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Story time 📚

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This week in the home room, some of the children have been exploring technology in the story corner, and various ways we can investigate stories..

We discovered some of the books displaying QR Codes … I wonder what they mean?

“Let’s see what happens!”

 

“Another one!”

“Is this a QR code?”

We decided to investigate the various QR codes to find out their purpose, and they each did something different! Some of the codes shared videos of the story, so the children got super cosy to listen and watch…

Some of the stories had audio readings, and verbal cues to turn the page…

“Ping, next page!”

The children have enjoyed being able to independently listen to the stories, and they have been expressing an interest in creating their own stories too. Some have even asked how to make their own QR codes! The children have shown great listening and turn taking skills as they play and learn, well done everybody, keep up the great work 👍 📚

 

 

Literacy

What’s in the box?

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Within the STEM area we have been learning about our bodies and how they work. Today we focused on learning about our hands and our sense of touch. To help our understanding we played a game of What’s in the Box? The children had to close their eyes while I placed three objects in the box. Then they had to put their hands through the holes in the side of the box and feel the objects, describing them to their friends. Next they had to match the objects from the tray to what they felt and place them on top of the box. Lastly, turn the box around for the big reveal, does it match?

The children then decided they would like to play the game independently.

They were absolutely fantastic at taking turns and encouraging each other to describe the objects.  They even started increasing the amount of objects they had to feel.

Time for the big reveal- is it a match???

Yeesssss!!

There was great excitement when we made the match!

The boys and girls used great descriptive language and demonstrated brilliant co-operative working. Well done, everyone!

Article 29- We have the right to an education which develops our personality, talents and abilities.

Creative movement, Creativity, Expressive Arts, Imaginative thinking, life cycles, Mindful moments, nature, Outdoor Learning

Days in the Garden 🪴

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In the garden this week during sunshine and showers we have been very busy.

The girls and boys have expressed their artistic skills with some great art work on our giant easel. They picked colours of paint , mixed some colours and had lots of fun  creating giant pieces of art.  This type of play  will help the children develop large muscle use as well as co ordination and balance.

At the obstacle course the girls and boys were developing their balancing skills. It was lovely to see the children offering to help each other when they had a bit of a wobble  !  They were also encouraging each other “ put your arms out it will help”.

During the wet days we ask the children to put on their wellies and puddle suits “with a little help” to help them develop their independence. When all suited up we have great fun running and jumping into the puddles. Some of the children were keen to make bigger puddles and cleverly notice if they collected the rain water from the pipes they could add it to their puddles .

In the garden we have been looking at the Life Cycle of the sun flower. In spring the children had planted seeds and watched them grow learning that they required to be watered and also grew more in the sunshine. As the sunflowers have now finished flowering  we have picked them and started harvesting the seeds ready for re planting next spring. Pulling out the seeds gives the children an opportunity to develop their fine motor skills and hand eye co-ordination skills.

Finally this week we decided just to have fun with the soil . This gives us the opportunity to  explore using our senses “ it’s softer than sand”  I think it “feels cold” well it smells like “a farm”. It can make mud pie castles and I will squash mine down !. Being in the garden  helps reduce stress levels, improve mood and enhance self esteem whilst also being a good form of exercise.

We are looking forward to next week in the garden as we explore our outdoors.

Article – We have a  right to learn and explore outdoors.

Literacy

Finger Gym Fun!

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Currently in the writing area, our children have been exploring different ways to develop their fine motor skills.

Children need good fine motor control to hold and use a pencil or crayon correctly. Skills such as drawing pictures and eventually writing letters all rely on fine motor strength and coordination. Take a look at some of the fine motor activities we’ve been enjoying this week.

Tweezers and fidget boards

The children used tweezers to pick up colourful pom-poms and carefully place them into the tiny holes on our fidget boards. While it may look like a simple, this activity is a excellent way to build the fine motor strength needed for early writing skills. 

By using tweezers, children are strengthening the small muscles in their hands and fingers, helping them develop the pincer grip they will later use to hold a pencil correctly. The act of picking up each pom-pom and placing it in the right spot requires hand–eye coordination, concentration, and careful control of their movements.

Many children even took on extra challenges, such as sorting the pom-poms by colour or counting them as they worked. This added opportunities for early maths skills, like counting, sorting, and problem-solving, all within a fun, play-based activity. Most importantly, this task gave the children a sense of achievement as they completed their colourful patterns and designs, building confidence as well as skill.

Letters and pipe cleaners

The children threaded pipe cleaners through letters to develop fine motor skills and hand–eye coordination. We Introducing large plastic letters with holes in them and provided colourful pipe cleaners for threading. This activity not only strengthened the children’s fine motor control but also introduced important early literacy skills in a fun and hands on way. As they worked many children began to recognise letters, with some even threading the letters in their own names! With a little adult support, a few created longer words such as “mummy” and “octopus”. This gave them a real sense of pride and showed how early mark making and letter recognition naturally develop through play.

UNCRC ARTICLES 

Article 28 – A right to education

Article 31 – The right to play and relax

 

Outdoor Learning

Hi from the pond

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Welcome to our Pond!  Over the last couple of weeks we have been settling into our new surroundings, learning our new routines and getting to know one another.  So far, a firm favourite for us all has been snack and lunchtime!  We are practising our independence skills by choosing which fruit we would like and are enjoying serving our own snack.

Exploring our garden has been lots of fun and we have enjoyed climbing, crawling and jumping!

Using our senses, we have investigated filling and pouring in our water tray, planting seeds for our garden (we really enjoyed mixing the soil to make our own mud), and making different marks and shapes in the sand.

It has been lots of fun so far and we are excited to learn and explore new things over the next few weeks!

 

 

Baking, Snack

Sensational Snack Time

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The children are settling back into the nursery for a new term and have been enjoying taking part in the daily activities at snack time.

In Cart Mill our snacks and meals are guided by “Setting the Table” as produced by the Care Inspectorate and we have taken the children’s learning back to basics.


“I’m cutting apple”

Some of the children have been helping to chop and prepare the fruit and vegetables for snack.

The children have been developing their fine motor skills at snack time and spreading butter on crackers.

They also demonstrate their independence by choosing and serving their own snack and pouring their chosen drink of milk or water.

Once  the children are finished eating snack they clear their dishes away, ready to play once again.

The next activity involved preparing overnight oats for tomorrow’s snack.  The ingredients included oats, soya milk and yoghurt, ground cinnamon and frozen berries.  YUMMY!

UNCRC  Article 28 Every child has a right to education.

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Stacking and Enclosure play in the blocks

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In the block area, the children have been exploring which stage of block play they are at. Through observation it was noticed that the children were doing a lot of stacking and enclosure play in the block area.

Stacking allows children to develop their fine motor skills and core strength as they stack the blocks higher. Enclosure play in the block area is when the children use blocks to create closed off spaces, demonstrating a concept of inside and outside.

The children decided that they wanted to build houses with the blocks so we added in some wooden people characters which sparked discussions about who lived in our houses.

”That’s my mummy, me, my big brother and my baby brother”

The children used different shapes and sizes of blocks and props to create their own houses, and used the wooden figures to role play real life situations.

”I’m building the walls for the house”

”My baby one is going to bed, this is the mummy one”

The children will be working on expanding their learning in the block area over the next few weeks creating different enclosures and some children have suggested adding in some farm animals, I wonder what they will create next?

 

Article 28: I have the right to an education

 

Creativity, Expressive Arts, French, Froebel, Imaginative thinking, nature, Outdoor Learning

Great Garden Adventures – fun the sun ☀️

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Bonjour every one. It’s been a great start to our new term in our garden. The sun has been shining and we have been taking part in lots of outdoor activities.

We are so pleased to see our returning children back again and also to meet lots of new friends who have joined us at Cart Mill. We had lots of happy faces this week.

In our garden this week we have been adapting some of our areas. We have our mud kitchen where we have added a table, chairs, jugs, pots and pans. We have also added in a water jug for children to self select some water to enhance their role play experience.

We haven’t got a name for our mud kitchen yet. I wonder what we will call it…..

In our gross motor art area we have been exploring pouring, filling and colour mixing using large apparatus and loose parts. We enjoyed using the watering cans to pour the coloured water down the guttering and watch the colours mixing together at the end. We kept fixing the guttering when we had a “leak in the system” we had to work fast to fix it.

We changed our story area to give us a cosy comfortable area to share stories with friends. We love choosing our stories and the most comfortable cushion to sit on.

In our Planting area we have been exploring the seeds of the sunflowers that we had grown. By dissecting the sunflowers and removing the seeds, it allows us to replant them again and grow more sunflowers.

We have loved our stage where we have been dressing up and putting on shows for our audience. We have had lots of renditions of “let it go”.

We have enjoyed our small world areas where we have had mini beasts, farm and sea animals to play with. The children liked the sea animals the best. We made our very own “aquarium”.

We have been mark making at our writing area. We have been making treasure maps and hunting for the X that marks the spot. We have been using our imagination to become pirates searching for the lost treasure, following the clues on our maps.

In our Water area we have continued our pouring and filling and used both large and small piplets to transport water. We’ve enjoyed water play in our warm weather.

In our construction area we have been using the polydron to build wonderful creations such as dens and houses. We added loose parts and material to bring our creations to life. We worked together to problem solve and share our design process.

At our Muddy movers area we have been building and creating our own obstacles course. We have been discussing how to stay safe and risk asses our play.  We have enjoyed balancing, climbing and jumping. The children are enjoying adding different challenge to our obstacle courses.

It’s been so much fun I wonder what will will get up to next week.
Au revior everyone

Uncategorized

Super Summer Fun!

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We can’t quite believe our super summer term is about to come to an end! It’s been action packed with lots of fun and laughter!  Here’s a quick round up of the fabulous experiences we’ve had over the past few weeks.

As some of us were showing an interest in Wimbledon, we decided to host our very own Cart Mill tennis tournament!


Putting our problem solving skills to the test, we created our own tennis court where we practised our hand eye coordination by “hitting the ball over the net” and trying to hit it back! Playing tennis is such hard work and we enjoyed a well deserved snack afterwards. Of course we had to have strawberries just like they do at Wimbledon!
Physical activity is always a firm favourite here at Cart Mill, along with a game of football!  Having come up with the idea of creating our very own football team, our “sports activity co-ordinator” Cheryl rose to the challenge and stepped into the managers role! It was decided that our team would be called “The Red Ducks” and Cheryl soon put everyone through their paces during training sessions, with assistant manager Gail providing support as goalkeeper and ensuring we had half time refreshments.


Safety always comes at Cart Mill so we always take SIMOA on our trips to remind us how to keep ourselves safe.

Screenshot

Having completed regular training it was time to head to the “pitches” for a “match”.  Huge thanks to our SFA qualified referee Stuart who gave up his own time to ensure we played fairly and “followed the rules”. Thanks to our families who supported us by very kindly donating equipment and much needed new balls!

Arts and crafts are another favourite activity.  Gail’s sister Lynne very kindly visited and spent time teaching us how to create our very own fabulous dolls using wool!  We had a lovely time with Lynne and so appreciate her giving up precious time to visit us.

Being very curious and loving construction (and deconstruction!) Gail very kindly bought us some bikes and an old typewriter to explore! Demonstrating we can use real tools safely, it was lots of fun to investigate how to take the bikes apart and then work as a team to put them back together again!

Being outdoors is one of our favourite activities and we are so lucky to have our very own vegetable patch! Luckily our peas were ready to harvest so we decided to pick, wash them and then try some at snacktime! They were “so sweet and yummy!”

We hope you’ve enjoyed a wee look at just some of the fun we have had over the last few weeks.  As we prepare for our new term we would like to wish our children lots of luck as they move on to primary one or new nurseries. So many lovely friendships and memories have been made.   We will miss you all very much, please come back to visit us! We are so excited to meet lots of new friends over the coming weeks.

Creative movement, Creativity, Expressive Arts, Froebel, Imaginative thinking

Project Picasso 🧑‍🎨

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After the success of learning about the art styles of Jackson Pollock we looked at another artist who uses “ faces” as part of their art work. We discovered “Picasso”. He used different shapes and designs to create his art work.

We learned about Picasso, first by looking at how he used vibrant colours to design each part of the face. The faces were a bit funny everything was in different places! But we learned this was called “abstract art”.

Next we tried to see if we could make a “Picasso face” using faces we cut up from magazines. To se if we could create an abstract face.

It was fun selecting different parts of the face to piece together and seeing how it looked at the end. Very Picasso inspired.

To challenge the thinking of some of our older children we added pictures of other types of objects to see if they could make a Picasso face with things that aren’t facial features.  Some of our children thought using pictures of pens as hair was a great idea!

The next step on our Project Picasso learning journey was to see if we could draw our very own “Picasso face” using coloured pencils.

We used some Picasso prints as inspiration and let our creative minds design our own interpretation of Picassos work.

The last stop of our Project Picasso was painting (the best part) we used our colour mixing skills to create our very own abstract face in the style of Picasso using our creative design skills.

We have been such successful learners in our art area, leaning about the art styles of famous artists. We might have the future “Picasso” here at Cart Mill.

As Picasso used lots of vibrant colours we found another artist who used vibrant colours and grids to create his art…. “Piet Mondrian”. This is the next artist we will be leaving about in our art areas both inside and sharing our learning out into the large outdoor art area. I am very excited to see how it turns out.

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