The children have been practicing their scissor skills this week. They have been encouraged to snip into paper, with some children using 2 hands to control the scissors and some now able to use 1 hand. They also cut up some old daffodil flowers to experience a different texture and purpose for the scissors. This is something you can do at home using safety scissors. You could encourage your child to snip at old newspapers or magazines or even leaflets.

The children have also been dressing up this week. We have supplied the role play corner with fabric material to encourage the children to use their imagination when playing. They have showed enjoyment of wearing various hats and some even attempted to walk in heels!

This week we have been exploring loose parts. We have been filling and emptying various containers such as teapots, bowls, baskets and purses. We have also been building towers with corks and transporting items around the room.

This week we have been exploring playdough using different shaped pasta. The children used the pasta to decorate the playdough by pressing it into to its soft texture and also used it to mark make by printing the shape into the dough. Using small pasta in play is a great way to develop a child’s fine motor skills as picking up and handling the small pieces help to strengthen the muscles in their fingers and hands, something required for writing skills later on.

Click on the link below to watch out pasta play.

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WORLD BOOK DAY

We celebrated World Book Day by exploring The Gruffalo story. This was read to the children every day this week and was explored in the tuff tray using woodland foliage and Gruffalo stone characters. This allowed the children to reenact parts of the story to help then to deepen their understanding of the book.

Pictures of the animals from the story were also placed around the room for the children to discover. Please click on the link below.

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We also made Gruffalo footprints using using paint and wellies!

And we even made some Gruffalo Crumble!

*No Gruffalos were harmed to make this crumble.

This week the children have been exploring the soft playdough with the hard texture of uncooked pasta. Many of the children inserted the pasta into the dough and started to sing or hum to the tune of “happy birthday”, lifting their creations to the ladies for them to “blow out the candles”.

Watch the video below to hear “Happy Birthday” being sung

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The children were also participating in vigorous energetic play inside while it was very windy outside. They used pom-poms as props while they danced to high tempo music. Everyone was very tired after getting all that energy out of their bodies! Please watch the video below:

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This week we have been making some Valentines sticky pictures to be displayed by our friends at Dunelm.

We have also continued to explore mark making. We have been drawing on foil using dry wipe pens. The children enjoyed drawing and then making the pen disappear with their fingers. Magic!

This week we have started to explore numeracy songs such as “3 Little Monkeys”, “3 Little Ducks” and “Green Speckled Frogs” to support the children with their emerging counting skills. The children have been learning the songs using stick puppets and will move on to act the the songs and their numeracy concepts out.

We have also started focusing on different schematic play opportunities within the room. The children have been using loose parts objects such as corks, curtain rings and shells to put into different sized containers. This will help develop their understanding of volume and size.  The children have also been participating in rotational schematic play using different sized and shaped balls. They have been rolling the large, small and spiked balls to explore how far and fast they go, as well as the direction they take.

13-12-21 to 23-12-21

Christmas fun in the Willow room …

We made a reindeer and sleigh role play and had great fun pretending to be Santa

Snow world discovery trays

Christmas jumper collage

Christmas tree painting

Baking activities

Party time, games, treats and dancing.

Wishing all the children and families of the Willow room a wonderful  Christmas and Happy New Year

love from Lorna, Sarah, Rebecca and Heather

week beginning 6/12/21

We have started to get into the festive spirit this week with lots of Christmas related activities.

The children have been exploring tradition Christmas smells with play dough scented with ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. They explored the dough with Christmas cookie cutters, some cinnamon sticks and dried oranges.

The children also explored winter typical weather. We had snow in the sensory tray which had some Arctic animals to play with.

We also had our Christmas parties this week. The children danced to Christmas songs, played party games, had a special snack and even had a snowball fight!

This week the children have been celebrating St Andrew’s Day. Many children came into the centre wearing either tartan or blue and they all made Scotland flags with masking tape and blue paint. They finishes their celebrations by dancing to some tradition Scottish music.

Click on the link below to watch some of our dancing.

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we have been learning about clothes we wear to keep us warm during winter, and have been practicing putting them on and off independently. 
This week we have seen some Christmas festivities coming into the nursery and enjoyed going down to see the tree, then helped to decorate our 2-3 room tree.

 
Painting Bread

This week the children have been painting bread using a mixture of milk and food colouring. They then toasted the colourful bread to then eat it at snack. One child enjoyed it so much he told us that he was going to “tell mummy” about it when he got home. Some children could name and recognise the couloirs they were using. Everybody got experience mark making using unusual materials.

This week in the Willow room we have been looking at Van Gogh’s painting called “Starry Night”. We talked about what we could see in the painting and many of the children could identify the stars and the moon. One child even spotted “the wee houses” at the bottom. The children took this exploration even further by finger painting on the windows, using the same colours of the painting, to recreate what they have studying. Finger painting is a great way build up the children muscles which will help them to mark make and write in the future.