Castlehill Early years centre

LET IT SNOW!

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This week in the outdoors area we have been lucky to experience all different weathers. We had snow earlier in the week and the children got the opportunity to experience snow play.
Creating snowballs to throw, observing movement and footprints in the snow, mark making skills through writing names, letters, numbers and shapes as well as the sensory experience. We have also had some icy days where we have been looking at the different water states, exploring the touch sensory experience of the ice and watching it melt. The children had ice in a tuff tray on the floor and were throwing and banging the ice to see what would happen and were also sliding and jumping on the ice like they were skating.

During our wetter weather we have been splashing in muddy puddles and looking at sinking and floating.

We have also been taking part in various ball games such as football, bat and ball games, bowling and catching. A popular game amongst the children was a point scoring game where tyres were set up with numbers in the centre of them and the children had to throw a ball into the tyres and see what they scored they would then write their score on the chalkboard. The learning is developing gross motor skills, throwing skills, numeracy skills and hand eye coordination.

Finally for Red Nose Day we put out a number of red coloured activities such as red water play, red gloop, red wooden shapes and red foods in the mud kitchen. We spoke about the importance of Red Nose Day and what the charity does and how we can help.

Creative blog 6/3 Angela

The children have been demonstrating their amazing creative skills using junk modelling. Through painting, gluing, sticking and fantastic cutting skills the children have used a variety of materials including cardboard, lids, plastics etc to make some amazing builds including a robot, treasure chest and a house!

With so many mixed materials available we have been learning about recycling and it’s importance to our planet. Using books and short video clips online we learned about the recycling journey of different items. We then worked as a group to make some labels in order to sort our different materials. The children took it in turns to pick and identify a material and put it in the correct recycling pile. There was fantastic discussions about recycling at home and how we can donate things too so they can be reused and not end up at landfill.

House corner/role play

Taking forward the interest from the mud kitchen outdoors when the children have been making carrot soup, the home corner has included carrots, potatoes and knives to cut and slice the vegetables. We have added both uncooked and cooked pasta to let the children see the difference effect of the process.This develops both gross and fine motor skills. Following on from that theme we have included a recipe book in the-area, which encourages literacy skills as the children can see the recipes and the ingredients with illustrations and photographs. The children can feed the baby in the high chair, bath the baby with a basin of soapy water, which  allows them to develop their nurturing skills.

In our role play area we have included a variety of hats, bags, scarves and shoes and other accessories in order for the children to “dress up”, use their imagination and have some fun. This area allows the children to choose to be someone else, if theywant, and learn new skills as they attempt to put on and fasten shoes, open bags, try on hats and walk in high heels that are too big for them. !!

In the deconstructed role play area the children have been making Anna and Elsa’s bed with the crates and sheets and being “jungle explorers” as they make their own spaceships with cardboard boxes. Using their imagination has allowed them to have great fun using this open ended resource. We build using masking tape and scissors and are learning which side is the sticky side of the tape.

We have been adding resources to the music/Rhyme area looking at nursery rhymes and songs to sing along with musical instruments looking at different styles and cultures.Giving each individual child the freedom to use the musical instruments and musical technology to discover and enjoy playing with sound and rhythm. The area is a cozy area to explore and have fun with sound music and friends.

On our recent inservice day we have created a more defined room with easily accessible areas. In our construction area we have been looking at deconstructed den building using different sizes and shaped boxes. Children started to create houses and different buildings to scaffold this learning materials were introduced to enhance their curiosity.

We are renovating our home corner to include more items that are familiar from home, currently creating our own family wall. Continuing with their interest in real every day items we have added different textures and smells such as lemons, limes and daffodils.  We will slowly added new items which link with our home life as we develop our interests in taking care of living things.

The children and staff have been looking at different ways to communicate. In our room we have lots of visual aids to help support us as we look after our toys and resources. Claire has been introducing makaton (hand signs) for our everyday routine. We have learned milk, water, yes, no and plate. We will continue to strengthen our makaton vocabulary as the staff support children with signing everyday.

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Our tuff tray has allowed us to develop our fine motor skills as we explore the coloured rice and boxes. Filling, pouring and shaking the materials and using these movements provide opportunities to extend our mathematical language such as bigger, smaller, more, less, fast and slow.

The children have been expressing their thoughts, on which book to choose for the month of March.

We took part in voting from a choice of three books and

“Gorilla Loves Vanilla” was the most popular. This will be our book of the month.

World Book Day, the children brought in a variety of interesting stories and dressed for the occasion. We read all of the stories, the children talked about some of the characters and what bits of the story they liked.

In the Art area we have been looking at our new ‘Mix it up’ book that teaches us about paint changing colour when mixed together. We have now decided to create our own paint mixing chart to remind us when we’re painting at the easel. The children have also been busy making cupcakes out of brown coloured play dough. Using our new colour mixing skills we added red and then green paint and were amazed to see the flour mixture turn a deep shade of chocolate brown.We weighed, squished and rolled the dough before baking in the oven.

We have had lots of fun in the garden recently. We have been developing our risk assessing skills through lots of opportunities for risky play in our large loose parts area. Also we have been enjoying using sand in our mud kitchen creating lots of food and potions.

 

In the STEM area the children have been putting their creative ideas on paper and designing a build then using bricks to build their masterpiece. I added rulers to incorporate measurement and the children added magnets and play dough to further their builds. We have had some fantastic creations including space rockets, “cube land” and a Pokémon Forrest.

In the malleable area we had a selection of natural resources for children to make their won choices of play and added to this area as the week progressed. Each individual child used their curiosity and imagination to learn through their own play experience and in groups.

We had cakes and castles pictures and I was told ‘pancakes were very tasty and a Granny made very good ones at home’ .. So as it was pancake day on Tuesday I introduced a cooker and a hob with pans for the children to role play making pancakes and we flipped them and caught a few some did land on the floor but there was a lot of laughter this week.

Following on from the “We’re going on a picnic” the children have been engrossed in creating their own stories using blank booklets and media tools. We have been discussing the layout of the book and sharing conversations of how to start a book and be our own story tellers. The children recreated different versions of “We’re going on a picnic” and recreating their own stories through illustrations and text.

Outdoor blog 13/2/23

  

The children have been learning about spring as they play with daffodils in the tuff tray and are inspired by a book all about spring. This encourages them to learn about the changing seasons and notice the different spring flowers growing in gardens and fields. This raises awareness about the natural world as well as supporting literacy skills.

We have put water in a tray along with two teapots and soapy water to allow the children to see how the water forms bubbles when the washing up liquid is added. The children  can  pour the water from one pot to another and begin to understand about capacity. They may want to add other resources too. The children have been learning nursery rhymes as we sing “ Polly put the Kettle on” and this encourages role play too.

Susan

The children have been showing a lot of interest in water play as well as cars and movement. We set up a water wall with different pipes and guttering for the children to explore movement of the water. We added some food colouring and glitter to enhance the sensory experience and the show the movement in different ways.

In the small world area we set up a car wash using road ramps and grass on different levelled tyres and cable drums to give the children the opportunity to follow their interest in the trajectory schema we added a basin of soapy water and cloths at the bottom of the track for the children to wash the cars.

Rachel

The children have been showing an interest in jigsaws outside in the tuff tray. We have had a range of different types of jigsaws from number jigsaws, animal jigsaws and transport jigsaws. Children have been using their problem solving skills to fit the pieces together. Children have been sharing the jigsaws with their peers and singing ‘old McDonald had a farm’ while exploring the animal jigsaw. I was exploring one to one correspondence while using the number jigsaw encouraging the children to count and match the numbers.

Also in the water tray we have been practicing our pouring skills by using a gravy boat and jugs to fill different coloured containers. We have been using a funnel to see if it helps us not to spill any water.

Angela

Blog 23/1/23

Continuing with the Scottish theme children had the opportunity to try Haggis neeps and tatties at the snack area and also enjoyed some Scottish oatcakes and cheese.

   

In the creative arts area we have been celebrating and discussing Robert Burns. We have been looking at the different patterns created by tartan and made our own kilts using weaving skills. Some beautiful tartans were created. We also looked at Robert Burns song ‘My Love Is Like A Red Red Rose.’ We looked at real roses, their structure, petals, stem and leaves. We used red and green paint to paint our own red roses. 

In the tech area we have enjoyed listening to Scottish music and watching highland dancers. With the children showing in an interest in Nessie we watched a video of Barnaby Bear on a boat searching for Nessie the Loch Ness monster. We discussed what Nessie might look like and looked at photo’s of Nessie sightings. The children shared “Nessie might be shy” and “there might be lot’s of Nessies because the water is really big” We extended this learning by drawing our own Nessie’s and making Loch Ness Monsters out of loose parts.  In the malleable area this week we have been exploring the Scotland book and creating play around our interests from the book . We made coloured play dough and weaved tartan and used play dough to stick patterns together using coloured sticks .Nessie was pointed out in the Scotland book so we found out where he lived in Scotland and made our own loch and Nessie using green play dough. We found Nessie lives in a loch in Inverness and is very shy and is hard to find. 

Great week learning through children’s own ideas and curiosity leading their own learning.

Inspired by the ice in the tuff tray “looking like a spider’s web”, the children  have been drawing their own art work on the playground using the giant chalk provided. Some have attempted to write their name.This has allowed them to develop their own creativity, imaginative, literacy and fine motor skills.

• Susan

This week the children have been enjoying building with the crates to make a tower near the swing. Then they have been sitting on the swing trying to knock down the tower of crates they had created. During this play we talked about the risks and how far away you should stand so you don’t get hit by the crates as they fall.

The children have also been exploring the ice trying to break it up using different tools like plastic pipes, wooden sticks and metal spoons. The children were using great team working to break all the ice up in the tuff tray. Later in the week we put some fruit and vegetables into a bowl of water and left it over night to freeze. With the weather being so cold we talked about how the ice is formed and what clothing we need to keep us warm in this weather.

• Angela 

This week the children have been building dens in the forest using different sizes of branches, logs and sticks. We have been talking about risky play, risk assessing and forest safety whilst tree climbing, log balance walking and playing hide and seek. The children were also exploring flora and fauna found in the forest and discussing safety around foods growing in the forest. We have also been on a shape hunt, groups of children would try to find any natural circles, squares, rectangles or triangles in the forest and tally mark their scavenger hunt sheet.

To celebrate Chinese New Year this week we have been mark making Chinese numbers in sand using sticks. We went on a rabbit hunt to celebrate the year of the rabbit by trying to find hidden paper rabbits throughout the garden space. We have watched a short video on Chinese New Year and the celebrations around it as well as exploring a Chinese New Year sensory tray which included tangerines, Chinese tea and orange leaves whilst looking at books about Chinese New Year to learn about food, traditions and the lunar calendar.

• Rachel 

Outdoors:

Reindeer food: 

A group of children requested to make reindeer food like they had done at home so we set out a tray with seed, oats, carrot peel and carrot chunks with some cinnamon essential oils. This gave the children the opportunity to explore their senses by having  different smells, textures and colours to explore. We spoke about what reindeers eat and the important job they have at Christmas time and how it is very tiring for them which is why they need special food to keep their magic going. 

Forest – mushrooms: 

Whilst we were in the forest this week we were doing our risk assessment to find any hazards or risks in the garden. We found some wild mushrooms so we gathered round to have a look and we spoke about how some foods that grow aren’t safe to eat so we looked at different foods and plants that grow in forests and which ones are safe and which are not. We also found lots of bugs and insects under logs and bricks, we spoke about the life cycle of the worm and what worms need to thrive in the forest. 

Healthy eating: 

There has been lots of interest in healthy eating recently and the life cycle of foods like fruit and veg. Today we chose some healthy and not as healthy foods and put them in a basket beside this was a tuff tray split in half and the children were asked to sort the foods into healthy and not so healthy.  When we had sorted the foods out we had a discussion about why they thought each food was what they’d chosen and what makes a food healthy or not. 

Construction: 

Snow blocks were set out in a tuff tray following a child asking to build igloos in the garden. A group of children worked together to design and build their igloo. The children were developing language skills, team building skills, learning about when to talk and when to listen, sharing resources, gross motor skills, planning and problem solving. 

Mud kitchen: 

The mud kitchen has been very popular recently with children making soups and stews so we added some real fruit and veg into the mud kitchen to give the children the opportunity to use real foods in their soups. They are learning about soup ingredients, cutting skills and how to cut food safely using child safe equipment. 

Numeracy: 

We set up cotton wool balls (snowballs – as the children decided they were) and tongs/ tweezers in a tuff tray with different numbers written in the tuff tray with the aim the children would use the tweezers to move the correct number of snowballs into the numbered circles. This is developing fine motor skills, hand grip, hand eye coordination and wrist movement which help build the skills required for writing as well as developing numeracy skills such as number recognition, counting and 1:1 number correspondence. 

St Andrews day: 

To celebrate St Andrews day we set out some different activities such as our Scottish loch in the water area; where we used water, blue paint and white glitter to create our Scottish coloured loch and the children were exploring making their own Loch Ness monsters using natural objects like leaves and sticks. This is to develop their imagination skills, creativity, learning about and celebrating the country they live in. We also discussed what floats and sinks in water as they tried different materials to make their monster. 

We also set out two tartan inspired painting activities. In one tray we put green, yellow and blue paint with glitter along with celery sticks to use to mark make. We also taped paper down in a tuff tray and provided paint and cars for the children to explore and create their very own tartan. 

Play dough area

The children have been helping to make play dough everyday and one day this week, children started making pizza with the play dough. They used some loose parts around the room for toppings and pretended to cook it in the oven. I set up the table the next day with a small tub of shells and conkers along with a cook book. Children started to make more pizzas and other food items with the play dough. The children were learning about the timers and how the oven can be hot – “use oven gloves”.

Art area

This week the children were creating firework pictures using black paper and chalk. We talked about being safe near fireworks and that fireworks can be very noisy. Some children mentioned that they went to see a firework display with their family -“Lights in the Skye” and “sparkly”.

Cozy area

This week the children have enjoyed reading several books with friends or an adult.

Some popular books have been ‘ten little pirates’ and ‘ I don’t want to go to bed’.

The children have also been creating their own stories. The children have been drawing pictures and asked an adult to scribe their story for them.

A truly fantastic way to use their imagination.