I n d o o r s –

This week in the ECC the children have been exploring Christmas resources and learning experiences. The home corner has been changed into Santa’s Christmas house where the children have been role playing and using their imagination whilst exploring a variety of different resources and materials. The children have continued to explore winter animals in the small world area and their habitats. The children then incorporated a train track into the small world area and were transporting the animals via the trains. Some children have shown an interest in using the construction materials to build their interpretation of Santa’s house.

In the creative area the children have been exploring patters using a variety of Christmas shapes. The children have also been building upon their scissor control too.

The children had the opportunity to decorate the Christmas tree in the ECC.

O u t d o o r s –

This week the children have enjoyed exploring small world space outdoors. Our theme this week was a winter wonderland after child interest in Christmas and the frost outside. The children created a train track, train station and even decorated their own outdoor Christmas tree. The children enjoyed role playing in this space and exploring the different trains we had.

The children have also been exploring the concept of capacity and forces in the water tray. They built their very own “water slide” to see how fast the water would go and if it would fill up different sizes of pots. The children shown their ability to work in a team, helping each other build different parts of the water slides with various pipes and loose parts. The children explored capacity and were able to identify containers which were full and empty. The children were further challenged to add different heights of pipes to see how it would change the way in which the water would move. It did change the outcome with the water either moving slowly or too fast falling out of the pipe. We will continue to explore the language around capacity and forces within the water tray.

I n d o o r s –

This week the children have been exploring and discussing the change in the weather, snow and ice and have been interested in exploring winter animals. The small world area was adapted in terms of children’s interests and a variety of loose parts and winter animals were added. The children began exploring the habitats of winter animals using the internet as a form of research to explore the variety of winter animals around the world and where they live. Some children also participated in penguin dancing on the board.

We also had an author visit the ECC this week where she shared her story all about litter picking and helping the environment. She also left us with a bank of resources to use in the community and help look after our environment.

O u t d o o r s –

This week outdoors the children have been interested in exploring using the pipes and cars. A challenge provocation was added in order to extend children’s problem solving skills using data handling. The children had to measure and count how many times their car won the race.

We also participated in ‘Mauchline Shines’ day on Thursday as we received our gold Rights Respecting Schools Award. We had a joint party outdoors with the primary ones.

Links to the Curriculum; Health and Wellbeing, Numeracy, Social Studies.

Have a lovely weekend everyone, Cara.

I n d o o r s –

This week in the ECC the children have been using their imagination to role play in the salon. Their role play has extended into construction, building castles and acting out the role of a king, queen and princess etc.
Some children noted the change in their weather this week and the temperature drop. We added snow and snow animals into the small world area.

As part of rhyme time the children recited a variety of different nursery rhymes and completed rhyme games on the promethean board.

Outdoors this week the children have been exploring initial sounds in words and have been exploring initial sound objects and sorting by initial sound. The children have also been exploring babies outdoors and how to care for a baby.

Links to the curriculum; Health and Well-being, Social Studies, Literacy.

I n d o o r s – 

This week we have been exploring bonfire night. The children have been exploring fireworks and the movement and sound fireworks make. A main focus was safety around fireworks and how to keep safe during bonfire night. In the creative area the children have been creating their own patterns and mixing of colours.

Links to the Curriculum; Science, Health and Wellbeing, Expressive Arts, Literacy.

O u t d o o r s – 

This week we have exploring colour mixing using spray bottles and developing our fine motor skills. The children also created firework pictures using salt and glue and colour mixing to see the effect they could create. The children were also using internet to research different fireworks and what they may look like.

Links to the Curriculum; Science, Expressive Arts, Literacy.

Have a lovely weekend everyone, Cara x

I n d o o r s –

This week in the ECC we have been exploring all things Halloween. Focusing on fine motor skills there was some challenges set up where the children had to attempt to get the spiders from the webs using tweezers, scoop out eyeballs from the water tray and also design their own spiders. Many children explored a variety of Halloween stories in the ECC, sharing these with their peers.

Links to the Curriculum; Literacy, Science, Expressive Arts.

O u t d o o r s –

Outdoors this week the children have been exploring sensory experiences using their senses- pumpkins 🎃.  They have also been exploring imaginative play through Halloween characters.

Most children were aware of the aspects of Halloween; fictional characters, creating spooky houses using the construction materials and exploring spooky tales 👻.

Links to the Curriculum; Literacy, Technology, Health and Well-being and Social Studies.

Thank you to all the parents who attended the ECC Halloween Stay and Play Sessions we hope you enjoyed 🎃.

ECC Halloween Party 🎃 👻

I n d o o r s-

This week in the ECC we have continued to explore the children’s interest of building and constructing their own designs. Further construction materials were added to provide depth in children’s learning.

In the creative area we have continued to create our own mosaic houses as well as exploring junk modelling where they are developing their manipulative skills.

Some of the children attended the community garden where they harvest the pumpkins that we had grown and are now decorating these which will be on display at the Community pumpkin trail on 1st November.

Links to the Curriculum; Technology, Science, Expressive Arts.

O u t d o o r s-

The children have continued to explore different aspects of autumn. The children explored a sensory experience and made their own autumn playdough. Some children were interested in discussing the changes in the weather and what happens in autumn. Descriptive language was evident throughout.

Spontaneous learning this week the children created their own mud pies in the mud kitchen and have seemed to enjoy exploring in the water tray, exploring floating and sinking.

Links to the Curriculum; Science, Social Studies.

Have a lovely weekend everyone, Cara.

I n d o o r s –

This week in the ECC the children have been using ICT to explore the structural components acquired to build a house or a building. The children have been drawing their own building, incorporating different shapes and sizes. These are displayed on our ECC learning wall.
The children were also discussing the workers that may be involved to build a house and looking at different shaped roofs on houses. Many children were able to construct their own design of a house with detail.

Links to the Curriculum; Technology, Health and well-being, Literacy.

O u t d o o r s –

The children were exploring the season of autumn, they created their own autumn tea using loose parts and natural materials.
Some children also explored printing using fir cones and a variety of autumn colours 🍂 .
Some children were using technology to investigate why the leaves turn brown and red in autumn.

Links to the Curriculum; Science, Technology, Expressive Arts.

Have  lovely October holiday everyone, Cara.

I n d o o r s-

This week in the ECC the children have been exploring the role of an architect in more detail, exploring floorplans, the roles of an architect and a builder. The children explored a variety of different buildings and the concepts of a building. This has expanded out to building famous landmarks in Scotland.

The children seemed to enjoy using google earth to search for their own house, using their sense of direction, street views of Mauchline and comparing their houses with their peers. The children were also interested in their door numbers and street names.

This week in the creative the children were exploring different textures and resources to design their own houses.

Links to the curriculum; Technology, Numeracy, Health and Wellbeing, Expressive Arts.

O u t d o o r s –

This week outdoors the children continued to explore numbers outdoors where they were challenged in different activities and further developed their knowledge of numbers.

The children were exploring their physical skills in terms of risky play, they built their own obstacle course which explored balancing, turn taking, team work, perseverance, resilience and risk.

This was then extended using tyres where the children started then began designing and constructing their own tower, rockets and dens. This has been extended through staff support with measuring how tall each tower was.

Children also had the opportunity to explore pouring and filling, different textures and sharing/turn taking and waiting their turn.

We had a donation of horse shoes where the children began decorating them in order to create a fairy garden outdoors.

Links to the Curriculum; Health and Wellbeing, Numeracy, Technology, Science.

Have a lovely weekend everyone, Cara.

I n d o o r s –

This week in the ECC the children have been interested in building and creating their own houses. They have been looking at the architecture of a house, the different materials used to build a house and different house types. The children have had the opportunity to use a variety of materials to construct their own designs, using descriptive language throughout.

Links to the Curriculum; Technology, Health and Well-being.

O u t d o o r s –

This week the children have been exploring in the mud kitchen using loose parts, making their own recipes and focusing on how items may change consistencies and some children even used herbs from the outdoor garden.
The children have also been exploring forces in the water and using the large pipes and measuring equipment.
Some children have shown an interest in numbers outdoors, participating in number hunts with their peers and completing number challenges.

We also visited the community garden to see the progress of our pumpkins.

Links to the Curriculum; Health and Well-being, Science, Numeracy.

Have a lovely weekend everyone, Cara.

I n d o o r s –

This week the children have been further exploring the characteristics of a castle, exploring the structure of a castle and the materials used to build a castle. The children have also been exploring block play further, introducing large blocks which provided depth to their learning in terms of constructing their own designs and utilising their imagination and problem solving skills. The children also used ICT to research castles for inspiration. Some children explored the fantasy aspects of castles, exploring potion making in the water tray and adding their own materials and herbs from the outdoor garden.

The children made their own stained glass windows where they looked at shape, colour and design. These are how displayed in the ECC. Some children also made their own shields, marking making with control to design their shields.

Links to the Curriculum; Expressive Arts, Literacy, Numeracy, Technology, Science.

O u t d o o r s –

The children have continued to explore pirates outdoors, building their own pirate ships and ‘walking the plank’. We have started to introduce the concept of treasure and what this might mean to others. Next week we will explore this further to provide depth in children’s learning.

Links to the Curriculum; Technology, Social Studies, Health and Well-being.

Have a lovely weekend everyone, Cara.