Expressive Arts

Paper plate creations!

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Today in the Studio we explored our creativity skills.
We decided to use our imagination to transform paper plates into some wonderful colourful creations!

Our journey began when we thought of what we wanted to make- e.g  our favourite animal,  a tv character, a flower.

 

We had a great selection of different resources to choose from to make our creations such as types of paper, pens , pencils and lots of different colours.

We exercised our fine motor skills whilst strengthening our muscles as we cut paper carefully with scissors, used glue pots and glue sticks and stuck them down to our plates.

The children all had some fantastic individual ideas they brought to the Studio. We loved discussing what each other made their plate into and were able to describe and talk about what we did.

”I’m putting lots of spots on my ladybird”

“ I need a snorty nose on mine”

”Minions are my favourite , they are funny”

The children used good hand eye co ordination when using their cutting and sticking skills.

They  children worked  well together. They  understood and displayed good turn taking skills  and were able to demonstrate awareness of others needs.

“This is a bit tricky can you hold this for me ?”

”could someone pass me scissors?

Why not get creating at home – do you have any paper plates ? What ideas or wonderful creations can you make ? We’ d love you to share your creations with us.

 

 

Outdoor Learning

All sorts of measure

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Today in the garden the boys and girls enjoyed exploring measurement through investigating the size, amounts and capacity of various items.


The children used standard and non standard units to measure and compare the height of each other, plants and water.

Some of our children were able to compare size and volume using comparative language such as “tall and taller” and “ full and empty”

“Look at this they’re the same”

Why don’t you see what you can use to measure different items at home?

 

Expressive Arts

Bookbug comes to visit Cart Mill!

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We are so lucky that Bookbug came to visit us at Cart Mill today! We welcomed him with our “Hallo” song.

Next, it was time to choose a puppet from our Bookbug basket! It was so exciting to take our turn and use the puppet we had chosen to guess which song we would sing next.

We waited very patiently until it was our turn to guess the song.

It was so much fun to bounce our puppets on the lycra to see how high they could jump!

Finally it was time to end our Bookbug with one of our favourite stories.  Our story had lots of rhyming words for us to practice!

We love when Bookbug comes to visit!

 

 

Expressive Arts

Sew Much Fun

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In the home room we have created a new sewing area which the children have shown a great interest in. Today we had a discussion on a variety of the resources available and explored these by touching, naming and there purpose. The children could confidently identify lots of things connected with sewing:

“Needles are jaggy”

“scissors can be sharp”

“Wool is nice and soft and squishy”

“thread is hard”

The children were keen to try and thread a needle so with great patience , concentration and hand and eye co-ordination each child had a go. During this time we talked about the whole in the needle is called an eye and when you thread you put a knot at end so the stitch stays in. The older children were able to complete this and were excited to try to do a stitch on the sewing table. They listened well to instructions and were able to follow this with little support. They helped each other when got a bit tangled and commented on each other’s stitches.

“Look at your big one”

“ you have done lots”

The younger children were able to thread the large shaped buttons using laces.

The children were unsure what the wheel, block and trees were for so I demonstrated weaving, encouraging them to take part. All the children enjoyed the weaving and had fun experimenting with the the different coloured wool and objects.

“ it looks like a rainbow”

” I like these trees”

Why not try exploring simple weaving techniques at home using ribbon or paper. This is a great activity for hand and eye co-ordination and a good way for building up fine motor skills.

Expressive Arts

3D Paper Sculpture Techniques

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Today in the Studio Room we are learning a new skill. We are learning to make 3D paper sculptures. Today was all about creating a “fringe”

We each picked a piece of paper and a pair of scissors.
We learned that to create a fringe we needed to cut the paper half in strips, but only half way up the page, leaving a band. The higher we cut the longer the strip we created. We were very careful when using our scissors to cut.

It was a bit tricky at first to keep the band at the top and not cut the paper in half. But we soon got the hang of it and made of fringe snips in lots of different sizes of paper.

We made big ones

Middle size

and even tiny ones.
Once we mastered the technique of fringing we moved on to a new technique of rolling and folding.

We used our fringed paper to create, fringe people, robots, lions, octopus, and funny faces.

We drew on our designs then folded the paper and used glue to keep the edges together.

We were proud of our finished results. It was fun engaging with a new learning experience and seeing where our imagination would take us today.
Next week we will be learning a new 3D paper sculpture technique.

 

Expressive Arts, Literacy

Let’s have fun with Syllables!

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Today in  our new ‘noisy and quiet’ room the children have been busy exploring the noisy side using musical instruments and their voices. We all joined together and  slowly clapped out the number of syllables in each of our names and counted how many there were. We found that most  of us had two,  and some of us only had one, so we decided to clap to our second names too. We discovered that most of us had three syllables in our second name’s. The children were able to recognise and clap out the number of syllables in their own names and were able to count out their  friends names.
“my name has two”


“ I have three  syllables  in my name “


“ I have more in my second name”

We then decided we would choose our favourite musical instruments and use them to develop our skills further.

“ I am going to choose the drum”

 
We had lots of instrument to choose from.

“I  am going to count my name using the maracas”

The children were learning to develop their vocabulary,  pre -phonics skills, and understanding of sounds and patterns within words through play. They were able to listen and respond to instructions whilst showing respect for each other through sharing and taking turns.



“ I can count out my syllables  on the wooden sound maker”

“ I am going to use the big drum”

“I am enjoying playing on the big  drum and making sounds”.



We even found out we can count out syllables on the piano. WOW!

Why not try it at home! You could use compound words that form two words such as: sunset , hotdog,  snowman or postman. To start with children just need to be able to recognise syllables by clapping, stamping or jumping for each syllable.  We had lots of fun dividing words into syllables. Why not give it a try at home and let us know how you got on. Have fun playing with words!

 

 

 

 

Uncategorized

Crunchy Fruit Cups!

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Today the children decided they would make something new and a little different. They looked through our ingredients and chose what they wanted to use.

“I think we could use Cornflakes I know they taste good, I have them for my breakfast”.

“What about some cherries, they are my favourite fruit and my favourite colour , red”.

“Yogurt is nice I have that for my lunch.”

“Raisins are my favourite, I want to use them.”

“ I like syrup it is sweet I want to. Put that into my cake.”

Everyone got to work crunching up the corn flakes using rolling pins. Then it was time to put our cornflakes into a bowl and add 1 teaspoon of syrup. “Only a little it’s not good for your teeth.”

“mix, mix mix”

The children carefully cut up their cherries using their fantastic fine motor skills.  “1,2,3,4,5 I have 5 cherries”

Next it was time to add two tablespoons of raisins and mix it all together.  “It’s a bit sticky” I will need to wash my hands after this.”

Finally, they then transferred the mixture to paper cases and added a tablespoon of dairy free yogurt.

“ I need more yogurt .” “ I think the cakes will taste yummy!”

It was time to put them  into the freezer to set . The children worked well together and demonstrated good use of mathematical language, for example more and less.  They also used lots descriptive language such as bumpy, crunchy, sticky. The children noticed that the texture of the yogurt  changed after it came out of the freezer.

“It’s cold and hard now”

The children are so excited to finally taste their Crunchy Fruit Cups! Fabulous work everyone, well done!

Expressive Arts

Play-dough fun!

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Today in the home room, the children have enjoyed making different textures of playdough and exploring their fine motor skills in different ways. Some children enjoyed using the stampers to create different shapes and imprints in the playdough, like a “Seahorse. Look, he’s got a big long tail!”

We made different colours, using our manipulative skills to mix and squish all the ingredients together to form the dough.

Some children even explored some role playing with their peers, sharing the playdough and had a little ‘cupcake’ and ‘tea party!’

“I’m making a strawberry pie”


“Cupcakes are ready!”

‘Too burny. Need to blow it!’

”Tea! Hot hot.’

Playdough is great for developing many skills, and it is super easy to make. You’ll probably have all the ingredients in your home! All you need is; Flour, salt, oil, and water. You can make it more fun by adding paints/food colouring/scents etc. You could even brave glitter!! Have fun everyone!

Uncategorized

Creative at the Tinker Table

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As our children are becoming more confident at the tinker table we have been discussing what we can do with our wood and what we can create. The boys and girls have decided to use collage materials to bring their models to life!

We have had a safety lesson remember to put your gloves on when using tools. The children did some great problem solving to see what piece of wood fits best and how many pieces required.  We used several types of adhesives to see what would stick on our collage materials best.

We have also had some special visitors today as it was a stay and play day for our families to come and join us today for some fun.

We have enjoyed using different materials today with our wood and collage resources and have created houses, planes, boats, volcanoes. The children have worked very hard and shown great imagination skills with their tinkering.  Well done. We look forward to making our next creation.

Social Studies, Technologies

The floor is lava

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Today the children played  “The floor is lava” but with a twist…

They worked together to collect different materials including:

  • Paper/card
  • lollipop sticks
  • twigs
  • Small figures
  • building blocks
  • Cars
  • Bowls

They then used the materials to design and build a stable structure together that was suitable to save the little figures and cars from the lava without it falling over.

“It needs to be up high, what can we use?”

”we can use the blocks to get it high”


The children came up with a variety of ways to save the cars and people from the lava while developing their listening and teamwork skills.

They used their problem solving skills to organise the different shaped blocks by size so that the figure didn’t fall over.

”The big ones need to go to the bottom because they will fall if they are at the top, they won’t balance”

“The bowl can go under in case he falls”

The children had so much fun making a safe structure for the cars and people using materials around the nursery. Why don’t you try creating your own at home.

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