Today in the noisy quiet room the children took part in a listening activity. Following our current interest of ‘the farm’ we tested our knowledge of what animal sounds we could identify. These included farm animals and other animals in the wider world.
Using an animal sounds CD and matching picture cards we got to work. First we looked at the animal card and identified the animal. Then together we made the sound we thought it would make. Next we listed to the animal sound on the CD to see if we were correct.We all used our voices to make some really good animal sounds.
Once we were more familiar with the animal sounds we decided to challenge ourselves a little more. This time we played the sound first and then selected what animal it was from the cards displayed. We worked together as a team to identify all the animals displayed.
“I think it’s a guinea pig”
“Cow”
“It’s a big rooster”
“That’s a turkey, it’s like a chicken”
Everyone did a fantastic job using their listening and talking skills to develop their knowledge of animal sounds. Well done everyone!
Today in the studio the children were exploring different materials to build and create models with using their imagination and natural curiosity.
Firstly the children noticed that we had some new material in our junk modelling area that was gifted to us by a parent at the nursery…
We discussed how the materials felt and the different patterns on them.
”This is a big one, its white”
”There is lots to chose from, some of them are bumpy”
”This ones really soft, like a carpet”
Then, the children decided that they wanted to use the material, along with the boxes in our junk modelling area, to create houses!
The children used different shapes and sizes of boxes to create their model houses, they decided that they wanted to use the various pieces of material to create curtains for their houses whilst discussing shapes and sizes of windows and doors.
”I had to use cellotape and be careful with the scissors to cut it”
”The house number is a 1 and a 5”
Two of our children even worked so hard together to create their house, and it was so big, they could even use it for role play!
Today the children had fun exploring and experimenting with loose parts to create different faces in the playdough, using their problem solving skills to show different facial features!
“look, happy!”
“Use the pipe cleaner for a mouth. You can make it all bendy”
We have been exploring our emotion pebbles in the playdough area too, and talking about different emotions we feel and why. We discussed what different emotions we feel, and what makes us feel that way…
“I’m scared of the dark”
”I feel tired after I go to soft play”
“I feel sad when my papa Alec’s office is full of toys!”
“I need to do eyelashes”
”I feel sleepy when my mummy reads me a story. Like this…”
“It’s a shocked face”
The children were able to reflect on times they have felt different emotions, and had lots of conversations with their peers about their feelings. They helped each other choose different resources to convey their ideas and worked really well as a team. Great work everybody 🤩👍
This morning we read the story of We’re Going on a Leaf Hunt by Steve Metzger. We started by discussing what we know about the season of Autumn.
”The leaves fall down off the trees.”
”They changed colour.”
Then we all sat beautifully and listened to the story. We learned that leaves on different types of trees will turn different colours. We particularly liked the picture of the red leaves from the oak tree.
After listening to the story, we recreated the story by acting out the different parts.
In the garden today the children asked what can we do with the rest of the leaves we collected on Mondays nature walk.
we looked out”The Leaf Man” book to inspire our children’s creativity.
We decided to use glue and paper to stick our own leaf man pictures, developing our fine motor skills.
We visited the Studio Room to collect all the items we needed
We reread the story when more of our friends came to join us.
We picked from a variety of natural materials, the items we would ant to create our leaf man
The children talked about the different sizes and shapes of the leaves .
“my leaf is so big”
“my leaf looks like a flower”
Why not have fun collecting Autumn leaves on your next Autumn walk.
This week in the Discovery Room we have continued to explore our interest in shapes and loose parts.
We have selected from a wide range of loose parts to create our beautiful pieces of transient art. This sparked lots of interesting conversations where we shared our views on which loose parts are our favourites! Most of us decided we like buttons the best!
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”I made a cat. The lollipop sticks are the whiskers. The triangle blocks are the ears.”
”I made a T for my name”
”I made a wee mouse.”
To add a little challenge and further extend our shape knowledge, we decided to use loose parts to see if we could continue a simple pattern, and create our own.
“Cork, circle, cork, circle”.
”cork, button, cork, button”. “The cork and the button look the same shape. They are circles.”
A number of us are demonstrating an interest in the schema of positioning. We have demonstrated this through arranging objects, lining up items and sorting items into different boxes. This helps us develop our concentration, be able to recognise differences and similarities in objects and to explore patterns and problem solving.
“Look I used a shell, then a cork, shell, cork, shell, cork, shell, cork. I putted a button on the top. Blue, green, blue, green. I putted a cork on top of the corks. It’s so high.”
Loose parts are a great way to developer creative, problem solving and numeracy skills. Why not have a look and see what loose parts you can find at home. We would love to see your wonderful creations!
Today the children were interested exploring the pine cones, sticks and wooden trees. We had a discussion about what we could do with them and decided we could give them some colour by weaving and twirling using ribbon, pipe cleaners, wool and felt.
It was lovely watching the children explore different weaving options and discover different methods and techniques. The children loved mixing up the wool, pipe cleaners and felt to weave and twirl round their chosen object.
“mine is like a rainbow”
“Look it’s pretty now”
“I love pink”
”I am making one for all my family”
The children usedboth their hands to grasp the pine cone and using pincer grip to weave the material. They manipulated the different materials in lots of different ways building their muscle strength and dexterityand developing their hand and eye co-ordination.
There was lots of patience and concentration and the children shared their ideas throughout and spoke about what they were doing.
Today we enjoyed the lovely mild weather and headed off on an Autumn walk. As soon as we left Cart Mill the children were delighted to spot a tree full of birds! There were so many and there was beautiful singing and chirping coming from them all.
“Look at the hundreds of birds!” “They are saying cheep cheep!”
We carried on our walk and had great fun collecting leaves. We looked for different shapes, sizes and colours of leaves.
”I’ve found a yellow one!” “Look a pretty red one!”
As we came to the bridge down at the river there was a very muddy patch blocking our path! The children thought and assessed whether they could jump over the mud!
Of course they made it over! We were very proud of ourselves! We heard there were conkers fallen off a big tree further down the road so we went to investigate. We were not disappointed! We found lots of conkers and some berries too!
”We don’t eat these berries as they are poisonous sure they are?”
There were so many piles of leaves under the trees that we couldn’t resist throwing them up in the air to make leaf showers! We had great fun doing this!
The children spotted some wild life whilst out walking! We were super excited to see a little squirrel running up a tree, we spotted a snail and a wiggly worm too!
“The worm feels all cold and squishy!”
The children enjoyed their walk back listening to the sound of the river! At the top of the path one of the children found what they called a cave! It looked like a cave and we all had a peak inside!
Once back in Cartmill we enjoyed sorting our findings into piles of different coloured leaves and conkers!
We had to take some of the conkers out of their shells!
Finally we looked at our leaf wheel which shows us all the different leaves you find. We successfully matched some of the leaves we found to the leaves on the wheel! Great job children!
We then washed our hands and had snack! What a busy fun morning!
It was all about maths in the Studio Room as we celebrated Maths week Scotland. Which fitted in perfectly with our learning provocation area.
We have been learning about different artists and what their famous art work is. This month it’s Kandinsky.
Kandinsky is famous for his wonderful abstract work that have various shapes in them.
We have been trying our hand at creating our version of some of his paintings, using circles.
First we used paint to create a large scale painting. We used each of our primary paint colours and using our colour mixing skills creating bright and different colours just like the one’s Kandinsky uses. We used our shape recognition skills to create huge and tiny circles inside one another.
Next we used our scissor skills to cut circles out of felt, gum paper, foam and shiny paper. We experimented with different textures for this abstract art picture.
We used our counting skills as we counted how many circles we used for our pictures.
We also tried ink prints using ink pads and corks to print circles onto paper to create a different type of abstract art. We used our 3D shape recognition skills to learn the shape of the cork.
The children enjoyed using the provocation area themselves to recreate Kandinskys work in their own ways. They used chalks,
Using digital technology on our paint app, on the smart board,
Paint dabbers,
and our pencils.
We were very proud of the work we created.
to finish off our week of Kandinsky circles art we used different circle shaped resources to draw around. We tried records, cups, pots and mirrors.
It was a wonderful creation.
Maths can be a big part of art and is found in each area in our art room, it could be shape recognition with the different sizes of boxes in the junk model area. Counting how many pumps of the paint we need to mix colours. Making patterns with the collage materials or clay and many more opportunities to learn our Maths skills with the joy of Art.
I wonder what artist we will learn about next?
Here is a wee look at some of our other maths experiences we have took part in through the week within our Studio Room. That have challenged and develop our children from 2-5 year olds with their maths skills.
In our Home Room this week we have been celebrating Maths Week Scotland. We have been using the different learning areas In our Home Room to explore this years‘ Maths Week Scotland theme of ‘finding the beauty in maths’, learning how we use maths in all different ways.
In our Baking and Sewing Areas…. As part of Maths Week have been exploring pattern through making some yummy fruit kebabs! We talked about the different colours, shapes and sizes of the fruit and then used our favourites to create a fruity pattern.
Some of the children were able to copy and continue a simple pattern using their favourite two fruits.
‘I like grapes”“Ben do it.”
Some children were able to create their own more complex patterns with three different kinds of their favourite fruit.
“I am doing the same again.”
“I need the banana again.”
In our sewing area we made patterns threading our different coloured beads, and sewing patterns onto the leaves we collected. We had to concentrate hard as it was very tricky!
“In and out.”“I’m doing colours.”
In our Playdough Area…
In our playdough area we have been learning how to make our playdough more independently. We have been using measuring, pouring and filling skills to correctly follow the recipe . We decided to record our recipe and display it to help our friends make their own.
“I scoop of salt.”
In our Home Corner……… Stories are a great way to engage children in mathematical conversations. Stories help children to see the relevance of maths to their own lives and develop their understanding of mathematical concepts and language in meaningful contexts.
We explored the story of Simon the Sock. Simon is an odd stripey sock. He lives in the sock drawer with all the other socks. Every sock in the drawer has a pair…except for Simon. Will he ever find his match?
Through exploring the story the children were able to use and develop mathematical skills such as sorting, matching, reasoning and comparing. We loved looking through Simon’s sock drawer. We used our matchIng skills to help Simon find all the matching pairs!
We then used our observation skills to look at the different patterns. We described all the patterns we could see, spots, stripes, stars and some of us even spotted that we had patterns on our own socks on our feet! Simon the sock challenged us to use our sorting skills to each decide a different way we could sort our socks. We even used our mark making skills to record how we were going to sort them each time!
When we had completed our challenge we matched all the socks together again in their pairs, well all apart from Simon!
We wonder if any of you have an odd socks like Simon in your home?!
