Bathing babies

We explored our caring side by caring for the baby dolls. Everyone handled the dolls with care, gently bathing and drying them.

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A bit of sparkle makes everything better

Glue, glitter and sequins kept the boys and girls busy for a long time.

Gym time

We are so lucky to have access to the school gym hall, all of the children love this treat and often request to visit daily. They have been developing their balance and control with a ball; throwing, kicking and rolling.

We love a sing song

The song box has proved popular lately; children take turns choosing a prop from inside the “song box” and singing the song which is represented by the prop.

Sorting and matching

The chestnut children love to organize and sort objects.

Sorting bears by colour.

Sorting and matching numbers.

Matching pairs with memory games.

Tuesday

Wednesday: sink or float

We were challenged to predict the properties of each object on the tray, determine will it sink or float?

Some of the results surprised us.

It was serious science!

We recorded our findings.

Thursday

We have prioritised emotions as our first topic of the term. There have been lots of changes in routine, family dynamics and friendship groups. We feel introducing the core emotions and why we feel a particular way will help all of the children regulate, manage and support each other through challenging emotions.

“I feel funny”

Acknowledging, that it is okay to feel angry or sad

“Angry…..grrr”

Mirrors help us see what each emotion looks like on our faces.

Friends make our days brighter. There have been lots of new friendships blossoming this week.

Friends who love bugs.

Friends that love to play pretend. “I’m the Mummy and you’re the baby “

The Orangutans listened to the story of the Worry Monster. A snuggle from the monster definitely helped put smiles on some faces.

“Make you happy”

Our rights

The children helped to design our charter of rights. We made a wall display with all of our hands together with the quotes from the children. We discussed our right to be safe, to learn, to play, to rest and to have privacy.

The right to rest proved most popular.

Risk assessing our environment

The children loved taking responsibility for removing any tiny pieces of glass the had accidentally fell into the mud kitchen after a glass pot lid smashed last week. We discussed the importance of keeping ourselves and others safe, not using our hands or fingers to pick up sharp objects. The Eagle eyes of my team pointed out littles pieces as soon as they had been found then an adult removed each piece safely. A couple of children solved this problem by picking up the chunks using a shovel or spoon which protected them from danger. Fantastic work team Chestnut

We used magnifying glasses to see the smallest most tiny pieces and picked them up using spoons and spades. “Don’t use your hands cause it could cut you” ” It’s sharp”

“I found one…..don’t touch it”

We loved helping and being responsible.

We have the right to play in a safe space.

“I found treasure”

I had the best helpers, their attention to detail and ability to find the smallest pieces of glass is fantastic.

We worked together as a team, helping our younger friends follow instructions safely.

We needed to get a closer look at all the tiny pieces of glass we had found.

Bug hunting

The children have all settled back to the new routine. Outdoors has been most popular and hunting for bugs has been a priority.

“What is a worm” “Let’s find caterpillars” “I want to find

Sharing our new room with old friends

“We have a kitchen, remote controls and building stuff”

“Do you want to see my room”

It’s time to party 🥳

Still life: Fruit

The children used the fruit basket as inspiration for oil pastel pictures.

Drawing around the fruit became popular.

Harvesting Potatoes 

Washing the potatoes

Boiling the potatoes

Chopping the potatoes

Cutting the spring onions and chives

Tasting our delicious potato salad

Caterpillars munched our Brussel sprout plant 🐛

The children were amazed at how many green caterpillars had set up home in the planter. We counted at least 22 little cuties. We plan to monitor them Dail to observe any changes.

Technology helps with research

Some of the boys wanted to find out what kind of caterpillars we had found, which then led to spiders, grasshoppers, beetles and then snakes. Their use of vocabulary was fantastic as they shared their knowledge.

We replanted herbs

We repotted chives,  mint and parsley to use in our future cooking and sensory play.

Tasting crops

Not many of our vegetable crops are ready for eating,  however the lettuce proved popular to taste, touch and smell.

Finding little shelled visitors proved to spark conversation and a new bug hunt. 🐌

Turn taking

Some of the children played a simplified game of “Uno”. They listened and followed instructions and most importantly waited patiently for their turn to play.

Perfecting new skills

We have had beautiful writing and skillful cutting.

Not to mention imaginative drawings 🍑

“A bum!!”

Preparations for our stay and play session

We always have time for exercise and a boogie 🎶

Building friendships

The dinosaurs have proved popular helping our friends share and interact in conversation.

Stay and play fun

Insects invitation

Soil, sand, logs and planting made a realistic environment for toy mini beasts. The children used lots of rich vocabulary and shared their knowledge with each other.

Bug hunts galore

Everyday there has been many requests: “let’s look for bugs” “I want to find snails” “I want to find a colony of bees”.

Still life: flowers 🌼🥀🌱

Painting flowers from our garden. The children discussed the colour and texture of each flower and stem. Although some took the term ” paint the flowers ” literally; adding splashes of colours to the real flowers.

Scones please

A large group of children helped to make scones; they followed the recipe and carefully weighed each ingredient.

New skills and vocabulary

The children helped to strip a bike using various sized spanners. They were introduced to lots of new words: wheel, pedal, chain, spanner, bolt and tyres.

Getting our exercise in

We were lucky to borrow the gymnastic apparatus from the school; the children engage well in physical challenges.

There were monkeys galore.

Invitation to play

Using herbs, leaves and flowers from the garden the children have the opportunity to explore their sense of touch, smell and sight with play dough.

“Smells funny”

“They look like peas”

“Cookies, with faces”

Sunny walks to the park

We took advantage of the wonderful weather; we walked to the local park through the Bellfield Estate.

We met Dayna and baby Harvey while walking to the park. Some of the children pushed him on the swing.

 

Alfresco Lunch