Christmas at the tinker table….🌲

This month we have introduced a new tool. We talked about the safety rules and the best way to use our saw. This can be a tricky tool to master but with lots of practise we were able to start sawing different materials. This will help strengthen hand and arm muscles and also develop hand and eye coordination skills.

As we have wooden craft sticks at the tinker table some of the children wanted to make a Christmas tree 🎄. The children discussed the best way of making the shape and decided to draw it out first then using glue they followed the line they had made and pressed the sticks on. “ it does look like a tree”. The girls and boys were able to then self select their own materials to decorate the tree.

We also had some coloured craft sticks which we were able to stick together ,decorate and hang on our tree . “Beautiful “.

We had a very frosty week and the boys and girls were excited to see the ice 🧊. “Maybe it will snow and we can make snow men”. Our clever children talked about what they could use to make a snow man at the tinker table. We had white card board tubes but they were quite long “so we can cut them” a very good idea to get some sawing practise !. We decorated our snowmen and used our fine motor skills to thread through our pipe cleaner arms.

The craft sticks were brought back out this week. We made some different shapes with them and then the girls and boys decided the favourite was a Christmas star ⭐️ and a snow flake. They stuck the craft sticks together with wood glue and the have used very “sparkly “ resources to make them shine bight. The children have hung them on our Christmas tree and they look great and they might “ twinkle” when it gets

dark.

Here is a collection of the childrens great work . You maybe able to spot all the boys and girls hard work for Christmas in all our rooms when you are visiting the nursery.

Article 13 .. we have the right to play and explore.

🎄🎄Christmas Lunch at Cart Mill Cafe 🎄🎄

The festive season is in full swing at Cart Mill, and today we celebrated with our annual Christmas lunch! Preparations began this morning, with the children using their mark-making skills to create beautiful baubles to decorate our dining room, adding a personal touch to the festivities.  Using a selecting of Christmas craft materials, they explored their creative skills and made some fantastic Christmas decorations. We even has some amazing name writing!

On the menu was a mouthwatering traditional turkey dinner, complete with all the trimmings. It was a real treat for everyone! Let’s not forget the delicious ice cream for our pudding!

In early years, sharing meals together is so much more than just eating. It’s a valuable opportunity for children to develop their social skills, engage in meaningful conversations, and build connections with their peers and adults. Moments like these create lasting memories and help foster a strong sense of community.

Take a look at some of the photos and comments from today ☺️

”The carrots are my favourite”

”We have Christmas dinner at our house but it’s different”

”I like the turkey”

”It’s chocolate ice cream, that’s my favourite!”

The children were all smiles and clearly enjoyed every bite of their Christmas lunch, and let’s not forget a big thank you to our Louise our fantastic Cart Mill Chef!

Wishing everyone a joyful and festive season!

Article 1
Everyone under 18 has all these rights

Article 27
You have the right to a good enough standard of living.This means you should have food, clothes and a place to live

 

Ship Ahoy!!

Last week in the Discovery Room the children were fascinated with Aeroplanes! This stemmed from one child talking about his Daddy being an engineer for an Airline! The children watched clips of planes landing and then designed and built their own aeroplane using the blocks!

Following on from this, we had a discussion about different modes of transport and today the children decided to design and build their own boat! We looked at clips of different types of boats on the screen and got to work creating our masterpiece!

“This boat needs big sides!”
“Don’t forget a steering wheel!”

Once the Cartmill Cruise Ship was complete the children wasted no time jumping on board and playing in it!

“There’s too many people, it might sink!”

The children used their imaginations and went on holiday to many places from Glasgow to as far away as Canada!

”My Gran goes on a cruise ship!”

When we were in bed sleeping the sea got a bit choppy which the children thought was scary!

”Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

The children then used the iPad to scan the QR code for our five little boats song which they enjoyed singing along to!

Once we had travelled the world in our boat the children decided they wanted to make their own little boats to race in the water tray! It was agreed that tinfoil would create the best boats.

“Tinfoil is light, because it’s light it stays on top of the water!”

“The sides are going up to stop the water going in!”

”Mine is a big boat with a little boat inside!”

The children had great fun racing their boats, they also decided to use empty butter tubs which they discovered also floated and they covered the lids in tinfoil to make a life raft!

“Ah, mine has sunk, my floating bits have come off!”

”Oh no, I have a leak, it’s sprung a leak!”

”There’s been a Tsunami which caused a whirlpool!”

We explained to the children their boats had capsized! They had not heard this expression before so we looked it up on the iPad to show them images of what it meant!

A lot of fun was had by the children starting with them being so imaginative in the block area. Block play encourages the children’s creativity whilst learning to take turns and share materials. They are learning to cooperate whilst playing and communicating with their friends!

Well done to the Cartmill designers and builders!

Article  31 – Children have the right to play.

Cart Mill goes Christmas Crazy 🎄🎶🎅

We are officially in the festive mood now!

The Christmas trees came out of storage and the children were very excited to help decorate them. We popped on some Christmas tunes and got to work. The children shared lots of lovely stories about putting up their own trees at the weekend too.

The Christmas vibe took over other areas of the nursery as well..

Then we enjoyed a wee boogie to the Christmas music. Some of the children were even break dancing or doing ‘The worm’!

23 days to go!!