Busy at the workbench!

Today at the woodwork bench we have been creating new furniture for our dolls house. In a small group we talked about the different rooms we have in our homes. We discussed different kinds of houses, what makes them different and introduced The UN convention on the rights of the child (UNCRC) article 27 ‘I have the right to a home’.

We used the computer and magazines to look at different rooms and furniture and decided we would start to create some bedroom furniture. We talked about what we have in our bedrooms at home.

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“I have a bed in my room with pillows”

“I have a cupboard that mummy keeps my clothes in”

“I have a little table next to my bed”

Once we had decided what we were going to make we set about selecting our wood and tools for the job.

First one of the children decided they would like to make a bed. He looked in the wood bag and decided to use 3 pieces to make his bed. He used “one big bit and 2 little bits”. Next he decided he was going to use “nails to stick it together”. He put on his safety glasses “to keep safe” and set about using the hammer to make his creation. He then selected 4 screws to use as the feet. “I need 4” pointing to all for corners. Using the screwdriver with support he attached the screws.  Then using sandpaper he made sure it was nice and smooth ready to finish his design by decorating it with pens.

The second visitor at the workbench today decided to make “the cupboard for my clothes” He selected 3 pieces of wood. One for the cupboard and 2 more to use “for the bottom. He placed on his safety goggles to “stop the dust getting in my eyes”. Next he used the hammer and “2 nails” to attach the feet and added “a screw for the handle” The final step was to use sandpaper to sand it down so it was smooth ready to use pens to draw on the door.

What a fantastic start to creating some bedroom furniture to use during small word play.

Article 27 – The right to a safe home

Article 28 – The right to education

Article 31 – The right to play

Staying safe in the sun☀️

What a wonderful day it is☀️.The children have been out enjoying the sunshine, but learning how to stay safe when the temperature is high. I asked the children if they knew what we can do to stay safe in the sun. They gave some great answers.

”Sun cream, my mum put some on me before I came to nursery”
“Wear my sun hat”

We discussed staying hydrated by drinking lots of water and taking regular breaks from the sun in the shade.

This is some of their favourite shaded areas to play in.


“We like to have pretend picnics on the bench”

”and read stories in the den”


We have been developing our fine motor skills through this mark making experience in the shade. The children are exploring letters and writing/ drawing in the sand.

We added 4 golf balls and powder paint with a splash of water to the tuff tray. The children used their strong muscles to lift the tray up and worked as a team to move the golf balls around in the tray to mix the colours and create patterns.

As some of the children went to play somewhere else, they noticed that the tray got heavier and tipped to one side.

“uh oh it fell, how do we get it back up?”

The children used their problem solving skills to figure out how to balance the tray and keep the golf balls from rolling off.

Who said you can’t have fun in the shade, the kids have had great fun outside while staying safe.

While this hot weather is due to continue, please make sure the children stay safe in the sun by putting sun cream on before they come to nursery, wearing a sun hat or cap and ensuring we have sun cream for them in the centre. We want to enjoy it while is lasts!

Busy May time in the Garden

This month we have been super busy in the garden. We have been watching our seeds grow and decided we would need to replant them to help them grow bigger. We discovered some of our plants have lots of roots “it’s like spaghetti “. Our plants and vegetables need to have lots of water to help them grow big.

When we have been digging in the garden we have found lots of insects and bugs. We became explorers using books to identify them and having a closer look with our magnifying pots.

This month was also World  Bee day on the 20th of May. We watched a short film about how bees 🐝 grow and why we need them. We made our own bee hive and added it into our bug hotel. We planted bee friendly flowers for the garden. Then made our own bees to hang on the tree using pine cones.

Bees make honey I like honey . After all our hard work we had a taste of the honey. We worked well together slicing the bread and sharing the “sticky honey”.

There have been so many jobs to do in the garden and the girls and boys have thoroughly embraced each task. They have worked well together, sharing tools taking turns, spotting insects ,looking after the plants in the green house we look forward to June as they begin to flower and we can harvest some of our vegetables 🥕.

Article 31 – I have the right to have fun in the ways I want to.

Here at Cart Mill FC we 😍🧵 here’s some of this week’s amazing designs😁

Our children love to sew, learning through real first hand experiences.

“I would like to make a purse, first I need to measure it out and draw straight lines”

“Now I’m cutting out my pattern, I love this material because I like to eat apples”

”I can easily thread the needle “

”the sewing is a bit tricky for me”

“I’m sewing buttons on, two I think that will help to close my purse”

”My purse looks great, I think I will sew some ribbon onto it to make it extra special”

”I’m sewing a bag to put my things in” “I chose this nice material because I like it the best”

“Im choosing blue ribbon for my bag so I can carry it”

“I’m putting the wool through the needle”

Some of our younger children enjoy practicing their sewing on the hessian table.

”up and down up and down “

Well done girls can’t wait to see what other ideas you will have for our sewing area.

Colour mixing fun🏳️‍🌈

The children have been exploring the colour wheel and discussing their favourite colours and designing their own wheel with various materials.

Today we explored the colour wheel and began to talk about the various colours and if anyone could identify the three primary colours. A couple of the children were able to name these

.”Blue, Red & yellow”

We listened to a story called Mouse Hunt which told us a story about the primary colours and what happens if we mixed certain colours together and what colours they become.  The colours that they are called secondary colours.

We talked about the story and I asked who could identify the primary colours now. Then as a group we took turns to mix the colours, we made predictions on which colour it would create.
“Blue”

”yellow mouse”

”Red mouse”

The children then gathered their own  resources  and began to explore and experiment with the  primary colours. They used  their fine motors skills to mix the primary colours of their choice  together and create the secondary colours. Some of the children chose to do this in their pallets and others chose to mix them on their paper.

Red and blue is purple

I am going to make orange, I need yellow and red

Blue and  yellow

The children continued to experiment with the colours and were able to paint a piece of art work using them.

” I made the mouse”

”mine is beautiful colours, I made”

“ I made this orange myself”

” looks Suzi it’s an eyeball”

” I made a Christmas tree with my colours”

”mine is light green”

Well done children your colour mixing was fab.

What new colours can you create at home ?

Imagination Boxes!

Today in the Studio the children were having great fun in the junk area. They were creating from imagination boxes! The children get a large empty box filled with smaller boxes and a variety of materials to use. This allows them to create without limitations.

The children quickly got to work and had some amazing ideas of what they wanted to make.

“I’m making a super rocket! This bit makes it blast off!”

”Mine is a racing car, whoooooooosh!”

The children used scissors, glue and cellotape confidently to attach parts to their models.

“I’m making a robot and he is making a robot dog!”

What a fantastic robot and dog. The children used tin foil, milk bottle tops and pipe cleaners for the legs! “Robots have little short legs!”

Some of the children worked together and made a house for their teddies! They decorated the top of the house beautifully and cut out a door for the toys to get in and out! They borrowed cuddly toys from the Home room to put in their house!

The children had great fun playing with the toys in the house and showing it to their friends!
”The teddy is hiding in there out the rain!”

What great fun we had with all the recycled junk! The children were left to explore and experiment allowing them, to make bold choices and try new ideas!

Article 31 ~ you have the right to play.

 

Our Outdoor Classroom

It’s outdoor classroom day today! To celebrate, we thought we would share what we were learning in our Forest “classroom” today!

Our new skill today was whittling sticks. Whittling is a fun and creative way to introduce knife skills and is done by using a sharp object such as a knife, or in our case a peeler,  to carve wood. Using our knowledge, understanding and experience we have gained from our woodwork bench, we were able to transfer and apply these skills to our Forest classroom! We demonstrated this by listening carefully to safety instructions for using our “peelers”. It was very important to remember not to touch the “shiny metal bit” so that “we don’t cut our fingers”, and to hold the peeler “by the handle at the bottom”.


It was important to remember to keep a safe distance round us which we called our blood bubble! We decided it would be safer to take the peeler along the stick away from us “so we don’t cut our fingers”. Lots of wood came off and we could see “the stick change colour”.

While we were having snack under our shelter, we decided that we could use our sticks to “cook marshmallows on the fire” for our last week of Forest School next week.

During our time in our Forest “classroom”,  we have learned so many new skills. Each week we have grown in confidence and developed our gross and fine motor skills through a wide range of activities. It has been so much fun to make new friends and to work as a group and support each other’s learning.

By exploring different outdoor environments and engaging in energetic physical play, we have developed our movement and co-ordination skills and can now climb and balance on trees with confidence!


It was so much fun in our Forest classroom today and we can’t wait to see what we will learn next week!

“The best classroom and the richest cupboard is roofed only by the sky” (McMillan, 1925)

Article 15 you have the right to be with friends. Article 28 you have the right to an education.

 

The life cycle of a butterfly 🦋

Today we had a very exciting delivery in our nursery! The children were very excited to see what was inside the special box. It’s time to learn about… the life cycle of a butterfly 🦋

First we had a little look at our new caterpillar friends, which sparked some interesting and thought provoking questions.

“It’s like a teeny wee baby worm. Is it a caterpillar?”

“Why does it have a web around it?”

We talked about all the different stages the caterpillar goes through…

“They go into a cocoon first. That helps them get all cosy and grow big and strong”

“When they hang upside down, that’s when they are a chrysalis. They’re nearly ready to pop out then!”

The children showed great curiosity, and came up with some interesting suggestions on what we thought might happen next, using the pictures as clues.

“Maybe the big box is for when they’re butterflies. Because they will need lots of space”

“They might want some snacks too”

“What do butterflies eat?”

Seeing how living things grow and develop over time with proper care in our very own playrooms is a great opportunity  for our children to explore and develop life skills. We are so excited to learn how to take care of our new creatures, and watch them transform into beautiful butterflies 🦋

People who help us

In the home corner, the children have enjoyed exploring role play experiences acting out different jobs that people have. The children were able to describe some of the different kinds of work that people do in the community and have been exploring the wider world of work.

To begin with, some of the children enjoyed exploring playing in a restaurant and being the “cooks”. They decided that the speciality of the day was pasta bolognese!

“In a restaurant, they bring the food to your table for you to eat it” L

“They bring you cups of juice too, I like orange” K

Some other children decided they wanted to be workmen.

“Workmen phone important people, like my grandpa” P

“I have to write down what we need” A

“My daddy does work on a computer at school” P

One of the most popular jobs to pretend to be was a police officer. We found a police officers hat in our resource cupboard and the children enjoyed “searching for the stolen hat”. It really was an important case to solve!