Monthly Archives: January 2022

Uncategorized

Addition & Subtraction

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Today has been an exciting day as the children moved from the Home Room into the Discovery Room. They have been busy investigating and exploring the new areas.

They have enjoyed using the Promethean active board in particular, where they explored a variety of numeracy games through Top Marks. You could try these at home too on  www.topmarks.co.uk


The children developed their numeracy skills, fine motor skills, hand/eye coordination, as well as sharing, taking turns and recognising the need to follow rules.  We had great fun being able to identify and recognise numbers 0-20. We were able to estimate how many without having to count. The children counted forwards and backwards and were learning how to add and subtract. We all enjoyed learning new language to describe subtraction and adding e.g take away; add one more on. “I have to put one back”  “we need two more to make ten”.

Later in the day the children decided they wanted to get fit and do a sticky kids exercise activities.

We had so much fun listening and following the actions whilst showing off our gross motor skills, balancing skills, jumping and developing our awareness of space. Well done everyone! Why not give it a go at home 👍

Expressive Arts

Let’s Sew 🧵

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Recently we have had a sewing table added to our room, The Studio. This has sparked the children’s interest and they have begun to show great creativity whilst using a needle and thread.

The children have being learning the names of all the equipment we use to sew.  A needle (this can be jaggy) some thread and scissors (watch out they can be sharp !). The children have been developing their fine motor skills along with their hand and eye coordination when practising using the needle and thread on our sewing table.

As the children’s skills have improved we thought we could try to sew on a button .  First we chose our button and reminded ourselves about the jaggy needle. We then tried to thread our needle – this was quite tricky and sometimes we needed a little bit of help. Some of the children chose more than one button and used their creative skills to make a pattern with the buttons. We then sewed on the button and cut the thread off at the end.
The children worked carefully and took time to make sure the needle went in the correct place.  Concentration skills were very well used today and the children were very pleased with their buttons.  The material and buttons were then used as placemats, parachutes and purses. Great imagination and hard work .

What will we sew next time ?

Digital Technology

Train Track

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This morning in the Discovery room the children asked if they could get the train track out. Using their fine motor skills the children worked together to build the train track. One child asked if they could build a really big track so we moved the table to create a large open space for the children to extend the track as large as possible .

When the track was complete, another child asked if they could build bridges around the track.  Using their gross motor skills, the children chose a variety of different sized blocks to create bridges around the track.

Incorporating technology into the play, we turned on the promethean board and played the noise of steam trains chugging along and sounding their horn.

Everybody had great fun pulling along the trains and cars on the track and pushing them under the bridges.

Uncategorized

Wintery Wanders!

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Today, some of the children went for a winter walk down to the bridge over the River Cart to see what they could see.

When we got to the bridge,  we discussed the water which was under it and what we thought was in the water.
“ I think there might be a troll in there. “

“ Is that a fish? “

We then had an idea of throwing in a stick and seeing if we could see it at the other side!

“ It’s moving so fast. “

“ It feels like we are moving.”

“ It might be very deep.”

“ I am safe because of the fence. “

We even spotted some diggers beside the bridge…

“ I wonder what that is doing there?”

“ My brother has a toy digger like that one.”

Social Studies

Playdough Creations

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Today the children explored with the playdough exercising their fine motor skills and developing their hand and eye co-ordination making  their own creations.  They had very good concentration skills.

The children had a variety of resources to choose from to create and develop their skills.

Our favourite today  was using the spaghetti and threading the different coloured beads

The children then began to compare their creations using mathematical language , tall, small, big, long and short to describe each others’.

“I have lots of small ones”

Digital Technology

Imaginative Block play in the Discovery Room 😀

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The children were discussing dens and how to build them. They had lots of ideas about what they could do inside their own den. The children had a look around the room at what they could use to make a den and how they could make it cosy. They decided that blocks would make the best den, but they thought they should research it a little first, before planning it out.

Using digital technology, the children started looking at different types of dens. After their initial research, the children decided they should draw a plan of what they wanted their den to be like.

“ I want it big enough to have a tea party in”


“ I want my den to have a roof, so we don’t get wet”

The children then put their problem solving skills to work and worked collaboratively to build their den.

They shared resources and made suggestions to each other to make sure the den they built was the best den ever!


“ How will we make the roof stay up”
The children searched the room for resources and showed their skills as future engineers and architects.  
“ I think that wall is tall enough now”
“We need the cardboard tube to keep the roof up high”


“ We need to be careful not to knock the walls down when we are inside”

When their den was finished the children made it a home from home by adding comfy cushions and a table, they then invited some special guests to join them for afternoon tea complete with cakes and sandwiches, cheese of course!

Outdoor Learning

Fun in the snow

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This morning in the garden the children had great fun playing in the snow. We decided to make a snowman. Working together, we rolled the snow into two balls. One for the head and one for the body. When they were big enough, we popped the head onto the body and talked about how we could decorate him. We found twigs for arms, stones for eyes and a bottle top for a nose ( we couldn’t find a carrot) We finished his look with a hat and scarf.

We enjoyed throwing snowballs at Lauren and Jo!

“I got you Lauren”

We practiced our throwing at a target aiming for the bulls eye.

We are so lucky to have a hill right beside Cart Mill so off we went for some sledging. It was great fun whizzing down the hill on our ’sledge’. The children demonstrated great patience waiting for their turn.

No fun in the snow would be complete without our very own snow angels.

We have had the best day playing in the snow.

Outdoor Learning

We are gardeners!

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Today in our garden a group of children have been super busy taking care of our lovely planting area. Firstly we had to weed our planters using gardening tools then we used our gross motor skills for digging, carrying and lifting. As we were digging we came across some insects that live in the soil and mud, so we made sure that we were extra careful.


After we weeded our planter we went into the greenhouse to have a look at what we could plant, the children decided they would like to sow beetroot seeds. We had a chat about when is best to grow certain ones and the affects the different seasons and weather have on the plants and all the different fruits, vegetables and flowers.


The children will be a big part of taking responsibility and care of our vegetables and flowers.  We had a chat with the children about being patient when waiting for our vegetables and flowers to grow and that we will need to keep good care of them by watering regularly for them to flourish.