back at nursery, some children selecting leaves while others found pine cones and the green and brown shells of conkers. Once they were brought back to nursery and added to the cauldron, a small group of children began mixing up their concoctions, using ice cream scoops, spoons and ladles while giving it their best go at saying the spell from the story, “Iggety ziggaty zaggety zoom”! A couple of children enjoyed looking at the story sack, playing with all of the different characters from the story and looking in at the book. While one child pointed out the dragon and gave a mighty roar, another child pointed to the frog and began jumping on the spot saying, “Ribbet ribbet!”. Once the page was turned to show all of the characters on the broom, one of the toddlers went and retrieved a broom from the home corner and placed it on the table where they then, along with the other children at the table, placed all of the characters on top, emulating the scene from the story perfectly!

In the garden, a group of toddlers were enamoured with the new periscopes that were added near the sandpit, bending down to have a look through at their friends across the garden. This was a perfect opportunity for them to search the skies and garden for dogs, cats, frogs, birds and dragons from the story. When one of the children called out, “Ahh a dragon… I see it!” and pointed to the end of the garden, inciting squeals and choruses of “Dragon!” as they ran around the garden. 

Over the last couple of weeks in the Under 2s room, the children have been exploring all of the different things Autumn has had to offer. Whilst out and about on daily walks, the children were always eager to get out of the buggies and begin their adventure. Some of the children have enjoyed searching for loose parts such as sticks, conkers, pine cones and giant leaves whilst others have chosen to explore the willow trees on site. A small group of children held onto the long branches of the tree and began waving them around, letting out little giggles in excitement. Other children chose to play amongst a huge pile of fallen leaves, admiring the many colours they had to offer. Some of the children began to scoop up the leaves in their hands, throw them into the air and jump around as they fell around them. 

Whilst indoors, the children have been mark making on giant leaves in order to create some autumnal bunting which is now proudly hung up in the Under 2s room. The children chose from paint pens, chalk and paint to decorate their leaves. Throughout this activity, the children were comparing and learning from each other. One child picked up their leaf, held it in the air and said, “leaf, leaf”. This caught on and many other children did the same thing and attempted the word, ‘leaf’. 

As the evenings get darker and cosier, the children have been enjoying the sensory room, lit up with calming colours and lots of things to explore. The children began looking around at each other and back at the wall, letting out calm ‘ohhh’ and ‘ahh’ sounds as the lights were turned on and they lit up the room. They moved their bodies around as they watched their dancing shadows appear on the wall and giggled together. Some of the smaller children chose to sit and play with glow up sensory shakers which they rolled, shook and held up to their faces to watch the glowing colours. The children also took part in a circle time, during which they sang Zoom, Zoom, Zoom and Twinkle Twinkle and followed along with the actions the best they could. 

Falling Leaves & Recycling!

Over the last couple of weeks, the preschool children have been observing the change of seasons and have been tracking the development of the leaf colour changing process that is taking place. Each day, the children have been going to check on the trees in the garden with a couple of the children noticing that, after a weekend, one of the trees in the garden had suddenly started to turn orange and red. A small group of children collected the leaves that had fallen from the trees on to the floor and gathered them in to small piles to make homes for the insect toys. Whilst out exploring the nursery grounds and making note of as many different colour leaves they could find, the children came across a tree which had lots of leaves fallen. They could not wait to run through the leaves, giggling away and throwing huge handfuls up in to the air and feeling them fall down on their heads and faces. 

The children have also been learning about the importance of disposing of rubbish correctly and the affects it has on the environment and they engaged in activity to identify which items can be disposed of in a rubbish bin and which items can be recycled. A group of the children instigated their own conversation over a lunch time, and were quizzing each other on which item they think was for the recycling and which item was for the rubbish bin. Whilst engaging in a literacy activity, some of the children were able to identify letters within their names that they could find on the letter stamps with a couple of the children collecting all of the letters they could remember from their names and then sequencing them correctly to be able to spell out their whole name. 

Autumn Social Event!

The pre school children have been very excited on the build up to the autumn social with many of them discussing the event throughout the week. Some of the children were eager to invite their mums and dads and some grandparents in to nursery, whilst others could not wait for their older siblings to come and play at nursery. Whilst getting ready for families to arrive, some of the pre school children got ahead of the autumn bingo activity and were on the search for pictures of foxes, hedgehogs, pine cones and leaves which were hidden all around the garden. Whilst on a hunt around the garden to find all things autumn - themed, a group of children sat down together in the sand pit, discussing how excited they were for the party and what areas of the garden they would like to show their families. 

 Once families started to arrive, the children were keen to set off to the garden, some children joined in with autumn bingo whilst others enjoyed a football game together including inviting parents to also play. The children also enjoyed showing their families some of the pumpkins that the children had selected at Garsons farm for the autumn social event. 

The toddlers were so excited for their mummies and daddies to come and see where they play, with quite a few brining up the afternoons “party” throughout the morning. Once parents started arriving the smiles were beaming and constant with lots of laughter and happy sounds being heard across the rooms and garden. A couple of children played a few games of football with their parents on the grass while others followed the colourful lights around the back trail of the garden searching for hidden autumnal animals and items in a game of autumn bingo. A group of dads built sandcastles with an audience of their children over in the sandpit while a smaller group of children and siblings challenged themselves with the balance beams and tunnels, being encouraged by mum and grandma who watched on with a plate of tasty party food. After finishing their sandwiches and fruit a small group of toddlers gathered for a story around the ‘campfire’ scene in toddler room with lots of smiles and full tummies!

The under 2s loved having their mummy’s and daddy’s come and visit them at nursery! The children were all really keen to show them around the room and the garden, with lots of the children showing off the toys they were playing with as their parents arrived. They also loved exploring the garden with their parents, and showing them their skills with footballs as they aimed kicks towards the goal. As each of the children received their plate of party food, they were so excited to show off what different things they had picked up, with a few of the children even sharing their food with each other and members of staff! After tucking into their sandwiches and snacks, the children all played with their friends and then cheerfully waved goodbye as the party came to an end!