Category Archives: Imaginative thinking

Creative movement, Imaginative thinking, Outdoor Learning

Ready steady balance

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The children have been very enthusiastic building their own obstacle course outdoors. The children have been working together as a team discussing where each piece Is going, sharing ideas and problem solving.

The children were then eager to trial their course and all took turns using their gross motor skill and balancing skills. The majority of the children  found this very easy and could quickly move around their course. They were still excited and decided and all followed each other round waiting patiently for others and helping one another.

Over the week we decided we  would add some extra bit to make it more challenging for some of the children. We added  various .objects etc ladders, elevating the planks so they could balancing walking up and down the ramp. stepping over the briidge. Some of the children were also able to stand on one leg  and balance while on the raised wooden plank.The children had to concentrate more and take their time to ensure the did not fall off and the crocodiles did not catch them.

 

This week some of our children went out into our local environment and met with St Joseph primary school to do litter picking to keep our local environment safe and clean. the children worked in pairs to hunt for rubbish using their litter pickers to pick gather all the rubbish. This was a great opportunity for some our children to be meet others from the school they will attend. We are so proud of the teamwork and our children helping to look after our environment.

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Block building, Creativity, Imaginative thinking, life cycles, Mindful moments, nature, Outdoor Learning

Working with Nature in the Cartmill Garden 🪴

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The last few weeks in the garden have been so busy and very exciting. We had the pleasure of a visit from Carolside Primary 7 pupils who brought some bird houses to paint with our children. They also spent time playing with our boys and girls and were shown round our lovely new garden.

The girls and boys were also busy building a bug 🐛 hotel using their construction and problem solving skills. The best part is looking everyday to see who may have checked in.

Another visitor to the nursery was a teacher from Williamwood High School . She spoke to the children about the bees 🐝 that they keep and spoke about different types of bees , how they gather pollen and make honey. She kindly brought a bee suit and smoker for us to see and we even got to try on a bee suit which keeps you safe when working with the bees 🐝.

In the garden we have been  we have been working with our willow sticks. We had some help to cut up the branches then used them for the bug hotel, painting and weaving  sticks to hang on our “fairy tree”.

When  playing in the garden we are alway looking out for signs of nature.  Very exciting was a wasps nest being built in one of our bird house we had a careful look then removed it to a safe space.

Finally we are continuing to care for our plants 🌱 and vegetables 🥕 and watching them grow.

The girls and boys have really enjoyed the last few weeks in the garden and we are looking forward to celebrating National Bee Day on the 20th May.

Article -Children have a right to be outdoors and explore.

Creativity, Expressive Arts, Imaginative thinking, nature

Earth Day 2026

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Wednesday marked Earth Day 2026 so within the STEAM room we have spent this week learning more about our planet. We started by making the planet in a variety of creative ways- playdough, gloop and collage.

We also created the earth by colouring in the sea on a paper plate then planting cress seeds on the cotton wool to represent the countries. We had lots of chat about the different countries everyone has visited on their holidays.

Then we made something to help look after our planet. We cut the paper from the recycling bin and soaked it in green and blue water for two days before draining the water away. We took a small amount of paper and created a well to place some wild flower seeds inside then we squeezed any excess water away and rolled it into a ball so it looked just like Earth. The boys and girls are very excited to plant the seed bombs in their gardens or plant pots at home.

UNCRC Article 13- You have the right to find out things and say what you think through making art, speaking and writing.

Block building, Creativity, Expressive Arts, Imaginative thinking, Mindful moments

Marching through the month

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In the STEAM room this month we have been very busy.

In the block area we have been planning, building, problem solving which has resulted in some great ideas. We have had dens, castles and even a bowling alley.

At the sensory table the favourite activity has been slime . This is great for developing strength in our hands and finger muscles while promoting language “this is stretchy” or cold ,soft,  “ look how long it is”.  We also had fun with corn starch and water !

As March was world book day the children chose to recreate the Hungry Caterpillar Story. They painted ,glued , decorated and did some mark making which gave us a beautiful wall display.

At the science table we had magnets . The boys and girls discovered what could be lifted by a magnetic force and some items that you were not able to lift “Why”. We also had a look at “magic water” and how it made the pen ink expand we had some lovely rainbows 🌈.

Our art area is always a popular area and the children experience lots of fun learning skills . Fine motor,sensory, design, imagination they enjoy chatting to each other, sharing resources and producing great art works they are very proud of as are we.

Lets spring into April and see some more wonderful creations.

Article – We have the right to play and create our own ideas.

 

 

 

Baking, Creative movement, Imaginative thinking, Literacy

Weekly round up- Home Room

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Welcome back and a happy new year to everyone!
We have started the new year with some new dressing up clothes in the home corner and the children are loving it! There is so much imaginative play and children co-ordinating who will play which role with each other, creating a wonderful language rich environment.

We have been developing our writing skills at the literacy table by tracing letters on the trays. With Helen’s encouragement, our pre-schoolers are encouraged to recognise and copy the letter cards on the table and our younger learners can engage in pre-writing skills by making circular patterns.

The baking area has transformed into the cooking corner and Gail has been making soup with the children. Just what you need in this weather! The children have been learning how to keep themselves safe while using reals tools and are also learning about measuring and new language specific to cooking.

In the story corner, Eilidh and the children have been re-telling familiar stories. The children have enjoyed using the puppets and taking ownership of the story so much that we created a puppet theatre for them to share the stories to an audience. The favourite stories this week have been The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Goldilocks, The Smartest Giant in Town and Jack and the Beanstalk.

Article 29 (goals of education)- Education must develop every child’s
personality, talents and abilities to the full.

Creative movement, Creativity, Imaginative thinking, Outdoor Learning

Wild animals in action!

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All things wild and wonderful has been a continuing theme in our garden this week! We love small world play and are always keen to introduce our favourite animals, figures and vehicles! Small world play is a fantastic way to develop our imagination, creativity and problem solving skills.  We loved one of our friend t-shirts and this sparked the idea to explore wild animals! Delving into our resources we discovered elephants, tigers, gorillas, rhinos, tigers and lions “the king of the jungle!”

One of our favourite books is Rumble in the Jungle and we had so much fun retelling  the story using our animals, adding a “roar for the lion”, “oooh-oooh, aah-aah like the monkey”,  and our favourite actions for the elephant, chimpanzee and sssssssssnake!

We shared our experiences of visiting “Edinburgh zoo” “the safari park” and chatted about the animals we had seen and which were our favourites. Taking turns, we discussed our favourite animals and shared our fantastic knowledge about the features of each animal!
“the elephant has a trunk, it drinks the water and then spits it out all over its head, like a shower”. “The lion was sleeping and it did a big roar”, the giraffe has a big long neck. It doesn’t have any hands so it uses its big long tongue to eat leaves on the tree. It’s tongue is blue, like my top!”

Next we decided to move like our favourite animals! We agreed that the giraffe is “very tall so we have to reach up to the sky, on our tippy toes”, “the hippo rolls in the mud, like this”, “the crocodile snaps like this”, and the cheetah runs really fast”.


We demonstrated that we can hold balance in various shapes when moving, are aware of and can control our personal space and body parts when moving, perform basic movements such as jumping, hopping and running and move different parts of our bodies at different speeds.

The weather may have been wild but we have had a wonderful time and had so much fun, ROAR!

Article 29: I have the right to an education which develops my personality, traits and abilities.

Creative movement, Creativity, Expressive Arts, Imaginative thinking, Literacy, music, Social Studies

Fun in the pond

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Come and see some of the things we got up to today.

The children have been expressing themselves with the paint, using their large motor skills to create their ideas on the shiny tinfoil and seeing how the colours mix together to create new ones .


“My hands are orange”

We have been using our nursery rhymes to recognise colours, make choices and take turns. The children each chose a coloured disc which has a nursery rhyme on the back (eg. Red disc = The wheels on the bus) to sing together.

“My favourite is Twinkle Twinkle”

The  children mixed together all the ingredients to make play dough, learning to follow simple instructions and develop their gross motor skills as they stir. They added blue paint to add colour and explored the textures and feelings using their senses.

“It feels sticky”

Finally we played parachute games, using our large muscles to move the parachute up and down working together as team to make it move. We sang some songs and sat under the parachute before doing sleeping bunnies.

 

Creative movement, Creativity, Expressive Arts, Imaginative thinking, nature, Outdoor Learning

Our Exciting Garden 🪴

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Our garden has been very busy and we have especially enjoyed the better weather over the last few days. Playing outdoors allows children develop self-confidence, independence and self-esteem. Their physical health improves through exercise and vitamin D, enhanced mental well-being, better sleep quality and increased social interaction and development.
Of course we are just having lots of fun !!
We have enjoyed developing our obstacle course adding on extra challenges ….

”round and round gets me dizzy”

How many steps to get to the bridge ?

The boys and girls had great fun on be a Pirate day ….

We used our creativity and problem solving skills to build a pirate ship …..

Ooh arrrgh if the pirates caught you they would make you walk the plank into shark infested waters

In the water tray the water had turned red “my hands are red when they are under the water. We did lots of poring and filling to get rid of our Red Sea 🌊

Finally we have been enjoying some theatre shows on the Cartmill stage showing off our creativity, imagination and acting skills along with some great singing .

After such a busy few days we are all ready for our holiday weekend which we hope you all enjoy.

Article – Children have the right to play and explore their outdoor environment.

Creative movement, Creativity, Expressive Arts, Imaginative thinking, life cycles, Mindful moments, nature, Outdoor Learning

Days in the Garden 🪴

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In the garden this week during sunshine and showers we have been very busy.

The girls and boys have expressed their artistic skills with some great art work on our giant easel. They picked colours of paint , mixed some colours and had lots of fun  creating giant pieces of art.  This type of play  will help the children develop large muscle use as well as co ordination and balance.

At the obstacle course the girls and boys were developing their balancing skills. It was lovely to see the children offering to help each other when they had a bit of a wobble  !  They were also encouraging each other “ put your arms out it will help”.

During the wet days we ask the children to put on their wellies and puddle suits “with a little help” to help them develop their independence. When all suited up we have great fun running and jumping into the puddles. Some of the children were keen to make bigger puddles and cleverly notice if they collected the rain water from the pipes they could add it to their puddles .

In the garden we have been looking at the Life Cycle of the sun flower. In spring the children had planted seeds and watched them grow learning that they required to be watered and also grew more in the sunshine. As the sunflowers have now finished flowering  we have picked them and started harvesting the seeds ready for re planting next spring. Pulling out the seeds gives the children an opportunity to develop their fine motor skills and hand eye co-ordination skills.

Finally this week we decided just to have fun with the soil . This gives us the opportunity to  explore using our senses “ it’s softer than sand”  I think it “feels cold” well it smells like “a farm”. It can make mud pie castles and I will squash mine down !. Being in the garden  helps reduce stress levels, improve mood and enhance self esteem whilst also being a good form of exercise.

We are looking forward to next week in the garden as we explore our outdoors.

Article – We have a  right to learn and explore outdoors.

Creativity, Expressive Arts, French, Froebel, Imaginative thinking, nature, Outdoor Learning

Great Garden Adventures – fun the sun ☀️

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Bonjour every one. It’s been a great start to our new term in our garden. The sun has been shining and we have been taking part in lots of outdoor activities.

We are so pleased to see our returning children back again and also to meet lots of new friends who have joined us at Cart Mill. We had lots of happy faces this week.

In our garden this week we have been adapting some of our areas. We have our mud kitchen where we have added a table, chairs, jugs, pots and pans. We have also added in a water jug for children to self select some water to enhance their role play experience.

We haven’t got a name for our mud kitchen yet. I wonder what we will call it…..

In our gross motor art area we have been exploring pouring, filling and colour mixing using large apparatus and loose parts. We enjoyed using the watering cans to pour the coloured water down the guttering and watch the colours mixing together at the end. We kept fixing the guttering when we had a “leak in the system” we had to work fast to fix it.

We changed our story area to give us a cosy comfortable area to share stories with friends. We love choosing our stories and the most comfortable cushion to sit on.

In our Planting area we have been exploring the seeds of the sunflowers that we had grown. By dissecting the sunflowers and removing the seeds, it allows us to replant them again and grow more sunflowers.

We have loved our stage where we have been dressing up and putting on shows for our audience. We have had lots of renditions of “let it go”.

We have enjoyed our small world areas where we have had mini beasts, farm and sea animals to play with. The children liked the sea animals the best. We made our very own “aquarium”.

We have been mark making at our writing area. We have been making treasure maps and hunting for the X that marks the spot. We have been using our imagination to become pirates searching for the lost treasure, following the clues on our maps.

In our Water area we have continued our pouring and filling and used both large and small piplets to transport water. We’ve enjoyed water play in our warm weather.

In our construction area we have been using the polydron to build wonderful creations such as dens and houses. We added loose parts and material to bring our creations to life. We worked together to problem solve and share our design process.

At our Muddy movers area we have been building and creating our own obstacles course. We have been discussing how to stay safe and risk asses our play.  We have enjoyed balancing, climbing and jumping. The children are enjoying adding different challenge to our obstacle courses.

It’s been so much fun I wonder what will will get up to next week.
Au revior everyone