All posts by Miss Keith

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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.

Creativity, Expressive Arts, Special Event

Firework and Diwali Designs at the tinker table..

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This week at the tinker table we have been creating some firework and Diwali designs using nails, golf tees and coloured elastic bands.

This experience will help the children with their fine motor skills, hand and eye coordination whilst building self esteem and confidence while they are using the tinker table ⚒️.

Some of the children preferred to use the log which already has the nails in place. They were able to create some lovely designs and also recognise some of the shapes they had created.  “Mine is a triangle”.

”We choose the colours of the fireworks that we seen in the sky” . “They were very loud”. “I choose red because I seen red ones and that’s my favourite colour”.

At Cartmill Family Centre we wish all our friends a very Happy Diwali this weekend.

Article 13 – We have the right to find out things and share what we know.

Expressive Arts, Literacy, music

The three little pigs 🐷 ….

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In the story corner this week our focus has been the story book The three little pigs 🐷

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We all listened to the story . We huffed and puffed with the wolf !!

Earlier  in the week we had collected loose parts and resources that we thought might help us recreate the straw house, stick house and brick house.  Today after reading the story  we used our problem solving and building skills and were able to make some great houses for our pigs.

After re creating our story some of the children remembered that we had a jigsaw of the  3 little pigs they wanted to try.  The boys and girls worked well together to complete the jigsaw and were very happy when they finished . Well done .

After so much building and problem solving we decided to use our story spoons to create stories and sing some songs and rhymes. The children took turns choosing and helped each other learn some new words and actions.
A very busy morning in the story corner ……

Article 12 – You have the right to give your option and for people to listen.

Expressive Arts, Literacy

The Joy of Story Telling

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In our story corner we have been enjoying listening to and creating our own stories. In this area we can relax and look at books either alone or with our friends.

We enjoy sharing information,  we point out familiar places, animals and everyday items and ask questions .

We have story bags in this area which are very popular with the children .This enables the girls and boys to help tell the story and interact with the characters.

The children enjoy self selecting their own story and are able to use the characters within the context of the story. This will also help them recognise the stories have a beginning, middle and end.

This week we have been using our hand puppets to tell stories, the children have added in other items to enhance their story telling which will help develop their imagination and language skills.

Our own stories  : “ My puppets are going to the swimming and we have to go in the car on the motorway we have to be careful because it’s fast driving”.  “ When we were out we found a sick teddy bear and he couldn’t swallow his medicine so we gave him a drink to help”.
“ When we take my baby out she needs a drink and we use a bottle because she is too wee for a cup”.

We have a variety of books and some of the younger  children enjoy  books that they can help turn the pages, lift up the flaps to reveal a surprise this also helps their fine motor skills and adds to the excitement of story telling.

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

Expressive Arts

Creating movement in the science area

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Today in the science area we tried out a new experiment. How do we make our caterpillars 🐛 move. Firstly we had some small pieces of paper roll and drew on our caterpillar 🐛.

The best way to make a caterpillar shape was to roll the paper round a pencil this was quite tricky to manage !  ( we had a little help). And then with a squish and a squeeze we pushed our caterpillar off the pencil.

We were now ready to create the magic movement. We used our pipettes to drop a few drops of water onto them and they grew bigger, wiggled around and it just “growed so fast”.

The boys and girls noticed they were different sizes and wanted to make their own caterpillar families. They discovered using different sizes of paper towel made mummy,daddy,baby caterpillars. “This looks like the big one”.

Some of the children enjoyed putting colours on the paper towels , then adding water then watched as the shapes and patterns appeared. “ Mine is like the sunset in the sky “.

Who new a piece of kitchen roll could be so much fun . We used our fine motor skills also  named shapes and colours and even did some measuring . Well Done.

Article 13 – You have the right to share and explore through learning experiences.