Category Archives: Digital Technology

Digital Technology, Literacy, Technologies

What animals can you hear?

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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!

Digital Technology, Expressive Arts

Discovering Maths

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This week the children have been learning about maths and having fun trying out all the different ways this can be done.

The construction block area is always in good use and after we had read a story about 10 little monsters  the children decided to build their own spooky castle 🏰  we have been working out sizes long ones  for this wall and we need shorter ones over here !

We have been counting  12345 as we have posted the counters through the block . We have discovered that some items are too big to fit through the hole.

At the tinker table we have been practising our measuring skills looking at the numbers on the ruler or tape and placing the items in order of size. This one is the” biggest “. We even had a look round the nursery to compare sizes of different resources.
Our loose parts area was full of resources and inspiration . We had a look at a book called Hannah’s Collection and this gave us great ideas. We then made our own designs using loose parts “ I will use the round buttons and make lollipops” and I can use sticks to make a shop.  We had some lovely creations.

As the children also enjoy technology they had turns following the instruction cards to make our “bee bots” move in different directions.  Press this button one time to move forward or this button to go backwards. There is four buttons on mine “look it can go this way “  we learnt that this means it’s moving to the right or to the left.

We have all enjoyed our day in the discovery room. Let’s look out for shapes and sizes on our way home !

Digital Technology, Expressive Arts, Outdoor Learning

Exploring Wood

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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.

Digital Technology, Expressive Arts, Technologies

Developing our fine motor skills

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Today the children have been developing their fine motor skills in a variety of ways.

Fine motor skills is the coordination of small muscles in movement with the eyes, hands and fingers.


We played a game called ‘Pickle Pop’ where the children had to use their hand muscles by moving the pickle with their finger to pop the bubbles.

“ I have to move it over there to catch the bubble”


We put shaving foam on the light board and used our hands and  fingers to draw shapes and make patterns. This provides children with the opportunity to strengthen their hand muscles and hand eye coordination.

“ The thread goes  up and down ”

“ I made a line through it”

 

We spent some time at the mark making table where the children drew pictures, copied and continued shape and number patterns.

Digital Technology, Technologies

Our Maze Adventure

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Today in the Discovery room we have been busy learning about ‘what is a maze?’

We had a think about it and decided we should write down what we thought it was. 🤔 Here are some of our mind mapping ideas-

“It is round and you find your way out.”

”A maze is something you go in to.”

“You have to get in one way and another way out.”

The first thing we decided to do was look at different types of mazes and have a go trying to solve them out using our fingers to work our way around them and then we tried to follow it using our pens .

“These can be tricky!”

“Watch out for those dead ends!”


“My bee  is going to get the  flower”

We had so much fun exploring our mazes that we decided to create one for our Bee Bots, using our wooden blocks in a pattern.

First we created a route by using the wooden blocks to mark out the path. We used all our problem solving skills to identify and remove the blocks that wouldn’t work with our route until our maze was complete – not forgetting to add in some dead ends to make it a bit more tricky!

We placed the Bee Bots on the green circle that symbolised green is for go and start. The children pressed up, down, left, right buttons while counting the number of times the Bee Bot moved to direct him all the way through the maze.

The children had lots of fun and were developing their navigation, co-ordination, problem solving skills, social skills by taking turns and working as part of a team, following and giving instructions and developing their language skills by suggesting ideas and supporting each other. They also showed their ICT programming skills by programming the bee-bots to follow the route round their maze.

Why not give it a go at home, you can draw or make one and if you are lucky enough to have a remote control toy, you could see if it can get through the maze. We hope you have an a-mazing time!😊

Digital Technology, Technologies

Internet Safety

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Today in the Discovery Room the boys and girls have been learning about staying safe online. The children enjoy using the Promethean Board and are beginning to explore and investigate different things online so we decided we needed to find out how to stay safe while we were ‘surfing’.

We watched Hector’s World to help us learn about keeping our personal information safe, it is a very informative cartoon which helps us understand what internet safety means.


The children were very curious and discussed how Hector was able to stop his friend, the crab, from sending his personal information all the way across the ocean to lots of other creatures he didn’t really know, just to make new friends.

After the video we discussed that not everyone is your friend especially online. Even though people try to make friends with you, we don’t know everyone. Everyone spotted that Hector was a really good friend to crab as he suggested that crab should not to use his real name. Hector helped crab make up a user name to use which would keep him safer. Hector even knew not to let crab send his address to anyone he didn’t know.


We then discussed how we can keep safe on the internet. Some of the children said :
“We can ask our mummy’s and daddy’s or grown-ups to help us to keep safe on the computer”

“I have a password on my tablet so no one can play my games”
“My daddy has a password on his phone so I can’t get in”
“Passwords are used so we can keep our information safe”.

We discussed how some passwords are made up from our favourite names, colours and numbers so that we can remember them. We then decided to have a go at making our own favourite passwords up.
Look at our favourite passwords!

 
“Batman”

“Elsa“

Some were secrets ones so we can’t tell you 🤫

We had so much fun exploring and investigating how to keep personal information safe.
Why not visit Hectors World and his friends again at home and enjoy learning more on how to keep safe on the internet.

Digital Technology, Outdoor Learning

Hot and Cold “what happens ?”

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What happens to water when it’s freezing cold?
Freezing happens when molecules of liquid get so cold that they slow down enough to hook onto each other to form a solid crystal. We watched this happen in slow motion on our iPads.  It thought it looked like crocodiles, birds or leaves. We then made our own ice cubes, we poured the water into the trays and placed it in the freezer.

The ice cubes are sticky and cold. I see patterns inside them . They melt in my hand but they are still cold ..

That was something cold but what about hot things? What happens when you add heat to popcorn?

Popcorn pops because each kernel has a tiny bit of water inside it. When the kernels are heated up to the point where it exerts enough pressure, the kernel bursts open. The soft material inside puffs up as it explodes. This then cools and forms the odd shapes we know and love to eat.

The shapes got the children discussing some safety rules; “it is very hot”, “we wouldn’t touch it”. Then they started to chat about what shapes and textures had been produced. “Mine looks like a horse.”  “I found the seed, it is hard.” “My popcorn is crispy.”

As the popcorn comes from seeds we have decided to plant them and grow our own popcorn plant! We have put the seeds in the green house. Let’s see what happens next!

We have had a lot of fun today trying out our experiments for science week and learnt lots of new information. We have lots of different experiments to try out throughout the week and we cannot wait!

Digital Technology, Expressive Arts, Literacy, Technologies

Water Xylophone

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This week is Science Week and we will be exploring science themed experiences throughout all the different areas in each of the playrooms.

Today in our music area we made a water xylophone using some glass jars and food colouring.

We were developing our fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination as we used a pipette to pour the food colouring in to the jar after which, we added some water.

Once the children had added the water, they lined up all the jars and noticed that each jar had a different volume of water.

”that one is filled right to the top”

”the red one has just a little bit”

We used a beater on the jars to listen to the sounds it made.

”The blue one sounds really low and the red one sounds really high”

I asked if the children knew what made the sounds but they were unsure.

After searching the internet we learned that when we use the beater to tap the jar it causes sound waves which are vibrations that travel through the water to make the sound. When there is less water the pitch is higher.

We listened to the different pitches as we played our own music, we are going to collect some more jars to add lots of different sounds.

Digital Technology, Literacy, Social Studies, Technologies

Local Landmarks

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Today in the discovery room we looked at some different landmarks in and around Glasgow. We used the tablet, lap top and promethean board to search and look at popular landmarks we may have visited.

We demonstrated good listening when we sat together and discussed what we knew about the places we looked at. We were able to share stories of places we had visited with our families. Two of the most recognisable were the Clyde Arc which a few children recognised as the Squinty Bridge and one child shared with the group his own name for it – ‘The Scotland Bridge’. The other one being Kelvingrove Art Museum -“that is where you see a big dinosaur, but it only has bones”.

We took our findings and landmarks to our block area where we showed great team work when we re-created Kelvin Grove Art Museum using a variety of blocks of different shapes and sizes.

The children were extremely creative with their design and creation of the Cart Mill Kelvingrove! Perhaps they can display some of their own works of art in it!

Digital Technology, Literacy, Technologies

Bee Bots Navigation

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Today  in the Discovery Room the children have been enjoying playing with the Bee Bots robots. They have been developing their technology and navigation skills by learning the positional terms on the Bee Bots e.g the symbols: up, down, left,  right and green for go.

The children were trying to direct the Bee Bots onto the first letter of their name on the alphabet mat. They used their numeracy skills to count how many times the Bee Bots moved after pressing each symbol.


   
“Its on e“

“ I got it on l”

“ Its going on e”              
 
“ I got it on c”
  

After becoming comfortable with the navigation systems, we decided to do a follow up activity. The children raced the Bee Bots to see if they could push a ball over the finishing line.
During this the children developed their problem-solving skills by navigating a route and implementing it by pressing the symbols on the Bee bot in order to push the ball over the finish-line.


 
“ I got the football”
 

” my one crossed over the line ”

We had so much fun developing our navigation, fine motor, numeracy and literacy skills.
Why not give it a try at home with any electronic games, remote control, or a programmable toy.