Perfectly Patterned Pictures

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?

Cart Mill Chat

Apologies, but due to a technical error, we are unable to send out Cart Mill chat in the usual way today. We hope to have this rectified by Monday morning but in the meantime, here it it!

Cart Mil Chat

Dear Parent/Carer

What an exciting week we have had with science opportunities using the rainy weather as a provocation. Junk modelling is continuing to be incredibly popular linking to space – look out for our Cart Mill robot!

Maternity Leave
Today we said goodbye to two of our colleagues as they finish for their well-earned maternity leave. Sarah-Jane, our senior child development officer and Lorraine, our early years playworker both finished today to have a few restful weeks before their new bundles of joy arrive! The children made beautiful cards and even suggested names for the new arrivals.

Spring Crafts – Family Event
We are looking forward to our Family Spring Craft event taking place from 18 – 22 March. This will be a wonderful opportunity to come in and spend some time with your child making spring creations.

Junk Modelling
We are still looking for your junk! The children love creating models from boxes and cartons. They especially love sticking lots of small boxes together to construct amazing creations so if you have anything destined for the recycle bin, send it in to us! Please remember to wash all cartons before dropping them off.

Care Inspectorate
Please see attached questionnaire from Care Inspectorate. We appreciate your feedback as it helps us to improve and make sure we are getting it right for our families.
https://forms.office.com/e/yHiAjyFuEu

Planning Interests

We have displayed children’s interests at our reception area on our planning sheets, we would love for you to have a read and add on any interests from home. Post-it notes have been supplied for you to let us know what you are doing. We will then look for opportunities to continue this learning within our provision.

Many thanks for your continued support,

The Cart Mill Team

Bye bye babies

Today we said goodbye to two of our colleagues as they finish for their well earned maternity leave. Sarah-Jane, our senior child development officer and Lorraine, our early years playworker both finished today to have a few restful weeks before their new bundles of joy arrive! The children made beautiful cards and even suggested names for the new arrivals.

These included Spiderman, Baby Spiderman, Rainbow, Kelsie, Forever Baby and Teddy Bear. I wonder which of these fabulous names Sarah-Jane and Lorraine will pick!

After giving over lots of lovely gifts, we sang songs and said goodbye but thankfully it is not forever. We cannot wait for the babies (and their mummy’s) to visit us at Cart Mill.

Rainy day science 😁

The children felt that today would be a good day to try out the thermal camera. A camera that detects heat emitted by objects converting it into an electrical signal , the signal is then used to produce the thermal image on the camera.

We made some ice the night before and tested our camera on it.

The children noticed that the ice was a purple colour through the camera. We filled a cup with warm water to see to see if it looked a different colour through the camera it was bright yellow. A quickly realised that the difference in colour was because the water was warm and the cubes cold. The children decided to try putting one hand in icy water to see what colour there hands would appear through the camera they looked purple because the ice had turned them cold. We looked at each other through the cameras we looked yellow E new this is because we are warm. Next the children looked at the temperature of the ice A noticed the warm water was 20.4 degrees Celsius and the ice measured -8.4 degrees Celsius.  That’s very cold as cold as snow commented A.

Some of the children decided to see what would happen to the temperature if we used the thermal camera outside. A thought we should jump in puddles and take a before and after temperature reading to see if the puddle warmed up with us jumping in it.  There wasn’t any change in the reading so T decided we should add some ice to see what happens. After adding ice the ice melted a bit and the children seen through the camera that the puddle had turned much colder.


As it was raining today some children wanted to do the cloud in a jar experiment. We filled a beaker with water, added a layer of foam and then used pipettes to drop blue colouring into the foam. I explained that when the cloud gets too heavy the drops fall from them like rain. We discussed that when water droplets get heavy in the sky, gravity pulls them down into the atmosphere.

Maybe you could try this experiment at home with different colours and let us know your findings!

Article 29- I have the right to an education

Let’s explore Science through water play!

British Science Week is a 10 day celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths, otherwise known as STEM. The children in Cart Mill have been exploring many aspects of science through their water play.

30th Anniversary: British Science Week 2024! | All About STEMAll About STEM

Children can learn lots about maths and measurement through water play. We have explored this by adding a variety of containers to our water tray to allow the children to observe which container fills up the fastest and which shape and size holds the most water. This also allows children to use vocabulary related to measurement such as full, empty and some.

Some of the children helped with a colour mixing experiment in the water tray. J decided that he wanted to choose blue and orange and selected them from the art trolley himself. The children used their hands and utensils such as wooden spoons to see what happens when the two colours mixed together. They discovered that it turned a yucky colour!

‘’that’s like mud outside’’

‘’it’s the same colour as clay’’

       

The children also discovered, that by mixing the paint into the water, they created bubbles!

‘’Look at that one, it’s so big!’’

‘’I want to pop it’’.

The children were able to watch the bubbles form in front of their eyes knowing that they were creating them by mixing the water together with soap. Bubble experiments endorses scientific thinking through observation and exploration.

 

The children suggested that maybe next time we put some items into the water tray to see if they ‘’go under’’ or ‘’stay at the top’’ so next time, we will be exploring sinking and floating. I wonder what objects the children will choose…

Article 31: I have the right to play

Article 29: I have the right to an education which develops my personality.

Blasting off to Space!

The children at Cart Mill absolutely love junk modelling. The bigger the box the better! There has been a keen interest in aliens and space lately. Last week the children made their very own big alien robot and have also enjoyed making alien robot helmets for themselves.

Today we found a very tall, thin box which instantly reminded the children of a rocket blasting off into space so that is what we made! Junk modelling offers children great opportunities to develop their creativity as well as their fine and gross motor skills. They develop their imaginations, making their creations their own whilst  feeling a sense of freedom. We discussed what our rocket should look like and decided it definitely needed fire at the bottom for take off!

The children found some paper which looked like flames but as it was white they used a red pen to create the effect of fire!
“I need to make it red for the flames for the rocket to blast off high in the sky!”

The rocket needed a window so we used a clear plastic tub! The children stuck a box on the front which was the control panel to make the rocket go faster!  They showed fantastic teamwork with some children holding the rocket still for others to tape parts on.
“Look! It’s even bigger than me!”

Next we needed a door. Confidently using scissors, the children cut out a door! After realising that they could not fit into the rocket themselves they used their problem solving skills and decided to put some little figures inside to go on a space adventure!
“Get ready! 3, 2, 1 blast off! Whoooooooosh!!”

This amazing rocket inspired other children to create some space ships to travel with the rocket!

Junk modelling also helps to develop a child’s language and communication skills. They are always sharing their ideas with their peers and learning new vocabulary.
“Do you like my space ship? It has princess chairs and flies so fast!”

“Look mine has two bits, one for sleeping and one for flying, mine is the very fastest, zooooooom!”

Children make social connections through junk modelling. They have to work with others and learn turn taking, something we are very good at here at Cartmill. The children are great at sharing the resources and taking turns of the glue and cellotape!

What a fun time we had exploring space rockets and space ships. Who knows, we might just have the inventors and space engineers of the future here at Cartmill!

Article 13:  Freedom of Expression

Please keep sending in all your old boxes and recycling. It might seem like junk to you but to the children it can open up a whole new world!

Froebel Friends

We were delighted to be part of East Renfrewshire’s Froebel Friends first exhibition at Netherlee Pavilion on Saturday, where we had the opportunity to showcase our children’s wonderful woodwork creations.

Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852) was the inventor of kindergartens and a pioneer of early education and care.  Froebel’s work and writing changed the way we think about and value early childhood. His principles of unity and connectedness, autonomous learners, value of childhood in its own right, relationships matter, creativity and the power of symbols, the central importance of play, engaging with nature and knowledgeable and nurturing educators were considered revolutionary in the 1850’s (Froebel Trust, 2021).  At Cart Mill we firmly believe Froebel’s principles continue to be so relevant and we strive to adopt them into our everyday practice.

Our Cart Mill children just love our tinker table where they have the freedom to “learn through doing”.   It is truly magical to observe our children exploring their creativity by creating their own unique and marvellous models using a wide range of natural and manufactured materials.  Simply giving children freedom to spend time discussing, planning, designing and investigating resulted in this amazing box bursting in creativity, with each model having its own unique story.

”Woodwork is active learning at its best” (Bruce 2004:109). It is such  a rich learning experience to explore creative and critical thinking skills through problem solving , trying new ideas and building on previous learning experiences.   Our children have formed unity and connectedness by exploring where wood comes from and experimenting with its different natural forms of wood, shavings, sawdust, sticks, cardboard and even recycling from home!

It was an amazing opportunity to meet like minded Froebelian friends and form new connections and relationships.  We  had such a lovely day and were so proud to share our children’s work and experiences with our Froebelian colleagues.

Please feel free to speak to our Froebelian experts Ana, Fiona H and Emma if you would like any further information or pop in anytime to see how we put Froebelian principles into practice. We are so excited to see where our Froebelian journey takes us next!

Article 13 – you have the right to find out new things and share what you have learned with others.

The great Cart Mill bake off🧁

Today the children wanted to make muffins for snack. They each washed their hands and put aprons on before starting as we spoke about the importance of hand hygiene especially before and after preparing food. We looked out all the ingredients and pre heated the oven.

Ingredients:

  • 3 scoops of gluten free flour
  • 1/2 scoop of sugar
  • 1 teaspoon of Xanthan gum
  • 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
  • 100 ml Soya milk

“Can I add raisins?”

“me too”

The children measured all the ingredients out and carefully added them to their bowl, giving them a good mix using their gross motor skills.



“it’s so hard to mix now, it’s not soft”

Now they are ready for the oven. We discussed our rules about using the oven.

“It’s very hot, only adults allowed”

“You need oven gloves, so you don’t burn yourself”


When they were ready we let them cool down in the kitchen. Next we gathered chopping boards and knifes to cut up the muffins and we cut them up and shared them equally between 3 plates to have for our afternoon snack. They even had a wee sneaky taste test for all their hard work.

“hmmm yummy our friends are going to love these”

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

 

World Book Day 2024 📚

Happy World Book Day everyone!

The boys and girls have loved showing off the costumes of their favourite book character.

I’m very jealous of all the children wearing their super cosy jammies! They look so comfy!

We have all enjoyed lots of stories throughout the day and have taken part in lots of role play, making up our own stories as well. We even had Paddington selling ice cream in the garden!

We also enjoyed a story altogether for group time called Ruby’s Worry.

What’s your favourite story?

Article 29- your education should help you use and develop your talents and abilities.

Reduce, reuse, recycle

Over the past two weeks the children have enjoyed exploring different textures, sizes, shapes and ways of mark-making through expressive arts and design using their imagination in the junk modelling area. We love to reduce, reuse and recycle.

Through discussions and excellent teamwork the children decided to make an alien robot, they all put forward great suggestions as they talked about what it should look like, how many eyes will it have , should we give it horns shall we paint it and what colour. Our imaginations offered up some wonderful ideas  


All of this play helps to improve fine motor skills i.e. using and showing control over mark-making tools, using pincer grip (holding tools between thumb and two fingers) – encouraging pre-writing skills, using tape and cutting with scissors and all made out of recyclable household materials donated by yourselves.

The last decision to make is what shall we call him? We have a few ideas so we thought it would help to record our votes as tally marks so we got lots of input from all the children, so far Pickachu is in the lead!

We would also like you to have a vote too the choices are:

1. Robbie Robot

2. Andy Alien

3. Pikachu 

Which is your favourite?

You might just spot him out in reception where he will be standing guard over the next few weeks.

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