All posts by Miss Mitchell

Let’s explore Science through water play!

British Science Week is a 10 day celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths, otherwise known as STEM. The children in Cart Mill have been exploring many aspects of science through their water play.

30th Anniversary: British Science Week 2024! | All About STEMAll About STEM

Children can learn lots about maths and measurement through water play. We have explored this by adding a variety of containers to our water tray to allow the children to observe which container fills up the fastest and which shape and size holds the most water. This also allows children to use vocabulary related to measurement such as full, empty and some.

Some of the children helped with a colour mixing experiment in the water tray. J decided that he wanted to choose blue and orange and selected them from the art trolley himself. The children used their hands and utensils such as wooden spoons to see what happens when the two colours mixed together. They discovered that it turned a yucky colour!

‘’that’s like mud outside’’

‘’it’s the same colour as clay’’

       

The children also discovered, that by mixing the paint into the water, they created bubbles!

‘’Look at that one, it’s so big!’’

‘’I want to pop it’’.

The children were able to watch the bubbles form in front of their eyes knowing that they were creating them by mixing the water together with soap. Bubble experiments endorses scientific thinking through observation and exploration.

 

The children suggested that maybe next time we put some items into the water tray to see if they ‘’go under’’ or ‘’stay at the top’’ so next time, we will be exploring sinking and floating. I wonder what objects the children will choose…

Article 31: I have the right to play

Article 29: I have the right to an education which develops my personality.

Endless imaginative play in our water tray!

The children have been using their imagination and coming up with suggestions about what they would like to explore and play with in the water tray. The majority of the suggestions have been about dinosaurs, so we have created various water tray experiences to allow the children to explore their imaginations and lead their own role play and characterisation within the water tray.

The children suggested using green paint to mix into the water to create a dinosaur swamp, we used various equipment and objects to bath our dinosaurs and used bowls as water for them to drink out of after a busy day of roaring!

Then, the children decided they wanted to add more materials for role play and small world exploration into the water tray. We gathered natural resources such as rattan balls and mini tree logs and we even found some green shredded paper that absorbed in the water to make some swampy mush for the dinosaurs to eat.

”It feels a bit yucky”

”its so squishy the green stuff, my dinosaur is eating it yum yum”

The children decided on blue water for our underwater animals, they even wanted to add some bubbles to it…the bubbles made it smell like lemons!

We used the jugs to explore pouring and filling, using different sized apparatus to explore different ways to fill our containers such as spoons, mini ladles, tea pots and a mini gravy boat!

”I’m making you a frothy coffee, the bubbles are all the froth”

”its full up to the top”

Water play provides many benefits for children in their early years. By exploring different objects in the water, it allows children to practice their hand eye coordination, their ability to hold and grasp objects which develops the fine motor movements in their hands and fingers.

We have also been exploring early measurement through water play. By adding a variety of different sized containers, children are able to explore volume, even if they aren’t quite aware of it yet. They are able to observe which container fills up with water the fastest and to provide challenge, count how many containers it takes to fill up another.

 

Article 29 – I have the right to an education which develops my personality

Article 15 – I have the right to meet with friends

Gong hei fat choy

This week at Cart Mill, the children have been celebrating the festival of Chinese New Year.

This year it’s the year of the Dragon and the children have been busy exploring different areas of the nursery, creating dragons in different ways such as junk modelling and playdough. We have even been practicing our Chinese writing using paint in the studio.

We have been making Chinese lanterns in the Studio, and I’m sure you’ll notice our new friend that is in our reception area in front of the discovery room door! The children have showed off their creative skills by working together and making the Chinese New Year Dragon!

At Cart Mill we celebrate and recognise different cultures which allows us to learn about what is important to different people. This fosters respect and open mindedness for other cultures. Celebrating our differences, as well as our common interests, helps unite and educate us.

If you are celebrating Chinese New Year this weekend, please feel free to send us your pictures into schoolmail@cartmill.e-renfrew.sch.uk or on Twitter at @cartmillcentre

Article 29 – I have a right to an education which develops my personality, respect for others rights and the environment

Article 30 – I have a right to speak my own language and follow my families way of life

Article 31 – I have a right to play

 

Exploring our play dough area

In our play dough area this week we have been practicing our play dough making skills, we have been working together to count out how many scoops of the ingredients we need & taking turns to mix it all together to create our play dough.

We have been investigating different loose parts in our play dough area and how to use them safely. The children have made lots of creations using their natural curiosity and imagination such as faces, monsters and volcanos..

The children have also been practicing their cutting skills using different tools such as plastic knives, a pizza cutter and scissors. We have been exploring how to divide whole items into halves and quarters developing our mathematics and fractions skills.


Exploring play dough allows children to develop skills such as strengthening their hands, improving their fine motor skills and becoming confident in their hand-eye co-ordination. This helps with early emergent writing skills.

Article 31: I have the right to relax and play

Article 28: I have the right to an education

Pinecone Christmas Decorations!

Today in the Garden, the children have been creating their own Christmas decorations for the outdoor tree!

We had lots of pine cones so we decided to use some glue and some sparkly sand to create our very own Christmas baubles…

First we used the PVA glue and glue spreaders to make our pine cones all sticky!

Then we used some special Christmas sparkle to brighten up our pine cones and make them into our baubles for the tree.

”Shake shake shake so it comes out the top”

”It looks like snow on it”

Then we had to use our concentration and our fine motor skills to tie the ribbon around the tree so that our decorations would hang for everyone to see!

”Look at mine! I did it myself, I have a green ribbon on mine too”

Wouldn’t you agree that the children done a wonderful job of their decorations…have a look at our fabulous tree in our garden!

Throughout this experience, the children have been developing their creativity skills, imagination and their ability to work with different materials to create a piece of artwork.

Article 29: I have the right to an education which develops my personality, respect for others and the environment

Article 31: I have the right to an education

 

Learning emotions through Clay

Over the last week, the children have been exploring different emotions at the clay area. They have been selecting various loose parts to create their faces and express their thoughts and feelings through their model making.

Learning about emotions helps children become more aware and understand their own and others emotions and also allow them to better regulate their own responses to strong emotions. Helping to support children in recognising and identifying their emotions is an important first step.

”Here is a happy face”

”This face is a sad one, I made it go down like that, the mouth goes down like this”

The children used different techniques such as rolling, cutting and moulding to create their different faces which also develops the fine motor movements in their hands and their fingers.

”I made lots of different faces, they are happy ones, my mummy will be happy when I show her too”

Article 29 – I have the right to an education which develops my personality, respect for others and the environment.

 

Spooktacular clay creations!

Over the last week in the clay area, the children have been making their own spooky models. Using various techniques such as rolling, pressing and moulding to make their pumpkins and spiders.

The children used their curiosity and imagination skills throughout whilst exploring texture and manipulation.

The children used their hands to roll a ball to make the spiders body and to roll the spiders legs into ”sausage shapes”.

The children then decided they wanted to make their own clay model pumpkins for Halloween! We even created a whole family of pumpkins and some pumpkin lollypops for trick-or-treating!

Clay modelling allows children to develop their fine motor skills in their hands and fingers and hand eye co-ordination. This helps with children colouring, cutting and starts off the skills needed for emergent writing.

I wonder what wonderful techniques & creations our children will come up with next week..

Article 31: I have the right to play

Article 29: I have the right to an education

 

Creative builders in the block area 🧱👷🏽‍♀️👷🏾‍♂️

Over the last week in the block area the children have been using their imagination and problem solving skills to represent their ideas in imaginative ways. We have been making ice cream shops, which has been very popular with the children and the staff!

“I need the small ones for the ice cream”

“The big blocks can be for the walls”

The children have been enhancing their Problem solving skills, mathematic skills and communication skills by working alongside their friends to create their ice cream shops. The children were able to discuss bug and small blocks and give reasons for using different ones.

“my house has a pillow for the bed, I sleep up here”

”we’re saving our house from the big bad wolf!”

The children have also shown an interest in creating and designing their own houses both individually and working together with our friends. In block play, children are able to free flow their own ideas and building their constructions brings a feeling of success and allows children to build their self-esteem.

Article 15: I have the right to meet with friends

Article 31: I have the right to play

 

Block Play & Lose Parts exploration!

This week in the block area, the children have been investigating various different ways to create models & use their problem solving skills, self expression and imagination to create their own models.

The most popular creation this week has been building bridges of various shapes, sizes, length and height. The children have been developing their social and emotional skills by learning to take turns and share materials with their peers.

Block play helps children to become more confident in social situations and create friendships through communication and taking turns. Some of our children used the blocks and included some of our lose parts to create a ”tea party” where they made ”chicken nuggets” for their friends and shared them out one at a time. Very imaginative!

In the lose parts area, some of the children have showed that they are able to confidently match and sort objects using their own criteria such as colour or shape. The children were able to collect specified groups of objects and are beginning to organise objects.

”All the circles together”

”Orange”

Article 28: You have the right to education

Article 31: You have the right to play

Welcome to our block play! 🧱

Today in the block area the children have been exploring the first two stages of block play, carrying and stacking. These stages allow children to carry the blocks around and use their senses to feel different shapes and weights and begin to explore building by stacking blocks vertically to create towers and horizontally to form rows.

Froebel block play has 7 stages, the children are starting at the beginning as for some of our children we are exploring the block area for the first time. For our older children, this gives us the opportunity to become role models and share our previous knowledge and skills.

The children worked together to carry the blocks to where they wanted to go, great teamwork everyone!

Then we used our knowledge and problem solving skills to create our stacking towers, some children used large blocks, some used small blocks. We remembered our safety rules and didn’t build our towers any higher than our necks.

  

Block play helps children to learn to take turns and share materials, develop new friendships and co operate with others. It also allows children to develop their special awareness and develop their risk assessment skills.