This morning we have been creating patterns in the sand trays. The children have used the pattern stones to print a pattern and have also been using sticks or their fingers to trace the pattern. Some of the children even started creating their own. We have enjoyed discussing the different shapes within the patterns and what we think they look like.
“They’re squares.”
“It’s a 1, 1, 1, 1.”
“It’s my name.”
“I think it’s curly.”
“I’ve got stripes. “
Today the children found a packet of marshmallows and were keen to explore and investigate them.
Using an iPad they researched what things they could make. We found a recipe for marshmallow playdough so we chose that.
The children measured out the marshmallows and poured some vegetable oil into a bowl.
The recipe asked for the marshmallows to be melted and the children asked how they would do this. They talked about it and used the microwave in the staff room to do this.
After 30 secs the microwave pinged and they were excited to see what the marshmallows looked like. They noticed that they had all melted but looked hot.
They brought the bowl back to the playroom and added some cornflour to the mix. Using their super muscles they took turns at mixing it.
The children enjoyed exploring the texture of this new play dough and by adding dried oranges and lemons added to their sensory experience.
Today Bookbug came to visit! Bookbug knew we have been taking part in Maths Week Scotland here at Cart Mill and wanted to introduce us to number songs and rhymes.
BookBug brought his box filled with wonderful visual aids, puppets and books to help us have fun with our numeracy and maths skills through our songs and rhymes.
We started off by singing our welcome song to warm up all our voices.
We sang our number songs next such as 1,2,3,4,5 and 5 little peas. These songs teach us to count forwards in sequence.
We then sang songs such as 5 little ducks and 5 fat sausages to help us practice counting backwards in sequence. Ours songs also introduced us to early mathematical concepts such as adding and subtracting.
Then the stretchy Lycra came out and the puppets were bouncing and jumping up and down! We were using our listening skills, hand-eye co-ordination as well as numeracy and rhyming skills.
We all enjoyed singing number songs with Bookbug.
Numbers are all around us. Songs and rhymes are a fantastic way for us to learn and develop our numeracy and mathematical skills. What number songs can you sing at home?
Maths week in the toddlers has been great fun! We have been super busy. Today we focused on shapes.
The children were exploring common 2D shapes on the geoboard. They were able to confidently name the shapes and use their fine manipulative and problem solving skills to put the elastic bands around the nails to create their shapes.
The children had lots of fun learning and creating shapes. We decided to get creative and use shapes for printing!
From an early age, children notice different shapes, even if they don’t yet know that the shapes have names. Giving children lots of practice with shapes helps them solidify their understanding of the two-dimensional structures. That knowledge of shapes gives the young children an advantage in many areas of learning.
Today in the garden we had great fun identifying and creating shapes to celebrate Maths Week Scotland.
The children collected various loose parts such as blocks, large and small planks, tyres and crates and used them to explore the properties of different 2D shapes.
We then worked brilliantly as a team putting our knowledge into practice as we made our very own large shapes!
“Our square has 4 corners! “
”A triangle has 3 sides!”
Can you be shape detectives and find any 2D shapes around your house?
This week is Maths Week Scotland. The children in the Discovery room are showing off their number recognition skills.
“We can match the pebbles with the numbers”
They decided to use our loose parts box to match the parts with the numbers eg. “It’s number 7, we can use 7 pebbles”
”what about sea shells, 1,2…6,7”
Loose parts are not just shells and pebbles, they are open ended resources meaning they can be used for anything, counting, sorting, making patterns, transient art. The list goes on.
The children then decided to sort the numbers in order from 1-9, they worked together to swap them round until in the right order.
“Put the 5 next to 4 and 7”
”Number 3 is upside down”
We hope that you have a lovely long weekend. We will be open again from Tuesday 28th September.
Some of the children in the home room today were asking questions about the “volcano on the TV” which has sadly been on the news. We talked about what a volcano is and what happens when it erupts! We decided to experiment and make our very own exploding volcano using a mixture of household objects to see what would happen!! We used clay, vinegar and bicarbonate of Soda with a water bottle. Ready… steady… blast off!! “The flames are very red like on the TV!” We also used a range of media such as the iPad to research different volcanos from all around the world and see what the flames looked like. Maybe the children could look for some books at home about volcanos? Or other natural disasters? It could make for some interesting discussions! Let us know what you find. Good luck everyone 🙂
Today the children have been super busy making ramps for their cars using the blocks. They decided to make their own ramps. The toddlers self selected their own paint colours and then dipped their cars into the paint and set them off down the ramp. The children noticed that some of the cars went further than others, some went down fast, some slow and that the tyres all made different marks. They added some textured balls to see what different marks they left. “ That’s left a bumpy mark” They learned some new concepts including stop, go, up, down, fast, slow developing their language skills and learning about cause and effect.
When asked what they would like to do next with the cars L said “ make a garage “ So they set about creating one. H said “we should use these boxes”. L said “ I’m painting it green, it needs to have a tunnel and space for the fire engine”. The children demonstrated great team work when planning together to create their garage. They were proud of their finished result and had great fun playing together.
The children in the studio are noticing the change in the weather. “There are lots of leaves on the ground”. We decided to look at some leaves and see if we could find them on our leaf ID Dial. The children pointed out the different sizes, colours and shapes of the leaves. This helps us discover the name of the tree that the leaf came from. We then read a story about autumn time and the change this makes to our trees. “We like to kick the leaves in the park”
We then had some fun drawing and tracing the leaves some of the leaves were “bumpy” to draw over. The children chose autumn colours of pencils and crayons to make their 🍁 look real. The children decided to hang the leaves from the white board so they could copy and draw round the shape of the leaf.
We have enjoyed learning about leaves today and, if you are out and about during autumn, we would welcome any leaves, pine cones and conkers that you find so we can use them for art work in our studio. Thank you.
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