Category Archives: Creativity

Creativity, Expressive Arts, Imaginative thinking, nature

The wonder of Wood 🪵

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As our new term begins we are introducing our tinker table and tools to our new children . To help develop fine motor skills and hand/eye coordination we are starting with hammers, pool noodles and golf tees this gives the children a opportunity to hammer 🔨 successfully and improve their cofidence

We also explore different types of wooden resources such as pegs,cork, craft sticks,wood shavings and many more. This gives our children the chance to be creative using nails or glue to make their own models.

The tinker table loose parts can be used to help plan what our older children can make using wood,nails,screws,hammers. “ I am going to make a house “

Our “big girls and boys” enjoy the challenge of creating their own recognisable model, they are confident to explore and experiment with a variety of materials,  demonstrate  problem solving skills and complete tasks.  They have made boats,ferries, spider man cars,houses the list goes on……..

The children are very keen to continue with their wood work projects and” wood “be very grateful if we have or know of anyone who could donate them some wood off cuts. Thank you.

Article 13 – you have the right to explore and share new experiences.

Baking, Creativity, Snack

Snacktastic!

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Over the last couple of weeks, the children have been settling into the new nursery term and we have welcomed back our term time children as well as welcoming our new children.

At the snack and baking table, we have been refreshing our baking skills when making muffins. The children have been experimenting with different ingredients including bananas, raisins, blueberries and dairy free cheese.


“one”                                                     “two scoops”

The children have been demonstrating their hygiene knowledge by remembering to wash their hands before and after baking and to wear an apron.

The children are developing many skills during this activity including fine motor skills and independence.

“It needs more milk”

The children have been learning to get the muffin mix right by adding more milk or flour, which is developing their science knowledge and how ingredients interact together.

The children are enjoying sampling the muffins during afternoon snack, along with some fruit.

Article 28 – You have the right to education.
Article 24 – you have the right to be healthy

Baking, Creative movement, Creativity, Imaginative thinking, Outdoor Learning, Snack

Time flies when you’re having fun 😃

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We can’t believe its the end of week 4 of our summer term!  Time definitely flies when you’re having fun 🤩

This week we have had home made cupcakes and flapjacks for a delicious snack along with some lovely fruit. Our star bakers have been very busy learning how to measure in weight rather than scoops. They used the scales to measure the ingredients looking at the numbers as they go up.

“It’s a 2 and an 8 and a 5”

“What does the ‘g’ mean?”

“I know, it means grams”.

Check out our fabulous clay pictures! We are using our hand muscles to manipulate the clay into different shapes and create our own ideas, while developing our fine motor and early writing skills.

“I made letters with clay”.
“Mines is a spidey web”.


The sun did make an appearance for a little while, just enough time to  observe the clouds using our imagination and find different shapes in the sky.  It was quite tricky and we soon discovered that everyone had different ideas. We took some pictures and printed them out.  Then we outlined the shapes that we could see to create our pictures.

“Mine looks like a monster”.

”It looks like a rabbit”.

Water play is always a favourite in Cart Mill. This week we  have been engineers by working together to investigate how to connect the pipes and move the water from one place to another.  We decided to construct a huge water slide and explored sending different volumes of water down the big slide to see who can make the biggest splash!

“This is going to be the biggest slide”

“The pipes need to go this way to catch the water”

Yet again we have had an exciting, fun filled week with lots of learning experiences. We can’t wait to see what’s in store for us next week. We hope you all have a lovely weekend🥳.

Block building, Creative movement, Creativity, Imaginative thinking

All aboard the Cart Mill train!

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“All aboard the Cart Mill train”, has been the cry throughout another fun filled week!  Holidays have been a hot topic of conversation, with much discussion over where we are going on holiday and how we are going to get there! This has led to a natural progression of our interest in forces through using personal experiences to explore different ways of travelling from one place to another!

In our garden “the floor is lava!”.  Using our problem solving skills we worked together to design our own obstacle course so that we could travel across the “lava without getting on fire” by climbing, balancing and jumping! It was lots of fun to explore balance further through using our “wobble” board to move from sided to side and up and down! Using our knowledge of forces, we explored different ways to transport water to “put out the lava” using hoses, pipes and funnels!

In our discovery room and studio we have demonstrated wonderful creativity through designing our own mode of transport on our interactive board and constructing  planes, trains, cars and boats using junk modelling and a fabulous kit donated by one of our families.

“It’s a boat.  I’m going on holiday to Ireland on a boat with my family”. “I maked a train. I love trains. I go’d on a train”.

Trains have been a firm favourite and we have been so busy in our block area constructing our own “Cart Mill station”  and “trains”which have been picking up passengers and dropping them at exciting destinations! “The train leaving platform 3 is for Spain”.


“I maked a bridge for the trains to go under”.  “My train is East Kilbride”.

Role play is another favourite activity! This week we have made our very own “bus” which took us on a journey full of fun, laughter and much excitement “to school”.

“I drived the bus. To school”. “I readed  a book”. “Beep beep”.

Of course one of our favourite ways to travel around Cart Mill is by bike! Lots of us have bikes and scooters at home. Gail very kindly brought us some bikes in and we had so much fun investigating how they work and using real tools to take them apart and using our problem skills to try and put them back together again!

Of course we had to bring out our Cart Mill bikes so that we could race each other round our garden!  What a fun filled, action packed week! We can’t wait for more adventures next week.

Article 13 – Freedom of expression

Artice 28 – Right to an education

Article 31 – Leisure, play and culture

 

Creative movement, Creativity, Digital Technology, Expressive Arts, Outdoor Learning, Snack, Technologies

This weeks summer learning at a Cart Mill!

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This week at Cart Mill, we explored a wide variety of activities across all our rooms. Take a look at what we’ve been up to!

In the discovery room it’s been an exciting week exploring forces. We were highly engaged with an activity using balloons attached to cars. It was lots of fun using our observation skills to identify if the air coming out of the balloon was strong enough to move the car back and forth, enhancing our understanding of motion and forces.

In the garden the weather has been kinder this week, allowing us to enjoy the outdoors more. With Wimbledon underway, we decided to have our own tennis tournament and learn all about this exciting racket game. Exploring our technology skills we watched a game of tennis on the smart board, discussed the rules, and then took turns playing on our makeshift court. This fantastic activity kept our bodies active and helped develop our motor skills and hand-eye co-ordination. No Wimbledon experience is complete without strawberries! Our children in the Home Room were busy chopping them up for us to enjoy. Yum!

Lots of fun was had creating enormous bubbles in our garden! Everyone enjoyed this sensory experience immensely. Using washing-up liquid and water, we mixed our own bubble solution and used our fine and gross motor skills to create fantastic bubbles. We then explored cause and effect by blowing the bubbles and popping them with our fingers.

In the home room at the playdough table, we have been experimenting with our playdough recipe and created some delightful chocolate playdough. By adding vegan drinking chocolate to the playdough mixture, we crafted a fantastic sensory experience to explore. The rich scent and smooth texture of the chocolate playdough added an extra layer of excitement to our play. Using loose parts, we created imaginative models, enhancing our creativity and fine motor skills. We also enjoyed spreading the playdough to see how thin we could get it.

In the studio we engaged in mark-making using a variety of paints and tools, providing a rich and creative environment for us to express ourselves artistically. Lots of fun was had through exploring patterns using rollers, discovering how different pressures and movements could create a wide range of textures and designs. Using sponges, we experimented with shapes, learning how to manipulate the tools to form circles and squares. Paintbrushes allowed us to delve into our own unique styles, mixing colours and creating beautiful creations. This activity not only enhanced our fine motor skills but also encouraged us to think creatively and express our emotions and ideas through art.

We ventured outside the nursery to visit the park and explore the large field behind us. At the park, we enjoyed playing on the swings, developing our balance on the wooden beams, and building our confidence on the large slide. The field provided ample space for running and playing games. We participated in running and crawling races with our peers, promoting physical fitness and teamwork. These outdoor activities were fantastic opportunities for us to develop our motor skills and enhance our social interactions whilst enjoying the fresh air and sunshine.

Come back next Friday to see what fun learning activities we get up to next week!

UNCRC Articles: Our activities this week align with several articles from the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC):

  • Article 13: Freedom of expression
  • Article 31: Leisure, play, and culture
  • Article 28: Right to education
Baking, Creative movement, Creativity, Expressive Arts, Froebel, Imaginative thinking, Literacy, music, nature, Outdoor Learning, Snack, Social Studies

What have we been doing at Cart Mill this week?

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This week at Cart Mill we have been taking part in a wide variety of learning experiences across each of our playrooms and our garden.
In our Discovery room we have continued along our Jack and the Beanstalk learning journey by investigating “forces” and “travel”. Our mission was to find a way for Jack to get to and from the castle without the giant seeing!  To do this we decided to fill the balloon with air and let it go to see how far it would travel towards the castle. It’s been so much fun seeing how much air we need to make the balloon go fast or slow.

In our Studio we have shown an interest in diggers and have been using the water tray as our construction site. We used dried rice to represent the dirt and had great fun using the construction toys to fill, empty and transport the rice.  We used our technology skills to look at videos of real construction vehicles on our smart board. This experience had such a great level of engagement from all our children, especially our younger ones. We even found a Danny go video called “digging in the dirt” to all join in with, incorporating our health, well-being and movements skills.

In our Home room we have continued to develop our baking skills by researching recipes, measuring ingredients and making yummy vegan treats for our afternoon snack!  The best part was taste testing our baking!
In our playdough area  we have been experimenting by adding different scents to our playdough. We’ve tried peppermint, lemon and orange extracts. We even tried chocolate powder to make chocolate playdough. It smelt so good and looked just like chocolate. This week we decided to wander out to the the planting area to choose herbs and flowers to introduce some different scents. We picked basil, thyme, garlic and some flowers. As we grow in confidence, we are able to make our playdough independently using our self serve playdough station.  It has been lots of fun choosing loose parts to add to our playdough and creating  wonderful models.
Between the smells of playdough and daily home baking our home room smells delightful.

And finally our garden! The weather has been a little varied this week with showers of rain in between the sunshine.  As usual, we didn’t let that stop our fun!  We have used the gross motor rollers to mark make, played role play games using the play house and even took part in music and movement games such as head shoulders knees and toes. We extended our muddy movers skills by playing catch with the sticky ball and catching mitts. It was lots of fun taking turns with catching and throwing.

We all love learning through our play at Cart Mill! I wonder what we will do next week during our summer adventures?

UNCRC article 28- we have the right to play.

Creative movement, Creativity, Expressive Arts, Imaginative thinking

Creative Painting

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Today in the studio we decided to have some fun with the paint using  our hands and feet! Firstly we laid down a clear shower curtain and chose colours of paint to “squirt” onto it.
How are we going to mix the colours together ?  Using our problem solving skills we came up with some good ideas.
“We can roll around ! And I can use my feet . Be careful it is a bit slippy!”

We have developed our tactile and sensory skills from touching the paint and feeling it on our skin and between our toes. This also helps  us develop gross motor skills and balance. We discussed colours and watched them mix together .

As we explore the paint, some of us enjoy fully covering ourselves as a form of self – exploration.
As we become more experienced artists, we demonstrated excellent gross motor skills by using our hands and feet to walk through the paint.


After all the fun we had with our body painting,  we were able to hang our art work outside and use the remaining paint to draw shapes and letters on it with brushes. “A pointy A for my name”.

“I made a circle ⭕️”.
We all had a great morning having the freedom to discover and choose ways to be creative.

Article13 – I have the right to find out and share information.

Creativity, Literacy

Billy’s Bucket

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Today we enjoyed the book Billy’s Bucket, a story about a boy who wanted a bucket for his birthday! Using his wonderful imagination, he described all the exciting events that happened and the sea creatures that came to visit. After reading our story we decided to  design our own buckets…

Then we thought about all the creatures we wanted in our own buckets….sharks, whales, sea lions!!

We thought our bucket was too little so we made an even bigger one in our water tray.  After lots of discussion, problem solving and decision making, we decided to make our water red!

Reading a story has helped us develop our literacy skills, fuels our imagination and creativity and allows us to share ideas with our friends.  We have demonstrated we can make decisions, problem solve, work together and lead our own learning.   😁

Article 28 You have the right to an education

 

 

Creativity, Expressive Arts

Painting with passion

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The children have been thoroughly enjoying exploring lots of vibrant colours in the gross motor art area.

Today the children chose the paint they wanted to use, along with the rollers and brushes. We gathered our resources and decided we would use different textures of paper. We began by talking about the different textures and how they felt.

“This is bumpy”

“This one is shiny and smooth”

“It bumpy”

“It’s rough too”


The children then chose whether they wanted to use the brush or the roller and began exploring with the colours and the textures to make some big art! They used their gross motor skills to make the big movements required to roll and brush on the paper. Working together, they all took turns swapping the resources and colours making sure that everybody got a shot of everything they wanted.


The children then decided to explore their colour mixing skills. As they mixed, they became more confident using their design process, they created new secondary and tertiary colours.
“ look purple”

“I made brown”

“I love orange”.

Our older children really enjoyed using the new paint tools to create vibrant and wonderful patterns, in the style of our featured artist “Steven Brown”. While our younger children enjoyed using their gross motor skills to make marks on the ground using a big space to expand their creative skills.
We used so many skills in our gross motor art area today without even realising because we were having so much fun creating our abstract art.

“I am using my hands”

” I am making lots of lines”

I am making my shapes different colours”

”I am making shapes and mixing the colours together”

Who knows what creations we might make tomorrow in our gross motor art area!

Creative movement, Creativity, Outdoor Learning

Outdoor Fun

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So far this month we have had great fun outdoors where we have been developing our gross motor skills.  We have done this through various activities from running in an empty garden, designing an obstacle course, to practicing our hopping and ball throwing and catching skills.


“I’m the winner!”

“Look I can do it!”

Using our creative imaginations, we turned our stage into a pirate ship!  It was so much fun drawing our own treasure maps and using them to go on an adventure to find the treasure. “X marks the spot!”  We climbed the mountain, crawled through the cave, balanced on the bridge, avoiding the shark invested waters below, to find the treasure.

“Shiver me timbers!”

As it’s nearly time for sports day we have been practicing running, balancing, waiting patiently for our turn, sharing equipment and cheering each other on!

Article 29 – I have the right to an education that develops my personality.

Article 31 – I have the right to relax and play.