All posts by Ms Partridge

Creative feelings.

Today the children had fun exploring and experimenting with loose parts to create different faces in the playdough, using their problem solving skills to show different facial features!

“look, happy!”

“Use the pipe cleaner for a mouth. You can make it all bendy”

We have been exploring our emotion pebbles in the playdough area too, and talking about different emotions we feel and why. We discussed what different emotions we feel, and what makes us feel that way…

“I’m scared of the dark”

”I feel tired after I go to soft play”

“I feel sad when my papa Alec’s office is full of toys!”

“I need to do eyelashes”

”I feel sleepy when my mummy reads me a story. Like this…”

“It’s a shocked face”

The children were able to reflect on times they have felt different emotions, and had lots of conversations with their peers about their feelings. They helped each other choose different resources to convey their ideas and worked really well as a team. Great work everybody 🤩👍

 

 

Sandy-dough!

Today the children had lots of sensory fun in the playdough area. We added a special ingredient to experience some new textures with our hands; Sand playdough!

First we added our normal ingredients and did lots of mixing…


Next we added our special ingredient.

The children really engaged their imaginations, and created lots of different role playing scenarios in the playdough.

“It smells like the beach. I’m going to make a sandcastle!”

”it’s very soft. And crunchy”

“Im going to make a sand cake!”

”my baby”

Some children loved being expressive with the playdough, and enjoyed making some funny faces.

“I want to make a playdough face. Like this, look!”

The children enjoyed adding the different textures and how soft and malleable it made the playdough, making it easier to mould into different shapes and sizes. These are all experiences that help develop little fingers and little muscles, and of course our imaginations! Great work everybody  👍

 

It’s as easy as ABC!

Today in nursery we had lots of fun making our own little letter hunt to develop our letter recognition. We created a little sensory bucket for our letters to hide in, and made it really colourful and sparkly!
Some children loved seeing all the different colours and shapes too.

Some children found different letters they recognised, They could relate the letters to different familiar words.
“That’s an M for mummy. And me!”

Other children loved finding all the letters in their names..

We had lots of fun exploring our fine motor skills too, using our hands as well as the tongs to develop our pincer grip and strengthen our little muscles to collect different letters and little sequins. The children loved helping each other find things and it spurred on lots of social conversations with each other.

“That’s an M. That’s in my mummy’s name too! What does your mummy’s name start with?”

“If you turn the M upside down it’s a W!”

”The O is like a little cats eye”

Well done everyone!

This type of learning experience would be perfect to try at home, and you’ll probably have everything you need in your cupboard. You could use sand, rice, lentils, crumpled or shredded paper for example. You may even try hiding numbers, hiding shapes, or even make your own shapes with different sensory resources! Good luck 😁🤩

Learning to make playdough 👩🏻‍🍳🧑🏻‍🍳👩🏼‍🎨🧑🏾‍🎨

Playdough is a great experience for lots of different reasons. It’s sensory fun to explore, but it can be about anything you want it to be! Sharing, measuring, fine motor skills, colours, shapes, role playing and so much more. You decide!

The best part about playdough is it is actually super easy to make, with very basic ingredients. You probably have them in your kitchen already.

All you need is;

3 scoops of flour

1 scoop of salt

1 scoop of oil

1 scoop of water

That’s the basic dough recipe in the bowl. It’s time to decide what kind of playdough you would like; colourful, scented, soft? There are different ingredients you can add for different reasons. If you want it very soft, there are some magic ingredients to add before you mix it together: conditioner, shaving foam, cornflour. Or some nice scents like vanilla essence, lemon, orange, mint or lavender are popular favourites from our children at Cart Mill.

Now your dough is ready to mix together. If it all comes together like scone mixture, it’s ready for squishing!

 

“squish it nice and soft”

”I’m going to squash it like Hulk. “

Being part of the process when making playdough gives a sense of independence to our children, as does helping to clear it all up at the end. Good job everyone, and good luck making your own at home 🤩

Cart Mill Construction Site 🏗 👷🏻‍♀️👷🏻‍♂️

Today the children have had lots of fun exploring the small world construction site! We worked as a team to make our pretend cement, simply using shaving foam, sand and a little oil. We had fun mixing it all together, and see the textures changing to make our cement.

We of course had to follow the health and safety rules!

 

We had fun being creative and thinking about ideas for designs we wanted to make. “I want to make a strawberry picking field”

“I want to make  a football field!”

We explored all the different shaped blocks to see how we could bring our ideas to life. “I need a round blocks. Because it’s a circle shape”

  

 


“Dumper truck. Make it all stick together”

“My dumper truck is empty. I need more cement”

 

“look, it’s nearly taller than us!!”

“nice and smooth”

“I’m making a big pointy tower. It’s very sticky!”

“I’m making a little town. There’s a cafe in it. Would you like a sandwich?”

The children had lots of fun being imaginative, and gave each other lots of tips and tricks to make our creations and help each other. This is  a great way to develop a variety of skills such as problem solving, role playing, fine motor/manipulative and social skills etc, and most importantly, it’s SUPER FUN !! Well done everyone 😄

 

 

Slip and slide!

As I am sure you have heard off your little ones, this week has been sports’ week at Cart Mill!

The children had so much fun visiting the different stations like the long jump, the water bucket relay and hurdles! They worked really hard in their teams, and encouraged each other throughout the different games. We saved the best for last on the Slip and Slide! Some of our lovely parent’s even got roped into the slip and slide at collection time too. Well done everyone!! Hopefully the sunshine makes an appearance for the weekend and you can make your own 🙂

 

 

 

Play-dough fun!

Today in the home room, the children have enjoyed making different textures of playdough and exploring their fine motor skills in different ways. Some children enjoyed using the stampers to create different shapes and imprints in the playdough, like a “Seahorse. Look, he’s got a big long tail!”

We made different colours, using our manipulative skills to mix and squish all the ingredients together to form the dough.

Some children even explored some role playing with their peers, sharing the playdough and had a little ‘cupcake’ and ‘tea party!’

“I’m making a strawberry pie”


“Cupcakes are ready!”

‘Too burny. Need to blow it!’

”Tea! Hot hot.’

Playdough is great for developing many skills, and it is super easy to make. You’ll probably have all the ingredients in your home! All you need is; Flour, salt, oil, and water. You can make it more fun by adding paints/food colouring/scents etc. You could even brave glitter!! Have fun everyone!

Shape and colour hunt!

This week, the children have had so much fun collecting and displaying different objects around our nursery for our ‘shape hunt’. They enjoyed investigating different rooms in the nursery, getting really creative finding different shapes in a variety of forms!

“I have so many rectangles. There’s no more space!”

“Look, we’ve got big ones AND littles ones!”

 

“Look at all my circles. It’s like all the planets in the solar system”

Some children even used their imagination to extend their learning further, and turned their shapes into something completely different!

Other children suggested we went a ‘colour hunt next’ which was really fun! We hunted in different rooms and in the garden and found some really interesting things to sort into our colours.

 

“I’m going to find lots of purple because it’s my favourite colour. It matches my dress!”

“I want to draw my pink things.”

The children loved exploring, collecting and sorting all different shapes and colours throughout the playroom and displaying their findings to their friends. They really engaged their imaginations and creative skills, well done boys and girls!

 

 

 

 

April showers

Since the weather outside has been frightful today, we decided to make inside ‘spring time delightful’!
It was a bit wet and windy for the children today so we decided to have some spring fun indoors and make a beautiful spring display. The children had lots of fun being imaginative and decorating it.

We spoke about what kinds of things we might see at during spring.

“I see lambs when I’m in the car!”

“I see daffodils in the grass”

”that’s when the Easter bunny comes”


The children explored their creative streaks, planning and then making a variety of designs. Some children decorated Easter eggs, creating different patterns using various mediums including pens, sequins and different crafty resources to express our artistic talents.

Some children made bunnies and other children made lambs, daffodils and daisies for our lovely spring display!

Maybe next time you’re in the car or out a walk with your little ones , you could see what kind of spring animals or flowers you see!

Junk DNA

Today, the children have been exploring their creativity and imaginative skills through use of Junk DNA! They loved using the book as a stimulus.  We put our thinking caps on to create lots of little stories and creations using different resources.

 

Junk DNA can be whatever you want it to be! Some of the children made weights “to do press-ups”, and some children made some letters from their names.

 

“I need 3 lines to make an E. That’s my name!”

Some of the children were very interested in making small world using the junk, and made a little home.

They even made a little garden and a vegetable patch!

 

“Look I’ve made a little vegetable patch. And that’s the conservatory, look there’s a little doorbell!”.

Some children loved making robots too, and even some space robots with “moon boots”.

 

 

“He’s got moon boots so he can walk in space”

Junk DNA is a really fun way to develop our creativity skills, and the great thing is you can use anything at all. Have a look and see what else you can find in your homes or garages, and see what your littles ones can create from them. It’s also a good way for us adults to use our imaginations too and think outside the (tool) box! Good luck everyone!!!