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.

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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 🙂

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Mondrian inspired creations

June 22, 2022 User deactivated Leave a comment

Today in the garden following on from the children’s interests we were inspired by the work of the artist Piet Mondrian.

We discussed how the artwork was created using line, shape and primary colours, then we set about making our own creations.

“A square has 4 sides”

The children were developing both their fine and gross motor skills by pinching the chalk and using cross body movements to place the tape.

“It looks like a window”

Some of the children asked to use the tape independently to make their own designs and what a beautiful design it was, well done everyone.

Outdoor Learning

Sports Super Stars!

June 21, 2022 Mrs Barnes Leave a comment

This week the children have been enjoying sports week. We have been participating in many different sports activities both in the garden and out on the grass! Thankfully the weather has been kind to us so far! The children have been showing their competitive sides and throwing themselves into the races!

One of their favourite races has definitely been the sack race! We are so impressed at how good the children have been at this showing off their fantastic balance and coordination skills!

The egg and spoon race (using bean bags) was great fun, Some of the children managed the whole race without dropping it, especially the ones that were holding it on!!! We also ran balancing the bean bags on our heads! This was tricky but the children showed great perseverance to get to the end!

Throwing the rings on to the cones proved to be very popular! The children enjoyed this game and really tried their best to get all the rings over!

We have some really good jumpers at Cart Mill so the long jump was very successful. The children ran up to the rope and jumped as far as they could landing on two feet! The action photos show how much fun this was!

The good old running race is definitely still a favourite! The children just love to run anywhere and everywhere! We had races in the garden and out on the grass and the children particularly enjoyed running down the hill!

Sports fun will continue for the rest of this week. I think we may have some future Olympians or maybe the next Usain Bolt here at Cart Mill!

Digital Technology, Expressive Arts, Outdoor Learning

Exploring Wood

June 20, 2022 Miss Keith Leave a comment

We have been making lots of lovely creations at our woodwork bench which got us wondering, where does the wood come from? We knew the answer would be found online, we asked the question and it took us to a short film we could watch describing how wood comes from the trees.

We had a look round the room to discover what we had that was made from wood. We found chairs, storage cupboards, construction blocks, a toy toaster from the home corner.
“We have a lot of wood in here”.

We then took our search out doors into the garden which was full of different pieces of wood lots of different sizes, textures and shapes. We have sections of tree trunks in our garden so we could see the whole trunk of the tree. We could see the bit right in the middle, called the pith. Then we could see lots of rings and finally we could see the bark on the outside of the trunk. When you remove the bark, the wood changes colour underneath. “Some of the bark just falls off in the forests 🌳 I see it when I go to the woods”

We then moved back to our woodwork area and chose some materials and fun resources to make a new wooden creation. We all worked together and discussed what we would like to add to our work of art. The children talked about the sizes and textures of the materials they were using to make their models. These included a cat house, planes, chairs and beds for their dolls. All the while this was helping develop their fine motor skills plus hand and eye co ordination. The children’s skills and imaginations plus creativity are amazing, watching what they create each day is lovely. We would love to receive any pieces of wood or bark you might find when out and about.

Expressive Arts, Literacy

Let us entertain you!

June 17, 2022 Ms Taylor Leave a comment

We have had a busy day in our Studio. We have explored our creativity and imagination through art and storytelling.
Using a selection of junk and art materials we were able to build our own puppet theatre.

We shared and discussed what our favourite fairy tale stories were and who our favourite characters from popular stories were. We then listened to some stories before creating our own puppets. Using our great craft and motor skills when glueing, sticking, cutting and drawing we made our very own puppets all ready for the premier of our puppet show performances.

“ I’m making a fairy for my story”

” Sleeping beauty is my favourite so I’m making Aurora “

Once our audience settled, we began our performances! We sat very patiently and demonstrated good listening skills while we all had a turn of being the puppeteer. For some stories we needed some help from a friend to puppeteer alongside us as it got a bit tricky trying to hold all the characters at once!
We used our loud speaking voices to introduce our characters and the name of our stories we would be re-enacting. Some of us were a little shy and nervous to begin but when it came to our turn our confidence shone and we were able to re-tell familiar and popular stories using our own words such as ‘The Three Bears’, ‘Goldilocks’, ‘Sleeping Beauty’ and ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’. Some of us were able to make our own stories up using our puppets we created.

Well done boys and girls you have been great entertainers! We all enjoyed listening and watching your stories and had so much fun with our puppet theatre, why not give this a go at home? You could make up your own puppets and stories!

Literacy

Spider Puppets

June 16, 2022 User deactivated Leave a comment

The children have shown an interest in spiders and today in the noisy and quiet room we decided to create our own spider puppets. We did this in the small world spider area that has been set up for the children to explore their spider interest further.

First, we had a read over one of our favourite spider books and discussed all the different types of spiders you can get . We found out that the first spiders lived about 300 million years ago, even before dinosaurs roamed the earth. We found out spiders are not insects and most spiders are web weaver some, weave sheet, funnel shapes webs, triangle webs and the Orb spider spins a beautiful pattern of many different circles .

”That’s my favourite one he’s called the Tarantula and he is very hairy “

”That goddess turned into a spider”

” This spider has got 10 legs “

we then set to work creating our own spider puppets, for this we used paper plates, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, glue, sellotape and some pencils.
we began by sticking our googly eyes onto our paper plates and by doing this first it allowed us to see where the holes for our spider’s legs should go.

“ I am going to put on eight legs on my spider “

“ my spider is a daddy one”

we used the tip of a pen to carefully poke holes for our fingers to go through to create the spider’s legs. Some of us wanted more legs for our spider so we decided to use pipe cleaner to create more .

look at our lovely spider’s!

The children enjoyed making their spider puppets whilst learning lots of facts about spiders and developing their fine motor and language skills.
why not give it a try at home and make your own spider puppet and put on a puppets show! Let us know how you get on, have fun!🕷

Outdoor Learning

We’re going on a bug hunt 🐞

June 15, 2022 User deactivated Leave a comment

In the garden we are taking part in the 30 day wildlife experiences. The children chose day 23 which was a bug hunt, we searched for our favourite mini beasts.

We worked as a team, flipping over logs, checking under stones, looking through flowers, soil and the grass.

“I found a ladybug” “Look there’s a worm”

There are so many benefits of going on a bug hunt;

Learn about insects
Observational skills
Social skills
Exercise and fresh air
Encourages children to explore

After searching for our mini beasts, we decided to make our very own butterfly feeding table. We gathered all the materials needed and got started. The children showed brilliant fine manipulative skills when cutting and gluing.

Once it was all glued down and ready to go we filled up the jam jar lids with sugar water and looked for the best place to put our table.

Now we wait for the butterfly’s to come visit our garden.

Expressive Arts, Literacy

Mark making with the Cars

June 14, 2022 Miss Brown Leave a comment

Today the children were showing an interest in the different cars ,trucks and trains in the Discovery room. We decided to collect some items to see if there were different to do with the cars.

We collected:

“A big, massive piece of paper”
Scissors
sticky tape
Pens

We taped the paper to the floor but the children also wanted to tape the pens to the cars to see what would happen to them.

” The train drawed a line and then a circle”

They realised when they moved the trains and cars on the paper, the pens were leaving a trail behind them.

The children noticed that by using different sized pens that the marks were different sizes.

“It looks like my dads map of Scotland, with all the lines on it”

Mark making is an important step in a child’s journey in learning to write. This allows them to practice holding a pencil and learning to control their marks. This improves their fine motor skills and helps to develop their hand- eye coordination.

Mark making can also encourage creativity by giving the opportunity to communicate through drawing and using their marks to tell a story.

” My truck is going to follow the track to find the other cars”

Expressive Arts

Blocks Rock!

June 13, 2022 Mrs Hannah Leave a comment

We have been very busy in our block area today!

Using our excellent problem solving skills, we explored measurement and balance. We were able to identify which blocks were “lighter” and “heavier” and discovered we needed to put some of the heavier blocks on the bottom of our towers so that they didn’t topple over!!

It was so much fun adding in our small world figures. We worked together to build stairs for them to climb into their houses and we even constructed a lego train which had a bed to sleep in!

Next we decided to use our larger blocks to build “somewhere to give money out”. We decided we needed steps and a seat “so we can give the money out to people”. Using our measuring skills, we were able to compare the size of each block and identify which were “bigger” and smaller” and discussed where we should place them so that it “would be safe to climb on”. Placing the blocks together we discovered that 2 of our smaller “square” blocks were the same size as “the rectangle one”.

“this one is bigger”

Collecting lots of loose parts gave us lots of “money” and we took turns being “the person who gives the money to people”. Everyone demonstrated excellent turn taking, counting and negotiating skills!

Block play enables us to explore logical and abstract thinking, use our imaginative and creative skills and develop our communication and negotiating skills, while having lots of fun!