All posts by Mrs Hannah

Special Event

Countdown to Christmas!

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It’s been another busy day as we continue our Cart Mill countdown to Christmas!

After a busy couple of weeks, it was lovely to relax in our cozy Christmas pyjamas and watch some of our favourite Christmas and winter cartoons with our friends.  And of course you can’t have a movie day without snacks!

We had so much energy left after our movie, what better way to burn it off than a few games of musical statues and musical bumps! Of course in true Cart Mill style we included a wee impromptu singalong to our favourite Frozen songs! (A good wee warm up before our Christmas Concert tomorrow!).

All of a sudden we heard a sound! We thought it sounded like bells! It was a surprise visit from Santa!!

It was very exciting to meet Santa who had a big sack full of gifts!  (Santa was very kind and left gifts for all our children not at nursery today).


What better way to round off our day than  with a fabulous dance session with our friend Colette from Blizzard Dancing.  We really are marvellous movers at Cart Mill.

Only 6 more sleeps to go!

 

Literacy

Oh no, it’s a Gruffalo!

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In our story corner today we have been discussing  books we have  at home and took great delight in sharing our favourites with our friends.  We couldn’t decide which was our overall favourite, so we voted by raising our hands and then counting to see which story had the most votes.

Our winner was ……. The Gruffalo!

Lots of exciting discussion followed and we were able to name the Mouse and the Gruffalo as the main characters, and remember which animals the mouse met on his walk through “the deep, dark wood!”.  We decided we wouldn’t like to walk in the “deep, dark wood cos it might be a wee bit scary”, but “maybe we could take a torch and it wouldn’t be scary anymore!”

It was so exciting to choose which character we would like to be.  Listening very carefully, we were able to take turns and use our story  spoons to predict which character the Mouse would meet next!  Some of us demonstrated we know the Gruffalo really well by joining in with repeated phrases, “oh help, oh no, it’s a Gruffalo!” being a firm favourite! To challenge ourselves further, we even added in some sound effects and actions!

“The snake goes sssssssss”

”Owl goes toowittoowoo”

”look I’ve got terrible teeth and I’ve got big claws”

”his prickles were purple”

”his eyes are orange, mines are brown.”

Using a thumbs up, thumbs to the side and thumbs down, we shared our likes and dislikes of each character and then decided we would like to swap our spoons and read the story again! (Repeated at least 5 times!)

Article 12 – you have the right to give your opinion
Article 29 – Your education should help you use and develop your talents and abilities.

Creative movement, emotional literacy, Expressive Arts

Creative movement

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Creative movement is a fabulous way  for children to express their feelings, thoughts and ideas.  Touch and movement are the earliest senses we develop.  Children explore the world around them through these senses and they may provide rich learning experiences that can influence our health and well-being (Reynolds. S. 2023).

Energetic play is an excellent way which supports children to progress their movement in different forms.  Creating their own obstacle course provided a wealth of opportunities to climb, balance, jump or crawl!

Taking turns, our children created the movement they would like to perform, and their friends took great delight in copying! Whether it be running, side stepping, rolling (which was a definite favourite), rotating or frog jumps, each movement provided the opportunity to travel through our space, develop our co-ordination and strengthen our gross motor skills.

Children enact repeated patterns of behaviour in play, known as Schemas, allowing them the freedom to explore their thoughts and ideas, which is an important part of their brain development.   Performing action songs with simple patterns such as head, shoulders, knees and toes and Grand old duke of York during Bookbug is the ideal opportunity to connect with our bodies and each other by creating tunnels, and improve our flexibility!


What better way to express our creative movements than to clear some space, pop on  favourite songs and dance our hearts out! This provides the opportunity to move freely, perform spontaneous movements and have lots of fun!

Article 29 – your education should help you use and develop you talents and abilities.

 

 

 

emotional literacy

Exploring Emotional Literacy

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Emotional literacy is the ability to recognise, understand and express our emotions, which isn’t always easy to do!   At Cart Mill we’re always thinking of creative ways we can explore our feelings and emotions and ways to share them with each other.

A very special visitor came to see us today!

We decided “Roary” looked  “a wee bit sad cause he didn’t have anyone to play with.” And “he Roars because he’s sad and a wee bit angry”.  Roary asked us “How are you feeling today?”
“I’m happy cause I’m playing with my friends”.

”I’m happy too”.

”I’m tired”.

“I’m a wee bit sad because I miss my mummy”.

Chatting to Roary sparked the idea of  making our own puppets. Having a wee look around our Studio, we found lots of interesting things we could use!

“I’m using the bottle”.  “I cutted it’s hair”. “Mines needs long hair like me”. “I maked eyebrows on mine and a nose”. “I drawed a smiley face cos I’m happy”.

“Angry face. I want goggley eyes on mine. He’s a wee bit angry”.
“I want goggley eyes too. Mine is angry. He’s in bed cos he’s tired”.

“Sad face”

”happy”


“I think he’s a wee bit sad. Maybe he’s tired”

”happy”.
Some of our puppets were very friendly and decided to sing, chat and dance with each other, sometimes we even used a special silly voice!


If we’re feeling a little shy, puppets are a fantastic vehicle to express our feelings and emotions, develop our language, social and emotional skills, explore creativity and build our self confidence. It encouraged us to communicate with each other, share our thoughts and ideas, lose our inhibitions and build on our relationships.  As we created our puppets, we entered into our “flow state”, meaning we were so engrossed in our activity that we lost track of everything else around us! This can be very therapeutic and calming and an excellent way to regulate and reset.

Isn’t it amazing how popping on some “goggley, wiggly eyes” can make any object and our creations come to life!

Article 12 – you have the right to an opinion and for it to be listened to and taken seriously.

Article 29 – you have the right to an education that tries to develop your personality and ability.

Expressive Arts

Terrific Threading!

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We have been so busy in our sewing corner this week as we continue to focus on developing our fine motor skills and hand-eye co-ordination.
As we grow in confidence, we can use scissors safely to self select and prepare our own materials and we demonstrated fabulous concentration and perseverance when threading our own needles as “it can be a wee bit tricky!”.


“It’s a wee bit hard to cut the wool”

”I’ll hold it and you cut it”

“I’m choosing blue. My mummy likes blue”

To develop our threading skills further, we decided to see how many tubes of pasta we could thread onto our wool.
How did we do this?

”we putted the thread on the needle”.

”we had to tie a knot so it didn’t fall off”

”I putted the needle through the pasta and pulled it down. Then I did another one”

”you need to tie the bottom so the pasta doesn’t fall off”


It was a “a wee bit tricky” to push the needle through the pasta but we used our problem solving skills and discovered it was easier “if we hold it up cos it slides down”.

When we had finished our terrific threading we decided to work as a team and measure our creations to see which one was the longest, and practised our brilliant counting skills to see how many pasta tubes were on each “snake, wiggly worm and necklace”.

“Look I makes a wiggly worm”

”mine is a snake”

”mines a snake too!”

”my snake is bigger than yours. I’ve got 15 pastas”

”yours is the smallest and mines is the biggest”

Using our knowledge and experience, we have been able to demonstrate a good understanding of our safety rules and share this with our new friends, listen to and follow instructions and work both as a team and independently.

We have decided to have a meeting tomorrow to discuss what we would like to create next week!

Article 31~ I have the right to relax and play.

 

 

 

Snack

Setting into life at Cart Mill

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As we come to the end of the first week of our new term, we thought we would share our fun filled week with you!  It has been lovely to welcome our new children and families and see our children returning from holiday.  We are so proud of how well you have settled  and become part of our Cart Mill family.  Of course we can’t forget our experienced Cart Millers who have taken great pride in being tour guides, sharing their experience and lending a helping hand.

Our Cart Mill Cafe has been a highlight this week! We are super proud of our children who have taken our lunch and snack routine in their stride.  They have demonstrated fabulous independence by helping prepare snack, serving themselves, clearing away their dishes afterwards, having the confidence to try new foods and share their likes and dislikes with us.

A new beginning and change of routine can be exciting but also a little daunting and overwhelming at times! This week we’ve taken the time to focus on our health and well-being by thinking about fun activities we would like to do to “make us feel happy” and take time to make connections with our new environment and each other. It has been lovely to observe new friendships forming and established friendships reigniting.

A firm favourite has been to spend time outdoors where we have had lots of fun creating our own “running and hopping” game and exploring sensory play in our mud kitchen and water area.

“Look the bubbles are blue. I’m pouring the water”.

”Look you go this way. I’ll help you”.

Singing and dancing is always good for the soul, uplifting spirits and bringing us together.  There have been plenty choruses of rain, rain go away come again another day this week! In usual Cart Mill style this didn’t dampen our spirits but instigated some fabulous outfits, dance moves and dance shows!

“”I’ve got my sun hat and my cat ears on”

We have taken time to ensure we have created some lovely cozy corners where we can  relax, share our favourite stories and chat with our friends and shared precious mindful moments during group time.

Our noisy/quiet room has been very popular.  We embraced the opportunity to unwind by sewing and creating our own fabulous songs on our piano, as well as spending some time in our studio listening to relaxing music and painting our masterpieces!

It’s been a wonderful week full of cuddles, fun, stories, songs and laughter.  We can’t wait to share the next chapter of our journey with you!

You have the right to give your opinion, and for an adult to listen and take it seriously. (Right 12)

You have the right to rest and play. (Right 31)

 

Block building, Technologies

Budding architects and construction engineers!

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It’s been a brilliant few weeks in our busy block area! A number of our 4&5 year olds have become expert architects and construction engineers! They are able to describe what they are going to build before they start, draw their own plan, demonstrate excellent problem solving skills when creating their fabulous models and then use our iPads to capture images to create a fabulous display of their work.

”I used lots of blocks. I did it like symmetry, the same on each side. We found a picture that looks like it on the iPad”.

”We made a high chair for the teddy to sit in to eat his lunch, and a bed for the dolly cos she was tired”.

”I builded my house. These are the walls. I made a table and chairs and bunk beds to sleep in”.

Our 2 & 3 year olds have had lots of fun exploring stacking, demonstrating excellent problem solving skills by investigating how the blocks turn, fit on top of each other and different sizes, shapes and weights.

It was so much fun to see how many we could put on top of each other before they fell over!

Through observing and learning from our more experienced children, our 2&3 year olds are at the early stages of creating their own bridges.  Although they much prefer using their friends creations for their cars and trucks!


To add further challenge and depth to their learning, our children were set a challenge to see if they could build a bridge to help our small world people cross the river safely!   This sparked some wonderful conversation, problem solving, creativity and teamwork! Our children designed their own village with a school, park, shops and lots of houses and constructed some wonderful bridges to allow our people to cross the river safely to “go to the shops and the park”.


“I builded a bridge. There’s crocodiles in the water!”
“Look the people can cross the river to get to the park and the shop”.

”This bit doesn’t fit. We need a longer bit. Why don’t we try this bit?”

It has been so much fun watching our children develop their design and creativity talents, we can’t wait to share our future creations with you!

Articles 28 & 29 – children have the right to an education, children have the right to an education which tries to develop your talents and abilities.

 

Special Event

Moving on up!!

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It’s a day of mixed emotions today at Cart Mill as our fabulous Class of 2023 head off towards their new adventures in Primary One and some of our younger children prepare to embark on their new journeys at other nurseries.

Looking back over the last year it has been fantastic to see our children grow, develop their confidence and independence, embrace new opportunities and see wonderful new relationships form.   We thought we’d share a few of our favourite adventures with you!

Our Cart Mill children are so talented.  It has been amazing to see them share this with their friends and encourage and support one another through reading stories, riding our balance bikes, leading a gymnastics class and having a go at knitting!

“Teamwork makes the dreamwork” as some of our children like to say!  They’ve certainly achieved this through teaching each other how to make playdough, looking after our babies and each other at Cart Mill A&E, helping each other to climb a tree at forest school, and taking time to chat and share a cheers at snack time.

We’re sure you’ll agree it’s been a such a busy, fun-filled year it has been so far and we’re so excited for the wonderful adventures that lie ahead,

Family really is at the heart of everything we do at Cart Mill and we feel honoured to have made such amazing memories with you and are so proud of our fabulous children.

We don’t like to say goodbye, so it’s a good luck, have fun and please come back and visit us soon!  To our children returning in August, we look forward to new adventures and finally to our children we are lucky enough to hold on to for a little longer, we look forward to seeing you next week for more fun filled adventures!

 

 

 

Outdoor Learning

Brilliant Balancing

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We have had lots of fun in our garden this week exploring body movement in creative and imaginative ways.

Using various loose parts, we created our own Muddy Movers obstacle course. This gave us the opportunity to demonstrate we could use apparatus safely, take turns, and share space and equipment safely.  Through lots of discussion and problem solving, we decided to use the crates and a plank of wood to create a beam to walk along.  To challenge ourselves further, we chose to add in some steps and a second longer beam. It was a wee bit tricky to hold our balance, but with practice and perseverance we did it!


“I can go really fast now”

”It’s a bit wobbly”

Some of us have been chatting about gymnastics classes we go to when we are not at Cart Mill. It was lots of fun to share our knowledge and expertise of different gymnastic movements and balances we have learned with our friends. We are able to create different shapes with our bodies, control our movements by holding our balances and teach new techniques to our friends!

“Look at me, I can put my leg up”

”I  can balance on one hand “

Our very own Cart Mill gymnastics class was so much fun!


“This is called a table”

”Look I can  do one arm and one leg”

”I can touch my head with my feet!”

”You put your hands on the ground and your leg in the air, like this”

At Cart Mill we love to take part in lots of different kind of energetic activities and challenge our friends to a competition! The egg  and spoon race is a firm favourite. We found our spoons, but after much discussion, decided it might be best not to use real eggs as it might be a bit messy! Putting our thinking caps on, we decided to use some of our smaller balls instead. It was time to begin our race. Ready, steady, go!

It was a bit tricky to walk and balance our “eggs” at the same time! With encouragement from our friends, some of us were able to walk really fast, while some of us took it slow and steady.

Balancing has been so much fun.  We’re sure you’ll agree we really are brilliant balancers!

Article 13 sharing thoughts freely

Article 31 right to play

 

 

 

Outdoor Learning

Our Outdoor Classroom

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It’s outdoor classroom day today! To celebrate, we thought we would share what we were learning in our Forest “classroom” today!

Our new skill today was whittling sticks. Whittling is a fun and creative way to introduce knife skills and is done by using a sharp object such as a knife, or in our case a peeler,  to carve wood. Using our knowledge, understanding and experience we have gained from our woodwork bench, we were able to transfer and apply these skills to our Forest classroom! We demonstrated this by listening carefully to safety instructions for using our “peelers”. It was very important to remember not to touch the “shiny metal bit” so that “we don’t cut our fingers”, and to hold the peeler “by the handle at the bottom”.


It was important to remember to keep a safe distance round us which we called our blood bubble! We decided it would be safer to take the peeler along the stick away from us “so we don’t cut our fingers”. Lots of wood came off and we could see “the stick change colour”.

While we were having snack under our shelter, we decided that we could use our sticks to “cook marshmallows on the fire” for our last week of Forest School next week.

During our time in our Forest “classroom”,  we have learned so many new skills. Each week we have grown in confidence and developed our gross and fine motor skills through a wide range of activities. It has been so much fun to make new friends and to work as a group and support each other’s learning.

By exploring different outdoor environments and engaging in energetic physical play, we have developed our movement and co-ordination skills and can now climb and balance on trees with confidence!


It was so much fun in our Forest classroom today and we can’t wait to see what we will learn next week!

“The best classroom and the richest cupboard is roofed only by the sky” (McMillan, 1925)

Article 15 you have the right to be with friends. Article 28 you have the right to an education.