Literacy, Snack, Special Event

Christmas at Cart Mill

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As we said yesterday, this week at Cart Mill is full on festive. Today we enjoyed a special Christmas lunch with turkey and all the trimmings, followed by ice cream. We have also been busy writing letters to Santa and this afternoon we baked gingerbread biscuits.

When writing their letters, the children talked about all the gifts they were hoping for. We hope you know what they are hoping for too!

‘ I Would like a unicorn’ ‘Its quite hard to cut out the stamps because they are so small’

‘I’m posting my letter i have written lots in it’ ‘ I would like a diplodocus for for Christmas and a big T-Rex also a giraffe’

There has also been requests for a coffee machine for the bath, bubble machines, dolls and Spiderman. Let’s hope Santa is listening!

We then made our gingerbread men or angels. After seeing the play, we thought it would be so good to make our very own gingerbread! The centre was full of festive smells as the biscuits baked.


‘I measured out three table spoons of sugar’ ‘I think these will be tasty’ ‘I’m rolling it out flat’


Every day seems so busy at Cart Mill, it will be Christmas before we know it!

Expressive Arts, Special Event

Christmas is in Full Swing

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Christmas is certainly in full swing at Cart Mill. Just when we thought we couldn’t fit anymore in to our calendar, we had a visit from Clydebuilt Puppet Theatre in to do not one but two shows of The Gingerbread Man!

We all loved it. We laughed, shouted, squealed and sat so well. Bet you’re thinking oh no you didn’t, but OH YES WE DID!!!!

Tomorrow, it is Christmas lunch in the centre then later this week we are starting some Christmas baking and lots of rehearsing for the Cart Mill Christmas Concert. We also have Colette coming in for some Christmas dancing next week, pyjama/movie day and hopefully a visitor from the North Pole! 🎅
We will all be exhausted by Christmas!

Creativity

Being Festive with Loose Parts

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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

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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 🌲

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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

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Pinecone Christmas Decorations!

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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 ❄️

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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.

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St. Andrews Day at Cartmill 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

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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⏳⏱

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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.

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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.

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Imaginative fun

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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

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