Dancing Raisins

This morning our little scientists have been carrying out more experiments and making predictions about the outcomes. We are learning about forces and describing their effects.

We started by filling three glasses- one with still water, one with fizzy water and one with super fizzy limeade. We then made predictions about about what would happen if we put a raisin in each of the glasses.


We then dropped the raisins in the glasses to test our predictions and were amazed by the results.

Through a previous bubble experiment, we have learned that bubbles have air called carbon dioxide in them. It is these bubbles that are attaching on to the raisins and making them float but when the bubbles pop the raisins fall back to the bottom as they are denser and heavier than water. This makes the raisins look like they are dancing. We then continued to add more raisins and discovered that the smaller ones were lifted up by the bubbles more easily.

”The bigger ones are heavier and they just make the bubbles pop.”

If you have some sparkling water and raisins in the house, please try this at home and share your findings with us @cartmillcentre

 

Christmas dinner in our home corner

Today in the home room we used the kitchen to cook up a delicious Christmas dinner.  First we had a chat about what we might eat at Christmas dinner and what we need to cook it. . Below are some of the suggestions.

“Potatoes, broccoli and cat food for my cat. We also have paper crowns.”

“Cake for pudding”

“Chocolate”

“We have carrots and chicken”

“We need pans to cook the food”

“Chop it with knife”

“Dish to put the carrots in”

“Plate and spoon”

The children chopped up potatoes and carrots developing their fine and gross motor skills. We also talked about how to chop safely keeping ourselves and others safe when using knives. Developing our understanding of managing risk.

Then we started cooking everything and getting it ready to serve.

Once the Christmas dinner was ready we set the table for our Christmas dinner. With a table cloth, plates, cups, cutlery and we even made some paper crowns.

Then everyone enjoyed sitting at the table to eat our delicious dinner and chat with our peers. This helps to develop our social skills while exploring imaginative play skills.  We discussed our families and Christmas traditions that we do I’m our homes .


“Christmas dinner time”

“My gran comes for Christmas dinner”

“Christmas crackers on the table”

“You tell a funny joke”

We even had a visitor come to our Christmas  dinner.  It was “babies first Christmas”

Well done everyone for creating a fabulous Christmas dinner.  Derek really enjoyed his dinner in the home corner today 😀

Let it snow ❄️

Today in The Studio we had a discussion about the change in weather over the weekend as we noticed our garden was very icy.

“ it’s very icy and slippy, you need to be careful not to fall”

“it was snowing in my garden yesterday”

”there wasn’t enough snow to make a snowman, it was just little snow flakes”

After speaking about the snow the children decided they wanted to make their own snow flakes, so they collected the materials they needed and got started.


While we waited on our snowflakes drying we got wrapped up in our jackets, hats and scarves to go outside and explore the ice in the garden. We spoke about how slippy the ice was and how to stay safe.

”don’t run because you will fall and bump yourself”

”don’t throw the ice, it is jaggy”

We only stayed out for a short time because it was so cold 🥶 the children had a great time exploring the ice. “It sounds crunchy” “it’s freeze” They described the sounds the ice made when they walked on it and how it felt to touch.

Do you want to build a snowman ⛄️

This week in the studio, the children have been engaging in lots of imaginative and creative play, making lots of different suggestions for the clay table. The children were really excited to make fun festive decorations…

“I want to make a snowman”

”gingerbread man”

”I like candy canes. I have them on my tree!”

 

We had lots of interesting ideas when making our clay decorations…

”if you roll it into circles, that makes a snowman”

”mines is a melted snowman”

“I need to make wee buttons. And eyes”

”he’s a jolly snowman!”

“I’m going to give him buttons”

”I have enough left over to make a snowman too!”

The children engaged their fine motor skills really well, shaping and moulding the clay and doing lots of rolling, cutting and mark making.

“snowman’s eyes”

“it’s Gingerbread Fred!”

It has been lots of fun exploring imaginative play in the clay area and we can’t wait to see what other fun ideas the children come up with 💡

We have Snow !

With the frosty mornings the children have been discussing how cold it has been when they arrive at nursery . Maybe it will snow today and there was a few flakes of snow today in the garden.  So let’s make our own snow !

We had some magic powder which we poured into a bowl and then gradually added cold water and stirred well and “Wow” look what’s happening the powder got bigger and bigger and turned into snow.

Our snow feels like fluff and smells like coconut and is very squishy . It feels a bit warm but real snow is cold !

I can make handprints in the snow it’s like real snow  !

The children had great fun discussing what they could make with their snow.  “ Mine is a snowball it’s like a circle” , we had some snow volcanos, snow cakes and some snow porridge.  The children took turns using the different sized scoops to help them create their snow structures.

When it was tidy up time we decided to put our tray of snow outside in the garden to discover what happens to it overnight . “ l think it will be snowy ice crystals” or  maybe turn into a snowman”. . Can’t wait for tomorrow!!

Ice ice baby! ❄️

We noticed on the weather forecast that it was to be extremely cold today.. so we decided to try a science experiment!

Last night, we covered our sea animals with water and left them overnight to see what would happen…

it turned to ICE!!!

The children discussed how the water felt to touch…

” it is so cold I need to wear my gloves”

”if we scrape it, it makes little marks on the ice”

Through exploring cause and effect, the children wondered how we could break the ice?
“we could hit it and it will break maybe”, “we could maybe scrape the ice like daddy does on the car” , “what about a hammer”.

so first we tried with little wooden hammers to break the ice, the children discovered that it chipped the ice a little bit but not enough to break the ice.

So then we borrowed one of the hammers from our tinker table…

“Look Sarah Jane it’s working now!”

”We can free the animals from the ice”!

 

My Christmas Tree 🎄

Today the children were talking about the Christmas trees throughout the nursery. We talked about the different sizes of trees and decorations.

“I have one in my house

“Granny has one”

“Mine is so big”

“ we have lights that change colours”

“I helped to put the baubles on”

During our discussion we decided we would like to make our own Christmas trees, so we  looked a few ideas up on  the Promethean   board.

We talked about what we could  use  to decorate our trees and went on the hunt to find a variety of materials e.g. buttons, sequence, wool, thread and pipe cleaners.

The children began by painting their trees using their fine motor skills and talking about decorations they were going to put on theirs.

”it will be so colourful”

”I put a star on mine”

” mine will look pretty in my bedroom”

They then waited patiently for their trees to dry and finally it was time  to decorate their trees. The were all picked the different materials.

Here is a selection of the children’s fabulous works of art!

Winter Crafts

It was lovely to have our families visit the centre to take part in our family winter craft sessions.


The children really enjoyed taking part in the winter themed activities alongside the special people in their lives. There were lots of different crafts to make, each with a different theme. We won’t tell you what they all are as we would love you to come and see for yourself!

Remember that the crafts are running all week and we have 3 sessions a day. So, please sign up via the sheets in reception and come in out of the cold and join us for a coffee and some wintery fun with your wee one!

It’s beginning to look like Christmas

This week in Cart Mill family centre the children are beginning to get excited about Christmas after helping and taking turns to decorate our home room Christmas tree. We enjoyed talking about all the different types of decorations and decide to try to make our own.

Over at the the tinker table the children began to glue, hammer, measure and saw, helping to develop lots of different skills, such as hand eye coordination, manipulative skills and muscle strength all helping with writing skills.

The children needed lots of concentration while creating various Christmas decorations.

“I want to make a reindeer “

“can I make a Christmas tree?”

We’ve had such fun using all our skills independently creating our decorations.

We are all unique

Today, the children showed a great interest in various stories in the noisy/quiet room.

The stories were about different families and how our families are all unique.


We read some of the stories and then discussed our own families. The children were keen to share what they knew about their own families.

“My family is mummy and daddy and me”

“I have my baby and mummy”

”granny and grandpa and mummy and me and dad”

We used the small world characters to recreate our own families.


We will be looking at all kinds of families in the next couple of weeks and using the small world area to learn about equality and diversity.

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