Feeding Birds & Practicing for the Christmas Concert!
The preschool children have continued to explore nature over the last couple of weeks and have been very keen to ensure that the bird feeders are topped up with seeds, as well as observing the bug houses and nature crates on a daily basis. A group of the children went out to check the nature house with their magnifying glasses and had noticed a bird eating from the bird feeder. The children stood back and quietly watched as the bird sat perched on the bird feeder and ate the remainder of the seeds that were in there. This prompted a group of children to help to fill up the bird feeders, carefully scooping up spoonfuls of seeds and placing them in to the feeders. Whilst sat at the lunch table, a couple of children noticed a magpie and a crow eating the seeds that had fallen on the floor and were very excited that the birds were pecking at the food they had left out. Whilst a group of children were playing in the garden later in the afternoon, they noticed that a flock of birds had formed an arrow shape whilst flying through the sky and soon enough, they were all watching almost in amazement as lots more flocks flew past.
The children have been very busy practicing for their stick man Christmas concert next week and are very excited to perform this to their parents and are on a countdown. The children have been singing the songs throughout the day within their play and have especially been interested in the musical instruments to aid their singing. Some children have been doing performances to each other, whilst others have taken the story a little more serious and been sitting each other down with the book to take it in turns to practice their words.
We look forward to seeing the preschool parents at the concert this coming Wednesday at 4:00pm - more information can be found here.
Families, Fruit and Snow!
Over the last couple of weeks, the preschool children have been engaging in many activities surrounding the focus of “Our families”. A group of children particularly enjoyed a play dough activity, firstly looking at pictures of their families on the family board in preschool and then moulding the dough in to shapes to form themselves and members of their families. Some chose to do mummies and daddies, whilst others chose siblings and some children even tried to mould their pets. The children also enjoyed drawing their own family portraits whilst others chose to use natural resources such as leaves, sticks and pine cones to design 3D families.
A group of preschool children have enjoyed a trip to the local shops this week to purchase fruits to make some fruit kebabs. The children made their lists of favourite fruits before setting off to go to the shops and took their lists with them to be able to find the fruits they would like. Once they had gathered all of the ingredients and placed them in the basket, some of the children were very excited to scan the items through the till, with a couple of children discussing how much money they think they need to pay. Once back at nursery, all of the preschool children enjoyed making their own fruit kebab skewers, selecting the fruits they would like to try.
Outside in the garden, the children fully embraced a snowy morning. Some of the children were so eager to get out in to the snow, they had a little run around in it before returning for their coats to be able to stay out and play in the snow. Some of the children stared up almost in amazement at the sky, letting the snow fall on to their faces, some even opening up their mouths to catch the snowflakes. A couple of the children agreed that it must now be Christmas time because it was snowing!
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!.
