All posts by Ms Partridge

Shell-tastic Friday!

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! šŸ™‚

Summer holiday fun šŸŒž

This week the children Ā have had lots of fun building dens and making summer homes in the garden! They have loved talking to each other about their busy summer plans. The children enjoyed sharing stories with their peers about all the fun things they have been getting up to, which sparked lots of creative role playing fun…

ā€I’ve got a beach house in Italy. We have pasta and clams there, that’s my favourite. I can make you someā€

ā€œWho wants gelato? Come and get it!ā€

We have been experimenting different problem solving techniques as we create our dens, using various resources from the garden and working cooperatively with one another offering suggestions to help implement our designs…

ā€œlet’s put it through the wee hole so it doesn’t fall down . Look, it worked!ā€

The children showed great imagination, exploring the garden to find different cosy spots to decorate …

ā€œcheeeeese!ā€

After being so busy decorating our little summer homes it was time for a well deserved rest!

The children demonstrated great communication skills throughout as they worked as a team to help each other, and most importantly they had fun! Keep up the great work everybody šŸ¤©šŸ‘

 

 

Flash Card Fun šŸ¤©šŸ‘

Today the children have enjoyed exploring their numeracy and literacy skills in nursery. Ā They showed excellent shape recognition, which they highlighted through some fun numeracy games…

ā€œTriangles got 3 sides. Look, 1 2 3!ā€

Ā 

Some Ā children enjoyed sorting them into groups, finding all the matching shapes and some even noticed a pattern…

ā€œThere’s only 3 pentagons. We need to find another one!ā€

Some of our children had lots of fun exploring the letter flash cards, Ā and could even identify familiar letters to spell out their names..

Some children used the pictures as context clues if they were unfamiliar with the letters, trying to guess what it said. ā€œI for igloo. That’s in my name!ā€

The children have enjoyed developing their numeracy and literacy skills through these flash card games, and had lots of fun looking at all the funny pictures on the cards too. Maybe next time we can make our very own flash cards!

Keep up the great work everybody šŸ¤©šŸ‘

 

The life cycle of a butterfly šŸ¦‹

Today we had a very exciting delivery in our nursery! The children were very excited to see what was inside the special box. It’s time to learn about… the life cycle of a butterfly šŸ¦‹

First we had a little look at our new caterpillar friends, which sparked some interesting and thought provoking questions.

ā€œIt’s like a teeny wee baby worm. Is it a caterpillar?ā€

ā€œWhy does it have a web around it?ā€

We talked about all the different stages the caterpillar goes through…

ā€œThey go into a cocoon first. That helps them get all cosy and grow big and strongā€

ā€œWhen they hang upside down, that’s when they are a chrysalis. They’re nearly ready to pop out then!ā€

The children showed great curiosity, and came up with some interesting suggestions on what we thought might happen next, using the pictures as clues.

ā€œMaybe the big box is for when they’re butterflies. Because they will need lots of spaceā€

ā€œThey might want some snacks tooā€

ā€œWhat do butterflies eat?ā€

Seeing how living things grow and develop over time with proper care in our very own playrooms is a great opportunity Ā for our children to explore and develop life skills. We are so excited to learn how to take care of our new creatures, and watch them transform into beautiful butterflies šŸ¦‹

Eid Mubarak šŸŽ‡

Today the children have had lots of fun making different Eid decorations! We have enjoyed drawing our own decorations…

Making special playdough cakes…

Ā 

And some children even enjoyed sewing decorations too!

We even learned a little about what Eid means from Mr Tumble himself…

Eid is the Islamic festival that marks the end of Ramadan and the period of fasting. ā€˜Eid Mubarak’ is used by Muslims all over the world as a greeting at this special time.

Thank you to the parents who have handed in gifts or shared their time to explain about this occasion. We really value the knowledge you share with us.

If you are celebrating Eid we hope you have a lovely weekend sharing gifts, eating tasty food and making memories with your family, friends and community.

Eid Mubarak from all of us here at Cart Mill Family Centre 🤩 ā˜€ļø

Independence at snack šŸŠ šŸŒ šŸ„’

This week the children have been developing their independence skills in the home room, which they demonstrate well while preparing snack for their peers. The children show a good understanding of how we can be safe as we prepare snack in many ways. For example, what should we do before we even begin preparing snack, and why is it important?

ā€œwe have to wash our hands šŸ™Œ ā€œ

ā€œWe have to wash them so we don’t get sticky germs on the fruitā€

The children suggested we make some wall displays to show their friends where to wash their hands, since we have some new children who are still learning the snack routine.

ā€œNice and bright so everybody can see it! Now all the little boys and girls will wash their hands hereā€

Whilst preparing the snack, we talked about how important safety is when handling the snack tools.

ā€œYou go backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards nice and carefully. You don’t want to cut yourselfā€

ā€œYou only do it when an adult helps youā€

ā€œSometimes I need help with the cucumber because it’s a little bit too trickyā€

Next we talked about how we can continue to practice good hygiene when serving the snack…

ā€œThe tweezers stops the germs šŸ¦ ā€

ā€œSqueeze!ā€

Once the children have finished their snack, it’s time to finish up by clearing away all our dishes šŸ„£šŸ„›

They even suggested designing a separate sign for the dishes, to visualise where everything goes.

The children in the nursery are great at independently following the snack routine, and have been super helpful towards their new peers who are still learning and working as a team to support them.

Well done everybody! Great work šŸ‘

 

Outdoors fun!

This week in the garden, we have been thinking of ways to develop our physical area. We have been working as a team to come up with some suggestions to make it more challenging and interesting.

While doing this, we realised we could add some more things into our obstacle course to focus more on our balancing skills. We talked about what balancing is…

“You freeze, That helps you stay still”

“Put your arms out. That helps you not fall on your face.”

“I can balance like a statue, look!”

“I’m like a flamingo”

This sparked some conversation about being “statues” and how they don’t move because they can “balance”. Think about statues, can they move? Can the wind move a statue?

As the children were becoming more confident with their balancing skills, we explored more tricky ways to practice.

The children found many uses for the tyres in the garden, and ways we could incorporate them into our play to challenge ourselves physically using them.

“Look how super fast I can go”

“I can balance if I lift my feet up!”

“If I put these 2 in front, then that will stop it from toppling over. Look, it worked! I’m a giant!”

Great problem solving everybody!

The children also showed an interest in making their own little chalk obstacle courses too…

“I want to hop! That helps me balance”

“I’m going to do a zig zag. I want to run on it”

Then, to top off a super busy week of physical fun, we played musical statues!

I wonder what we could add into the garden next? Great work everybody!!

Sew much fun 🧵

This week in the studio, we have been having lots of fun sewing and weaving. There were lots of volunteers to create DIY boards for us to practice our weaving skills.

We practiced our technique…

ā€œyou go over and under and over again! It’s trickyā€

Some children enjoyed exploring different patterns while weaving…

Ā 

ā€it’s like an M!ā€

Weaving is a great experience for children to develop little muscles as it is very intricate work, and these movements help Ā support the development of their fine motor skills.

After developing our little muscles, we put our creative hats on šŸ‘©šŸ¼ā€šŸŽØ

ā€I want to make a little cushion for my LOL dollā€

This sparked some curiosity in the children, so we decided to explore it further.

ā€œI want to chop my own stuffing for my little pillow.ā€

ā€œI want to sew a buttonā€

The children had lots of fantastic ideas to share…

ā€œI’m going to make a bowā€

ā€œmine is like a little butterflyā€

Sewing with children is great for many reasons, but most importantly it’s a really fun way to express ourselves. The children have been talking about making ā€œpursesā€ for ā€œall their penniesā€! I wonder what other wonderful role playing ideas we could come up with next week for the sewing area? We can’t wait to find out! Have a fabulous weekend everyone ā˜€ļø

Helicopter stories 🚁

Today, the children had so much fun exploring their imagination and creating helicopter stories. Firstly, we worked together as a team suggesting ideas for our story outline. and we came up with a space theme šŸŒŽ

ā€œthe spaceship and the rocket are crashing into each otherā€

ā€it’s a person in the rocketā€

Next, we put our thinking caps on and decided on what roles we would act out and put our story into action!


The children all had different ideas for their helicopter stories, some of the suggestions were:

ā€œThe chocolate brownie stands up in spaceā€

ā€I’m the rocketā€

ā€it exploded when it crashed at the doorā€

ā€the alien fell down with a Big Bangā€

After creating our story we illustrated our characters. Great work everyone šŸ‘

Here’s a look at the children’s fab imaginative story!

Helicopter stories are a fun way to build literacy skills, develop emotional and social skills, explore and extend a child’s imagination and gain confidence especially when acting them out to their peers. Why don’t you come up with a theme at home and see how the story develops.

Loose parts fun 🤩

Today the children have enjoyed being creative in the loose parts area. We explored different patterns including numbers…

Shapes…

and some letters too…

ā€œI want to do a S. That’s in my nameā€

ā€œThe pipe cleaners will work, because they’re straight lines.ā€

Some children even loved making something completely different all together, like the Scotland flag!

ā€œthe peg is for the wee stick on the flag. How can I do the triangles for the inside? I know, why don’t I squish the pipe cleaners?ā€

The children loved being creative with their patterns, and showed really great problem solving skills when choosing their materials. They were able to recognise patterns that included straight lines as well as more curved lines, and choose their loose parts to explore this. Great work everyone!
What can you make out of loose parts at home? We would love to see your ideas.