All posts by Miss Simms

Expressive Arts, Outdoor Learning

Pretty Pinecones

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Today  the children were interested exploring the pine cones, sticks and wooden trees. We had a discussion about what we could do with them and decided we could give them some colour by weaving and twirling using ribbon, pipe cleaners, wool and felt.

It was lovely watching the children explore different weaving options and discover different methods and techniques. The children loved mixing up the wool, pipe cleaners and felt to weave and twirl round their chosen object.

“mine is like a rainbow”

“Look it’s pretty now”

“I love pink”

”I am making one for all my family”

The children used  both their hands to grasp the pine cone and using pincer grip to weave the material. They manipulated the different materials in lots of different ways building their muscle strength and dexterity  and developing their hand and eye co-ordination.

There was lots of patience and concentration and the children shared their ideas throughout and spoke about what they were doing.

Social Studies

Dolly Day Care

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Today in our home room we shared how we used our imaginations and skills we have observed from our families home.

We demonstrated how we are caring and nurturing using our dolls. We bathed our dolls and put clothes on them to keep warm.


“she all cold”

”bubble bath”

Once our babies were dressed they had rumbley tummies and needed fed. We put some playdough into pots and carefully making sure we didn’t burn our fingers used our cooker to warm the babies food.

“It’s burnt”

”hot, hot”

We placed our babies in the high chairs while their food was cooking. When it was ready we put some into a bowl and used a spoon to feed them.

“Yummy “

Once our babies had ate up all their food I was time to clean up, we washed our dishes in the sink.

Our next part of the day was as shopping trip. We got our handbags ready for going to the shops.

“I am going for milk”

”I get pasta”

”I will get yummy biscuits”

When we got home from our shopping trip we settled our babies down by reading them a lovely story before tucking them in.

Expressive Arts

Playful pom poms

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Today the children decided they would like to make something for themselves.  We had a discussions and thought we could make our own Pom Poms.

We had lots of different ideas as to what we could use pom poms for. Some children thought they would make nice decorations ,some thought they would be good to use for ball games or as a honeypot for Mr.Bear ! 🧸

I demonstrated how to make our Pom poms using wool and a  Pom Pom maker. The children listened well to my instructions and began  by choosing what  colour of wool they wanted to make their pom poms:

We talked about how their Pom poms will look and the different sizes they will be.

“ mine is going to be big”

“I like my pink colour”

Now it was time to cut our wool to create our pom pom the children began to cut with a little support needed. We weaved the wool in and out and around our maker until we had several layers This took lots of concentration and patience!

 

Once we had our makers covered we then wrapped a piece of wool round the middle of the pom pom and tied a knot..

Carefully we then separated our pom pom from the maker.

Now we could see our own creations!  A beautiful ;colourful ;fluffy pom pom!

“ it’s like a ball”

“It’s fluffy”

“Mine is big and blue”

“So soft”

Expressive Arts, Literacy

Textile Textures

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Today the children explored a variety of materials and different textures in the sewing area.

We looked at cellophane,carpet, silk, felt, bubble wrap and hessian. The children were able to describe how these materials felt.

“This is a bit jaggy”

“It is so soft”

“This one is smooth”

“Oh that’s crinkly”

We cut the materials into squares and thought it would be a great idea to make our own texture board.  The children chose the materials they wanted to use and were keen to create stitches on them, using good hand and eye co-ordination we were able to put together a selection of materials for our board.

We then displayed our work on the texture board in our sewing area.

The children were very proud of their hard work and the children invited their friends to come have a look and feel the different textures.

Expressive Arts

Jewellery making skills

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Today the children were exploring in the sewing area and decided they would like to make bracelets, friendship bracelets and necklaces.

We  searched for a variety of materials which we could thread.   We found lots of exciting resources such as coloured beads, sequins, buttons, pasta and foam shapes to choose from to begin our creativity.

First we chose either pipe cleaners, ribbon or wool to use as our bracelet.  We took time to select our favourite items to personalise our own jewellery . The children demonstrated great concentration and were able to talk and share ideas with each other throughout, discussing what materials and colours they were using.

“I like this one”

‘“mine is sparkly”

” lots of colours”

“it’s hard to do”

During this time the children were exercising their fine motor skills. We  talked about how we found it a little tricky to thread through the wool,  and that the  pipe cleaners worked better. The sequins did not fit on the pipe cleaners, so a few of the children were keen to try it with the thread. This was difficult, but with lots of effort and perseverance, we were able to complete this.

“ My mum will love this”

“It’s so pretty”

The children were then excited to try on their jewellery  and show it off.

“Oh this is cool”

“Can I make another one”

“I have made one for mummy and my friend”

Expressive Arts, Social Studies

Ready Steady Sew

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Today the children in the home room have been exploring the sewing area. We had a discussion about threading a needle and how it can be really difficult to do but once it is done we are able to create stitches on the sewing table. Together the children shared their thoughts and ideas on what to do next, as a group we decided they would like to try sewing something onto the hessian.


The children searched the sewing area and found a variety of different materials in different shapes, sizes, colours and patterns and they were able to choose what they would like to use.
Firstly they drew patterns on the material that they chose to sew on and, with a little support with they cut out shapes using the large scissors. We then used the hole punch to cut out holes in our material to make it easier to thread the two bits together, this needed a lot of concentration. The children used their hand and eye co- ordination while completing this task. At the end they talked to each other about their own creations.

“can we cut out love hearts?”

”I can thread my needle?”
We decided using the Hessain table was easier than an individual piece.


”I liked doing both”
“I cut mine all by myself”
“mine is stuck together”

The younger children have enjoyed threading the large buttons, they spend a lot of time doing this so we added some pine cones, sticks, pipe cleaners, ribbon and wool for them. The children needed a little guidance of what to do and before we knew it they were confidently picking materials to wrap, weave and twirl, all the time developing their fine motor skills and concentration.

Expressive Arts

Sew Much Fun

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In the home room we have created a new sewing area which the children have shown a great interest in. Today we had a discussion on a variety of the resources available and explored these by touching, naming and there purpose. The children could confidently identify lots of things connected with sewing:

“Needles are jaggy”

“scissors can be sharp”

“Wool is nice and soft and squishy”

“thread is hard”

The children were keen to try and thread a needle so with great patience , concentration and hand and eye co-ordination each child had a go. During this time we talked about the whole in the needle is called an eye and when you thread you put a knot at end so the stitch stays in. The older children were able to complete this and were excited to try to do a stitch on the sewing table. They listened well to instructions and were able to follow this with little support. They helped each other when got a bit tangled and commented on each other’s stitches.

“Look at your big one”

“ you have done lots”

The younger children were able to thread the large shaped buttons using laces.

The children were unsure what the wheel, block and trees were for so I demonstrated weaving, encouraging them to take part. All the children enjoyed the weaving and had fun experimenting with the the different coloured wool and objects.

“ it looks like a rainbow”

” I like these trees”

Why not try exploring simple weaving techniques at home using ribbon or paper. This is a great activity for hand and eye co-ordination and a good way for building up fine motor skills.

Literacy, Outdoor Learning

Happy Campers ⛺️

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Today, the children were talking about camping in tents and shared their some of their own experiences together in a small group.

”I have been camping”

”I have a tent in my living room”

“ I would like to go camping “

We decided to bring the outdoors in to the discovery room and build our own tent in our block area.  We shared our thoughts on how we could create this and what resources we would need to collect.

Some suggestions of what we could make or need for our camping experience were – ”a roof ”, “a camp fire”,  “torches”, sleeping bag” and of course “ food”

The children  gathered a variety of resources and began to build the tent using and exercising their gross motor skills. They communicated well and helped one another when building their tent. During this time they were able to problem solve together when they had to think and decide “how will the roof stay on ?” The children had some great ideas – “we could use cellotape”  “string” “blocks” and “pegs” . We decided the pegs and blocks worked the best .

Finally the tent was complete and the children were excited to get inside and begin to make a campfire using some sticks, stones and tissue paper. The children used their imaginations creating a variety of scenarios they have tried before such as toasting marshmallows, fishing, playing mummy’s and daddy’s and Going on a Bear Hunt.

” It’s sleepover time”

”I have made real life marshmallows on a fire ”🔥

”Fire is burny”

Later,  I was invited into the tent join the children and read one of our favourite stories – The Tiger Who Came to Tea before we snuggled down cosy for our sleep in our tent! ⛺️ Goodnight campers! See you in the morning!⛺️

Literacy

The wheels on the bus

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Today in the Discovery room we were learning about transport. We looked at different pictures of ways we can travel to and from places.

We shared stories of places we have travelled by bus, cars trains and some of us have been on holiday on aeroplanes.

”I have been on bus with my brother and daddy”

“My favourite is a plane ”

We thought about how we could create our own transport by using our variety of blocks. Together we decided to make our own bus so that we could go a trip to the zoo and beach. We displayed great teamwork and together we chose which blocks would be best to make our bus.

First we built up the side of the bus using the longer pieces. We found that the square block would make good seats on the bus for the passengers. We made a special compartment for the bus drivers.  We made doors for everyone to come on and off the bus. We added a fuel tank to ensure we had enough to get home.


Our bus door

That was us ready to take our seats to go on our adventure to the zoo. It gave us a great opportunity to sing one of our favourite songs The Wheels  On  The Bus.

Uncategorized

Ready, Steady, Go!

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Today in the Discovery room the children have been building ramps to see which car would go the fastest and win the race.

To explore this further, we decided to build a variety of different heights and level of ramps. We gathered together some of our planks of wood and different materials we could use to test and explore different types of forces.

The children took turns and predicted what ramp would be the fastest. We found the higher the ramp was, the faster the car would travel.

“high one is the best ,it’s the fastest”
”It is speedy”

”Watch mine zoom”

We added bubble wrap to one ramp to see how it affected the speed of the cars travelling down them.


We found that adding the bubble wrap this would make our cars slower and not travel so far.

”This makes it go too slow”

”Look how far mine went”

”My one is the fastest now”

To investigate time and distance further, we used a stop watch to time our cars travelling and a tape measure to see how far they could go.

Why not explore this at home! You could try using balls or pebbles to investigate force, distance and time.