Outdoor Learning

Pendulum Painting 🎨

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Today in the garden we have been having lots of fun creating very cool patterns using our gross motor skills and learning about the forces of motion and gravity with a painting technique called pendulum painting.

We started off by looking for resources with holes in them, once collected from around our nursery we started tying string onto the handles and hanging them from the rope. We filled them up with paint, pushing the pendulums watching the paint fall through the holes, each one creating a different pattern.

“This has lots of holes in it.”

”I’m choosing purple because it’s my favourite colour.”

We looked at the patterns made by the paint, we noticed that by swinging the pendulum harder or softer, in different directions and tying the string at different lengths it would create different patterns.

“My one is going super high”

“It’s like a swing.”

“I did a big push and it swings all by itself.”

The children enjoyed pushing the pendulums back and forth to one another and seeing how high they could push them. What a great excuse for some messy play!

Literacy

Fun with Jack and the Beanstalk!

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Recently in the block area the children have been enjoying reading the big books and building from the stories. Today they chose to read Jack and the Beanstalk.

We had great fun talking about the story and predicting what would happen.  The children particularly liked how the beanstalk kept getting bigger and bigger! They thought the giant was funny and enjoyed shouting ‘Fe Fi Fo Fum’ just like him.

We then looked at the story cards and the children very cleverly put them in the correct order of the story.

The children then got busy with the blocks building the giants castle. Some chose to build their own beanstalks! They put a lot of thought into their designs.

“I put these two together and got a circle door handle!”

”The giant is big so my castle is big!”

We then had lots of fun playing with the Jack and the Beanstalk toys in the castle.

“Look, Jack climbing the beanstalk!”

”The giant is hiding in the castle!”

The children had great fun retelling the story to each other whilst using their imaginations to add their own twists! This helps to promote brain development and imagination whilst developing language and emotions.

Some children wanted to read the story again to their friends whilst they acted it out.

Article 28 ~ I have the right to an Education

 

Expressive Arts, Special Event

Eid Mubarak 🎇

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Today the children have had lots of fun making different Eid decorations! We have enjoyed drawing our own decorations…

Making special playdough cakes…

 

And some children even enjoyed sewing decorations too!

We even learned a little about what Eid means from Mr Tumble himself…

Eid is the Islamic festival that marks the end of Ramadan and the period of fasting. ‘Eid Mubarak’ is used by Muslims all over the world as a greeting at this special time.

Thank you to the parents who have handed in gifts or shared their time to explain about this occasion. We really value the knowledge you share with us.

If you are celebrating Eid we hope you have a lovely weekend sharing gifts, eating tasty food and making memories with your family, friends and community.

Eid Mubarak from all of us here at Cart Mill Family Centre 🤩 ☀️

Outdoor Learning

Fun at Forest School!

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We were so excited at Cart Mill today as it was our first day back at Forest School! It was time for us to put on our special Forest School suits and wellies and head off on our adventure!
It was so important to listen to Val and Fiona and we knew to “stop, listen and look for cars” before we crossed the road.

As we walked along the path, we could see and hear the river! Val told us it goes all the way past our Forest School and that it’s called the River Cart, “same as Cart Mill!”.

There are lots of hazards we need to look out for when we are at the Forest. We learned that hazards might be “dangerous if we touch them”. We spotted nettles, barred wire, an old fire pit and some glass, so we made sure we were very careful!

It was so “so exciting” to arrive at our site.  There was a huge mountain, so we decided to challenge ourselves to see if we could “race up to the top”. It was “a wee bit tricky”, but we were soon expert “mountain climbers!” The river looked so far away from the top and it was “so fun” to “run really fast” and “roly poly” back down.

Being a mountain climber is such hard work, so it was time for us to “have a wee rest” and a snack!

There was just enough time to explore the river before we headed back to Cart Mill for lunch!

It was difficult to decide what our favourite part of Forest School was today..

”I liked climbing the mountain”, “I like throwing stones in the river”, we ran really fast down the hill, it was fun”, “I liked everything”.

Phew, what a busy, fun, exciting first day in the Forest, “when can we come back!”

“The best classroom and the richest cupboard is roofed only by the sky” . (McMillan, 1925).

Article 31 – Every child has the right to relax, play and take part in a wide range of activities.

Expressive Arts, Literacy

Life feels better with colour !

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In the studio we are continuing to study artists from around the world. We have chosen to look at the colourful art work of Scotlands Steven Brown. “ McCoo” being his most famous piece of art . The children used their knowledge gained to select material to begin our painting.

We had the most fun using our hands and feet to create some bright colours and lots of shapes.  The children also chose some rollers and bottle tops to enhance their work . It was slippy standing in the paint and we had to be very careful.

The girls and boys enjoyed the sensory feeling of the paint on their hands and feet. “My feet look like a rainbow”

The girls and boys waited till the paint was dry and then we were able to create more animals within our painting using a black pen . We now have a caterpillar 🐛, a tiger 🐅, rabbit 🐰, elephant 🐘,ladybird and whale 🐳.
We enjoyed working together to produce our own colourful painting and will be continuing on with this trying out different resources and media. As we do everyday we had to help tidy up . Well done .

Article 30: You have the right to play and relax by doing things like art.

Uncategorized

Potion Lab

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Today we searched through the science book together to choose which experiment we would like to explore. We decided on the Potion Lab.

“This one looks fun”

“ It’s the best”

“ I am excited will ours look like that”

We took turns to gather all the materials and set them on the table. Before we started we made some predictions what  do you think will happen if we mix vinegar and bicarbonate of soda. A few of the children made predictions.

“Bubbles
“Sparkles”

“ it fizzes”

“Magic potion”

First of all we added vinegar to make it half full. We then used our fine motor skills and chose between a droplet or a syringe to squeeze in some food colouring. We used our pincer grip to add some glitter and then added a large spoonful of bicarbonate of soda. We then mixed the potion and watched for the reaction of the ingredients mixing together. The children were curious and stayed focused throughout the experiment sharing their thought and ideas.

“ it’s working

“Wow it’s fizzing”

“It’s nearly at the top”

“Bubbles”

“Let’s do it again.

“ bath foam like my bath”

“It’s going to explode”

“Look at this potion”

“ The colours are mixing together and changing colour.

“ it’s so cool”

.The children were fascinated by the reactions and they continued to try out their own experiment  using a variety of small and big jars and adding different amounts of ingredients and watching their own eruptions. Lots of fun and laughter was had


We came to the conclusion the best and foamiest experiment was adding fairy liquid to it.
“ can we do this one everyday?”

Outdoor Learning

Exploring in the garden☘️🌱🌼

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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.

Uncategorized

Fun Day Friday!

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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”

 

 

Expressive Arts

Story Box!

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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.

Uncategorized

Melting snowballs

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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!

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