Monthly Archives: February 2022

Digital Technology, Literacy, Technologies

Bee Bots Navigation

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Today  in the Discovery Room the children have been enjoying playing with the Bee Bots robots. They have been developing their technology and navigation skills by learning the positional terms on the Bee Bots e.g the symbols: up, down, left,  right and green for go.

The children were trying to direct the Bee Bots onto the first letter of their name on the alphabet mat. They used their numeracy skills to count how many times the Bee Bots moved after pressing each symbol.


   
“Its on e“

“ I got it on l”

“ Its going on e”              
 
“ I got it on c”
  

After becoming comfortable with the navigation systems, we decided to do a follow up activity. The children raced the Bee Bots to see if they could push a ball over the finishing line.
During this the children developed their problem-solving skills by navigating a route and implementing it by pressing the symbols on the Bee bot in order to push the ball over the finish-line.


 
“ I got the football”
 

” my one crossed over the line ”

We had so much fun developing our navigation, fine motor, numeracy and literacy skills.
Why not give it a try at home with any electronic games, remote control, or a programmable toy.

Outdoor Learning

Walks with Blue

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Blue came in for a visit today, we were so pleased to see her.  She was eager to go for a walk and the children were keen to walk her! We looked out of the window to check the weather and decided it would be best to wear our wellies and puddle suits.

We all headed off down a muddy hill. We had to practice patience,  turn taking and being responsible when holding on to Blues lead.

We had great fun splashing through lots of puddles before going through the kissing gate one at a time.

It was so cold this morning that one of the puddles had a thin covering of ice which was fun to break and cold to touch.
“it’s like the North Pole “

the children noticed the sound of the “noisy” river “ it’s because there is much water”.

As we walked on, we noticed mounds of soil. After close inspection it was decided that they were mole hills. “Look this one looks like a baby one, it’s so cute”.

Walking Blue is so much fun, but splashing though puddles is the best!

Literacy

How measurement can help us !

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Today in our baking area we decided to investigate how measurement helps us with our recipes. We had a look at our measuring cups . They were all different sizes so firstly we put them in a line biggest to smallest. We discovered that the biggest cup can hold lots of smaller ones.
We counted as we filled up the bowls with water. “Oh this is getting heavy” . “This bowl is full now” . “We cannot pour it back into a smaller bowl now as it will spill”. “I think it sounds like a waterfall when it goes over the sides “.

We then has a look at our scales and how we use them. We filled different sizes of cups and put them on the scales. We discovered the bigger the cup the higher number on the scale.

“Look mine is lots of numbers !”  We had a look at our recipes and matched the cups to the quantity we would require.

We had lots of fun with the flour creating shapes using the cups and bowls. The girls and boys were very creative making hand prints and creating shapes.

“ look I made a diamond”

We made different size spheres using the measuring cups. We enjoyed a little bit of a “snow storm”  and then a bit of clearing up, which all the boys and girls helped with.

Well done everyone!

Digital Technology, Expressive Arts, Social Studies

Team work makes the dream work

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Today the children have been developing their team working skills during a variety of different experiences.

We played ‘Feed the Teddy’ on the Promethean Board and worked together as a team to count up to 5 cakes to feed the teddy.

“That’s number 5 like my fingers, I have 5 fingers”

“Teddy is eating 5 cakes”

Next some of the children worked on a new painting technique, they had lots of fun mixing different colours in the shaving foam, and printing it on to the paper. The children made their own individual pieces and also worked together making larger prints.

“hold this side, I’ll get that one”

“1,2,3 down”

Finally some of the children were working together to build a garage for the cars. They built ramps for the cars to go up and down, and roads for the cars to drive on.

“Can you put that long plank up there so the cars can drive down”

“I put this one up here to stop the ramp falling”

Children develop very important life skills when working as part of a team such as problem solving, leadership and communication skills which they will need as they grow into adults.

Expressive Arts

Inspiring creations with playdough

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Today in the Home room we have enjoyed spending time at the playdough station.  We have learned lots of different skills while we manipulate the dough into wonderful creations. We used a variety of loose parts to inspire our creative thought and design processes.

First we made the playdough. The children asked for purple playdough. We decided to use our colour mixing skills to make purple by mixing red and blue paint together.

“First we need blue”

“Then red”


“Look what’s happened when we mixed them together. It’s purple”

After we had made our playdough, we began to let out our imaginations flow, creating our playdough masterpieces.


“I made a sun”

“

”Look it’s a unicorn”

“It’s a star wars alien space ship with lasers that are flying”

“It’s a face and the dark purple is the hair”

“I’m using the stones to make a happy face”.

We have been engaging fully with our learning today, building new skills are proud to show everyone what we created.

I wonder what we will make tomorrow with the playdough?

Expressive Arts

An introduction to rhythm sticks 🎼

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Today the children enjoyed expressing themselves musically using rhythm sticks and their bodies.

They were able to tap their sticks to the beat softly, quietly, loudly, up high and down low.

We decided which of our favourite songs and rhymes we would like to sing together and tapped our sticks to the beat of the rhyme.

“ I want to sing 1,2,3,4,5 once I caught a fish alive”

“Let’s sing the wheels on the bus with our sticks”

The children asked if they could tap their sticks to music on the promethean board.  We listened to some different music and chose Beethoven’s 5th symphony. We listened really carefully to see what  instruments we could hear.

“I can hear the violin ”

“I can tap my sticks to the drum”

We then tapped our sticks in time to the music.

We decided to play a game  called guess who tapped. The children were able to listen to where the sound was coming from.

“I think I know who it was!”

“That was fun”

Well done boys and girls.

 

Outdoor Learning, Snack, Social Studies, Special Event, Trips and Outings

Kung Hey Fat Choi

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Today at Cart Mil we have been celebrating Lunar New Year 2022 by participating in various activities both indoors and outdoors! 2022 is the year of the tiger. We discussed the features of a tiger then decided to look for stripes while out for a walk. Look at all the stripes we found….

We also enjoyed having a race through the woods and a play in the spider park on the way back to nursery.

For snack today we sampled different foods that might be eaten during Lunar New Year celebrations.

We enjoyed tasting noodles, rice and lychees!

In the Home room we decided to make our own fortune cookies which were delicious!

We decided to make our playdough the same colours as a tiger and had lots of fun creating our own Lunar New Year tigers!

In the Discovery room we used our interactive board to research  the history of Lunar New Year.

We used our creativity and imagination in the Studio today to make celebration ribbons and streamers. We then used them to recreate our own Lunar New Year celebration dance.

We have had so much fun celebrating and learning the history of Lunar New Year.

Kung Hey Fat Choi!