All posts by Ms Partridge

Uncategorized

Cutting Station :)

Leave a comment

This week some of the children in the studio have been inspired by some new catalogues and magazines in the cutting station. This sparked lots of interesting conversation with the children, and they had lots of fun looking at all the media expressing their favourites with their peers.

The children had different ideas about what to do with their cuttings, such as decorating their envelopes…

“I want to wear it”

“Tadaa!”

“I’m going to write my name on it. So I know this is for all my pictures!”

Other’s found it tricky seeing the little pictures, so suggested zooming in with the iPad to see it better… What a fab solution!

   

“It worked!”

The children have worked really well together, coming up with lots of creative ideas and sharing lots of nice stories from home as they explored. Keep up the great work everybody!

Uncategorized

Creative with paints!

Leave a comment

The children have been exploring various different ways to express their creativity in the painting area this week. The children were very excited to discover special waterproof paper in the art area, which sparked lots of imaginative ideas!

Some children wanted to draw their pictures first using chalk, and copying it with paints

 

Others explored fun patterns using different resources…

  

The best part is, as the paper is waterproof, you can paint and clean as many paintings as you like!

“Taadaa!”

The children were keen to take their paintings home with them, so after some wonderful suggestions the children came up with a solution.

“Maybe if I put it on the big paper, it will stick?”

 

“It worked!”

“Great idea! I’m going to try it too”

The children worked so well as a team, helping their peers with fun suggestions and solutions. Keep up the great work everybody!

 

 

Creativity, Expressive Arts, Froebel, Literacy, Social Studies

Expressing our imaginations 👩🏼‍🎨

Leave a comment

Some of the children have been expressing themselves through imaginative play this week in our clay station, creating mini role playing scenarios.

“guess what Pokémon this is?”

“it’s an eel. And it turns into a rhino. I need to paint it so it blends in”

“I need to roll it so it’s longer. So his mouth fits on. Super big Supertayto!”

“lots of walls. So nobody can see”

“I’m making a surprise. Guess what’s inside?  Surprise! You’re at the beach!”

Other children were very observant noticing familiar letters they recognised, and sharing stories with each other through their play.

“This looks like a L. L is in my daddy’s name. How do I write Lorenzo?”

“L is in my sisters name too. It’s Lexie”

“Is your brother in my sisters class?”

Some even created their own letters using their manipulative skills to mould and shape their designs.

The children have shown such fabulous creativity in our clay area, learning lots of different skills while exploring their imaginations and having fun 🤩 keep up the great work, everybody 👍🤩👩🏼‍🎨

Article 29 – I have the right to an education which develops my personality, talents and abilities.

 

 

Creativity

Creative with Clay

Leave a comment

The children have shown fantastic curiosity in the clay area this week, and have been expressing themselves in lots of different ways.

Some children investigated the clay tools, exploring what different designs and patterns they could make…

Other children enjoyed showing off their writing skills…

“I can do H for Hulk!”

Others explored their problem solving skills, paying close attention to the different shapes of the resources to capture their ideas…

”that can make the eyes because it’s round”

“I’m making a holiday park. The big round shell is the pool. This tall one is like a palm tree”

“These pretty buttons can make the petals. It’s a button flower!”

Clay is a fantastic canvas for children’s learning as it is such a holistic experience. Children develop their little fine motor muscles through all the rolling, moulding and squishing as well as engage their imagination and problem solving skills too when creating their models. It can be as educational or as fun as you want it to be! Great work everyone 😁👍

 

 

 

 

 

Creativity, Expressive Arts, Literacy

Fun with words 💡🖌

Leave a comment

The children have been experimenting with mark making in the clay area today using a variety of interesting materials, and demonstrated fabulous letter recognition while investigating the resources. Some children created their own names…

Other children enjoyed copying the letters themselves using the clay tools…

Some children recognised familiar letters from their friends and families names…

“How do I make Mummy? I need an M”

The children had lots of fun exploring the different sounds the letters make, and learning how they work together to create new and fun words.

“what does this say?”

”lots of words!”

“E for elephant.”

“no that’s an e”

”No it’s a big letter so it’s E! A big  capital E”

The children have shown wonderful creativity while developing their literacy skills at the clay table, and most importantly had lots of fun doing it. They have even suggested we try shapes next time!

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

 

Uncategorized

Creative little minds 💡

Leave a comment

This week in the clay area, there have been lots of creative little minds busy at work!

The children have had lots of learning opportunities while exploring the clay, and have shared lots of imaginative ideas with their peers 💡

Some of the children liked using the tools to create little intricate flowers 🌺

 

some children enjoyed creating shapes and patterns with various equipment…

Other children even designed little small world creations too 👩🏼‍🎨

“it’s a little island for the ninja turtles. I used shells so the water can go through under the island”

“let’s make a little tunnel for the cars “

While clay has many benefits to children’s fine motor skills, it also engages many social skills through sharing ideas, solving problems or even encouraging each other through conversation as they play and learn.

It has been so thought provoking and interesting to see how many fantastic ideas the children have shared, and how each child’s experience of clay has been unique and individual to their little personalities. Keep up the good work everybody 😁👍

Uncategorized

Tile painting fun in the studio!

Leave a comment

Today the children have been having very messy fun at the tile painting! We began selecting our own colours while we thought of our ideas, and got to work being creative.

The children explored their curiosity with the various resources on offer, demonstrating fabulous imagination…

“I’m making Paw Patrol high tower. That’s the look out so they can spot people coming”

“It’s like a masterpiece!”

“It’s the Paw Patrol Telescope. The new one!”

The children demonstrated different techniques using the resources, and really enjoyed expressing themselves through interesting patterns…

     

Open-ended resources can provide lots of opportunity for children to express their own interests and imagination through play, and have lots of fun while doing it. You could try this at home too using something similar, such as a small mirror. The best part is they’re super easy to clean, so you can paint over and over again!! Great work everybody

 

 

Uncategorized

Little Scientists 👩‍🔬👨‍🔬

Leave a comment

Today in the discovery room, we have had very busy little scientists!

Through creative and investigative play, we have been exploring cause and effect in different ways at the science area.

Some children used the pipettes to experiment with colour mixing…

 

”it looks like cola now!”

Some children loved pouring, filling and transporting the water, being creative in their methods…

 

 

The children showed fantastic control while handling the water, taking their time not to spill it.

 

“now it’s lot of little ones”

”nice and slow. Because you don’t want to spill it”

The children have had so much fun exploring the different resources at the science table and have been super creative in their play, developing their problem solving skills. Great work everybody 👍💡👩‍🔬👨‍🔬

Outdoor Learning

Outdoors fun 🤩

Leave a comment

This week in the outdoor area, the children have had lots of fun investigating different problem solving techniques through their play.

Some of the children really enjoyed posting the polydrone, so we came up with a fun game where we could all take turns posting them, and practice sharing our resources as a team.

The children came up with great suggestions…

”if we put the tyre at the bottom, then it might not topple?”

“I’m a giant! I can see all the way to the bottom”

Some of our children needed a little hand to reach, but were very resourceful, using the crates from the muddy movers obstacle course. Great idea 💡

We posted so many polydrone that we filled the pipe up all the way to the top…

“We’ve got to tip it out now. Big CRASH!”

“ready, steady, GO!”

Some children even decided to see if it would slide down to the bottom a different way after we had tipped it over…

”it might get stuck.”

”I’m so strong”

“Got them! It’s like flying”

Sharing and turn taking are great life skills to learn, especially when it’s through fun games! Keep up the great work boys and girls 👍🤩

 

 

Expressive Arts

Shell-tastic Friday!

Leave a comment

Today in the garden the children have enjoyed exploring our magic bag full of special shells! No peaking!

We looked closely and noticed that there was lots of different patterns, colours, textures and sizes. The children had lots of interesting observations about the shells…

“That’s like a unicorn!”

“Look, I made a wee clam shell bed. It’s for a pearl fairy!”

The children used lots of mathematical language while exploring the shells, it was interesting to see the different ideas they all had. Some children enjoyed imaginative play and others liked sorting them into different groups…

“They’re the biggest. Because they’re so pointy!”

“Let’s put all the wee baby clams over here. The big ones can go over here with the unicorn horns. This is the pink side!”

The children had so many descriptive words to describe the shells including…

“It’s swirly whirly”

“Ooooohh it’s so jaggy!”

Loose parts is a great way to explore many areas for learning as it is such an open-ended experience. You can talk about size, shape, colour, patterns and much, much more. Make it whatever you want it to be about! What loose parts can you find in your home to explore?

Have a great weekend everybody! 🙂