Creative Crafting

July 20, 2023 Miss Campbell Leave a comment

We have been very busy in our Studio Room this week. We have been extending our crafting skills in the Junk Modelling area.
Our children have been keen to add different materials to their models. We introduced paper craft straws, pipe cleaners, feathers, shredded paper, and paper shapes and more thought provoking materials.

As well as extending our creative crafting skills we have been practicing our scissor skills.

Our children have been so creative making lots of wonderful models.

We concentrate on getting all the bits to stick together. We can choose from sticky tape or glue. We are very independent in our junk modelling area.

We have been learning lots of new skills such as twisting, problem solving and helping each other our during our time in this area.

As well as making models in this area some of our children designed a game using the loose parts we have for crafting. They used the cups and the lids to make a “knock them down” game.

As we have been so busy making things all week our junk modelling area is running a bit low, we would welcome any donations.
here is some of the things we made that we are so proud of…..

Uncategorized

Pattern playdough with Textures

July 18, 2023 Miss Simms Leave a comment

Today at the malleable table we had a discussion what we would like to have out. We decided we would like to make playdough and explore a variety of patterns and textures.

The children then independently followed our new recipe book that they created last week. The children confidently added each ingredient showing confidence in their measuring and counting skills. They then used their gross motor skills to mix all he ingredients and then kneaded their playdough until the texture was soft and smooth.

The children then collected a few resources that they thought would make good patters and textures. We then explored patterns and textures . They spoke to each other discussing their findings and describing heir textures and patterns.

rolling pin -“this one is bumpy”

shells- “my playdough looks like a shell”

”my shell is jaggy”

My pine cone is in the playdough and it’s making it all bumpy & bit jaggy”

”my hand”

Digital Technology, Outdoor Learning

Wasps came into our garden !

July 14, 2023 Miss Keith Leave a comment

The children have noticed that there has been wasps around our lovely sun flowers that they have grown in the nursery garden. We thought that it would be good to learn a bit about them. Where do they live ?

We we’re lucky enough to have a real wasps nest to look at. There are lots of little holes were the babies wasps lives until they are big enough to be worker wasps. These wasps only live between 12 -22 days but the queen wasp can live up to one year.

The wasps nest is made from the wasps chewing bark in their mouths mixing this with their saliva and when it becomes dry it forms a paper type material. We learnt that wasps like sugary sweet foods and this is why they can fly around our food !

We watched a short film on how wasps make their nests. Wasps nest are usually found in sheltered warm places. “ I have a wasps nest in my garden on the tree . We should never touch the nests or the wasps .

If a wasp 🐝 comes near you we must stay still as a wasp will sting you if they think they are in danger. Only female wasps will sting you. If a wasp should land on you you can flick it off gently with a piece of paper. We all had a practise but fortunately there were no wasps actually on us.

We have enjoyed finding out all our wasp information. We might even build our own wasp nest using paper mache.

Article 33 -I can be protected from danger.

Expressive Arts, Technologies

Upcycling project

July 13, 2023 Miss Brown Leave a comment

This week the children have been working very hard to start their up cycling project at the tinker table.

They began by looking for something around the playroom that they could ‘Up cycle’. They found an old storage drawer that had missing handles on the boxes. They collected loose materials such as buttons, pipe cleaners, beads, bottle lids, small wood chips and twigs to use as new handles for the boxes.

They used skills they had previously learned at the tinker table to join the new handles to the box.

“I can use the hammer and nails to put this wood on”

Once all the new handles were on the children noticed one of the drawers were missing. Using their problem solving skills one of the older children suggested making a sign to let everyone know that the new up cycled storage drawers belong to the tinker table.

The next job on the list is to up cycle our broken wormery, we are looking for longer pieces of wood if anyone has any lying about that they no longer need.

Outdoor Learning, Snack

Growing our apple and orange seeds today 🤔

July 12, 2023 Mrs Johnston Leave a comment

Today we decided to reuse our seeds from snack to see if we could grow our own fruit……how do we do this?
First of all we had to wet some paper towel then…

We put the seeds on the towel with plenty of wriggle room…..

We added a little cinnamon to help prevent our seeds rotting

Then we added another wet piece of paper towel put them in a zip locked bag and put them in the fridge

We’ll need to keep the seeds damp and wait to see what will happen……🤔

We also tried to grow some orange pips…

We soaked the orange pips for 30mins

We placed them between 2 pieces of cotton wool with a little cinnamon, put them in an air tight bag but this time……

We found a nice warm space in the kitchen above the oven, again we’ll need to make sure the pips are damp and let’s check on them in a couple of days to see if anything has happened……?🤔

Article 28 You have the right to education

Expressive Arts

Let’s get painting 🎨

July 11, 2023 Mrs MacRae Leave a comment

In the studio today we have enjoyed exploring the paint using different utensils.

We have enjoyed stamping the potato mashers, forks and fish slice’s in the paint and splatting them onto the paper to create different shapes and pattern. As we continued painting we discovered different ways to use the utensil to get different effects with the paint.

The children are gaining confidence in exploring and experimenting with different resources using the tools to develop increased control of fine hand movements.

The children take ownership of their painting by writing their name on their pictures.

Here is some of the art we created

Article 13 – You have the right to find out things and say what you think, through making art, speaking and writing unless it breaks the rights of others

Uncategorized

Muffin Mania 🧁😋😁

July 10, 2023 Miss Mitchell Leave a comment

Today the children decided that the rhubarb looked in the garden looked ready to eat. “Look it’s grown so big , “We could make yummy muffins with it” “first we need to pull it out of the ground” “ It’s so hard to pull out “ “let’s wash the dirt off before we cook it”

”chop,chop”

We cooked the rhubarb in the microwave till it was soft. “ It smells lovely”

“ We need to put in two scoops of flour and measure out 100 milligrams of soya milk”” Don’t forget the sugar, just one scoop” “To much sugar isn’t good for your teeth”” If your mixture is to wet you need to add more flour”

“We need to cook our muffins in the oven, set the timer for 11 minutes . “ Let’s write our names on labels so we know what muffins are ours” “ I’m excited to eat mine, I wonder if I will be able to taste the rhubarb, “I haven’t had rhubarb before”

Well done children, Maybe we could make something tasty with our strawberry’s next time.

Literacy, Outdoor Learning

We’re Going on a Book Hunt

July 7, 2023 Mrs Miles Leave a comment

Today we took a trip to the library to return some books and also to choose new ones. We are focusing on rhyming in the story corner this month so we chose a book full of nursery rhymes and also a story which rhymes. While at the library, Peter read us a story about a cat and we had to help choose the cat’s name by giving a thumbs up or a thumbs down. He ended up being called Tricky because he was tricky to name!

We also learned how to use the special machine to check in and check out books.

On the way back to nursery we decided to go through the forest to collect sticks for throwing over the bridge. We spotted a huge hole in the ground and thought maybe a bear would live in there! 🐻

We have decided to find books about bears on our next visit to the library.

Check out the website for your local library as they are running lots of family and special events during the school holidays.

Expressive Arts, Literacy, music, Special Event

Singing along with Grandpa.

July 6, 2023 Miss Campbell Leave a comment

Today at Cart Mill we had a very special visitor. We had Grandpa Tommy who came along with his guitar to sing songs with our children.

We sang lots of songs such as Twinkle, twinkle, 5 little ducks, 1,2,3,4,5, Baby shark and lots more. He even took requests we had Yellow submarine and How much is that doggy in the window.

We all joined in and sang along. We even remembered all the actions to our songs.
At the end of our singing session we each choose and instrument to play and chose twinkle twinkle again as our last song.

Singing is a great way for our children to engage with music and learn lots new skills and vocabulary.
A huge thank you to Grandpa Tommy for coming in as part of our intergenerational project.
We have another mummy who is coming in to play piano and sing with us. We are very excited about this.

My name is Emma and as part of my Froebel in Childhood Practice course I’ve been set a challenge to promote a Froebelian approach within Cart Mill.
My project is “a Froebel Approach to intergenerational links within the community.” As part of my project we will be reconnecting the link with Bonnyton house in the next few weeks to share stories etc with the older generation and continue our links with Williamwood High School after the summer.

We would love to invite any parents/carers/grandparents to come in to take part in any sessions or show case any talents within our nursery children. Are you good at baking? gardening? arts? Or can you spare half an hour to read a story with us? Thank you in advance and look forward to welcoming you in.

Expressive Arts

Creative painting 🎨🖌

July 5, 2023 Mrs MacRae Leave a comment

This week in the studio we have been exploring different paint techniques. We have been using the wire racks to create our pictures. As we explored painting thought the wire racks we noticed the strips and squares in our paintings and some of the children begin to explore some simple pattern in their painting

“I’m using yellow”

“I’m doing long strips”

”There is lots of squares”

“A face”

“My pattern is red blue red blue”

While painting their master pieces the children have been developing their fine motor skill, specially awareness, mathematical language and exploring the different process and outcome as they explore the paint.