3D Sculpting in the Studio

July 5, 2022 Ms Taylor Leave a comment

Today, we have been very busy showing off our creative skills in the Studio. We designed our own fabulous sculptures and combined clay and a variety of different art materials to create them.

We had lots of different materials to choose from such as foam shapes, colourful straws, feathers ,patterned buttons, ribbon and pasta shapes.

First we took some cold, squishy clay to make a base for our sculpture. We moulded it in our hands before carefully positioning and setting our skewer to begin our creations.

We used good hand eye co-ordination while we were skilfully threading our chosen materials onto our sculptures. We demonstrated excellent fine motor skills, especially when it was a little bit tricky getting those buttons through the skewers!

”I like the feathers it makes it look pretty”

”I’m making mine all blue”

“I can put three bits of pasta together to make it taller”

”I think the buttons are a bit tricky ”

We loved showing off our our final products and displayed them proudly in the studio.

Can you create some 3D sculptures at home ? You could try sculpting some creative art using junk from any recycling materials you may have.

Uncategorized

No Monday blues for us, We made fantastic fairy cakes🧁

July 5, 2022 Miss Mitchell Leave a comment

Today in Cart Mill we decided we would like to make fairy cakes. We looked on the internet for a recipe and decided on vegan fairy cakes. Then, we collected all of our ingredients.

“We definitely need flour, oat milk and sugar”.

We were able to use the scales to weigh out all the ingredients.

“ I need 200ml of milk” “It’s only at 150ml, I need some more”.

“ I think it needs more flour it’s to sticky”.

We used our fabulous fine motor skills to stir and then transfer the cake mixture into paper cases.

“It’s very messy and slimy”.

We put our cakes in the oven for 10 minutes.

“I can do the timer for ten minutes”.

We were delighted when we took the cakes out of the oven and they were golden brown. Next, it was time to make the icing! We discussed what colours we would like to use.

“ I want mine red because that’s my favourite colour “.

“ I want mine blue, like the sky”.

We finished off with some lovely rainbow sprinkles . We are looking forward to tasting our cakes at home. Yummy 😋

Expressive Arts, Technologies

Cart Mill Engineers

July 1, 2022 Miss Brown Leave a comment

Today the children have been very busy in the Construction area.

They used their team working skills to discuss and create a plan to build a new bridge and roads.

They spoke about the different shapes and sizes of the blocks and how they would join together so that the road didn’t have ‘bumps’ on it .

“You need big muscles to be able to carry the big blocks”

“This block is wider than that one”

“We can make a ramp so the cars can go up and down, the car can’t jump up”

They added in ‘funny shaped blocks’ to create roundabouts for the cars to go round.

Once all the pieces were joined together for the road, they looked for bigger blocks for the bridge.

“This big one can be the start of the bridge and then we’ll add 4 bigger ones it will be so tall”

The children used their problem solving skills as they worked together to make the roads and bridge safe for the cars to drive on. They carried out a test run and a final check, then the bridge was complete.

Expressive Arts

Creative Clay Creations

June 30, 2022 Miss Campbell Leave a comment

Today in the Studio we continued our experiment with clay. We have been learning about the difference in textures between clay and playdough, as well as the difference between wet and dry clay. So, today we took our learning one step further to investigate what we can make, by adding loose parts to our clay station.

We added some buttons, wooden sticks, paper straws, corks and our clay tools and markers as a invitation to spark the creative minds of our early learners.

We used our gross motor skills to roll out the clay, using the large rolling pins. We even tried using the other end of the rolling pin to make marks and indents into the clay.

Some of us used the clay hammers to create marks or flatten the clay to make it more malleable.

We each selected the loose parts we wanted and got to work creating our model, and look what we created! A hedgehog using the wooden sticks.

Others used the wooden sticks to make candles for a birthday cake.

We also created a robot, adding detail with paper straws.

We used the corks and wooden letters to make clay people.

We worked together to share our ideas and inspire each other.

We used our fine manipulative skills to select and place buttons onto our clay as part of our design process.

We even used the clay tools and loose parts to extend our mark making skills.
We learn best when we are having fun through play.
I wonder what will be at our clay station tomorrow?

Expressive Arts, Literacy

Loose Parts Play

June 29, 2022 Mrs Hannah Leave a comment

This week in the Discovery room we have had lots of fun exploring loose parts.

We have collected lots of different items to create our loose part trays. Using our excellent fine motor skills, we sorted our loose parts into groups of similar items.

Filling and emptying lots of different sized containers using tweezers and tongs helped us develop our fine motor skills, and develop our understanding of volume and measurement.

“This one has lots of big and small pieces”.

”It’s full. I’m emptying it out”.

It was lots of fun choosing which loose parts we would use to create our transient artwork. We have such wonderful imaginations!

“It’s a volcano with lava coming out”.

”I made a caterpillar with pom poms”.

”I made a maze. The board is the way in. That one is the way out”.

Some of us decided to choose our own loose parts to create the letters of our name. We each drew our letter then carefully placed our loose parts along the lines. Don’t they look fabulous!

To challenge ourselves further, we decided to make our names from our favourite loose parts. We decided we like the pom poms, colourful matchsticks and gems the best!

There are so many fabulous things activities we can do with loose parts that help us develop a wide range of skills, our imaginations and creativity.
Loose parts can be anything from cardboard boxes, yoghurt pots, cotton reels and shells or sticks we can collect on holiday!
Why not have some fun with loose parts at home and see what you can create!

Uncategorized

Dancing in the rain 🥳

June 28, 2022 Mrs Johnston Leave a comment

The rain doesn’t stop the fun at Cart Mill!!

Out comes the ribbons 🎀

Out come the maracas!!

On goes our music 🎵

And off we go……..

Dancing, having fun with our friends, enjoying a variety of different music and dance, developing our gross motor skills by keeping fit making our hearts stronger and enjoying all the weather Scotland offers 🥰

Expressive Arts, Outdoor Learning

Introducing Cart Mill’s butterfly family 🐛🦋

June 27, 2022 Mrs Miles Leave a comment

On the 1st of June our caterpillars arrived at the centre and we have been doing a great job of helping to care for them each day since. We started by investigating the caterpillars 🐛 we watched how they wiggled when they walked and counted how many feet they have; can you believe they have fourteen?!
We watched as they ate their food and got bigger and bigger. They have to shed their exoskeleton in order to grow and we got to feel it, it was very fluffy! Then when we came back after the weekend they had formed their chrysalides! We learned that butterflies come from a chrysalis and it is moths that come from a cocoon.

“They’re so hairy.” “I have caterpillars in my garden.” “Argh, they’re wobbling!”

The chrysalides shook as we transferred them to the butterfly net and we found out that they do this to scare off predators. Next we had to prepare for the butterflies emerging.

When the first butterfly came out from his chrysalis we prepared sugar water for him to drink and put it on some flowers. We also cut juicy oranges and placed them in the net. We learned that butterflies use their feet to taste their food and their mouth is like a curly straw; they unfurl it to drink and then curl it back up again when finished. We now have five butterflies and we have named them Ozar, Mo, Flutter, Anna and Ruby.

“It goes round and round and round.” “I’m colouring my butterfly’s wings.”

After watching the process of the caterpillars changing to butterflies, we were inspired to create our own version of the lifecycle.

Then this morning it was time to let them go….

We started by putting sugar water and oranges on the butterfly table we had previously made with Lauren. Then we opened the butterfly net and waited. And waited 😆 The butterflies were a little hesitant to come out but when they made an appearance they wanted to get up close and personal. One of them landed on the jacket to get a quick cuddle before flying off and the other let us have a turn of holding him.

Uncategorized

Slip and slide!

June 24, 2022 Ms Partridge Leave a comment

As I am sure you have heard off your little ones, this week has been sports’ week at Cart Mill!

The children had so much fun visiting the different stations like the long jump, the water bucket relay and hurdles! They worked really hard in their teams, and encouraged each other throughout the different games. We saved the best for last on the Slip and Slide! Some of our lovely parent’s even got roped into the slip and slide at collection time too. Well done everyone!! Hopefully the sunshine makes an appearance for the weekend and you can make your own 🙂