All posts by Miss Campbell

Creative movement, Creativity, Expressive Arts, Outdoor Learning

Street Art Garden. 🌼🌸🌺

April 11, 2024 Miss Campbell Leave a comment

Some of our children have been commenting on the wonderful, colourful flowers we have growing in our garden.

This was the inspiration for our next street art creation in our gross motor art area in our garden.
We chose colours that we thought were like the ones we had seen on our flowers. One of the children wanted pink. Using our colour mixing skills, we mixed our red and white to make a pastel pink colour. We also mixed red and blue together with a little white to create a wonderful deep purple colour.

We made some flowers on our ground in chalk as the start of our street art creation and got our paints and brushes ready to use. As we were using the ground as our canvas, we made sure we put on our welly boots and aprons to protect our clothes.

Now for the fun part. To get creating and using our gross motor art skills.

Some of our children wanted to use the paints to colour in the chalk outlines.

Some of our children wanted to design their own flowers using lots of different colours to create a rainbow flower.

We were enjoying having the freedom to create and use the paints in our design process on a larger scale.

We spoke about what kind of flowers we were making for our street art garden. We had Daffodils, Tulips, Sunflowers and even a Spider-Man flower.

Some children were finding their own spontaneous inspiration and created different shapes.

We even made numbers and fruits as well with one child creating a green apple and a yellow banana.

We had so much fun painting our street art garden in the sun and letting our creative thinking shine.

I think our street art garden looks as wonderful and as colourful as the real flowers in our garden.

Article 21 – “Your education should help you use and develop your talents and abilities. It should also help you to learn to live peacefully, protect the environment and respect other people.”

Creative movement, Creativity, Expressive Arts, Outdoor Learning

Perfectly Patterned Pictures

March 18, 2024 Miss Campbell Leave a comment

We have really enjoyed making patterns in our gross motor art area. We have investigated making marks with a variety of resources. We’ve used plungers to make circle prints.

We have used a selection of different types and sizes of brushes to see what marks and patterns we can create with them, such as large paint bushes, rollers, sweeping brushes and scrubbing brushes.

After we used our tyres to make large patterns we wondered what we could use next?

Luckily we got a special delivery. A new gross motor art tool to help us further develop our gross motor art skills.
We got brand new large pattern rollers. We couldn’t wait to get a turn of them and try them out.
First we tried putting a large sheet of paper down to see what marks we could make.

We enjoyed rolling the large rollers in the paint then pushing them over the paper, but it soon got filled up and we couldn’t see which patterns we had made. We decided to make it even more fun by taking the paper away. To have a larger area to explore our patterns and progress our skills even more.

By using the ground as our canvas, we could go further, see our marks more clearly and change direction.

We needed lots of paint to extend our marks, we rolled our roller in the paint and set off.

On one roller we had stripes.

And on the other we had spots.

We created a wonderful pattern picture in our gross motor art area for every one to admire.

We all were engaged and enjoyed this experience. Everyone was keen to have a turn. We were able to wait our turn and share.

Now that we have investigated patterns in our gross motor art area next we will be looking at “Street Art.” We have added some pictures of local murals that are around Glasgow to inspire our children to create their own.

I wonder what Street Art we will be creating next?

Creative movement, Creativity, Expressive Arts, Outdoor Learning

Terrific tyre treads and painty patterns in the puddles

February 27, 2024 Miss Campbell Leave a comment

In our gross motor art area in the garden we have been exploring art on a large scale. So far we have used large brushes, mops, spray bottles and plungers. Today however we decided to make our art even bigger.

We decided to use the tyres to roll in the paint and see the patterns it made. We popped on our wellies and puddlesuits due to the rain showers we had this morning, and got to work creating our massive masterpiece.

It was interesting to see the different patterns the tyre made depending on where it rolled.

We had long tread marks and circles prints where it landed.

Because of the rain our patterns washed away quickly so we just had to make more.

It was a bit tricky at first to roll the tyre all the way across on our own ,we problem solved and thought, how about making it a team effort.

So we worked together to roll the tyres back and forward to each other. Team work made the art work!

We investigated who could push it the furthest and what kind of patterns did we make if we pushed it faster or slower.

We had so much fun with this large scale art outdoor experience. It was funny when the tyre splatted in the paint in the middle.

We tried different colours of powder paint to see which colours made the best pattern.

The rain got a little heavy at one point, but it mixed in with the powder paint and made our paint mix together and create much more paint puddles to roll our tyre into.

This was a great experience for our children of all ages to expand and inspire their creative designs, while also developing their gross motor skills.

We had our gross motor art tools beside us incase any one wanted to choose a different way to create art, but the tyre was the winner today.

Creativity, Expressive Arts, Outdoor Learning

Natures Canvas

February 12, 2024 Miss Campbell Leave a comment

Today in our gross motor art area, we used the translucent board to paint on. Before we started we got some powder paint mixed with water. We chose colours that represented nature. Green for the grass and trees, blue for the sky and orange for the sunsets.
We decided to use large pots today to make it a little different learning experience than indoor art. We wanted to extend our gross motor art and take our skills we learned in our studio painting area into a larger creative environment outdoors.

Inside our pots we had a selection of gross motor art utensils to select from. We had mops, rollers and large paint bushes.

When we were making our creations we talked about what we could see in the outdoor environment and what was the inspiration for our art.

We each took a turn of painting and sometimes we worked along side our peers to create collaborative art.

We used our gross motor skills as we had to bend and stretch to dip the large brushes/rollers into the tubs and use our arms/hands to help us control where we put the paint while using the large brushes.

Once we had got the hang of our gross motor art painting we decided we wanted an even bigger space, so we used the nursery garden as our “natures canvas”. It looked nice and bright with all the colours we used.

This is a great experience for our children to let there creativity take over with a large space and freedom to design. It is a learning experience that can be easily adapted to differentiate the learning between our 2-3 year olds and our 3-5year olds while simultaneously having fun along side each other with our older children role modelling for our younger ones.

I wonder where our creative gross motor art journey will take us tomorrow. Feel free to have a look at our floor book next time you are in to see what we have been learning in our outdoor art area.

Article 29 – “you have the right to education which tries to develop your personality and abilities as much as possible and encourages you to respect other peoples rights and values and to respect the environment.” (UNCRC)

Snack, Social Studies

Scrumptious Snack

January 23, 2024 Miss Campbell Leave a comment

Here at Cart Mill Family Centre our children are very independent when having their snacks. Our children are encouraged to show their independence skills from start to finish during the duration of the snack experience.

First the children choose what they would like to have for snack. Today we chose apples, bananas and cucumbers.
Our children are very clever and they help to prepare the snack for everyone by cutting it up.

We are very careful of our fingers when using the knife to cut the fruit.

Our children from 2-5 all have the opportunity to help prepare snack. By encouraging independence and using our fine manipulative skills to cut the snack is a great learning opportunity for our children to gain confidence from a young age.

We used different tools to help us prepare snack such as the apple corer. We had to push down hard. It was quite tricky at first.

We filled up the water and milk jugs and set up our table ready to invite our friends to join us for snack. We know the importance of washing our hands before we eat.

We collect our own cups and plates from the trolley before choosing our seat.

Our snack table is all self service and is a free flow snack which allows children to come as they please and have a leisurely snack experience which develops our social skills as we sit together having conversations with our peers.

Using the tongs helps our fine manipulative skills while saving on the germs.

We pour our own drinks and choose what we want. If some our younger children need help our older ones are always on hand to help. Once we finish our snack we take our plate and cup over to the skink to rinse it and pop it in the dish rack for the staff to help with the washing dishes.

We are very clever here at Cart Mill. The children have picked this routine up very quickly with our younger children now showing these skills and are enjoying the chance to become independent.

Expressive Arts, Literacy

Let me tell you a story…….

November 24, 2023 Miss Campbell Leave a comment

In our story area this month our children have been having fun using the puppets to tell stories.
We went to the Studio room to get a box to repurpose and turn it into a puppet theatre. We picked the perfect box and got to work designing in.

We have used our imagination to create stories using the puppets and put on a show for our audience.

The children have had so much fun putting on these puppet shows and have made up some wonderful stories using their imaginative story telling skills.
We even added in some teddies who wanted to be one of the characters of our show.

We used finger puppets, teddies and hand puppets as part of our show.

Puppets are a great way to bring our stories to life. Our younger children also have great enjoyment using the puppets while In the story area.

We can use the puppets to help us re tell the story and help us with our literacy adding new words to our vocabulary.

Using puppets is a great way for our youngest children to get the most of of the story and help them build on their concentration skills.

Using the puppet story sacks is great way to help our children of all ages become familiar with the story and help them develop an awareness of characters and build on their recall and retell skills. One of our favourite story sacks is currently “Dear Zoo”. We enjoy matching which animal the zoo sent us.

Our story area is a fantastic place for our children to develop their literacy skills and go on a story adventure. We can choose our own books…..

We can choose fiction books…..

or factual books

We can read and listen to stories with the adults…..

or read them alongside our friends.

Next time you are here for stay and play why don’t you come and visit our lovely literacy story area.

Baking, Block building, Creativity, Expressive Arts, Snack, Special Event

Happy Halloween 🎃

October 31, 2023 Miss Campbell Leave a comment

It’s a Hallowe’en fangtastic day here at Cart Mill. We have taken part in a variety of autumn learning experiences across each of our play rooms and garden.

We made spooky mud pie potions in our mud kitchen.

We also turned our water tray into a witches and wizards’ caldron using food colouring, shaving foam and different sized containers to create more potions.

We had opportunities to create Hallowe’en coloured crafts in our gross motor art area

In our Home Room we sang Hallowe’en songs and made Frankenstein’s green and purple sparkle playdough. We used our fine motor skills and imagination to mould our playdough into different shapes.

In the baking area we made witches fingers for snack (breadsticks with pumpkin seeds) it sounds like a yummy spooky snack.

In our Discovery Room we made a spooky block castle, using our creative and problem solving skills.

We also had our pumpkin potion experiment in our science area using our investigation and discovery skills.

And finally, in our Studio Room we were making Halloween houses, painting with our hands and creating wonderful pictures.

Some of our children came to nursery dressed up, here is a showcase of some of our many spooktacular costumes…..

Happy Halloween to all our families. 👻🎃👻🎃

Expressive Arts, Literacy, Outdoor Learning

Muddy Masterpiece

October 9, 2023 Miss Campbell Leave a comment

Today in our mud kitchen we were busy using some new tools to aid us with our muddy masterpiece.
But first before we start, we used our independence skills to locate our welly boots from the shed and our puddle suit from the trolly. We put them on ourselves but Emma was on hand to help us if it got a bit tricky.

Now that we are suited and booted it was time for messy fun. We collected our mud and used some of our new tools. We used the rolling pin to roll out the mud to make mud pancakes.

We used the wooden masher, to mash up our mud and make it like mud pies.

We found a little worm who had sneaked into in our mud, but we put him back home again. We didn’t think he would want to be in our mud pie.

We mixed it up and added in some leaves, water and grass and finally it was ready to be served.

We had such fun in the mud kitchen today, exploring our creative thinking, drama skills, and gross and fine motor skills.
After such a wet weekend it left lots of muddy puddles we couldn’t pass by the opportunity to jump in them.

I wonder what we will create in our mud kitchen tomorrow?

Expressive Arts, Literacy, Outdoor Learning

Marvellous Mud

September 19, 2023 Miss Campbell Leave a comment

The mud kitchen in our Cart Mill garden has recently been reinvented. We have added in a new work top to make all our delicious mud recipes on. We have also introduced a seperate mud digging area. This provides a fantastic opportunity for our children to practice their digging skills and also somewhere for them to collect all the mud they need as part of their mud kitchen experience.

A huge thank you to everyone who helped change our area. The children have loved having more space to play and dig. I wonder what muddy creations will be made in our new mud kitchen?
During stay and play why not come and join us in our mud kitchen but don’t forget your welly boots it can get a little messy. Mud has so many benefits including building strong connections with nature. It also holds microscopic bacteria which scientific studies have shown make you happier. It helps develop a strong immune system and encourages a highly stimulated and active brain function but most of all mud is FUN!

In our new mud kitchen this week we have been exploring puddles. The rain came and made quite a few large puddles in our garden. We got on our puddle suits and wellies and went to play.

We have been jumping and splashing in the puddles. We have been using new language such “squelchy” “sticky” “splash” “jump” and “mucky” to describe the muddy puddles.

We enjoyed the sounds the splashing made as we jumped into the puddles.

Some of the children were inspired by the puddles to work together to make scrumptious “chocolate mud soup”

It was hard work collecting all the ingredients to make the soup and stir it all together. Let’s hope it tastes as good as it looks…..

We were also using the mud kitchen to make and investigate more objects. Such as pouring and filling from the tea pots.

We also used the kitchen to cook our creations in the microwave or in the pots and pans….

Can I also ask as a polite reminder if you haven’t brought in a puddle suit or welly boots please do so with your child’s name clearly labelled on them. We have storage for both welly boots and puddle suits if you wish to leave them here. This just ensures your child is always ready and appropriately dressed for our muddy play.
Thank you.
Please feel free to check out our mud kitchen floor book for more messy fun experiences. It’s been so much fun in our muddy mud kitchen so far this week. We even have a chance to find a stick to go fishing in the puddle. I wonder what adventurers we will have in our mud kitchen next….

Expressive Arts, Literacy

More than just a box………

August 11, 2023 Miss Campbell Leave a comment

What is a box? Is it just something to keep things in? Not according to our very clever creative children in the junk modelling area.

We have been so pleased with all your donations for our junk modelling area. We love turning an ordinary box into something completely different, creative and unique.