Creating movement in the science area

August 30, 2023 Miss Keith Leave a comment

Today in the science area we tried out a new experiment. How do we make our caterpillars 🐛 move. Firstly we had some small pieces of paper roll and drew on our caterpillar 🐛.

The best way to make a caterpillar shape was to roll the paper round a pencil this was quite tricky to manage ! ( we had a little help). And then with a squish and a squeeze we pushed our caterpillar off the pencil.

We were now ready to create the magic movement. We used our pipettes to drop a few drops of water onto them and they grew bigger, wiggled around and it just “growed so fast”.

The boys and girls noticed they were different sizes and wanted to make their own caterpillar families. They discovered using different sizes of paper towel made mummy,daddy,baby caterpillars. “This looks like the big one”.

Some of the children enjoyed putting colours on the paper towels , then adding water then watched as the shapes and patterns appeared. “ Mine is like the sunset in the sky “.

Who new a piece of kitchen roll could be so much fun . We used our fine motor skills also named shapes and colours and even did some measuring . Well Done.

Article 13 – You have the right to share and explore through learning experiences.

Literacy

Bubbly fun washing our babies!

August 29, 2023 Mrs Barnes Leave a comment

Today in the Home room the children were asking to wash their babies and their babies’ clothes! We got basins of water and added lots of bubbles to make it fun for our babies. We got some sponges and towels ready! First, we had to take off the clothes that the babies were wearing!

Then it was time for the fun part! Using the sponges, we gave our babies a lovely clean!

We tried very hard to keep the babies faces out of the water.

”I have lots of bubbles in my bath!”

”I have a baby sister!”

The children loved the feeling of the water and the bubbles running through their fingers. This can be very relaxing for some children.

”My baby is all cleaned and sparkly now!”

Once the babies were washed the children dried them with the towels. They all took great care when doing this.

The children wanted to wash some of the babies clothes that looked dirty! They used soapy water and dipped the clothes in, they gave them a good squeeze at the end to get all the water out!

Some of the children wanted to put some clothes into the washing machine to get them clean!

”I have one of these in my kitchen!”

Now that we had a big pile of wet clothes the children hung them, on the washing line to dry! We enjoyed using our fine motor skills to squeeze the pegs!

“I help my Mummy with the pegs at home!”

The children left the washing to dry, put clean clothes on their babies and gave them lots of cuddles.

This is such a great activity which the children really enjoy doing. The role play helps the children to make sense of the world around them by re-enacting what they see their parents doing. This also helps to develop their social, emotional and verbal skills whilst having great fun!

Expressive Arts

Creative Cloud Dough

August 28, 2023 Miss Simms 2 Comments

Today in our malleable area the children chose to make cloud dough.. There are two different ways to make cloud dough, so we decided to try both and see which one works the best We gathered our bowls and began to take turns to add our first ingredient. First of all it was 2 scoops of cornflour and then 3 squirts of shaving foam or conditioner.

The children then used their gross motor skills to mix the ingredients together. During this time the children described the various textures they good feel.

“It’s so sticky”

“Mine is flakey”

”It gooey”

The children then made some predictions of what ingredient they could add more of to make the texture smooth. We continued to mix and experiment with our ingredients until it became smooth and mouldable.

“Mine is soft like my teddy”

“I love squashing it”

“It’s like snow”

“Fluffy”

The children came to the conclusion that the cloud dough with conditioner was better.

shaving foam

“it crumbles”

” it’s like snow”

conditioner

”it all stays together”

”it’s smooth”

The children began to explore with the cloud dough using their hands. They began creating their own ideas using their imaginations and communicating with each other describing what they were creating. They then added some loose parts to help detail their masterpiece

“pirate Ship”

” a face”

”I made a circle”

” I have made sand and shells”

Snack

Setting into life at Cart Mill

August 25, 2023 Mrs Hannah Leave a comment

As we come to the end of the first week of our new term, we thought we would share our fun filled week with you! It has been lovely to welcome our new children and families and see our children returning from holiday. We are so proud of how well you have settled and become part of our Cart Mill family. Of course we can’t forget our experienced Cart Millers who have taken great pride in being tour guides, sharing their experience and lending a helping hand.

Our Cart Mill Cafe has been a highlight this week! We are super proud of our children who have taken our lunch and snack routine in their stride. They have demonstrated fabulous independence by helping prepare snack, serving themselves, clearing away their dishes afterwards, having the confidence to try new foods and share their likes and dislikes with us.

A new beginning and change of routine can be exciting but also a little daunting and overwhelming at times! This week we’ve taken the time to focus on our health and well-being by thinking about fun activities we would like to do to “make us feel happy” and take time to make connections with our new environment and each other. It has been lovely to observe new friendships forming and established friendships reigniting.

A firm favourite has been to spend time outdoors where we have had lots of fun creating our own “running and hopping” game and exploring sensory play in our mud kitchen and water area.

“Look the bubbles are blue. I’m pouring the water”.

”Look you go this way. I’ll help you”.

Singing and dancing is always good for the soul, uplifting spirits and bringing us together. There have been plenty choruses of rain, rain go away come again another day this week! In usual Cart Mill style this didn’t dampen our spirits but instigated some fabulous outfits, dance moves and dance shows!

“”I’ve got my sun hat and my cat ears on”

We have taken time to ensure we have created some lovely cozy corners where we can relax, share our favourite stories and chat with our friends and shared precious mindful moments during group time.

Our noisy/quiet room has been very popular. We embraced the opportunity to unwind by sewing and creating our own fabulous songs on our piano, as well as spending some time in our studio listening to relaxing music and painting our masterpieces!

It’s been a wonderful week full of cuddles, fun, stories, songs and laughter. We can’t wait to share the next chapter of our journey with you!

You have the right to give your opinion, and for an adult to listen and take it seriously. (Right 12)

You have the right to rest and play. (Right 31)

Uncategorized

Home Corner Fun

August 24, 2023 User deactivated Leave a comment

This week in the home corner the children have been really busy enjoying role play acting out real world scenarios so far we have been:

Cooking, baking and cleaning in the kitchen

“ I’m the chef”

Putting on the washing before hanging it on the line to dry

“it needs to get dry”

Taking care of the babies

“I made breakfast “

Working from home

Some matching and sorting

“there’s lots of this one”

We even had a handyman in to fix the high chair

What a busy week we have had.

Role play is very popular in the nursery and all of theses activities help to encourage communication and language skills, it also helps to develop self esteem, creativity, social and problem solving skills as they collaborate with their peers.

Snack

It’s a strawberry muffin kinda day at Cart Mill 🍓😁

August 23, 2023 Miss Mitchell Leave a comment

The Children decided today that they would like to bake strawberry muffins.

They were able to follow my instructions to make their yummy muffins. “ 1,2,3 I have put my three scoops of flour in” “ flour is quite messy it goes everywhere “

” The strawberry (dairy free) yogurt smells lovely, It’s my favourite “ “ Im putting in 4 tablespoons so it’s extra strawberryish”

The children looked to see what other ingredients they could add to their muffins and found some cherries in the fridge. “These cherries will make our muffins extra tasty “ They used their fantastic hand eye coordination and fine motor skills to slice them up. “Im slicing mine in half”

They helped each other to spoon the mixture into cases. “ We made 12 muffins” “ I think we could share our strawberry muffins at snack

““

Good job everyone they were super tasty 😋

Expressive Arts

Let’s get sewing 🧵 🪡

August 22, 2023 User deactivated Leave a comment

Welcome to our sewing area in the noisy quiet room, let’s have a look and see what the children have been up to today.

Some of the children spent time at the threading station, here we have been focusing on developing our fine motor and hand eye co-ordination.

“ I made a knot”
“I did it.”
“I’m using pink, my favourite colour.”

Over at our sewing table the children have loved being able to self select the different colours and types of wool they’d like and independently cutting it.

”I’m going to use a very long bit of wool.”
”I can do it all by myself.”

The children have been practicing super hard at threading the wool through the needle, the children demonstrated brilliant concentration and hand eye co-ordination, great job! We have been learning to assess and manage risk when using sewing needles.

Now it’s time to get creative! The children had lots of fun working as a pair and independently, creating their own patterns on our sewing table.

“I made a cross.”
”It goes up and down.”
“It looks like a rainbow.”

Sewing is such a valuable skill for children, it is a key way that they can express their creativity, as well developing their concentration, fine manipulative skills and building their self-confidence.

Outdoor Learning

Getting busy in the Mud Kitchen

August 21, 2023 Mr Edwards Leave a comment

You might be wondering how playing in a mud kitchen can be educational. Well, let’s find out:

During mud kitchen play, kids explore various soil types, textures, and material transformations. They observe how mud changes with water and experiment with different natural elements. This activity also introduces early math concepts like measurements and proportions as they scoop, pour, and mix mud. Teamwork, cooperation, and sharing blossom in the mud kitchen, enhancing social skills. The kitchen’s open canvas sparks imagination, letting children be chefs, scientists, or nature artists, opening doors to endless creativity.

So let’s see what happened in the Cart Mill Mud Kitchen today.

First we foraged the garden and collected lots of different plants to use during our play. They will make fantastic ingredients for the items on the menu today. We found pea pods, pea shoots, dock leaves, clovers and mint in the garden.

The children decided that on todays menu was “Beans and pea pie”

Next our little chefs set out to start cooking in the mud kitchen. Exploring their imagination they worked together to chop the leaves on the chopping boards. They scooped water using ladles, spoons and cups and mixed the mud and sand together in pots, pans and bowls.

“We need to turn the gas on to cook them”

”Chopping them all up so it’s small”

”Pour the water in the kettle”

”Mixing it all together”

One of the children opened some of the pea pods we found in the garden and explored what he found inside. “They are green beans”

The finished result! Look at the fantastic creation ready to be served.

Article 6- I should be supported to live and grow

Article 28 – I have the right to an education

Uncategorized

Refreshing the rules

August 17, 2023 Miss Brown Leave a comment

Today in the discovery room the children were keen to open up the tinker table and use the tools, but before we could do that we had to do something very important.

The children gathered round and noticed the safety goggles under the bench. They tried them on and even collected hard hats from the block area . We discussed the rules of the tinker table and the purpose of our PPE for our new children and remind our returning children.

“ We need to wear safety goggles to stop things going in our eyes”

“ The helmet stops our head getting hurt”

Next we explored the tools. I asked if the children knew what their names were and if they knew what their job was.

“I have a hammer, i can use the hammer to make something with the wood”

We had a look at the different shapes and sizes of all the tools.

“That one is pointy and that one is small”

“what’s this called?” “ I know that one is pliers”

The children had a great discussion on all the tools and told each other the names and what they do. We had a look at the plan book that other children had made, they drew what they planned to make and then selected the correct materials to make it.

This inspired the children to think of their own ideas of things they would like to make.

Our memories are now refreshed of the rules and are ready to start being creative. When we are finished at the tinker table we put our closed sign ( that the children made) up so that they know that the area is closed.