Let’s get creative 🛠

Today at the tinker table the children have been super busy, we have had so much fun creating using the tools, loose parts and blocks of wood.

To begin with the children were investigating and experimenting with the different tools to see which would work best.

“I’m going to need the saw and hammer.”

After choosing all the resources needed we then got started!

First the children wanted to measure out their fabric, so we used our measuring tapes.

“I’ll draw a line to help measure.”
“I’m going up to number 4.”

The children then carefully hammered the nails into the blocks of wood, joining the pieces together.


“I use the hammer with my dad to fix things in the house”

Next the children used the saw to cut the wood into smaller pieces and carefully sanded down the sharp edges, using our sandpaper tool that the children previously made themselves.


“It’s sharp we need to make it soft.”

”You need to saw very carefully, like this.”

Here is the children’s fantastic pieces of work! Great job everyone 👍🏻

“My giraffe has a very long neck, his name is Max.”

”My airplane goes all the way into the sky.”

”I have made a cheetah.”

The children demonstrated brilliant independence skills as they made their own choices and decisions. The children were encouraged to use the majority of the tools and resources independently while being supervised.

Gardening fun in the Greenhouse!

The children at Cart Mill are very excited that we have entered the Pocket Garden Design Competition. They have been busy last week planting seeds and learning how to look after them. The children have remembered that, for the seeds to grow, they need watered regularly, especially after the weekend!

”The seeds are getting a drink of water!”

We were so delighted to see that some of our seeds had started to sprout already. “Look! I can see some green leaves!”

After watering our seeds we talked about the life cycle of plants again and I was super impressed with how much the children remembered. We also looked at a chart showing us some of the seeds and bulbs that will flower in Spring!

The children decided they wanted to plant more seeds which will hopefully grow in our nursery greenhouse. They looked at the chart and chose to plant some dwarf daffodil bulbs instead of seeds.

”I like them because they are pretty and yellow!”

As we opened the packet, we guessed what we thought they would look like!

”I think they will be rectangle!”

“I think they are soft and a circle shape!”

The children knew exactly what to do and set about planting the bulbs. First they filled the tray with some compost. Some of the children liked to use a trowel but some preferred to get stuck in with their hands!

One child remembered that we use our finger to make a hole in the soil to put the bulb in! They showed the rest how to do it! Then the bulbs got covered with compost and patted down with our hands!

We collected some water in our watering cans to give our new bulbs a drink.


We then put our new tray on the shelf in the greenhouse, beside all our other planters.

Finally we had to write on a lollipop stick so we could remember what bulbs we had planted in our tray!

We stuck the lollipop stick in and covered the new tray of buLbs!

”The cover will keep them warm at night!”

We are excited to keep watering all our seeds and bulbs and can’t wait to see them grow. Once they have grown enough we will be planting them in our own pocket garden, designed by the children.

Article 28
You have the right to education

Bee-Bots & Colours

This week we have been exploring the bee bots in our technology area.  We began with  learning how to program the bee bots to go forward.

Our bee bots have very good memories, they remember every button we press. We had to learn how to clear the bee bots memory, so we could program them to do what we want.

We then introduced a colour line and were challenged to direct the beebot to a given colour. This helped us to practise our knowledge of colours as well as practising our beebot skills.

“I got yellow.”

“Can you find something in the room that is yellow?”

”The bee.”

“”Can you count how many squares to the yellow square?”

“1,2.”

“Ok we need to program the bee bot to move forward 2 spaces. Press the button 2 times”

“My top is green”

“How many times do you need to press the forward button to get to green?”

“5.”

Once we  were able to program the bee bots ourselves, we  added further challenge by learning how to direct the beebot left and right to land on the given coloured square.

Article 28

You have the right to education

 

 

Nature painting 🌹🌷🌸

Yesterday in the studio we were talking about our gardens, today the children thought about what we had in the garden that we could use inside…

We had a look around the garden to discover things we could use as ‘nature’s paintbrushes’

We recycled our vegetables at snack and used our celery, cabbage and carrots to create patterns.


We chose the paint we wanted to use, making our own decisions and gaining confidence and ownership.

We recycled some old wallpaper and put it to great use giving us space to explore and create. Everyone came up with their own patterns and designs.

What different resources do you have at home. Why don’t you excitement and find things to create wonderful designs and patterns?

Article 31 You have the right to play and relax by doing things like sport, music and drama.

From farms to our tables 🥕🥔

This week we set up our farm in the small world area. The children brushed the floor and made it all clean and tidy to start. They added artificial grass and blocks round it to make the fence so the animals couldn’t escape onto the road. We added some wooden people to act as the farmer and the families who live and work on the farm.

Then the animals came out to play.

We had a chat about what we already know about farms.

“What do you know about farms?”

“They have animals like cows and sheep, that eat grass”

“My horse eats carrots”

“Farms have vegetables”

“My daddy  bought carrots from the shop I had them for dinner”

We explored the different vegetables, feeling and smelling them and peeled and chopped them.

“Big potato, small potato”

I asked the children if they knew how the vegetables get from the farm to the shop.

They seemed unsure so we watched a video called farm to fork.

After we watched the process of growing vegetables on the farm, then being transported to the shops before getting to our tables. The children used the vegetables they had peeled and chopped and “planted” them in the soil. They are very keen to grow their own vegetables in the garden when the weather is a little warmer so we can use them for snack.

The children used the carrots, celery, and cabbage to chop up for a lovely snack, they also added melon, blueberries and orange.


“snack is very yummy today”

Pancake Tuesday Celebrations!

Today at Cart Mill we took part in all the pancake fun and made our own pancakes. In true Cart Mill style we decided to cook them a little differently….using our camp fire!

First we needed to make the pancake batter. In a small group we looked for a recipe using technology.  Then we gathered our ingredients.

We needed:
1 and a half cups of gluten free flour

1 egg

1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda 

1 cup coconut milk 

Take a look at the pictures below.  We even had help from one of our mums who was in for stay and play.

We measured out the ingredients following our recipe and made our delicious pancake batter ready to cook.

Next step was cooking them with Val on our fire pit. In small groups we followed our campfire rules to keep ourselves and others safe. We took a seat on the logs around the campfire and got ready to watch. 

First we watched Val light the fire 🔥

Next Val started to cook our delicious pancake batter.  We watched closely for when we could see bubbles on the top. That’s when you know they are ready to turn over.

Yum yum! Look at these delicious pancakes. We thought they were very tasty and ate them all up. 😃

 

Article 28
You have the right to education.

Let’s get painting!

Today in the studio a group of our children selected materials to paint. They choose rollers and a selection of different coloured paints. They displayed good understanding of the rules in the studio and put on aprons before they began to make their creations.

Using different rollers they created different patterns. Below are some pictures and comments from the children. 

“It’s a zig zag”

“It’s got lots of dots”

“I wavy like the beach”

“Squiggles”

We then added in paint brushes and let the children explore their fine and gross motor skills to create their masterpiece.

Article 28
You have the right to education.

Sew much fun 🧵

This week in the studio, we have been having lots of fun sewing and weaving. There were lots of volunteers to create DIY boards for us to practice our weaving skills.

We practiced our technique…

“you go over and under and over again! It’s tricky”

Some children enjoyed exploring different patterns while weaving…

 

”it’s like an M!”

Weaving is a great experience for children to develop little muscles as it is very intricate work, and these movements help  support the development of their fine motor skills.

After developing our little muscles, we put our creative hats on 👩🏼‍🎨

”I want to make a little cushion for my LOL doll”

This sparked some curiosity in the children, so we decided to explore it further.

“I want to chop my own stuffing for my little pillow.”

“I want to sew a button”

The children had lots of fantastic ideas to share…

“I’m going to make a bow”

“mine is like a little butterfly”

Sewing with children is great for many reasons, but most importantly it’s a really fun way to express ourselves. The children have been talking about making “purses” for “all their pennies”! I wonder what other wonderful role playing ideas we could come up with next week for the sewing area? We can’t wait to find out! Have a fabulous weekend everyone ☀️

Keep Scotland Beautiful

At Cart Mill we have entered into the Keep Scotland Beautiful Pocket Garden competition. So, today the children got busy planting a variety of different seeds, bulbs and cuttings.

We started by gathering our tools, pots, seed trays, compost and watering  can.

Before we opened the seed packet we had a guess at the size, shape and colour of the seeds, with some great guesses” I think they are small” “ I think they are pink”  “ I think they are round” and I think that some of the boys and girls have done this before.


After making a hole with our finger we planted the “tiny” seeds and we filled the watering can because we know that plants need the “sun and water” to grow.

Next we went on to plant some daffodil bulbs, this time we used a bigger pot and had a go at lining them up from smallest to biggest.

We planted two pots of daffodils and decided to try an experiment by placing one pot in the greenhouse and the other outside. We want to see if there will be any differences, maybe one will grow bigger than the other!

Finally we potted the cuttings we were kindly given by Ben’s Mum and gave them to Derek to brighten up the studio.

A lovely addition to our Family Centre, thank you!

Here is a link to the competition if you would like to find out more about what we are doing in the garden- https://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/media/1570993/opp-pocket-garden-comp-guide-2023-final-211222.pdf

 

Fun Fruits

Today we have been looking at different fruits. At snack time we have discovered how juicy some of our fruits can be. We chose the fruits we thought would be the juiciest; strawberries, lemons, limes and oranges.


We then cut our fruit in half this gives us two pieces . The orange was a bit difficult to cut and we had to use the knife in a sawing motion. “ Look I did it “

The next job was to use all our muscles and push the fruit onto the squeezer and when we twisted it round and round the juice started to fall into the container. We enjoyed watching all the colours drip into our glasses . “ I like the red one “ “ orange is my favourite “ .

We discovered that some of the bigger fruits produced more liquid than the smaller ones. The children were able to look at the glasses we had filled and put them in order. “ The strawberry one is the littlest “ and the “orange is the biggest”

After all the juice was squeezed we practiced our pouring skills and filled our own glasses with juice so that we could enjoy some tasting.

We did have some funny faces when we tried the lemon and lime but the juices were all finished and enjoyed. We will look forward to some more exciting times with our fun fruits .