Today in Cart Mill we went on a number hunt. We searched high and low for numbers. We found them everywhere. Some were hard to spot! Luckily more helpers joined us on our hunt to spot some more. We discussed that numbers are all around us and why the numbers we found are important.
We found numbers on the clock on the wall. Those numbers are important because they tell us what time it is.
We found numbers on the buttons on the phone. We know that you need to dial lots of numbers to phone somebody.
We found numbers on the microwave. We know those buttons tell us how long we need to put our food in for to heat it up.
We found numbers on the stage, those numbers help us with our action songs and games we preform while on the stage.
We even found numbers on our clothes. This number is important because it tells us our age.
Numbers really are everywhere at Cart Mill. Number recognition is a great skill to have. It helps us with so many tasks, and introduces us to the importance of numbers and what they are for.
Maybe you can go on a number hunt in your house, or even spot numbers when you are out in your local area or shopping.
Monthly Archives: April 2022
Easter Egg Hunt 😀
We had our very own Easter Egg Hunt at Cart Mill today!
Our older children demonstrated egg-cellent leadership skills by hiding the eggs for their friends and giving a wee helping hand to find them!
We found some egg-cellent hiding places…..
While our friends played “Sleepy Bunnies”
Then the fun began. We popped on our beautiful Easter bonnets and off we went! We all took turns and worked together. It didn’t take long to find all the eggs! There were some great hiding places!
We had so much fun and we all received an egg to take home….. We took our time to choose which colour of egg we would like!
The wheels on the bus
Today in the Discovery room we were learning about transport. We looked at different pictures of ways we can travel to and from places.
We shared stories of places we have travelled by bus, cars trains and some of us have been on holiday on aeroplanes.
”I have been on bus with my brother and daddy”
“My favourite is a plane ”
We thought about how we could create our own transport by using our variety of blocks. Together we decided to make our own bus so that we could go a trip to the zoo and beach. We displayed great teamwork and together we chose which blocks would be best to make our bus.
First we built up the side of the bus using the longer pieces. We found that the square block would make good seats on the bus for the passengers. We made a special compartment for the bus drivers. We made doors for everyone to come on and off the bus. We added a fuel tank to ensure we had enough to get home.
Our bus door
That was us ready to take our seats to go on our adventure to the zoo. It gave us a great opportunity to sing one of our favourite songs The Wheels On The Bus.
Spring has Sprung at Cart Mill🐥
Today we have been discussing Spring. Some of the children were able to identify things we may see during Springtime.
“birds making nests”
“flowers on trees”
“Baby animals being born, Lambs”
“spring flowers in gardens and parks”
We have some lovely spring flowers in our playroom, the children decided they would like to paint them. We talked about the different types of spring flowers for example Crocus, Hyacinth and Bluebell.
” I seen bluebells in the woods”
“daffodils are my favourites because they are yellow and in my front garden ”
“I like tulips the best because my Mum has them at home”
We pegged our daffodils and tulips to a line and put mirrors underneath them. We noticed that we could see the spring flowers reflection in the mirror.
“I can see the purple tulip, I want to paint it on the mirror”
“I’m painting the yellow daffodils in the mirror”
The children enjoyed mixing different tones and shades for their spring flowers. They noticed the differences between the petals on the flowers.
“The shapes are different”
We discussed the different parts of the flower.
“that tulip has the longest stem”
At the end of the day the children didn’t want to throw away their creative work, so decided to print their mirror painting onto a big sheet of paper to make a spring freeze next week.
Well done, great team work everyone.
Internet Safety
Today in the Discovery Room the boys and girls have been learning about staying safe online. The children enjoy using the Promethean Board and are beginning to explore and investigate different things online so we decided we needed to find out how to stay safe while we were ‘surfing’.
We watched Hector’s World to help us learn about keeping our personal information safe, it is a very informative cartoon which helps us understand what internet safety means.
The children were very curious and discussed how Hector was able to stop his friend, the crab, from sending his personal information all the way across the ocean to lots of other creatures he didn’t really know, just to make new friends.
After the video we discussed that not everyone is your friend especially online. Even though people try to make friends with you, we don’t know everyone. Everyone spotted that Hector was a really good friend to crab as he suggested that crab should not to use his real name. Hector helped crab make up a user name to use which would keep him safer. Hector even knew not to let crab send his address to anyone he didn’t know.
We then discussed how we can keep safe on the internet. Some of the children said :
“We can ask our mummy’s and daddy’s or grown-ups to help us to keep safe on the computer”
“I have a password on my tablet so no one can play my games”
“My daddy has a password on his phone so I can’t get in”
“Passwords are used so we can keep our information safe”.
We discussed how some passwords are made up from our favourite names, colours and numbers so that we can remember them. We then decided to have a go at making our own favourite passwords up.
Look at our favourite passwords!
“Batman”
“Elsa“
Some were secrets ones so we can’t tell you 🤫
We had so much fun exploring and investigating how to keep personal information safe.
Why not visit Hectors World and his friends again at home and enjoy learning more on how to keep safe on the internet.
Sharing stories in spring
Today in the Home room was all about stories. We enjoy exploring stories together in our story area.
We like sharing stories together in different ways. We can share stories as part of a group, listening to a story being read by an adult.
When we read stories together, we are learning about taking turns, when to talk and when to listen, learning new vocabulary and sharing our thoughts and feelings as part of a group.
Today we discussed all things Spring during our story. We read about big and little nut brown hare sharing their ideas about Spring. We discussed our ideas and found out it’s “when the sun gets a little warmer” and “I know it’s Spring because it’s my mummy’s birthday in Spring”.
We can also explore stories with our friends, forming our own ideas about what the story can be about from looking at the pictures. If we recognise the book we can use our recall skills to retell the story.
Sometimes we can use visual aids to help us read a story. Visual aids such as puppets are a great way for our visual learners to interact with the story. Today the Gruffalo was helping read the story all about his adventures in the deep dark wood.
Sometimes we don’t even need a book to tell a story. We can use our imagination with different visual aids to bring our own stories to life, such as puppet shows.
We can also use role play to act out as characters from familiar stories, our become our own characters.
Story telling has so many learning opportunities for our children, it’s great to tell these stories in a way that captures the interests of our individual children.
What way do you like to share stories together at home?
April showers
Since the weather outside has been frightful today, we decided to make inside ‘spring time delightful’!
It was a bit wet and windy for the children today so we decided to have some spring fun indoors and make a beautiful spring display. The children had lots of fun being imaginative and decorating it.
We spoke about what kinds of things we might see at during spring.
“I see lambs when I’m in the car!”
“I see daffodils in the grass”
”that’s when the Easter bunny comes”
The children explored their creative streaks, planning and then making a variety of designs. Some children decorated Easter eggs, creating different patterns using various mediums including pens, sequins and different crafty resources to express our artistic talents.
Some children made bunnies and other children made lambs, daffodils and daisies for our lovely spring display!
Maybe next time you’re in the car or out a walk with your little ones , you could see what kind of spring animals or flowers you see!
Our own Rhubarb Scones
Today we have picked our own rhubarb from the garden to use in our scones . We could easily spot the rhubarb in the garden because it has very big green leaves. When the rhubarb is ready to use we discovered that you can easily pull it out the ground.
We then prepared the rhubarb . The children listened to some safety rules before using knives to cut it into smaller pieces. We then washed it clean and added a little sugar before stewing it in the microwave. Don’t touch the bowl now as it is very hot !
We put the rhubarb aside to cool. “Smells yummy”. As the children are now very good at making scones they were able to prepare the scone mix themselves ready to add the rhubarb. We cut out the scones using our circular cutter (sometimes it’s flower shaped) today . It’s a bit sticky so we knew that the mixture need some more flour.
The scones were now ready for the oven.
The children have really enjoyed watching the rhubarb grow in the garden then being able to pick this themselves and use in our scone recipe. This is a great way to see where and how foods get from the garden to our table. We are looking forward to discovering some more recipes using our home grown fruits.
Spring Break!
On behalf of all of the staff at Cart Mill we would like to wish our Term-Time children and families a really lovely, well-earned holiday fortnight. Please keep safe, enjoy some downtime and as much time as you can having fun outdoors.
We will be here, looking forward to seeing all of our children back in our centre again from Tuesday 19th April.
While some of our staff are on holiday, Val and the rest of the team are here for a chat or to answer any queries you may have.
