Creative movement, Creativity, Expressive Arts, Imaginative thinking, nature, Outdoor Learning

Our Exciting Garden 🪴

September 24, 2025 Miss Keith Leave a comment

Our garden has been very busy and we have especially enjoyed the better weather over the last few days. Playing outdoors allows children develop self-confidence, independence and self-esteem. Their physical health improves through exercise and vitamin D, enhanced mental well-being, better sleep quality and increased social interaction and development.
Of course we are just having lots of fun !!
We have enjoyed developing our obstacle course adding on extra challenges ….

”round and round gets me dizzy”

How many steps to get to the bridge ?

The boys and girls had great fun on be a Pirate day ….

We used our creativity and problem solving skills to build a pirate ship …..

Ooh arrrgh if the pirates caught you they would make you walk the plank into shark infested waters

In the water tray the water had turned red “my hands are red when they are under the water. We did lots of poring and filling to get rid of our Red Sea 🌊

Finally we have been enjoying some theatre shows on the Cartmill stage showing off our creativity, imagination and acting skills along with some great singing .

After such a busy few days we are all ready for our holiday weekend which we hope you all enjoy.

Article – Children have the right to play and explore their outdoor environment.

Expressive Arts, Outdoor Learning

Fun with paint!

September 24, 2025 Mrs Barnes Leave a comment

Today in the Pond the two year olds were making the most of the sunshine in the garden. With this being Maths Week Scotland we decided to explore shapes and patterns whilst still getting messy and having lots of fun.

We got some paint trays and rolled our toy cars in the paint! We then rolled them on a large piece of paper to see what patterns we could make with the tracks!

We then decided to roll or cars down a ramp and onto the paper to see if the patterns were different!

“It’s very fast!”

This activity helps to develop the children’s fine and gross motor skills whilst exploring colour and pattern.

The children then decided they wanted to dip the wooden shapes in the paint and stamp them on to the paper!

“A yellow square and a red triangle!”

”It’s a rainbow!”

The children showed great imagination, creating lovely pictures!

In the Pond it’s the messier the better so there was some colour mixing going on too!

“I’m rubbing them together to make purple!! Look!”

What a great morning we had exploring patterns, shapes and colours in a fun, engaging and creative way!

Article 31 ~ Children have the right to play and participate in artistic activities.

Uncategorized

What’s been happening in our junk modelling area…📦📦📦

September 18, 2025 Mrs Johnston Leave a comment

Thank you so much for your continuous supply of recycling, the children are so creative and make masterpieces of your boxes, plastic bottle tops, cardboard packets and much more.

We wanted to show you what we have been doing in our junk modelling area….the learning, the sharing, the co operation, the collaborativeness and problem solving skills also numeracy skills measuring, how many, how tall, literacy describing our plans, drawing out and detailing our plans. Gross motor moving the boxes and fine motor snipping, cutting, sticking, drawing….who knew all these valuable skills that can come from a recycled cardboard box!!!

Colour mixing

Train building

Self help skills

Working together

Scaffolding our learning from each other.

Please continue to donate your cardboard for the children to recycle 🥰🥰🥰

Article 28 Right to education

Article 31 The right to play and relax

Baking, Creativity, nature, Outdoor Learning

Busy Bakers

September 16, 2025 Miss Simms Leave a comment

Welcome to our mud kitchen! We have had so much fun being busy bakers and creative chefs. We have introduced some new resources to enrich our play and the children have loved exploring everything!

We have added lots of things you would find in a kitchen including; mugs, bowls, plates, pots and baking tins as well as lots of kitchen utensils. The children had helped to choose the resources from the catalogue so they were very excited when they arrived.

Before we could open our cafe, we had to decide on a name. Everyone came up with ideas before we voted for Rainbow Cafe!

For our first masterchef experience in our cafe we used our senses to make various cakes, soup, spaghetti bolognaise and lots of other delicious recipes. We looked at our fruity ingredients and we felt them between our fingers, then we explored the different smells, such as lemon, lime and orange. The children talked about their favourite scent and said that lime was the most popular.

The children showed great imagination and, using their mark making skills, took orders to give through to the chefs who were busy creating the orders, squeezing the juices from the fruits and stirring the ingredients together.

Everybody is most welcome at the Rainbow Cafe, you can find us in Cart Mill garden, open 5 days a week! Bon appetit!

Uncategorized

Sorting Fun

September 12, 2025 Miss Brown Leave a comment

This week we have been continuing to develop our sorting skills. We have been sorting all different objects in all different ways.
We sorted the sea animals by type.

“ I am putting all the starfish together.”

We sorted the buttons by shape and also by colour.

Look I’ve collected all the green ones.”

We realised the snakes were all different sizes. We sorted them into small, medium and large.

“ I have all the teeny tiny baby ones. They are so cute.”

Now that some of our children are confident in sorting by a given criteria, we are challenging them further by encouraging them to sort by their own attributes.

We read the story of Granny’s Button Box and then Gail showed us something really exciting! Her box of buttons! There were so many and all so different! We had so much fun exploring them and then we began to sort in our own chosen ways.

I wonder what we will sort next week?

Uncategorized

Story time 📚

September 10, 2025 Ms Partridge Leave a comment

This week in the home room, some of the children have been exploring technology in the story corner, and various ways we can investigate stories..

We discovered some of the books displaying QR Codes … I wonder what they mean?

“Let’s see what happens!”

“Another one!”

“Is this a QR code?”

We decided to investigate the various QR codes to find out their purpose, and they each did something different! Some of the codes shared videos of the story, so the children got super cosy to listen and watch…

Some of the stories had audio readings, and verbal cues to turn the page…

“Ping, next page!”

The children have enjoyed being able to independently listen to the stories, and they have been expressing an interest in creating their own stories too. Some have even asked how to make their own QR codes! The children have shown great listening and turn taking skills as they play and learn, well done everybody, keep up the great work 👍 📚

Literacy

What’s in the box?

September 10, 2025 Mrs Miles Leave a comment

Within the STEM area we have been learning about our bodies and how they work. Today we focused on learning about our hands and our sense of touch. To help our understanding we played a game of What’s in the Box? The children had to close their eyes while I placed three objects in the box. Then they had to put their hands through the holes in the side of the box and feel the objects, describing them to their friends. Next they had to match the objects from the tray to what they felt and place them on top of the box. Lastly, turn the box around for the big reveal, does it match?

The children then decided they would like to play the game independently.

They were absolutely fantastic at taking turns and encouraging each other to describe the objects. They even started increasing the amount of objects they had to feel.

Time for the big reveal- is it a match???

Yeesssss!!

There was great excitement when we made the match!

The boys and girls used great descriptive language and demonstrated brilliant co-operative working. Well done, everyone!

Article 29- We have the right to an education which develops our personality, talents and abilities.

Creative movement, Creativity, Expressive Arts, Imaginative thinking, life cycles, Mindful moments, nature, Outdoor Learning

Days in the Garden 🪴

September 4, 2025 Miss Keith Leave a comment

In the garden this week during sunshine and showers we have been very busy.

The girls and boys have expressed their artistic skills with some great art work on our giant easel. They picked colours of paint , mixed some colours and had lots of fun creating giant pieces of art. This type of play will help the children develop large muscle use as well as co ordination and balance.

At the obstacle course the girls and boys were developing their balancing skills. It was lovely to see the children offering to help each other when they had a bit of a wobble ! They were also encouraging each other “ put your arms out it will help”.

During the wet days we ask the children to put on their wellies and puddle suits “with a little help” to help them develop their independence. When all suited up we have great fun running and jumping into the puddles. Some of the children were keen to make bigger puddles and cleverly notice if they collected the rain water from the pipes they could add it to their puddles .

In the garden we have been looking at the Life Cycle of the sun flower. In spring the children had planted seeds and watched them grow learning that they required to be watered and also grew more in the sunshine. As the sunflowers have now finished flowering we have picked them and started harvesting the seeds ready for re planting next spring. Pulling out the seeds gives the children an opportunity to develop their fine motor skills and hand eye co-ordination skills.

Finally this week we decided just to have fun with the soil . This gives us the opportunity to explore using our senses “ it’s softer than sand” I think it “feels cold” well it smells like “a farm”. It can make mud pie castles and I will squash mine down !. Being in the garden helps reduce stress levels, improve mood and enhance self esteem whilst also being a good form of exercise.

We are looking forward to next week in the garden as we explore our outdoors.

Article – We have a right to learn and explore outdoors.

Literacy

Finger Gym Fun!

September 2, 2025 Mr Edwards Leave a comment

Currently in the writing area, our children have been exploring different ways to develop their fine motor skills.

Children need good fine motor control to hold and use a pencil or crayon correctly. Skills such as drawing pictures and eventually writing letters all rely on fine motor strength and coordination. Take a look at some of the fine motor activities we’ve been enjoying this week.

Tweezers and fidget boards

The children used tweezers to pick up colourful pom-poms and carefully place them into the tiny holes on our fidget boards. While it may look like a simple, this activity is a excellent way to build the fine motor strength needed for early writing skills.

By using tweezers, children are strengthening the small muscles in their hands and fingers, helping them develop the pincer grip they will later use to hold a pencil correctly. The act of picking up each pom-pom and placing it in the right spot requires hand–eye coordination, concentration, and careful control of their movements.

Many children even took on extra challenges, such as sorting the pom-poms by colour or counting them as they worked. This added opportunities for early maths skills, like counting, sorting, and problem-solving, all within a fun, play-based activity. Most importantly, this task gave the children a sense of achievement as they completed their colourful patterns and designs, building confidence as well as skill.

Letters and pipe cleaners

The children threaded pipe cleaners through letters to develop fine motor skills and hand–eye coordination. We Introducing large plastic letters with holes in them and provided colourful pipe cleaners for threading. This activity not only strengthened the children’s fine motor control but also introduced important early literacy skills in a fun and hands on way. As they worked many children began to recognise letters, with some even threading the letters in their own names! With a little adult support, a few created longer words such as “mummy” and “octopus”. This gave them a real sense of pride and showed how early mark making and letter recognition naturally develop through play.