Exploring in the garden☘️🌱🌼

Today we had lots of little helpers in the garden. The children have been helping to pull up some of the weeds in our planting area. There were some jaggy nettles growing in our garden. We quickly identify these and let the grown-ups get those ones, so they didn’t hurt our fingers.

“I’ve been stung by a nettle before it hurt.”

Using the gardening tools, we used our gross motor skills for digging, carrying and lifting the weeds.  We had to dig deep into the soil to get the roots of the weeds or the weeds would just start to grow back.

We discussed how the roots soak up all the water from the soil and that helps the plants to grow.

“A bit like you having a big drink of water.”

“Look at the size of this root, it’s been growing a long time”.

As we were digging, we came across some insects that live in the soil and mud, so we made sure that we were extra careful.

“Look! lots of spiders.”

“I’ve found a worm.”

We made up some rules to look after our worms.

  • We do not hurt the worms.
  • We pick them up very carefully.
  • We put them back into a safe place in the garden.

We love to spend time in the garden exploring and learning about our environment.

Article 29

You have the right to education which tries to develop your personality and abilities as much as possible and encourage you to respect other people’s rights and values and to respect the environment.

Fun Day Friday!

As it was such a lovely sunny morning this morning we decided to take a walk over to the Spider Park… the children were so excited!!

There was lots of smiles as we played with our friends and had lots of fun on the equipment in the park. The children explored different ways to move their bodies whilst developing their gross motor skills and most importantly…having so much fun!

 

The children showed great confidence climbing up the ladders and getting to the top of the slide showing good use of their problem solving skills and risk assessment skills.

C, N & L all demonstrated how well they could balance by walking across the wooden beam in the park. A even showed us a different way of moving our body across the beam by crawling across it on his knees… well done!!

N – ”my favourite was the big swing that we could all fit on”

L – ”it went so high up”

R – ”I liked going round and round on the roundabout, it made me dizzy”

 

 

Story Box!

The children have been very creative in the junk modelling area over the past couple of weeks designing and making their own story characters.

They made a story box using recycled materials such as cardboard, bottle tops, bottles and cartons and decorated it adding some coloured tissue paper and more crafts.

Using their imaginations the children came up with some great ideas for characters, they created bunny rabbits, a hare, batman, a robot, a boat, a car, a monster, an octopus and so much more and added it all to the story box.

Next they selected some characters from the box and began to tell their story, writing it down as they went along.

“The mermaid kitty and the octopus went in the taxi to the shop.  They bought cheese and ice cream. Then they met hare and batman and then they went home. The End.”

Something as simple as a cereal box can spark so much conversation and lead on to so many amazing ideas where the children develop their problem solving skills , communication skills, and are able to express their thoughts and ideas.

We are so grateful to you all for bringing in your recycling it has so many benefits for your children.

Melting snowballs

Within the science area we have been discussing the properties of materials, particularly learning about the difference between solids and liquids.

While playing with ice the other day we started discussing the properties of snow, hailstones and rain. We decided to make our own snowballs and experiment with various ways of melting them.  We created our snowballs by making gloop and then freezing it inside plastic baubles.

When we took them out of the freezer, they were so cold and frozen we couldn’t even open them and had to put them in the bowl of hot water to start the melting process.

Once we got the snowballs on to the trays the children experimented with dripping hot water on top of them. One of the children realised that if he made a hole and put water inside the hole it speeded up the process. His friend decided to make the holes and he could squeeze the water in. Great team work! The other children realised they could use the tools to help chip away at the snowballs.

Throughout this experience we discussed how the freezing and melting process changes water from a solid to a liquid and back again. After they were all melted we had a great time playing with the gloop and getting messy!

Independence at snack 🍊 🍌 🥒

This week the children have been developing their independence skills in the home room, which they demonstrate well while preparing snack for their peers. The children show a good understanding of how we can be safe as we prepare snack in many ways. For example, what should we do before we even begin preparing snack, and why is it important?

“we have to wash our hands 🙌

“We have to wash them so we don’t get sticky germs on the fruit”

The children suggested we make some wall displays to show their friends where to wash their hands, since we have some new children who are still learning the snack routine.

“Nice and bright so everybody can see it! Now all the little boys and girls will wash their hands here”

Whilst preparing the snack, we talked about how important safety is when handling the snack tools.

“You go backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards nice and carefully. You don’t want to cut yourself”

“You only do it when an adult helps you”

“Sometimes I need help with the cucumber because it’s a little bit too tricky”

Next we talked about how we can continue to practice good hygiene when serving the snack…

“The tweezers stops the germs 🦠

“Squeeze!”

Once the children have finished their snack, it’s time to finish up by clearing away all our dishes 🥣🥛

They even suggested designing a separate sign for the dishes, to visualise where everything goes.

The children in the nursery are great at independently following the snack routine, and have been super helpful towards their new peers who are still learning and working as a team to support them.

Well done everybody! Great work 👏

 

🌻Sunflowers🌻

Now the sun has appeared, it time to get planting our sunflower seeds

“what do we need to grow a sunflowers?”

</a

“soil is like food”

“water helps it grow”

“seeds”

“sunshine”

First we filled our pots with compost

“This is flower food”

“how long will it take to grow?

The children poked a small hole for the sunflower seed. Once the seed was in we covered it with a little soil.

“mine is going to be so tall. Can I take it home”

Now our seeds need a drink of water to help them grow.

“can I help water them”

Different ways to move our bodies 🤸🏻 🏃‍♂️

Today in the garden we had lots of fun moving our bodies in different ways and developing our gross motor skills! Gross motor skills are the skills which children develop using their whole body movements.

By increasing movements of their whole bodies, children become more flexible, confident and agile.

The children discovered a different way to cross the beam and move in and out the tyres… on their knees!!

R ” I can jump in and out the tyres”

M, R and P all practiced their balancing skills and demonstrated confidence when crossing the balancing beam on the obstacle course.. well done!!

Balancing helps children to understand concepts such as gravity and helps children to develop better concentration skills.

 

M demonstrated good use of her gross motor skills by balancing on the side of the tyres whilst crossing them. ”If I hold out my arms it helps me to balance”.

G showed confidence, strength and determination to climb up the climbing wall in the garden. She was able to use her hands to help her balance at the top whilst climbing onto the bars at the top with her knees. Well done G! Climbing plays a key role in early childhood gross motor skill development.

 

What ways can you develop your gross motor skills at home or out in the community? Share your pictures with us!

Article 6 : I have the right to live and grow. Article 31: I have a right to relax and play 

 

Sensory fun

Over the past few weeks the boys and girls have enjoyed using every day food items to explore their senses to explore and investigate new and different textures and smells which helps to:

encourage the development of motor skills

supports language development

encourages ‘scientific thinking’ and problem solving

We had fun making rain shakers with rice, cutting and twirling “sticky” pasta


“it sounds like rain”

Weighing and balancing the scales using beans and rice.

“The beans feel squishy”

Mark making with porridge and shaving foam

”I can write my name”

Mashing and measuring with tomatoes and potatoes

What everyday ingredients could you use from home to explore?

Bookbug comes for a noisy visit!!!🤣

Today Bookbug came to visit us in our garden

We got some blankets and cushions out then let the noise commence…..

We decided to choose some instruments to play from our musical wall these included a grill pan, a wok, a pot, a teapot and a frying pan and obviously we used metal spoons for maximum noise (our neighbours loved us this morning)

We read a story Guess how much I love you in the Spring and Big Nutbrown Hare was posed a question that he had to think and think and think about and we decided to have a little think too 🤔

We enjoyed singing and playing along to Old Macdonald had a Band and I am the Music Man, Gail was the conductor that guided us to play loud and softly, quickly and slowly, when to begin and when finish.

Sometimes it was so loud which the children loved!

Why not grab something different and interesting to play when your singing it’s great fun!🥰

Article 31  You have the right to play and relax by doing things like sports, music and drama

Nail Designs and Patterns

As the children enjoy hammering in nails we had a think about what we could do with the nails when they were in the wood.  The children  thought about shapes and patterns they could make with the nails and then use wool to weave round them . Firstly they made their pattern or character on the wood providing them a opportunity to develop their mark making skills.

When the pattern was ready we then got the hammer and nails out. We have learnt that if we use the pliers to hold the nail it helps protect our fingers. We then placed the nails round the edge of our design and carefully hammered them in.

When the nails were in place we started to wind our wool round the nails . This part was quite tricky and definitely helped develop our hand-eye co-ordination skills, increasing our manipulative skills and dexterity. All the children made a great effort with this part of the task.

The children began to notice shapes within their designs “ look there is a triangle in my cherry pie”. “ I have a circle in my unicorn”.

Other children made the choice to use different colours of wool to wind round their designs. Look mine is a Easter bunny. This looks very pretty. The children worked very hard on their designs. Well done this was fun !

Report a Glow concern
Cookie policy  Privacy policy

Glow Blogs uses cookies to enhance your experience on our service. By using this service or closing this message you consent to our use of those cookies. Please read our Cookie Policy.