Cutting Station :)

This week some of the children in the studio have been inspired by some new catalogues and magazines in the cutting station. This sparked lots of interesting conversation with the children, and they had lots of fun looking at all the media expressing their favourites with their peers.

The children had different ideas about what to do with their cuttings, such as decorating their envelopes…

“I want to wear it”

“Tadaa!”

“I’m going to write my name on it. So I know this is for all my pictures!”

Other’s found it tricky seeing the little pictures, so suggested zooming in with the iPad to see it better… What a fab solution!

   

“It worked!”

The children have worked really well together, coming up with lots of creative ideas and sharing lots of nice stories from home as they explored. Keep up the great work everybody!

Super Soup

As part of celebrating all things autumnal, the children have been experimenting in making soup using seasonal vegetables.

During this activity the children were developing their gross motor skills when peeling and chopping the vegetables.

Firstly, the children peeled the carrots and parsnips.  The children are using their problem solving skills when using the peeler.

“This is white and this orange”

Then they chopped the vegetables into small chunks, so that we could cook them.  The children are developing their confidence when using the knife.

“I did it!”

Once the vegetable mix was chopped and washed, we added it to the soup pot with stock cubes and boiling water to cook.

The children were able to sample the soup at snack time and we discussed the taste, temperature, and texture of the soup.  Children learn with their senses and during this activity, they were able to enhance their communication, language and social skills.


“It’s good”.  “It’s hot”. “Yummy”.  “I don’t like it”

This cooking activity allowed the children to develop a healthy relationship with food and be more adventurous by sampling different tastes.

The children were able to feel competent and were proud of their ability to get involved in preparing the soup mix.  This also benefits the children from a nutrition, growth and development perspective.

The soup making allowed the children to explore their curiosity about the vegetables they were preparing (carrots, parsnips, butternut squash) and ask questions.

UNCRC Article 27 children have the right to food.

 

 

Garden roundup

It’s been a busy week for us in the garden. We are developing our motor skills in a variety of ways.


This simple but effective experience enabled the children to experiment with colour mixing as well as developing their fine motor and early writing skills as they made marks on the foil using different  tools.

“ The blue got on the yellow and now the yellow looks a bit green”.

“I making fireworks”


The fireworks have really grabbed the children’s attention and been the topic of conversation. Throwing the powder paint on the ground sparked an idea. “The ground is black like the sky at night”

They threw lots of different colours on the ground and used small and large items to move and redirect the paint in different shapes and patterns.


Learning how to move our bodies in different ways to develop our gross motor skills and mark making skills has been so much fun.

We filled some tights with different materials such as sponges, pasta, pom poms and balls and used them to create a piece of art. This allowed the children to explore descriptive language as they figured out how to make marks on the foil.

“The pasta is spikey”

“ This one is really heavy I had to spin round and round to get the paint up there”

“ I want to get it to the top so I have to stretch my legs and stand on my tiptoes and do a big jump”

To end the week we thought it would be a good idea to begin learning about Remembrance Day and why we mark this as a special day. We watched a short child friendly video about the Poppy and decided to create our own.
The children used cut up potatoes and loose parts to make marks on the paper to create a lovely picture.

“ My dad wears a poppy for all the soldiers”

“ We can put purple on it too to remember the Animals”

Welcome to our potion station today 🎃🎃🎃

Today in the garden we welcomed all the witches and wizards to our potion station …..

This developed our pouring and measuring skills, filling and emptying containers or cauldrons. Encouraging mathematical language how much do we need, do we need more or less?

Decision making….creating their own potions and deciding what they choose to go in.

Enjoying the outdoor sensory experience,  the different smells and textures.

Working together and supporting each other’s learning.

Potions were for lions and unicorns fingers crossed some of these come true…. What potions can you make at home?

Article 28  Children have the right to an education