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A Line Can Be……

January 19, 2023 Miss Brown Leave a comment

We thought we would share with you today what we have been exploring in our literacy corner, lines! We began our journey of exploration looking at a story called A Line Can Be…..

We loved using our fingers to follow the lines in the book, developing our descriptive language to describe the different kinds of lines we could see.

“My finger is going for a walk in the book!.”

We began to explore lines further. We started by using pens and acetate paper to explore what kind of lines we could make. Some of our younger children used their knowledge of shapes whilst mark making.

Some of our older children explored drawing fast and slow, sharing with each other what happened as their pen made lines across the paper.

Look, when we go faster and faster, the line gets messy, messy messy.”

Others enjoyed exploring the different types of lines they could make.

“I am going to try making boxes like in the book.”

We even discovered that we could turn our lines into different shapes to create pictures!

“Look! My lines have made a picture! I have done my family.”

We had so much fun making lines with pens, we decided to explore a different way of making lines, playdough! This time the children were using their knowledge of the different types of lines, using descriptive words to share what they had made with each other. Some children used line templates to imprint into the playdough and some rolled the playdough into different familiar lines.

” I am making a spiral with my playdough line.”

“Look I have rolled it into a big circle!.”

I wonder what lines we can explore next…..

Uncategorized

Scone tastic🥯

January 18, 2023 Mrs MacRae Leave a comment

The children are learning to make Scones independently.

First the children wash their hands and help to collect the ingredients and resources we need to make the scones. Today the children have chosen to make plain scones.

The children have been having a guess at how much ingredients we need.

”we need 1 scoop of flour”

We looked at our recipe “oh our recipe says we need 2 cups so we need more”

“I can measure the milk” ok can you pour the milk to the number 6?

The children have had so much fun making the scones and can’t wait to take them home to try them. 😋

Expressive Arts

Even junk can look beautiful with a little creativity 😁

January 17, 2023 Miss Mitchell Leave a comment

In the junk modelling area today, we were making bottle sculptures. First, we got some inspiration from a video to help spark our imagination. We then chose our bottle and thought about what our inspiration was.

“I think mine should look like a rocket with red fire” “I want mine to be sparkly like a fairy” “I’m making mine blue like the sky”

We then used a paper plate for the base and then secured the plate to the bottle with masking tape. “
The children then gathered the resources they needed to make their amazing creations. They explored the resources and problem solved which type of adhesives would work best. “I’m using this tape as it’s the best to stick the bottle onto the plate” “I will tie my sparkly blue ribbon around the bottle“. “I’m using the plasticine to stick the tissue paper on”.

The children used lots of descriptive language to describe what they were doing “I’m scrunching the tissue paper up small to fit on the top of my bottle“. “ I’m using the hole puncher the heart one to make my plate pretty”
When the children were finished making their creations, they wanted to display them in the studio. Good job everyone what beautiful sculptures you have made.

Literacy

Welcome to our story corner 🧸 📚

January 16, 2023 User deactivated Leave a comment

We have been very busy in the home room today, setting up a cosy book corner. The children started off by choosing their favourite stories from our library cupboard, selecting a variety of books that sparked their imagination.

“The scary shark looks like this.”

”I have this one at home, it’s my favourite.”

We then got started on choosing puppets for our story corner.

”Let’s have incy wincy”

”I like this one, it has little red riding hood and the wolf”

We sang some of the children’s favourite nursery rhymes and then choose our rhyme of the week, which was wind the bobbin up 🧵.

”Wind the bobbin up is my favourite”

”I like when we sing it really fast”

We then had lots of fun reading stories, singing and playing with the puppets in our new area. Well done to the children for helping set it up, great job!

Expressive Arts

Perfecting our Playdough

January 13, 2023 Miss Campbell Leave a comment

We have been very busy creating our visual recipe for our playdough station this week. We have nearly finished it, it’s a work in progress.

Our visual recipe board is to encourage our children to make their playdough independently.
Our playdough area has all the utensils and ingredients accessible to prompt the confidence and independence skills of all the children.

Today, some of the children tried out the recipe board for themselves.
The children looked at the board and collected what they needed. They looked at the numbers which told them the quantity needed and the picture to tell us the ingredients or colour of the measuring spoon.

The children took a bowl each and set to work to add each of the ingredients.

We added oil, warm water, gluten free flour, salt and xantham gum.

The children then chose which colour to make our playdough.

Today everyone wanted to make it red so that colour was added and mixed all together to form the red playdough.

Next the children put their hands in to knead the dough. It was a bit sticky at first so they added more flour.

Then it was ready to play with. We got the playdough tray out and got to work creating our playdough masterpiece.
We had lots of fun making aliens, people, presents and birthday cakes. We also were using the playdough tools to cut, roll and manipulate the playdough.

It’s a very popular area of our nursery, we all like to make our own and learn lots of skills and develop our hand muscles as we play with the playdough.

We are all very proud of the children developing their independent playdough making skills. The children were very pleased with themselves, doing it all independently and having full ownership of the area.

Literacy

Exploring our Senses

January 12, 2023 Mr Edwards 1 Comment

This week in the discovery room we have taken on the role of scientists and started exploring our senses. Following on from our experiments on how sound travels and using our sense of hearing. Today we explored our sense of smell!

First we had discussions about the 5 senses, focusing on our sense of smell. The children talked about what we use to smell and even what we could smell around us. Bellow are some comments.

“We use my nose to smell”

“My nose is very good at smelling”

“I smell soap on my hands”

“I’m smell my perfume, it’s my mummy’s favourite”

Next we set up our learning activity. Providing 8 tubs containing orange, banana, cucumber, coffee, garlic, mint, cinnamon and ginger. These were accompanied by matching picture cards with the written text.

Next I invited the children to start exploring the tubs using their sense of smell and asking if they could identify any of them. Some of the smells were familiar and some were new scents. We made our productions on what we thought may be in the tubs and match them to the picture cards. Once they were all matched we looked inside to see if we were correct. Below are some of the comment during the activity.

“I smelled orange and banana”

“I have never smelled ginger before”

“I smelled cucumber”

“The garlic is very smelly”

“I smelled coffee, mummy smells of coffee sometimes”

As some of the scents were new to us we had matched some of them to the wrong cards. Now we had seen them all and we were more familiar with the items in the tubs we tried the activity again. Everyone worked together as a team to smell and share what they thought it may be. Having discussing and debates about what they thought could be in each tub. Working together this time they matched all the correct tubs to the picture cards.

Well done little scientists!

I wonder what we will explore next?

Expressive Arts, Outdoor Learning

Let it Rain ☔️

January 11, 2023 Miss Brown Leave a comment

Today in the garden we spotted a rainbow in the sky. It sparked a conversation about the weather as it began to fade behind the big grey clouds.

“It looks like it is going to rain, the rainbow is hiding behind the clouds”

”it rained lots and lots ands lots last night, there was big puddles in my garden I splashed in them”

“It rained so much I catched it in my hands, it was loads”

“How much rain was there?”

”I don’t know,just lots”

We decided to make a rain gauge to see if we could measure the rainfall throughout the week.

We wrote down all the resources we need and made a plan then got to work.

Cutting off the top of the bottle to use as a funnel we placed it inside the bottle and taped off the jaggy bits to make it safe.
We then added the tip of an old felt tip pen to the bottles to make it easier to see how much rain has fallen. We used red, purple and blue.

We split the bottle in to 4 sections numbering it 1-4 so when it fills up with rain we can measure it. We then stapled the bottles to the fence and are now waiting patiently for it to rain to see how much water we collect. Typically it stopped raining as soon as we were finished making the gauge.

We will be keeping an eye over the next few days and recording our findings.

Expressive Arts, Literacy

Loose parts fun 🤩

January 9, 2023 Ms Partridge Leave a comment

Today the children have enjoyed being creative in the loose parts area. We explored different patterns including numbers…

Shapes…

and some letters too…

“I want to do a S. That’s in my name”

“The pipe cleaners will work, because they’re straight lines.”

Some children even loved making something completely different all together, like the Scotland flag!

“the peg is for the wee stick on the flag. How can I do the triangles for the inside? I know, why don’t I squish the pipe cleaners?”

The children loved being creative with their patterns, and showed really great problem solving skills when choosing their materials. They were able to recognise patterns that included straight lines as well as more curved lines, and choose their loose parts to explore this. Great work everyone!
What can you make out of loose parts at home? We would love to see your ideas.

Literacy