All posts by Mrs Johnston

Creativity, Literacy

Billy’s Bucket

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Today we enjoyed the book Billy’s Bucket, a story about a boy who wanted a bucket for his birthday! Using his wonderful imagination, he described all the exciting events that happened and the sea creatures that came to visit. After reading our story we decided to  design our own buckets…

Then we thought about all the creatures we wanted in our own buckets….sharks, whales, sea lions!!

We thought our bucket was too little so we made an even bigger one in our water tray.  After lots of discussion, problem solving and decision making, we decided to make our water red!

Reading a story has helped us develop our literacy skills, fuels our imagination and creativity and allows us to share ideas with our friends.  We have demonstrated we can make decisions, problem solve, work together and lead our own learning.   😁

Article 28 You have the right to an education

 

 

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Sinking and floating, wind and waves 🤔

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Today we started with a scavenger hunt looking for items around the nursery that sunk or floated. We looked in all the rooms to see what we could find….



We tested the chosen items to check what category they fell into…

and recorded the results.

When we knew what items floated, we introduced some straws to create some wind and waves to see who’s item floated to the other side the quickest. We also had lots of fun making bubbles in the water and investigating cause and effect.

Article 28 You have the right to education.

Snack

Beautiful banana and blueberry muffins independently 😁😁😁

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Today at Cart Mill we enjoyed some delicious banana and blueberry muffins.  The children are familiar with this receipe but today it was carried out independently by a 4 year old with the only assistance given was with the oven.

He collected all the ingredients he needed.

He could recall the measurements and weighed out what he needed

He peeled his banana using his fine motor muscles in his strengthening hands.

We used coconut milk and he poured out just enough using a measuring jug, supporting his numeracy skills.


He mixed all the ingredients together very well

And divided the mixture evenly into the cupcake tray

When he had finished making the muffins he washed his dishes and put all his ingredients away….well done, what a great job today!!!

Ingredients :

3 scoops of gluten free flour

1 scoop of sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon xanthum gum

100 ml of coconut milk

some blueberries and a banana

Try to make these delicious muffins we can always guarantee lots of tasters if you need any. 😜

Article 24 A right to be healthy

Expressive Arts, Literacy

Bookbug joins us for some spring songs 🐣🐑🌞

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Bookbug came to visit us today so we all sang our ‘Hallo’ song to welcome him..

We wondered how many spring animals were on the farm…we thought about chicks, lambs, bunnies.

We pretended to be bunnies with flies upon on noses and curly whiskers 😂 enjoying the song Little Peter Rabbit.  We were dancing, jumping and hopping to Sleepy Bunnies and after all that exercise, sat down and enjoyed the story of the 6 Little Chicks.

 

 


It’s so lovely that spring has arrived, to think and see the wonders of nature, the bright mornings and light evenings, the flowers and plants and to enjoy all this with our friends 😁

Article 31 You have the right to play and relax by doing things like sports, music and drama

Snack

Promoting muffin and snack making, self serving and tidying up after ourselves 👍

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At Cart Mill we are promoting independence, responsibility through learning to be resilient and confident and to be able to do things for ourselves.

Today we made muffins to serve at snack for our friends, this is a very popular experience which we do daily to give everyone a turn. By making the same recipe everyday allows the children to become confident in making the muffins independently with only a little support needed for the oven.

The children are familiar with the receipe…3 scoops of gluten free flour, 1 scoop of sugar, xanthum gum, baking powder and some coconut milk to bind together.

We put the muffins in the cases ready for the oven, 180 degrees for 20mins.

Whilst waiting for the muffins we start preparing our snack. The children choose their snack in the morning and being very careful with the knife we start chopping…

Watermelon, green apples, pineapple to go along with our freshly made muffins….delicious!!!

The choice and amount are displayed on our wall so the 2-5 year olds can identify the snack and clearly see how many they can have in accordance with our guidance and learning that we are sharing with our friends.

We sit together at snack enjoying the social element of talking to our friends and scaffolding our learning by watching the example set by our peers.

Why not try to make these muffins easy muffins at home (I’m sure the children will help you 😀)

Article 31 Every child has the right to relax, play and take part in a wide range  of cultural and artistic activities

 

 

Outdoor Learning

Grow grow let our trees grow 🌳🌳🌳

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What a busy day we’ve had today, planting some baby seedling trees with the hope that they will grow and grow into big trees that we all can enjoy for many years…

We were planting a variety of different trees dogwood rose, blackthorns and elders. We could have a look at the seedlings, touch and smell the soil.

We made a hole in the ground for the seeds then the children patted it down to embed the trees into the soil.

We could share the learning that we already had on how the trees grow, they need sun, water, fresh air and love just like us and this will help the trees to grow big and strong just like us.

Isn’t it amazing to think that the children  today could visit these trees as dads and grandads and show them off  and be proud of them, providing a lifelong love of nature.

Article 29 Education must develop every child’s personality, talents and abilities to the full.

Special Event

Intergenerational play 😀

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In preparation for our visit to Bonnyton House the children helped to make gift to take…..what should we make??


Bird feeders

Last weekend was our big birdwatch, we had made bird feeders to welcome birds to our nursery garden and we thought it would be a lovely idea to make some bird feeders to share.

After we had delivered our gifts we all enjoyed a little sing, with the children demonstrating ‘Twinkle twinkle chocolate bar’ and our friends teaching us ‘The farmer wants a wife’

The children and staff all had a great time and we think we could all benefit from these visits…we’re all looking forward to the next one 😄

Article 31 Every child has the right to relax, play and take part in a wide range of cultural and artistic activities

Outdoor Learning

Keeping warm in the cold 🥶🥶🥶

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Today it was very cold in the garden but the children were excited to discover the changes in our garden due to the weather! We wrapped up in our jackets, hats and gloves and ventured out. We only stayed moving about for 20 mins then we came in again to get warm!

We stomped….

We tiptoed….

We used ribbons to dance with…..

We ran very carefully!

We star jumped ☃️

By keeping moving we kept ourselves toasty warm and fighting fit👍

Article 31 You have the right to play and relax by doing things like sports, music and drama

 

 

Literacy

Experimenting – sinking & floating 🤔🤔🤔

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Today we decided to problem solve and discover the objects that sunk and floated in the nursery…

We all worked together to fill a box with water, when children are  involved they are much more engaged!

The children wrote the words float and sink so we could record our results.

We searched the playrooms for items to use……we had lots of different ideas!

We recorded our results to share with others

Look at all the different loose parts we investigated in our box!!!

The children had a great time exploring and investigating different objects to experiment with …you could try this at home,  learning through fun!

Article 28 Every child has the right to an education.

Expressive Arts, Literacy

Exploring, investigating and being creative with the pumpkins!🎃

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Today in the discovery room we put some pumpkins down with some tools and gave the children time and space to decide, explore what and how they wanted to do with the pumpkins.

We cut the top of the pumpkins to investigate inside and the children guestimated there were “50 million seeds in the large one”

We looked inside and discovered the seeds, we used some spoons but was much more fun  with our hands, enjoying the sensory experience of feeling different textures.


“let’s use our hands”

“I’m mixing it”

The children then decided to make some ‘potions’

We needed some green water, white water and then put some magic cornflower to mix it all together using the pumpkin as a bowl!

The children enjoyed mixing the potion adding the slime of the pumpkin and seeds.


Now the potions were made, our friends could enjoy them too!!!

Article 31 You have the right to play and rest