All posts by Mrs Hannah

Expressive Arts, Literacy

Loose Parts Play

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This week in the Discovery room we have had lots of fun exploring loose parts.

We have collected lots of different items to create our loose part trays. Using our excellent fine motor skills, we sorted our loose parts into groups of similar items.

Filling and emptying lots of different sized containers using tweezers and tongs helped us develop our fine motor skills, and develop our understanding of volume and measurement.

“This one has lots of big and small pieces”.

”It’s full. I’m emptying it out”.

It was lots of fun choosing which loose parts we would use to create our transient artwork. We have such wonderful imaginations!

“It’s a volcano with lava coming out”.

”I made a caterpillar with pom poms”.

”I made a maze. The board is the way in. That one is the way out”.

Some of us decided to choose our own loose parts to create the letters of our name.  We each drew our letter then carefully placed our loose parts along the lines.  Don’t they look fabulous!

To challenge ourselves further, we decided to make our names from our favourite loose parts.  We decided we like the pom poms, colourful matchsticks and gems the best!

There are so many fabulous things activities we can do with loose parts that help us develop a wide range of skills, our imaginations and creativity.
Loose parts can be anything from cardboard boxes, yoghurt pots, cotton reels and shells or sticks we can collect on holiday!
Why not have some fun with loose parts at home and see what you can create!

 

Expressive Arts

Blocks Rock!

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We have been very busy in our block area today!

Using our excellent problem solving skills, we explored measurement and balance.  We were able to identify which blocks were “lighter” and “heavier” and discovered we needed to put some of the heavier blocks on the bottom of our towers so that they didn’t topple over!!

It was so much fun adding in our small world figures. We worked together to build stairs for them to climb into their houses and we even constructed a lego train which had a bed to sleep in!

Next we decided to use our larger blocks to build “somewhere to give money out”.  We decided we needed steps and a seat “so we can give the money out to people”.  Using our measuring skills, we were able to compare the size of each block and identify which were “bigger” and smaller” and discussed where we should place them so that it “would be safe to climb on”.  Placing the blocks together we discovered that 2 of our smaller “square” blocks were the same size as “the rectangle one”.


“this one is bigger”

Collecting lots of loose parts gave us lots of “money” and we took turns being “the person who gives the money to people”.  Everyone demonstrated excellent turn taking, counting and negotiating skills!

Block play enables us to explore logical and abstract thinking, use our imaginative and creative skills and develop our communication and negotiating skills, while having lots of fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Special Event

Easter Fun at Cart Mill!

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It’s been such a busy week at Cart Mill.  We are so looking forward to our holiday weekend! What better way to end the week than having a fun day!

First of all we decided to have an Easter Egg hunt to make sure everyone has had an egg to take home.  The eggs were tricky to find, but with a bit of teamwork and encouraging each other, we managed to find them all!

Next it was time to practice our directions and positional language on our bikes! We were able to go forwards and backwards, stop and start,  fast and slow, and race each other round our track.  We drew our own arrows and reminded each other to follow them so that we didn’t  have any crashes!

We created our own obstacle course and carried out our  own risk assessments to decide how many crates we would feel safe to jump from.

Then it was time to see who could roll the cable reels the furthest!
We were exhausted after using up all of our energy outside so it was time for some Peter Rabbit  and some popcorn and fruit for snack.

Have a lovely holiday weekend everyone.  We look forward to welcoming you back when we reopen on Tuesday.

 

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Spring Break!

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On behalf of all of the staff at Cart Mill we would like to wish our Term-Time children and families a really lovely, well-earned holiday fortnight. Please keep safe, enjoy some downtime and as much time as you can having fun outdoors.

We will be here, looking forward to seeing all of our children back in our centre again from Tuesday 19th April.

While some of our staff are on holiday, Val and the rest of the team are here for a chat or to answer any queries you may have.

 

 

Outdoor Learning, Snack

Fun at Forest School

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We are always so excited when it’s a Forest School day! We have been observing the changes in the Forest over the last few sessions.  As it has been sunny and dry over the last week, it was safe enough for us to explore the river.  We collected our nets and set off!

The water was so clear we could see right to the bottom. Unfortunately we didn’t see or catch any fish! We used a stick to measure the depth of the water and then held it against our boots so that we could see where it was safe to stand.

We found our very own stoney beach where we could look for stones and throw them in the water.  As a group, we conducted a risk assessment and discussed safety rules we should follow when throwing our stones.  We had to be careful to look around us and stay a safe distance from each other before we threw our stones into the water. We had so much fun investigating who could throw their stone the furthest and make the biggest SPLASH! We found lots of different sizes and shapes of stone. We were able to identify which were bigger, smaller, heavier and flatter.  We found one that looked like a pizza and put two together to make a duck!


Of course we have to have snack when we’re at Forest School.  We enjoyed apple, hot chocolate to warm us up and a biscuit (to give us energy!)

There was just time for us to make a few trips up our favourite hill! It was hard work climbing to the top! We were able to feel our hearts beating really fast! Our favourite part was pulling Angela back down the hill with us. She was going really fast!

We can’t wait to see what we can discover and explore next week!

 

 

 

 

Literacy

World Book Day

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We have had lots of fun celebrating World Book Day here at Cart Mill!

We sang our favourite songs and rhymes such a Twinkle Twinkle, Incy Wincy Spider,  Wheels on the Bus and Humpty Dumpty during Book Bug with Emma and Gail.

We had to work together as a team to keep Incy Wincy Spider up in the air! We were so excited to guess what was inside the box and which song we would sing next!

We did lots of bending and stretching following the actions of Head, Shoulders, Knees andToes and Peter Hammer with Gail.

Thank you so much to our parents and children who recorded their favourite stories to share with us.  We really enjoyed watching them on our big screen!

Gail read us a lovely story called the Wonderful World of Weather.  We have chatted about our favourite stories and read some of our favourite books.

Our budding authors have created some potato characters and stories of their own.  Other children have made their favourite characters from books. How many can you recognise?

 

 

Outdoor Learning, Trips and Outings

Snow much fun!!

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We were so excited to see so much snow in our Cart Mill garden today.  We had so much fun investigating how deep it was and how it felt to touch. We even made a Snow Angel!

“It’s cold. I’m picking it up and making a snowball.”

We are so lucky to have a large open space next to our garden with lots of hills which are perfect for sledging!

“I was going so fast”.

We had so much fun racing down the hill to see who could go the fastest! Sami joined in too but we reached the bottom before she did!

Next it was off to the Spider Park.  We decided to call it the Snow Park today!

We had so much fun playing snow tig and making snowballs!

We demonstrated excellent teamwork by pulling each other on the sledge round the Snow Park.  It was hard work!

Of course we have to make a Snowman on a snowy day!  We worked together to roll our large snowballs and found some sticks to use as arms. We made a big snowman and a little snowman.

“This is his head”  ” He has arms.”

After all our hard work it was time for snack. Of course we had to have some hot chocolate to warm us up!

We had snow much fun today!

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Numberblock fun!

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Today in the Discovery Room we have had lots of fun developing our numeracy skills through use of our Numberblocks!

Firstly we practiced our number recognition skills. We were able to correctly identify the number on each card. Some of us were able to do this by looking just at the number and some of us counted the blocks.

We then used our amazing 1-1 correspondence and fine motor skills to build the correct number block for each card. It was a bit tricky clicking the blocks together but we worked together as a team and helped each other.

We were also able to recognise and name all the different colours and build a rainbow number 7!

Next we decided to challenge ourselves further to see if we could correctly build and sequence the number blocks in order. We were able to identify the numbers that came before and after and which number block was the biggest and smallest.

“I maked all the blocks1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. 10 is the biggest.”

We even used the same colours as the real number blocks!

We were having so much fun that we decided to challenge ourselves further by using the activity cards to see if we could add numbers together.

“It’s 3, 4 and 7!”

We even created our own numberblocks using our fabulous mark making skills!


“It’s all the numberblocks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Super Soup!

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Our Cart Mill children have been thoroughly enjoying our new lunch regime. We are very excited about our new lunch menu and we have been tasting lots of delicious  new foods.

One our favourites is Stephanie’s super lentil soup. It is so yummy!

Pouring our own water helps us develop our measuring skills  and promotes independence . We are very careful not to spill any! We are also very good at turn taking and passing the jug carefully around the table.

Sitting around the table together helps us develop our language and communication skills. We love to discuss what foods keep us healthy and can recognise and name our favourite fruit and vegetables and discuss our likes and dislikes!

“I like cucumber, do you want some?”
”I like the red pepper, I don’t like the green”

We also further developed our fine motor skills by using the tongs to select our own crudités.

We love to help tidy up and practise resetting our table for our friends to have their lunch!

“We need to clean the table. Then we need a bowl and spoon for our soup”

“I’ll put the water and vegetable tray out”

Our super soup got a big thumbs up today!

“I’m finished. It was so yummy!”

 

 

 

 

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Terrific threading!

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Today is fun Friday at Cart Mill! We decided we would like to make our own necklaces or bracelets!  We discussed what we would need to make them and decided we would need ribbon, some beads, and some scissors to cut our ribbon.

We carefully cut our ribbon and used our problem solving skills to discover we would need to tie a knot at the end of our ribbon to stop the beads falling off!

We carefully shared out our beads and each chose our favourite colour, design and size of bead. We had to concentrate really hard as it was tricky to thread the ribbon through the small hole.

We concentrated very hard and demonstrated fantastic patience and teamwork. Finally our Terrific Threading was finished!

We had lots of fun deciding which thread was the longest, shortest, which followed a pattern and which had our favourite colours. We decided we liked the rainbow threads the best! 🌈

We decided it might be a wee bit dangerous to put some of the threads around our necks as they were too tight so we decided to tie them to our bags instead!

Threading is a great activity to help develop fine motor skills, strengthen muscles, develop hand-eye co-ordination and concentration skills. It’s a lot of fun too!