Being Festive with Loose Parts

December 11, 2023 Mr Edwards Leave a comment

In the discovery room the children have been provided with resources to explore some Christmas themed loose parts play.

Using loose parts such as blocks, fabric, or natural materials encourages open-ended exploration and creativity. This unstructured play fosters problem-solving skills, spatial awareness, and enhances fine motor skills. It promotes imaginative thinking, as children can manipulate these parts in countless ways.

Some children showcased their creativity by crafting unique Christmas tree designs using triangles and an assortment of loose parts.

Using large blocks, some children explored concepts of size, sparking discussions as they navigated the process of filling the Christmas tree design on the floor. This hands-on activity prompted them to problem-solve, choosing which bricks to use and determining what would fit seamlessly into their creation.

Creativity, Expressive Arts, Special Event

Christmas Clay and Glitter Decorations

December 8, 2023 Miss Keith Leave a comment

In the studio this week the Christmas excitement is growing. We had a think about what decoration we could make. “Can we make decorations for the tree”.
We had a think and thought that using the clay would be a good idea. We gathered together the materials we would need. We then had to use our strong hand and arm muscles to roll out the clay and make it big enough for our cutter.

We have chosen a round cutter so that it will look like a bauble for the tree. We pushed the cutter into the clay and it made our circle “ Look mines big enough”

We then carefully used a pencil to make a hole in the top of our bauble for the ribbon to go through so it would hang on the tree.

We then had to let our clay dry for two sleeps 🛌.

Now it’s ready to decorate

The children were able to self select their own materials .” I will use jewels and it will make it ✨ sparkle.

Of course we had to use lots and lots of biodegradable glitter. We spoke about our favourite colours of glitter and which one would shine the brightest.

Our decorations are now drying and will be ready to take home to shine bright on your very own trees 🌲.

Article 29

Your education should help you develop your talents and abilities.

Creativity, Expressive Arts, Literacy

Holidays are coming 🌲

December 7, 2023 Miss Brown Leave a comment

Yesterday in the studio the children explored marbling ink. They selected different colours to create their own unique art.

Adding the marbling ink to the water and swirling it around to make cool patterns, the children added their paper to the water and we all counted to 10. After 10 we lifted the paper out and looked at patterns that had transferred onto the paper.

“ Wow! That’s so cool , my colours pink and yellow are on the paper now”

“ Can I make a Christmas card on mine”

“ Me too can I make one?”

We put our pictures over to the drying rack and left them to dry over night.

Today the children collected different things to create their Christmas cards.

Jewels, sequins, pom-poms etc were glued on to create lovely Christmas cards, the children cut out their marbling ink pictures and added to red card.

The children practiced their writing skills as they wrote out their cards. Some for Santa, aunties, uncles, mums,dads, brothers and sisters.

We hope everyone has a lovely Christmas and a Happy New Year🎅 🌲

Article 29 – I have the right to an education which develops my personality, respect for others rights and the environment.

Article 12 – I have the right to be listened to

Uncategorized

Pinecone Christmas Decorations!

December 5, 2023 Miss Mitchell Leave a comment

Today in the Garden, the children have been creating their own Christmas decorations for the outdoor tree!

We had lots of pine cones so we decided to use some glue and some sparkly sand to create our very own Christmas baubles…

First we used the PVA glue and glue spreaders to make our pine cones all sticky!

Then we used some special Christmas sparkle to brighten up our pine cones and make them into our baubles for the tree.

”Shake shake shake so it comes out the top”

”It looks like snow on it”

Then we had to use our concentration and our fine motor skills to tie the ribbon around the tree so that our decorations would hang for everyone to see!

”Look at mine! I did it myself, I have a green ribbon on mine too”

Wouldn’t you agree that the children done a wonderful job of their decorations…have a look at our fabulous tree in our garden!

Throughout this experience, the children have been developing their creativity skills, imagination and their ability to work with different materials to create a piece of artwork.

Article 29: I have the right to an education which develops my personality, respect for others and the environment

Article 31: I have the right to an education

Technologies

Snowstorm in a jar ❄️

December 4, 2023 Mrs Miles Leave a comment

This morning we have been chatting about all the snow that fell over the weekend and how much we had fun playing in it…

“I made a snowman, he was giant!”

“I threw snowballs at my Nana.”

“I walked to nursery in the snow, it was crunchy.”

Continuing on our snowy theme we decided to make a snowstorm in a jar in our STEM area. We started by putting oil in a jar then poured in water mixed with white paint and looked at what happened.

We noticed that the painty water fell to the bottom and the oil stayed on top. Then we added some blue food colouring and glitter and mixed it up to see what difference that would make.

Now we had glitter on the bottom , blue water in the middle and oil still on top. One of the boys suggested they weren’t mixing because “they just don’t want to!” I explained that because the oil is less dense it will sit on top of the water, pushing the water down.

Next we added the magic ingredient to create the snowstorm, we put an alka seltzer tablet in the mix!

It fizzed and it bubbled and it swirled the mixture all around!

“It’s going to bubble over!”

“The bubbles are going up and down.”

The alka seltzer when mixed with the water creates carbon dioxide and pushes the water up in the form of a bubble but the less dense oil pushes it back down creating the repetitive motion of the bubbles going up and down. The boys and girls had a great time watching the reaction!

To extend this experiment further we have popped the mixture outside in the snow and we will find out tomorrow if each of the layers will freeze… 🥶

Article 13- you have the right to find out things and share what you think with others.

Uncategorized

St. Andrews Day at Cartmill 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

November 30, 2023 User deactivated Leave a comment

It’s been a day full of fun at Cartmill, we have been celebrating St. Andrew’s day through a variety of exciting experiences.

In the home corner we have been reading Scottish books, learning new exciting things about castles, Nessie the Loch Ness monster and singing our famous songs and rhymes.

In the studio we’ve loved listening to the Scottish music and having a dance with our friends. We even tried some ceilidh dancing which was lots of fun!

In our baking area we have been very busy preparing the potatoes for making potato scones! The children were learning new skills by peeling, chopping and mashing the potatoes. Now they are ready to be cooked on the fire in the garden.

We gathered round the fire pit, keeping a safe distance. We watched the fire being lit and waited to hear the cracking of the fire so we knew it was ready to use.

As it was so cold outside today, we all had a turn of sitting with Val at the firepit to see if we could heat up. We felt the heat from the fire on our hands and our faces, it was nice and cosy!

“It goes pop.”

It was now time to put the fire out safely.

“It’s like a steam train.”
“Wow, it’s going all the way up-to space.”

Article 31- I have the right to relax and play

Article 29 – I have the right to an education which develops my personality, respect for others and the environment.

Digital Technology

Time⏳⏱

November 29, 2023 Mrs MacRae Leave a comment

This week in the discovery room we have been exploring time through the use of the sand timers and the digital stopwatch on the iPads.

“Mine is at 14 min now”

”mine is the fasted”

“These two are the same 3 minute”

The children have been enjoying watching the sand run though the sand timers. We have been discussing which one we think is fastest and slowest. We all had a turns using the digital timers to measure how long our sand timers took to stop.

We discovered the sand timer had a 1min timer, 2min timer, 3min and 5 min timer.

At nursery we always do 2 minutes of tooth brushing to keep our teeth healthy and use the timers to time 2 min of brushing.

The children were then set the challenge to see if they could do star jumps for 1 min. We then used the timers to time 1 min. It was hard work to keep going but we did it!

One minute of star jumps wasn’t enough to tire our Cart Mill boys and girls, we set a further challenge of jumping for 3min. The children assured me they could do it and they didn’t disappoint. Well done everyone.

After all that exercise we decided to use our 5min timer to do a 5 minute cool down of walking around the table.

The children have enjoyed exploring the timers in different ways and it has helped keep us all warm on such a cold morning.

Uncategorized

Imaginative fun

November 28, 2023 Miss Mitchell Leave a comment

Today some of the children enjoyed exploring their own interests through imaginative play in the home corner both independently and with their peers.

“I made pizza in the oven be careful because it is hot”

“ You can’t touch it without these special oven gloves”

”I made strawberry ice cream, I don’t think it’s to cold to eat ice cream “

”I’m making ever Pasta for their dinner it will be nice I’m putting onions in it”

“ It’s a busy day for me, first working in the office , then I need to make dinner for everyone, I hope they like it, it’s macaroni , I need to put it in the oven for 20 minutes “

” I will put the timer on ”

”Stir,stir,stir “” my baby is sleepy so I’m putting him to bed, I don’t want him to be cold, so I’m putting a blanket onto him”

”I’m reading a story to my baby’s”

“ I’m chopping up the play dough into smaller pieces “

Sometimes it is lovely to sit back and watch the children play. They have such great imaginations and how they interact can be inspiring. The boys played, happily sharing the utensils and taking turns. Role play enhances children’s social skills, communication and language development as it allows them to share ideas with one another and learn to play and socialise in group situations.

Article 31 – I have the right to relax and play

Article 28 – I have the right to an education

Literacy

Oh no, it’s a Gruffalo!

November 27, 2023 Mrs Hannah Leave a comment

In our story corner today we have been discussing books we have at home and took great delight in sharing our favourites with our friends. We couldn’t decide which was our overall favourite, so we voted by raising our hands and then counting to see which story had the most votes.

Our winner was ……. The Gruffalo!

Lots of exciting discussion followed and we were able to name the Mouse and the Gruffalo as the main characters, and remember which animals the mouse met on his walk through “the deep, dark wood!”. We decided we wouldn’t like to walk in the “deep, dark wood cos it might be a wee bit scary”, but “maybe we could take a torch and it wouldn’t be scary anymore!”

It was so exciting to choose which character we would like to be. Listening very carefully, we were able to take turns and use our story spoons to predict which character the Mouse would meet next! Some of us demonstrated we know the Gruffalo really well by joining in with repeated phrases, “oh help, oh no, it’s a Gruffalo!” being a firm favourite! To challenge ourselves further, we even added in some sound effects and actions!

“The snake goes sssssssss”

”Owl goes toowittoowoo”

”look I’ve got terrible teeth and I’ve got big claws”

”his prickles were purple”

”his eyes are orange, mines are brown.”

Using a thumbs up, thumbs to the side and thumbs down, we shared our likes and dislikes of each character and then decided we would like to swap our spoons and read the story again! (Repeated at least 5 times!)

Article 12 – you have the right to give your opinion
Article 29 – Your education should help you use and develop your talents and abilities.

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.