Exploring, investigating and being creative with the pumpkins!🎃

Today in the discovery room we put some pumpkins down with some tools and gave the children time and space to decide, explore what and how they wanted to do with the pumpkins.

We cut the top of the pumpkins to investigate inside and the children guestimated there were “50 million seeds in the large one”

We looked inside and discovered the seeds, we used some spoons but was much more fun  with our hands, enjoying the sensory experience of feeling different textures.


“let’s use our hands”

“I’m mixing it”

The children then decided to make some ‘potions’

We needed some green water, white water and then put some magic cornflower to mix it all together using the pumpkin as a bowl!

The children enjoyed mixing the potion adding the slime of the pumpkin and seeds.


Now the potions were made, our friends could enjoy them too!!!

Article 31 You have the right to play and rest

Our Mighty Mini Kickers

Watching the Cart Mill children taking part in todays Mini Kickers session it was easy to see that they were having so much fun!. The boundless energy our children have helps to develop essential skills, and one of the most exciting skills to nurture at this stage is ball control. Ball games can help develop coordination, confidence, team work and physical development. Take a look at some of the activities “the coach” set us today to help develop these skills.

Using our feet to dribble the ball practicing control. This helps children improve hand-eye and foot-eye coordination, which are essential life skills. We were dribbling the ball round the room using little kicks. Picking the ball up and placing it back down ready to kick.

Mastering the ball can boost a child’s self-esteem, helping them feel capable and proud of their accomplishments. Todays group did amazing taking part in all the activities. They responded well to praise and were proud of their achievements. Well done team!

Football is a team sport, taking part in the activities with their peers and working together to build relationships. We were in 2 different teams today. The blue team and the red team. We played a game of trying to score goals in the other teams net. “If you get the ball in the net you win”

As you can see it’s never too early to start nurturing ball control in young children. Mini kickers can develop this skill while having fun a blast with our peers. By making the learning process fun, playful, and supportive, we can help these little athletes embark on a journey filled with confidence, teamwork, and physical development. So, grab a football and let these mini kickers enjoy the magic of ball control.

Article 31 (leisure, play and culture) Every child has the right to relax, play and take part in a wide range of cultural and artistic activities.

 

Berry nice smoothies 🍓🫐

Today in the home room the children decided they wanted to make fruit smoothies.

We used the internet to search for a recipe to make delicious fruit smoothies. We then collected the ingredients we needed from the kitchen to begin making our very nice smoothies.

To begin the children took turns to  scoop a spoonful of frozen berries into the bowl. Next they safely used a knife to cut up a banana to add to the bowl.

“I put strawberries and blueberries in they were stuck together with ice”

Using the measuring jug the children measured out 240ml of milk, they worked as a team to measure one tsp of honey before adding all the ingredients into the blender. We also made a water based fruit smoothie as an alternative.

“it’s so noisy”

When the ingredients were all blended together the children poured the smoothie into an jug and shared with their friends for snack.

“It tastes yummy”

“ I can taste banana, I like banana for snack”

 


 

The three little pigs 🐷 ….

In the story corner this week our focus has been the story book The three little pigs 🐷

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We all listened to the story . We huffed and puffed with the wolf !!

Earlier  in the week we had collected loose parts and resources that we thought might help us recreate the straw house, stick house and brick house.  Today after reading the story  we used our problem solving and building skills and were able to make some great houses for our pigs.

After re creating our story some of the children remembered that we had a jigsaw of the  3 little pigs they wanted to try.  The boys and girls worked well together to complete the jigsaw and were very happy when they finished . Well done .

After so much building and problem solving we decided to use our story spoons to create stories and sing some songs and rhymes. The children took turns choosing and helped each other learn some new words and actions.
A very busy morning in the story corner ……

Article 12 – You have the right to give your option and for people to listen.

Clay creativity

Today in the clay area we set up an invitation to play using leaves, sticks, feathers and pine cones to encourage creativity, individualism and independence and the children did not disappoint.

As you can see the children have been very busy…

“I’ve made a pumpkin”

“I made a forest, no it’s a bird flying in the forest, no it’s the same as the picture a forest and the water”

“I done tree”  “ me too”  “I made a sun”

Playing with clay is a multi-sensory experience as children get the chance to refine their senses as they touch the clay, feel it’s weight and texture, smell and squish it.

When our unique works of art are dried we will decorate them before taking them home.

Creative builders in the block area 🧱👷🏽‍♀️👷🏾‍♂️

Over the last week in the block area the children have been using their imagination and problem solving skills to represent their ideas in imaginative ways. We have been making ice cream shops, which has been very popular with the children and the staff!

“I need the small ones for the ice cream”

“The big blocks can be for the walls”

The children have been enhancing their Problem solving skills, mathematic skills and communication skills by working alongside their friends to create their ice cream shops. The children were able to discuss bug and small blocks and give reasons for using different ones.

“my house has a pillow for the bed, I sleep up here”

”we’re saving our house from the big bad wolf!”

The children have also shown an interest in creating and designing their own houses both individually and working together with our friends. In block play, children are able to free flow their own ideas and building their constructions brings a feeling of success and allows children to build their self-esteem.

Article 15: I have the right to meet with friends

Article 31: I have the right to play

 

Muddy Masterpiece

Today in our mud kitchen we were busy using some new tools to aid us with our muddy masterpiece.
But first before we start, we used our independence skills to locate our welly boots from the shed and our puddle suit from the trolly. We put them on ourselves but Emma was on hand to help us if it got a bit tricky.

Now that we are suited and booted it was time for messy fun. We collected our mud and used some of our new tools. We used the rolling pin to roll out the mud to make mud pancakes.

We used the wooden masher, to mash up our mud and make it like mud pies.

We found a little worm who had sneaked into  in our mud, but we put him back home again. We didn’t think he would want to be in our mud pie.

We mixed it up and added in some leaves, water and grass and finally it was ready to be served.

We had such fun in the mud kitchen today, exploring our creative thinking, drama skills, and gross and fine motor skills.
After such a wet weekend it left lots of muddy puddles we couldn’t  pass by the opportunity to jump in them.

I wonder what we will create in our mud kitchen tomorrow?

Exploding Paint Rockets 🚀

Today we have continued celebrating space week in nursery. Space week runs from the 4th of October, the date that Sputnik was launched in 1957, until the 10th of October, the date of the signing of the Outer Space Treaty in 1967.

In the garden we have been creating the constellations using the gem blocks,

enjoying lots of space related stories,

and, the most exciting part, making exploding space rockets!

Using old photo spool canisters, we filled them with powder paint, water and a piece of alka seltzer tablet. (Only the adults touched the tablets!) Then we gave them a shake and waited, at a safe distance, to watch them explode.

We made up three cannisters at a time with different coloured paints and made predictions about which one we thought would explode first.

Each pop, bang and whizz brought great excitement. Just look at the faces!

UNCRC article 31- Each child has the right to play and take part in a wide range of artistic abilities.

Space week with Bookbug 👨‍🚀👨‍🚀👨‍🚀

Anyone want to come to Bookbug? The girls went round the whole nursery inviting everyone to join us….

As this week is space week this was our theme, we investigated our space mat with the children identifying ‘the moon’ We sang “Hallo” to Bookbug and had a little cuddle

We sang, danced and joined in with the song 5 little people in a flying saucer which went on for a little while as we had 15 people in our flying saucer…


We bounced twinkle twinkle little star on our Lycra and tried to bounce them into space, working together singing as we went.

We finished off  by enjoying our story ‘Goodnight Spaceman’ before singing goodbye to Bookbug.

We investigated numeracy, developed our literacy skills, worked together with our friends and enjoyed our visit from Bookbug!

If this is something you would enjoy with your child, Bookbug will be visiting us again tomorrow at 9.00 and 4.30 you would be very welcome to come along 😁

Article 28 You have the right to a good quality education.

Shapes in the clay!

Following on from Maths Week Scotland last week the children have continued to show an interest in shapes! Today in the clay area we were identifying 2D and 3D shapes.

“That’s a square and that’s a triangle!”

The children were using the 3D shapes as stampers in the clay. They were developing their shape knowledge and understood that one side of a 3D shape made a 2D shape in the clay when they stamped it!

“I’ve made a square, tap, tap on the top!”

Some children chose to wrap their shapes in the clay which turned the clay into 3D shapes! They enjoyed getting their friends to unwrap the shapes to find out what was hiding in the clay!

Having already rolled out the clay, using the rolling pin handle as a stamper, some children noticed it made circles in the clay! Great shape detectives!

“Look, lots of little circles!”

Some of our younger children just really enjoyed building with the clay and the 3D shapes whilst developing their fine motor skills.

“It’s a castle for a Princess!”

The children really enjoyed learning about different shapes whilst having great fun with the clay!

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