All posts by Miss Keith

Creativity, Expressive Arts, Imaginative thinking, nature

The wonder of Wood 🪵

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As our new term begins we are introducing our tinker table and tools to our new children . To help develop fine motor skills and hand/eye coordination we are starting with hammers, pool noodles and golf tees this gives the children a opportunity to hammer 🔨 successfully and improve their cofidence

We also explore different types of wooden resources such as pegs,cork, craft sticks,wood shavings and many more. This gives our children the chance to be creative using nails or glue to make their own models.

The tinker table loose parts can be used to help plan what our older children can make using wood,nails,screws,hammers. “ I am going to make a house “

Our “big girls and boys” enjoy the challenge of creating their own recognisable model, they are confident to explore and experiment with a variety of materials,  demonstrate  problem solving skills and complete tasks.  They have made boats,ferries, spider man cars,houses the list goes on……..

The children are very keen to continue with their wood work projects and” wood “be very grateful if we have or know of anyone who could donate them some wood off cuts. Thank you.

Article 13 – you have the right to explore and share new experiences.

Creative movement, Creativity, Expressive Arts, Imaginative thinking

Creative Painting

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Today in the studio we decided to have some fun with the paint using  our hands and feet! Firstly we laid down a clear shower curtain and chose colours of paint to “squirt” onto it.
How are we going to mix the colours together ?  Using our problem solving skills we came up with some good ideas.
“We can roll around ! And I can use my feet . Be careful it is a bit slippy!”

We have developed our tactile and sensory skills from touching the paint and feeling it on our skin and between our toes. This also helps  us develop gross motor skills and balance. We discussed colours and watched them mix together .

As we explore the paint, some of us enjoy fully covering ourselves as a form of self – exploration.
As we become more experienced artists, we demonstrated excellent gross motor skills by using our hands and feet to walk through the paint.


After all the fun we had with our body painting,  we were able to hang our art work outside and use the remaining paint to draw shapes and letters on it with brushes. “A pointy A for my name”.

“I made a circle ⭕️”.
We all had a great morning having the freedom to discover and choose ways to be creative.

Article13 – I have the right to find out and share information.

Creativity, Expressive Arts, Outdoor Learning

Symmetry in our Butterflies 🦋

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The children have been fascinated by our butterflies and the patterns on their wings “ look the two wings are the same.

With this in mind we decided to make our own butterflies. We worked hard preparing our wings sharing our ideas and discussing colours.

” Butterflies fly in the sky so we paint the sky and added in a few clouds because it’s raining today “. We then got busy cutting out our butterflies.

The boys then added on some circles to the butterfly wings “ they  look like little eyes”. Now they are ready to fly in the sky…..

We looked at another way to create our own pictures which shows how symmetry works this is a geometric shape or object which can be divided into two or more identical pieces.

The boys and girls worked independently and also co-operated with each other to chose colours of paint and discussed patterns for their butterflies.

We also used a mirror to give the effect of a larger image of symmetry.

I am sure you will agree we created some lovely pictures. Have a look when you are outdoors to see if you can spot any butterflies 🦋.

Article 13 – You have a right to find out things and share with others what you think.

Creative movement, Creativity, Expressive Arts, Imaginative thinking

Paint -Let’s Explore !!

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Today we decided to explore and have some fun with the paint through colour mixing and sensory experiences. We had a look at the colour charts and chose our colours and filled our pots.

We began to mix our colours together and were excited to see them change right before our eyes. “ Look you made pink”.  The children created peach, lime green, sky blue , yucky brown!

The children always enjoy some hand painting. Engaging with different colours, textures and materials stimulates the child’s senses, promoting integration and cognitive development.

We can even paint our nails and blow them dry like mummy does!

Some of the older children began to try different ways to use the cotton buds  “Look I can roll mine and it makes a bigger mark and it feels nice in my fingers “.  This helps develop the fine motor skills and enhancing hand eye coordination.

Producing their own artwork gives all our children a sense of accomplishment and pride, boosting their confidence and self-esteem. Plus it was just great fun!!

Article – 13  You have the right to play and learn through new experiences.

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Sensory Fun

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We have been trying out some fun sensory experiences this week.  We tried mixing custard powder with water which gave us a really smooth surface and was  hard to press into but when we lifted it up it became all runny “wow its like magic“. Did you know this is called a non Newtonian fluid?

The children enjoyed watching the mixture do its magic.

The girls and boys were able to use some great descriptive words when playing with the magic potion.  “ My potion is very sticky and cold” and it’s like a bath bomb my mummy uses.

We were able to talk about the visual elements how thick or thin, rough and smooth as well as shape, colour and patterns. What a lot of things to learn!

Our next sensory experience we decided should be crazy soap as this is always a favourite

The girls and boys enjoy moulding this foam and squeezing it through their fingers . It feels very tickly  in my hands.

This week we have made up some sensory bags. We made jelly to put in one of them although we had to use our muscles to try and break the jelly into pieces, this helps develop our fine motor skills.

Everyday we had something different in our bags and we had great fun guessing what might be in the bags, what colours they were and what the would smell like.

It was decided that the jelly bag was the best it smelled so good and was nice and “squishy”. The beans went all yucky and were cold so not as good. The tomatoes were good as you could make patterns in them with your fingers. We also had lentils one day, they felt really different.
Sensory experiences help us use all our senses while we explore them.

Article 13 – You have the right to play and learn through new experiences.

Creativity, Digital Technology, Expressive Arts

Play dough shapes and numbers….

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At the play dough table our children are always very busy . This week we have tried forming the dough into shapes, numbers and patterns. The children drew some patterns that we could use with the play dough.

Play dough gives the children an excellent opportunity to develop fine motor skills and strengthen the muscles in their fingers and hands.

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We used our hands ,fingers and rolling pins to help make the shapes for the numbers. “It’s very soft”  “ mine is nearly long, now it might fit”.

Some of the children could recognise the numbers that were written and  some of the children filled the circles  with play dough to count to the number . “I have two circles it’s the number 2 “

The children were able to recognise most of the shapes “it’s a circle” “ now it’s a purple circle”. Our children were very pleased when they completed a shape . “I need four pieces for a square”.

The children also enjoy taking photos of their hard work and record them in  their learning journals. This reminds us all of how creative the Cart Mill children are.

 

 

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Using our fabulous imaginations, the children  enjoyed creating their own patterns and designs!  We had lovely rainbows, cherry pies and so much more!   We are looking forward to many more play dough creations.

Article- You have the right to development and participation.

Creativity, Expressive Arts, Outdoor Learning

Play dough patterns and Creations

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This week at the play dough area we are looking at patterns we can make in the play dough using resources and natural materials. As always our children can confidently make their play dough.

The girls and boys then chose which resources they would like to use. We picked lovely patterned rolling pines, some leaves and sticks .

The boys and girls had to use all their muscles to pull off the leaves 🍃 and the break up some sticks . We made sure there was no jaggy edges on the sticks that might hurt us.

We then began to use our rolling pins across the leaves so that we could see the print  it left in the play dough. We learnt that the harder your roll the better the print.

As we have very creative children  the children started to explore what else they could do. Look my tree stands up high . Some of the children could demonstrate problem solving techniques and perseverance. “ Look I made my tree stand up using more play dough at the bottom “.

The girls and boys worked well together helping each other make their prints and admiring each other’s work.

We had great fun making prints with the leaves and rolling pin . We made holes with the sticks and of course we made chicken wraps,pancakes,plants, jack and the beanstalk.
We look forward to discovering what else we can make patterns with in our play dough.

Article – I have the right to explore my strengths and creativity .

Creativity, Outdoor Learning, Special Event

Who will live in my nest 🪹?

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This week in the garden the children have noticed how cold it is. We spotted some birds flying into the garden “maybe they are looking for food and somewhere to keep warm”.

We found a book that showed us lots of different types of nests for garden birds and other animals. “Let’s make nests”

Our children had a look round the nursery to find materials that would help our animals stay warm. We used little pots to make our nests in to keep our birds and animals dry. “ A mouse will live in mine”  “ I want a bunny rabbit to stay in my nest” and “an eagle 🦅 will stay in my nest.

We also learnt that it is very important that these small animals have access to clean water for drinking and bathing so we filled a dish with water and left it outside . We shall need to check this each day to make sure it’s not frozen. We had a little look in our bird box to check it was safe and clean for the birds to visit.
Our animal and bird houses are looking great. Nice and cosy. The children have chosen to take their own nests home to see what birds or animals might use them. Good luck and let’s us know if you have any visitors !

We are also looking forward to taking part In the Big Garden Birdwatch between 26th and 28th January. We shall encourage the children to take notice of the types of birds that visit their garden and look forward to making some bird feeders to encourage any visitors.

 

Creative movement, Digital Technology, Expressive Arts, music, Special Event

Christmas Music and Dancing 💃

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As this is the last week before the Christmas holidays the children are full of excitement and energy. To help with the energy levels we decided to do some Christmas 🎄 dancing.

The children requested “Danny Go” as he has a lot of great Christmas moves

We enjoyed a dance with the Gingerbread man and the children were able to listen and follow the actions. This helps the children understand how their bodies can move and that  exercise is a good way to help keep their bodies healthy.

Our next dance was a penguin March we stood up tall and were able to waddle like penguins 🐧 making sure we could keep our balance when hopping on one leg.

After all the dancing it was time to help our bodies relax . We all enjoyed some rainbow relaxation.
The children followed the instructions to make a rainbow using their arms. Some of the children could name the colours and even knew that the rainbow 🌈 has indigo and violet .

We hope you all enjoy celebrating Christmas with us on Wednesday and you have happy and healthy holiday .

 

Article 29   You have the right to learn new things to the best of your abilities.

 

Creativity, Expressive Arts, Special Event

Christmas Clay and Glitter Decorations

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In the studio this week the Christmas excitement is growing. We had a think about what decoration we could make. “Can we make decorations for the tree”.
We had a think and thought that using the clay would be a good idea. We gathered together the materials we would need. We then had to use our strong hand and arm muscles to roll out the clay and make it big enough for our cutter.

We have chosen a round cutter so that it will look like a bauble for the tree. We pushed the cutter into the clay and it made our circle “ Look mines big enough”

We then carefully used a pencil to make a hole in the top of our bauble for the ribbon to go through so it would hang on the tree.

We then had to let our clay dry for two sleeps 🛌.

Now it’s ready to decorate

The children were able to self select their own materials .” I will use jewels and it will make it ✨ sparkle.

Of course we had to use lots and lots of biodegradable glitter. We spoke about our favourite colours of glitter and which one would shine the brightest.

Our decorations are now drying and will be ready to take home to shine bright on your very own trees 🌲.

Article 29

Your education should help you develop your talents and abilities.