Shaping shaving foam

November 22, 2023 Mrs Miles Leave a comment

Within the sensory area we have been experimenting with mark making using a variety of resources. Today we chose shaving foam and have been using it to create shapes in different ways.

This has involved painting the shapes with the foam, drawing with fingers and paint brushes and even printing the shapes in our hands.

“I’m painting a triangle.”
”I can make a circle, a square, a triangle and an oval.”
“A circle, he’s a curly one.”
“I made a diamond on my hand.”

For some of our younger children, they enjoyed the feel of the foam, naming the colours and learning the names of the shapes. It is super, messy fun whatever age you are!

Article 13- You have the right to find out things and share what you think with others by talking, drawing and writing.

Baking, Expressive Arts, Outdoor Learning

Welcome to the Cart Mill kitchen 😀🥤🎂

November 20, 2023 Miss Simms Leave a comment

Today in the mud kitchen the children were pretending to work at Cartmill Cafe. They discussed with each other what they going to make.
” I love tomato soup” “I like the colour of it, Red is my favourite colour “

”I am making a birthday cake, a chocolate flavoured one”

“Hot chocolate, but you need to be careful it’s not too hot when you drink it, I like it with marshmallows “

”spaghetti bolognaise, with wiggly spaghetti “

The children then wrote their ideas on the menu

The children gathered their utensils and began filling and pouring their ingredients. They used gross motor skills to mix and stir added natural resources such as leaves, stick, stones and pine cones to their recipes.

“It needs to cook in the oven for 10minutes”

”I need more water in the soup”

”It’s still too hot, it needs a little water to cool it down”

We then showed each other our creations and had a little pretend nibble.

“ Here’s a drink with a straw”

”My birthday cake has lots of candles”

” I have the bestest chocolate cake”

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Learning emotions through Clay

November 17, 2023 Miss Mitchell Leave a comment

Over the last week, the children have been exploring different emotions at the clay area. They have been selecting various loose parts to create their faces and express their thoughts and feelings through their model making.

Learning about emotions helps children become more aware and understand their own and others emotions and also allow them to better regulate their own responses to strong emotions. Helping to support children in recognising and identifying their emotions is an important first step.

”Here is a happy face”

”This face is a sad one, I made it go down like that, the mouth goes down like this”

The children used different techniques such as rolling, cutting and moulding to create their different faces which also develops the fine motor movements in their hands and their fingers.

”I made lots of different faces, they are happy ones, my mummy will be happy when I show her too”

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

Uncategorized

🐷 “I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down.”

November 16, 2023 User deactivated Leave a comment

This week in the studio the children have loved reading ‘The Three Little Pigs.’ The children came up with a brilliant idea that they’d like to make their own ‘house’ out of the junk modelling and see if the ‘big bad Wolf’ could blow it over.

“Horace has the strongest house.”

We got started and looked out what junk modelling and resources we could use. “These look like bricks.” The children confidently worked both in a group and independently making their fabulous houses.

“I’m making my house out of bricks. The Woolf can’t get in.”
“ My house is made of sticks, it’s very strong.”

Here is the children’s finished work! Now it’s time to see if the “big bag Wolf” can blow them down.

“My house is pink.”

The children had lots of fun taking turns of trying to blow down each other’s houses.

“I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house down.”
”I nearly got it.”

Block building, Creativity, Expressive Arts, Literacy, Social Studies

“Let’s make the biggest train track in the world”

November 15, 2023 Miss Brown Leave a comment

We have been reading lots of stories this week and this has sparked some great ideas for the block area.

“I want to make a big office like that, I will need lots of blocks. My mum goes to the office”

The children decided to choose their favourite book first and then make something from the book. We made a chart where each child ticked the side of their favourite book.

Fergus’s Scary night was the favourite! They decided on making a dogs bed for ‘Fergus’ to hide when he is scared.

“It’s triangle and square beds, Fergus not scared in here”. The children worked well together to build the dogs beds.

“We are building the biggest train track like Thomas, and a bridge look we can go under too”

Finally, the children built some of the buildings and structures from the story ‘All through the night’. “I’m building the digger with a snow shovel that can lift snow and rocks, it has a train track under it”.

“This ones mummy’s office”

The children have loved creating things from their favour stories this week, using their imagination and problem solving to fit the pieces together.

Creative movement, Literacy, Outdoor Learning

Puddle Play!

November 14, 2023 Mrs Barnes Leave a comment

For most children puddles have a magnetic effect! Today in the garden the children were delighted to find so many big puddles had appeared after all the rain. They were desperate to get their wellies on and start jumping! We wanted to see who could splash the most water out of the puddles!

We used one of the crates to jump off to see if that created a bigger splash! The children very cleverly observed that the higher they jumped from, the bigger the splash!

”Wow, that was big, I got more wet!”

After all their jumping, the children decided to roll the tyres through the puddles to see if they made big splashes.

“1, 2, 3 Push!!!”

I asked the children if they could see anything else in the garden that could make a splash in the puddles! They found the football and had great fun kicking it and throwing it to make big splashes!

The children found a puddle in our big tray and decided to throw the ball to each other across the tray! This created big splashes which caused great hilarity when they got their faces splashed!

“Ah, it’s very cold on my face!”

“When life gives you a rainy day, play in the puddles!”

Article 31 ~ You have the right to play

Creative movement, Creativity, Expressive Arts, Outdoor Learning, Social Studies, Special Event

Diwali Celebrations!

November 13, 2023 Mr Edwards Leave a comment

Diwali is a Hindu festival celebrated with much excitement and light. It usually involves the lighting of lamps or diyas, symbolizing the triumph of light over darkness and good over evil. People also exchange gifts, clean and decorate their homes, and participate in various cultural and religious activities during this festival.

Take a look at some of the activities we have been doing as we learn about Diwali.

Today in the garden we used power paint to create our own rangoli patterns. It was a great gross motor art activity that got our bodies moving. Using bright colours the children selected their painting tools and got busy. Rangoli patterns are traditional Indian art created on the ground usually during festivals and special occasions. Rangoli involves using coloured powders, rice, flour, or flower petals to make intricate and vibrant designs. Rangoli is believed to bring good luck and positive energy to the surroundings.

On Friday we had a camp fire in the garden with Val. We helped to make some pakora and cooked them on the fire. Outdoor cooking with a fire is great fun and our children at Cart Mill love to take part. The crackling flames create an exciting setting as the children prepare simple recipes connecting them with nature and basic cooking methods. Whether it’s toasting marshmallows, baking bread on sticks, or cooking pakora the open fire becomes an engaging tool for learning teamwork, patience, safety and an appreciation for the environment.

UNCRC

ARTICLE 2 – Non- discrimination.

ARTICLE 31 – Leisure, play and culture

Creativity, Expressive Arts, Special Event

Firework and Diwali Designs at the tinker table..

November 10, 2023 Miss Keith Leave a comment

This week at the tinker table we have been creating some firework and Diwali designs using nails, golf tees and coloured elastic bands.

This experience will help the children with their fine motor skills, hand and eye coordination whilst building self esteem and confidence while they are using the tinker table ⚒️.

Some of the children preferred to use the log which already has the nails in place. They were able to create some lovely designs and also recognise some of the shapes they had created. “Mine is a triangle”.

”We choose the colours of the fireworks that we seen in the sky” . “They were very loud”. “I choose red because I seen red ones and that’s my favourite colour”.

At Cartmill Family Centre we wish all our friends a very Happy Diwali this weekend.

Article 13 – We have the right to find out things and share what we know.

Creative movement, emotional literacy, Expressive Arts

Creative movement

November 9, 2023 Mrs Hannah Leave a comment

Creative movement is a fabulous way for children to express their feelings, thoughts and ideas. Touch and movement are the earliest senses we develop. Children explore the world around them through these senses and they may provide rich learning experiences that can influence our health and well-being (Reynolds. S. 2023).

Energetic play is an excellent way which supports children to progress their movement in different forms. Creating their own obstacle course provided a wealth of opportunities to climb, balance, jump or crawl!

Taking turns, our children created the movement they would like to perform, and their friends took great delight in copying! Whether it be running, side stepping, rolling (which was a definite favourite), rotating or frog jumps, each movement provided the opportunity to travel through our space, develop our co-ordination and strengthen our gross motor skills.

Children enact repeated patterns of behaviour in play, known as Schemas, allowing them the freedom to explore their thoughts and ideas, which is an important part of their brain development. Performing action songs with simple patterns such as head, shoulders, knees and toes and Grand old duke of York during Bookbug is the ideal opportunity to connect with our bodies and each other by creating tunnels, and improve our flexibility!

What better way to express our creative movements than to clear some space, pop on favourite songs and dance our hearts out! This provides the opportunity to move freely, perform spontaneous movements and have lots of fun!

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

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Tile painting fun in the studio!

November 8, 2023 Ms Partridge Leave a comment

Today the children have been having very messy fun at the tile painting! We began selecting our own colours while we thought of our ideas, and got to work being creative.

The children explored their curiosity with the various resources on offer, demonstrating fabulous imagination…

“I’m making Paw Patrol high tower. That’s the look out so they can spot people coming”

“It’s like a masterpiece!”

“It’s the Paw Patrol Telescope. The new one!”

The children demonstrated different techniques using the resources, and really enjoyed expressing themselves through interesting patterns…

Open-ended resources can provide lots of opportunity for children to express their own interests and imagination through play, and have lots of fun while doing it. You could try this at home too using something similar, such as a small mirror. The best part is they’re super easy to clean, so you can paint over and over again!! Great work everybody