Uncategorized

Exploring our play dough area

January 19, 2024 Miss Mitchell Leave a comment

In our play dough area this week we have been practicing our play dough making skills, we have been working together to count out how many scoops of the ingredients we need & taking turns to mix it all together to create our play dough.

We have been investigating different loose parts in our play dough area and how to use them safely. The children have made lots of creations using their natural curiosity and imagination such as faces, monsters and volcanos..

The children have also been practicing their cutting skills using different tools such as plastic knives, a pizza cutter and scissors. We have been exploring how to divide whole items into halves and quarters developing our mathematics and fractions skills.

Exploring play dough allows children to develop skills such as strengthening their hands, improving their fine motor skills and becoming confident in their hand-eye co-ordination. This helps with early emergent writing skills.

Article 31: I have the right to relax and play

Article 28: I have the right to an education

Outdoor Learning

Keeping warm in the cold 🥶🥶🥶

January 17, 2024 Mrs Johnston Leave a comment

Today it was very cold in the garden but the children were excited to discover the changes in our garden due to the weather! We wrapped up in our jackets, hats and gloves and ventured out. We only stayed moving about for 20 mins then we came in again to get warm!

We stomped….

We tiptoed….

We used ribbons to dance with…..

We ran very carefully!

We star jumped ☃️

By keeping moving we kept ourselves toasty warm and fighting fit👍

Article 31 You have the right to play and relax by doing things like sports, music and drama

Creativity, Expressive Arts

Cart Mill Clay Creations!

January 16, 2024 Mr Edwards Leave a comment

In Cart Mill, we’re always seeking ways to spark imagination and connect children with the wonders of the outdoors. An activity that achieves both is the art of flower pressing in clay. This isn’t just an activity; it’s a celebration of nature’s beauty and the boundless creativity of our children.

With clay, rolling pins, colorful flowers, and herbs, our little artists began creating their works of art. First, they rolled the clay using the rolling pins to create a canvas for their art. Using the rolling pins and their hands to flatten the clay is a fun way to develop fine and gross motor skills. Next, they selected flowers and herbs to press onto the clay, leaving beautiful imprints that capture the essence of the world around them.

Some of the children have been using their problem-solving skills by figuring out how to get the flowers to stand up. They worked together and discovered they needed to pile the clay around the stem to make it stand straight. Well done!

The children had the opportunity to explore their senses by discussing how the clay felt. We also had a smell of the herbs and flowers. Below are some comments.

“It smells like my toothpaste.”

“It smells green.”

“The clay is really soft.”

“It’s a bit sticky.”

Now, we let the clay masterpieces dry, and voila! We have fantastic keepsakes that showcase not just the creativity of the Cart Mill children but also the wonders of nature.

Stay tuned for delightful surprise! These fantastic creations will be showcased in the welcome area later this week. 😀

UNCRC ARTICLES

Article 28: Education

Article 13: Freedom of expression

Literacy

Helicopter Stories 🚁

January 16, 2024 User deactivated Leave a comment

Today in the story corner the children have been creating their own stories! We sat together as a group and went round the circle, each child adding onto the story, there was lots of fun and giggles.

“There was a dinosaur then a bumble bee.”

After creating the fabulous story the children had lots of fun being illustrators. ✍️

“I’m drawing the fire engine.”
“I’m going to draw the dinosaur, he is a giant.”
“Look at my bumble bee.”

Here is a look at the children’s fantastic imaginative story and drawings.

Taking part in helicopter stories gives the children the freedom to create the story in the way they want too. It’s a great way to build literacy skills, develop emotional and social skills, explore and extend the children’s learning all while having lots of fun.

Creativity, Outdoor Learning, Special Event

Who will live in my nest 🪹?

January 12, 2024 Miss Keith Leave a comment

This week in the garden the children have noticed how cold it is. We spotted some birds flying into the garden “maybe they are looking for food and somewhere to keep warm”.

We found a book that showed us lots of different types of nests for garden birds and other animals. “Let’s make nests”

Our children had a look round the nursery to find materials that would help our animals stay warm. We used little pots to make our nests in to keep our birds and animals dry. “ A mouse will live in mine” “ I want a bunny rabbit to stay in my nest” and “an eagle 🦅 will stay in my nest.

We also learnt that it is very important that these small animals have access to clean water for drinking and bathing so we filled a dish with water and left it outside . We shall need to check this each day to make sure it’s not frozen. We had a little look in our bird box to check it was safe and clean for the birds to visit.
Our animal and bird houses are looking great. Nice and cosy. The children have chosen to take their own nests home to see what birds or animals might use them. Good luck and let’s us know if you have any visitors !

We are also looking forward to taking part In the Big Garden Birdwatch between 26th and 28th January. We shall encourage the children to take notice of the types of birds that visit their garden and look forward to making some bird feeders to encourage any visitors.

Creativity, Expressive Arts, Woodwork

Wonderful Wood!

January 11, 2024 Mrs Hannah Leave a comment

It’s been a busy week so far in our Woodwork area! We have been very interested in where wood comes from, so we decided to have a wee look for some books that might tell us!

“look it’s trees. Wood comes from trees!”

”that looks like the wood we have outside”.

”and it says paper is made from trees. So that’s wood too. And pencils”.

We decided to go on a wood hunt to see what else was made of wood! Off we set with the iPad to see what we could find!

“Look the blocks are made of wood”. “So is the door. And the table”

”is this box made of wood?” “I think so”.

Our families have very kindly donated lots of materials to our junk modelling area, so we decided to have a look through and sort out the materials we thought would be made from wood. We couldn’t believe a Rice Krispies box came from a tree!

We also had a look around our woodwork area and discovered we had lots of “things that are made of wood but look different”. Wood shavings that “were curly and bouncy”, sawdust “my mummy buys me sawdust for my horse. It makes his bed all cozy when he’s sleeping”. “The shopping back is made from trees. Look it has a picture of a wee tree on it!”.

It was time to get creative! Using cardboard tubes, paper, wood and of course lots and lots of glue, we produced some fabulous 3d models and artwork!

There was lots of discussion about why trees are cut down to make wood and paper, which led to us deciding to make our own trees and Forest!

Of course we had to “make a giant tree so we can grow it on the wall”.

We proudly displayed our recycled wood and paper artwork in our woodwork area. We are so lucky to have such talented children at Cart Mill!

“Wood can provide endless opportunities for creative expression and developing design thinking. There is something special about woodworks’s ability to engage young children. It is learning through doing”. (Froebel Trust, 2023)

Creativity

Discovering Antarctica

January 10, 2024 Mrs MacRae Leave a comment

It might feel like Antarctica outside this week but in the studio we have been exploring how cold it really is.

This stared with the children discovered some polystyrene in the junk area. We started breaking and cutting it up and soon discovered it looked like snow.

“Ice can crack”

The children started to discuss different animals that like snow conditions. We introduced the artic animals into the play. This sparked more discussion about the different animal.

”Penguins can’t fly”

”Penguins are very good swimmers “

“Penguins can go on the ice”

“I’ve made a home for the penguin”

“All this snow is sticking to my hands”

While watching some beautiful images of Antarctica on the screen we started to create our very own Antarctica.

We watched a short video and discovered that the South Pole is the coldest place on earth. Antarctica is almost entirely covered by ice. It’s the only continent where human don’t live, it’s so cold. Only a few animal can survive the harsh conditions.

As well as being fun Small world play also provides the children time to explore different materials, act out real life scenarios, practice social skills and gain an understanding of the world.

Article 13

You have the right to find out things and share what you think with others, by talking, drawing, writing or in any other way unless it harms or offends other people.

Outdoor Learning

Icetastic time in the garden 🧊

January 9, 2024 Miss Brown Leave a comment

Happy New Year everyone😀

What a lovely icey cold morning for the children to get wrapped up and go out to explore the ice.

The children discovered large pieces of ice inside the tyres.

” Wow its so big”

“Its cold on my hands, its so heavy”

They collected all the big chunks of ice they could find and added it to our water tray. We discussed how water turns to ice and what conditions there has to be for this to happen.

“It needs to be so cold”

” But there is salt on the ground, that melts the ice”

We discussed why there was salt on the ground and what other ways the ice would melt .

” My mum said the big gritter went by my house and put grit all over the place to melt the ice”

“The sun melts the ice and turns it into water, like a snowman when the snow goes away”

The children decided the wanted to fill some things up with water to see if they could make more ice.

They put some animals, pine cones, shells etc in the water trough and filled up some cupcake cases with water and blue food colouring.

We left it over night and came back to the garden in the morning to see what had happened.

“ITS FROZEN, YAY”

The children added some more water to the tray to see what would happen to the ice. “It melting a little bit but it’s still so cold”

They have had so much fun exploring, digging the ice to break the animals out and leaving more water in the garden to see if it freezes again tomorrow.

Block building, Creativity, Digital Technology, emotional literacy, Outdoor Learning

Welcome back everyone 🥰

January 8, 2024 Miss Mitchell Leave a comment

It’s lovely to see everyone and get settled well back into our nursery routine. Today we have enjoyed a variety of interesting learning experiences. We have made play dough, following an adult’s instructions to measure, mix, knead and roll. We then used it to make 3D shapes and discuss the properties of the different shapes. We got straight back to building wonderful creations including big towers so we could count how many bricks we had added. We investigated technologies and used our fine motor skills to make different drawings.

We also spent time problem solving to complete a pirate jigsaw and to build a new garage, which allowed us lots of imaginative play for our toy cars.

With everything being frozen, we decided it was a perfect time to role play with the artic animals.

And this is just the start of our first full week! Who knows what else we will do in Cart Mill this January?

Baking, Snack

December Round Up in the Baking Area

December 21, 2023 User deactivated Leave a comment

Over the last few weeks in the baking area the children have enjoyed lots of different experiences starting with making our own potato scones for St Andrews day, they worked so hard peeling, chopping, mashing and shaping before practicing their spreading skills buttering and of course enjoying the taste.

They have also been busy making a variety of different muffins for snack time, we’ve had blueberry, raisin and banana.

The children have been working on developing their fine motor skills at snack time having a go at spreading butter onto crackers, cheese onto bread and jam onto bread which has been voted the best.

We enjoyed the process of making fruit kebabs, peeling, chopping and carefully pushing them onto a skewer we introduced a wee bit of maths by recognising and following a simple pattern or making up their own.

We ended by making some delicious gingerbread cookies and decorating our “ home made” empire biscuits.