The children wanted to share what they love most about Cart Mill.
Sensory Fun
We have been trying out some fun sensory experiences this week. We tried mixing custard powder with water which gave us a really smooth surface and was hard to press into but when we lifted it up it became all runny “wow its like magic“. Did you know this is called a non Newtonian fluid?
The children enjoyed watching the mixture do its magic.
The girls and boys were able to use some great descriptive words when playing with the magic potion. “ My potion is very sticky and cold” and it’s like a bath bomb my mummy uses.
We were able to talk about the visual elements how thick or thin, rough and smooth as well as shape, colour and patterns. What a lot of things to learn!
Our next sensory experience we decided should be crazy soap as this is always a favourite
The girls and boys enjoy moulding this foam and squeezing it through their fingers . It feels very tickly in my hands.
This week we have made up some sensory bags. We made jelly to put in one of them although we had to use our muscles to try and break the jelly into pieces, this helps develop our fine motor skills.
Everyday we had something different in our bags and we had great fun guessing what might be in the bags, what colours they were and what the would smell like.
It was decided that the jelly bag was the best it smelled so good and was nice and “squishy”. The beans went all yucky and were cold so not as good. The tomatoes were good as you could make patterns in them with your fingers. We also had lentils one day, they felt really different.
Sensory experiences help us use all our senses while we explore them.
Article 13 – You have the right to play and learn through new experiences.
Outer Space
As you may remember the children had a great time creating their robot alien a few weeks ago. To continue along that theme, we decided to make our own spaceship! Luckily we had a huge box that was exactly what we needed. After much discussion, it was decided how it should look, that it was to be painted red, and off to work we went displaying great teamwork.
It was great fun imagining where to go and we chatted about what planet would be the best. This led us on to learning all about the planets in our solar system. We learned a great way to remember the planets by saying this sentence My Very Excellent Mom Just Served Us Noodles
We decided that we would like to make some planets using balloons, newspaper and wallpaper paste. Everyone really enjoyed the texture of the paste and spreading the paper with their hands. We are still in the process of painting them before we hang them up for all to admire.
“the paste feels slimy and cold”
“it’s very gooey”
”I like how it feels slimy”
“This is where we live on planet earth”
Who knows where our imagination will take us next!
Beautiful banana and blueberry muffins independently 😁😁😁
Today at Cart Mill we enjoyed some delicious banana and blueberry muffins. The children are familiar with this receipe but today it was carried out independently by a 4 year old with the only assistance given was with the oven.
He collected all the ingredients he needed.
He could recall the measurements and weighed out what he needed
He peeled his banana using his fine motor muscles in his strengthening hands.
We used coconut milk and he poured out just enough using a measuring jug, supporting his numeracy skills.
He mixed all the ingredients together very well
And divided the mixture evenly into the cupcake tray
When he had finished making the muffins he washed his dishes and put all his ingredients away….well done, what a great job today!!!
Ingredients :
3 scoops of gluten free flour
1 scoop of sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon xanthum gum
100 ml of coconut milk
some blueberries and a banana
Try to make these delicious muffins we can always guarantee lots of tasters if you need any. 😜
Article 24 A right to be healthy
Building Bridges
This week we decided we would use small blocks and loose parts to build our bridges.
The children began exploring the different materials provided and using their fine motor skill and hand and eye coordination to connect the pieces together.
“ this is too heavy, it’s going to fall.”
“This is really hard”
“Mine is a bit wobbly”
The children used problem solving skills while exploring a variety of ways to ensure the creations did not fall apart. The children shared their thoughts and ideas with each other.
“ I think the clips are too big and they bend”
“ glue would be good”
”mine are staying together”
”I like the pegs the best”
While building the children were discussing what they were creating and continued to share their thoughts and ideas. They used mathematical language to describe their creations and had great concentration skills.
“Mine is strong and long”
“I am building a bridge which is going going to be so long”
“I am going to build a big one for cars”
”mine is for cars too”
We then decided we would check how strong our bridges were. and chose a car or person to put on it.
“ I have 3 cars on”
”I have 3 people”
”I have 3 cars and 8 people”
The children were delighted at how strong their bridges were and that they were able to hold cars, figures or both.
World Earth Day Painting
In Cart Mill, the children enjoy painting and exploring the use of different textures and materials.
As part of World Earth Day the children were creating their very own planet earth by painting on tin foil using cotton buds as a painting tool. This activity helps to promote the childrens’ creativity, whilst enhancing their fine motor skills.
First, we covered the paper plates with tin foil to create our earth.
Next, the children chose colours that represented the earth. Blue for the sea, green for the land and white for the clouds.
They described what they were painting and how it looked and sounded.
Water!
“Shiny”
“Noisy”
“Ta da”
Some of the children also created amazing artwork using the tin foil as a printing tool. This method produced a lovely textured painting.
The children showed great enthusiasm when painting their planet earth and demonstrated excellent focus and poise.
Lovely work everyone.
We then learned some new World Earth Day songs to familiar rhymes that we already know.
Article 31 (leisure, play and culture). Every child has the right to relax, play and take part in a wide range of cultural and artistic activities.
Shapes are all around
Our learning today consisted of shapes, shapes and more shapes! We started by using chalk to draw all the shapes we knew.
Then we used the balance beams to make a shape obstacle course. The children had to work out how many sides the shapes have and then collect the corresponding amount of beams. They did a fantastic job of creating a square, a rectangle, a triangle, a circle and even a star.
“The triangle looks like a tent.”
Then we took our learning indoors and went on a shape hunt inside the nursery. We used our worksheets to record each time we spotted a shape.
After all our hard work, we let loose by having a dance party. Check out those moves 😎💃🕺
UNCRC 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
people’s rights and values and to respect the
environment.
Expressing our imaginations 👩🏼🎨
Some of the children have been expressing themselves through imaginative play this week in our clay station, creating mini role playing scenarios.
“guess what Pokémon this is?”
“it’s an eel. And it turns into a rhino. I need to paint it so it blends in”
“I need to roll it so it’s longer. So his mouth fits on. Super big Supertayto!”
“lots of walls. So nobody can see”
“I’m making a surprise. Guess what’s inside? Surprise! You’re at the beach!”
Other children were very observant noticing familiar letters they recognised, and sharing stories with each other through their play.
“This looks like a L. L is in my daddy’s name. How do I write Lorenzo?”
“L is in my sisters name too. It’s Lexie”
“Is your brother in my sisters class?”
Some even created their own letters using their manipulative skills to mould and shape their designs.
The children have shown such fabulous creativity in our clay area, learning lots of different skills while exploring their imaginations and having fun 🤩 keep up the great work, everybody 👍🤩👩🏼🎨
Article 29 – I have the right to an education which develops my personality, talents and abilities.
Return to the Forest
This week we have taken two groups to the forest to experience learning in the wild! Forest School is a fabulous experience that we run for our pre-school children which has many benefits for them. Over the past couple of days we have seen the children flourish in their new environment. As it was our introductory week, we spoke about hazards and risks and how we were going to keep safe. We set some boundaries, they were far away so we had lots of space to explore but we could always be seen by an adult!
We looked at trees that might be good to climb and then we climbed! We squelched in the mud, a lot, some of us even lost our wellies in the muddy mess!
We explored nature, there were lots of plants to look at and one in particular we could smell. Wild garlic! It was everywhere, so we felt very hungry. We stopped for some snack before going to find more to explore.
Then we went to look at the horses in the field next door. They were munching on their grass so didn’t want to come and see us.
Before we knew it, it was time to go back to Cart Mill but we can’t wait to get out again next week.
Blasting off to Planet Mars!
The children are still really focused on learning about space in the Discovery Room. This morning we revisited the solar system. The children counted confidently that there are eight planets. Looking at pictures we tried to remember the names of all these planets.
“I know that’s Mercury because it’s the grey one!”
”Mars is the big red dot!!!”
The children decided Mars looked like the most exciting planet and got busy making a spaceship that would take them there!
”We can all sit in this big box!”
The children used their cutting, gluing and sticking skills to prepare parts of their spaceship! They had great conversations with each other about what they needed to make a super fast spaceship.
”I’m cutting the buttons for the front!”
We decided to decorate the ship with bright colours so that it would be seen in the sky! The children choose to use pom poms, sparkles and coloured paper.
“The spaceship needs fire to make it fly!”
The children added red coloured paper cut like flames to the back so that the spaceship would blast off!
”It needs to fly super fast, wooooooooooosh!”
We added some finishing touches and then jumped in to set off on our journey! 3,2,1 blast off!!!!
”I can go from side to side!”
Some of the children decided they wanted to cut holes in the bottom of the spaceship so that they could actually move it around!
”Weeeeeeeeee look we can fly to Space! Let’s go to Mars!”
What a fantastic idea that was, how inventive and imaginative! What great fun everyone had taking turns to steer the spaceship around Cartmill!
Article 28 – You have the right to Education
Welcome to our hairdressers ✂️
A conversation sparked between the children when some members of staff came to nursery last week after having their hair done in preparation for Derek’s Big Day.
“I went to the hairdressers last week”
” Can I do your hair?”
“My mum gets her hair cut in my kitchen, the hairdresser comes to my house”
“I go to the barbers with daddy”
The children used imaginary brushes and “honey spray” to do each others hair until it was “nice and soft”. This morning I left a box of hair styling and barber tools in the home corner to see what the children did with them.
They tried out some of the tools, brought some chairs over and then went searching for new customers to get their hair done.
“My mum has one of these, she uses it before work In the morning”
“The baby doesn’t have lots of hair”
“Next! What number do you want, a 1 or a 2 or a 3?”
“Look at me, do you like my new hair?”
The children loved being hairdressers and barbers for the day, they were so excited to share and re-enact their own experiences of hair cuts, at home, at the barbers or at the salon. They can’t wait to do it all again tomorrow.
“Can we do it again tomorrow?”
