Monthly Archives: September 2024

Creative movement, Expressive Arts, Froebel

Let’s all go to the dough disco

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We have been working hard in our playdough area to make the area fully self-service for our children. We have used visual aids to help our children know where all the ingredients are and what they are called.

We also have created a visual recipe board to give our children step by step instructions on how to make our playdough, to provide them with independence and a sense of ownership.

Even our younger children are enjoying this opportunity and learning the recipe.

Now that we have mastered our playdough making skills it’s time to work on our fine manipulative skills.
The “dough disco” is a fun way to move our fingers and extend our fine manipulative skills.
The dough disco teaches us some key moves such as,
“Squeeze it”

“Ball it”

“Pat it”

“Fingers dance”

Put all these moves together along with some fun music and it’s time to go to the dough disco, and get those fingers moving….

This is a great way to incorporate our fine manipulative skills while having fun with our playdough.

Theses key moves also help us when we are create models with our dough.

There are lots of dough disco videos on you tube if you would like to try it at home.
I wonder what we will do at the dough disco tomorrow.

Article 31 – “you have the right to play and rest” 

Technologies

What is STEM?

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At the start of the new term we revamped our STEM area and have since been learning about the different areas of STEM and how they can connect together. First we started by asking ‘What is STEM?’ and the children had some great ideas;
”It’s magnets.”

”It’s doing the shapes.”

”It’s floating and sinking.”

”It’s science.”

I explained that STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths so they were absolutely right, it is all of those things. We have been having great fun exploring all the different areas…

Science and the magic of magnets…


We have been learning about forces and how magnets can hold and move metal objects. We mixed science and maths by counting how many magnetic toys we could hang from the large magnet before they fell off. We even used science to paint by putting a paper clip in the paint and using the magnets to drag it around from under the paper plate!

Science and engineering in the water tray…

We have explored the different properties of water, finding out how it can change from a solid to a liquid through ice play and have learned why some objects float on water and some will sink. We then used this knowledge to create our own boats. We started by using the foil, but soon found the water came on top and sunk our boats.  Using our problem solving skills, we became engineers and worked together to find a solution. One of us realised that boats have sides to stop the waves crashing inside the boat.  This inspired us to wrap the foil round our hands and voila, our boats could not only float but also carry cargo!

Maths in action…

Numbers, numbers everywhere!

Some of us were able to order the number cards from 0-20 and had a great time hopping along it, shouting the numbers as they went. We have also been reading number stories and practising recognising numbers from 0-10.

Next week we will start exploring technology through coding.  As it is Maths Week Scotland, we will learn about using positional language as well.

Creativity

Building a Zoo

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In the clay area we have been exploring different animals shapes and sizes while creating our own animals.

Will reading Dear Zoo we talking about the different features of the animals. We noticed some had long necks, big ears, 4 legs or even no legs.

We introduce some animal shape models for the children to explore. The children had fun experimenting with different sized leaf’s and sticks and were able to create there own unique animal.

Once they were able to select their own leafs and sticks to create their chosen animal. The next step was to model the clay and transfer the sticks and leafs to create their very own animal to take home.

Here are some of the children’s creations along with their comments while making them.


“I’m making a giraffe this is its long neck”


“Its a horse”

“These little flower are for the eyes”

“He need a tail I’m going to cut it smaller”


“I’m making a rabbit”

”It’s got big ears”

 

Block building, Literacy

Mega Measuring!

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This week the children have been making the most of the sunshine out in the garden. Some of our children were having great fun exploring measurement through their play!  They decided to use the decking boards to measure their friends. They wanted to find out who was taller than the different sized boards!

“Yip! You are taller than the wood so you can go on our rollercoaster!”

”Sorry, you are not tall enough for the rollercoaster!”

We decided to develop the children’s interest in measurement in the block area. The children helped to attach a large tape measure to the wall! They then used different sized blocks to build their own tower and measure how tall it was. They used a pen to mark on a piece of tape how tall they could actually build their towers!

“My tower is the biggest, it’s away up here!”

Some of the children wanted to estimate and point to where they thought they could build their tower to before it fell down!

“Yay look I got it that big, to that number!”

Next the children decided to measure each other and mark on the tape to see who was the tallest!

“You are tallest but let’s  see with your hair sticking up if you can be tallest!”

”If I put on my high heels on  I’ll be tallest! Try with your high heels!
(Tip Toes of course!!)

Other children were building towers with sticky bricks and decided to come over and measure their designs!

“I added more bricks and it’s in the higher numbers!”

”This tower is even taller than me!!”          “Wow, that’s big!”

What great fun we had with measurement this week and what great imaginations our children have!

 

Article 31 ~ The right to play

 

 

 

 

 

Outdoor Learning

Hands up Scotland

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It’s that time of year again! Hands up Scotland collect data every year on how children in Scotland travel to School and nursery, so the children have been working hard today to help carry out a survey to find out the ways in which we travel.

We discussed all the different ways we can travel,

“Flying on aeroplanes”

“Motorbikes and Fire Engines”

“On my scooter”

The children came up with fantastic answers and we decided to make a chart to display how everyone travels to nursery.


They choose blue and purple paint, they each took turns to put some paint on their fingers and put their fingerprints in the column that answered how they travel to Cart Mill.

The older children used clipboards with paper and pens and asked all their friends how they travelled to nursery, they then ticked which column suited their answers.

This is a fun way to develop our numeracy skills in early level data analysis as the children count up all the information they have gathered.  We noticed that most of the children travelled by car to Cart Mill.

Uncategorized

Block play

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Since the beginning of the new term the boys and girls have been exploring the block area, so far we have added farm animals which we have created pens for then we were able to sort using different criteria for example how any have four legs? How many have feathers? During this play the children have been developing socially and emotionally, this form of play supports language development as children describe their processes and narrate their play, as well as developing emergent writing skills.

 

“We need a barn, cows live in a barn” so we went into the studio and set to work painting and decorating our barn.

“Can we have dinosaurs?” So out came the dinosaurs which have been a great success developing even more language and imagination, we are learning about the different types of dinosaurs and using the iPad to look up the names of the ones we don’t know we are learning that some are carnivores, some are herbivores and some are omnivores.

“My dinosaur is in the cage”

”Dinosaurs live in the forest “

The children used the blocks to make a “ramp to get into the cave” and a “dinosaur castle”.

I wonder what we will explore next week?

 

Creativity, Expressive Arts, Imaginative thinking, nature

The wonder of Wood 🪵

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As our new term begins we are introducing our tinker table and tools to our new children . To help develop fine motor skills and hand/eye coordination we are starting with hammers, pool noodles and golf tees this gives the children a opportunity to hammer 🔨 successfully and improve their cofidence

We also explore different types of wooden resources such as pegs,cork, craft sticks,wood shavings and many more. This gives our children the chance to be creative using nails or glue to make their own models.

The tinker table loose parts can be used to help plan what our older children can make using wood,nails,screws,hammers. “ I am going to make a house “

Our “big girls and boys” enjoy the challenge of creating their own recognisable model, they are confident to explore and experiment with a variety of materials,  demonstrate  problem solving skills and complete tasks.  They have made boats,ferries, spider man cars,houses the list goes on……..

The children are very keen to continue with their wood work projects and” wood “be very grateful if we have or know of anyone who could donate them some wood off cuts. Thank you.

Article 13 – you have the right to explore and share new experiences.

Baking, Creativity, Snack

Snacktastic!

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Over the last couple of weeks, the children have been settling into the new nursery term and we have welcomed back our term time children as well as welcoming our new children.

At the snack and baking table, we have been refreshing our baking skills when making muffins. The children have been experimenting with different ingredients including bananas, raisins, blueberries and dairy free cheese.


“one”                                                     “two scoops”

The children have been demonstrating their hygiene knowledge by remembering to wash their hands before and after baking and to wear an apron.

The children are developing many skills during this activity including fine motor skills and independence.

“It needs more milk”

The children have been learning to get the muffin mix right by adding more milk or flour, which is developing their science knowledge and how ingredients interact together.

The children are enjoying sampling the muffins during afternoon snack, along with some fruit.

Article 28 – You have the right to education.
Article 24 – you have the right to be healthy