Category Archives: Literacy

Literacy

World Book Day

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We have had lots of fun celebrating World Book Day here at Cart Mill!

We sang our favourite songs and rhymes such a Twinkle Twinkle, Incy Wincy Spider,  Wheels on the Bus and Humpty Dumpty during Book Bug with Emma and Gail.

We had to work together as a team to keep Incy Wincy Spider up in the air! We were so excited to guess what was inside the box and which song we would sing next!

We did lots of bending and stretching following the actions of Head, Shoulders, Knees andToes and Peter Hammer with Gail.

Thank you so much to our parents and children who recorded their favourite stories to share with us.  We really enjoyed watching them on our big screen!

Gail read us a lovely story called the Wonderful World of Weather.  We have chatted about our favourite stories and read some of our favourite books.

Our budding authors have created some potato characters and stories of their own.  Other children have made their favourite characters from books. How many can you recognise?

 

 

Literacy, Snack, Special Event

Pancake 🥞 Day

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Today is pancake day and the children were very excited to make pancakes for snack. We had a look at our recipe and gathered together our ingredients. The children had a look at the numbers on the scales and jug to make sure we measured the correct quantities.  We then added everything together and used the whisk to blend it into a smooth, runny consistency ready for cooking.

We had some fun tossing our pancakes in the air and catching them in our pan.  This helped develop their hand and eye coordination skills and also  their balance.  We also enjoyed our Bookbug session with stories and a few renditions of “pop a little pancake into the pan”.

At snack time the children chose what they would like to have on their pancakes. We had bananas, strawberries, raspberries or lemon juice.  “This was a great snack”. There was lots off discussion amongst the children about who had pancakes for breakfast today . This social time helps the children with language and taking turns during the conversation. “Hope my mummy makes pancakes tonight “ .

The children asked if they could make more pancakes in the afternoon. It had been such a long time since we had cooked pancakes on the fire we asked Val and Fiona if they would light the fire. It was a big yes so we spent the afternoon in the sun, around the fire pit having… MORE PANCAKES!

The children watched as the pancakes turned from a liquid into a solid and commented on the bubbles!

‘We can see bubbles! That means they’re ready to turn!’

Literacy

People who can help us

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We do love a story here at Cart Mill! Our favourite story today was about Emergency Services and people who could help us.  In particular, the children enjoyed hearing about fire engines.

We chatted about the colour of the fire engine and the sound it makes in an emergency!!!

We love to role play so we found some firemen puppets and used them to re-enact the story.  We were able to discuss what we think firemen do and what we would do if we were firemen!

We love to sing at Cart Mill. Gail taught us 5 little firefighters standing in a row. We were able to sing along and add in our own actions.

Why don’t you sing the song at home!

5 little firefighters standing in a row

1,2,3 swoosh swoosh they go

hop on the engine with a shout

quicker than a wink and the fire is out!!!!

We may have plenty of future fire fighters from Cartmill 🧑🏼‍🚒

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Expressive Arts, Literacy

Dough Disco!

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Welcome to the Dough Disco.

The dough disco is a fun way for our children to combine play dough and a series of hand and finger exercises designed to improve fine muscle control.  These exercises help prepare for writing  and pencil control.

Today the children chose Let It Go for our disco song.
Our first move was “squeeze”. We used each hand one at a time to warm up our hands.

Next move was “ball it” we had to use the palm of our hands to roll the playdough into a ball.

Next was “smack it”. We had to use our hands to smack the playdough flat into our other hand.

Up next was “single fingers” we had to take each of our fingers one by one and press them onto the playdough.

Lastly we made a “sausage” we had to roll the playdough  between our hands.

Each dough disco move was in time to our music and the experience lasts as long as the song does. It’s a quick fun way to strengthen our finger muscles. It’s harder than it looks!
Why don’t you have a go at your very own Dough Disco at home.

Expressive Arts, Literacy, Outdoor Learning

Nature walk between showers!!

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Today we had a very interesting nature walk! Our mission was to collect leaves and acorns of all different shapes and sizes.
However,  the first thing we spotted on our walk was was two little ducks! We thought this was very exciting as they were running around so close to our nursery!

The children noticed the ducks were different colours and spotted a duck pond for them! (A very large puddle!!)

“They are shouting quack, quack!”    “They are so cute!”
“I love the ducks!”     “They came to our nursery!”

We continued on our walk and the children managed to find lots of leaves and pine cones.  They found both green leaves and brown leaves. They climbed small hills to reach the leaves they wanted.

When we were walking back to nursery  the children spotted a big muddy puddle which, of course, they just had to jump in!! They had so much fun seeing how high they could jump and how big a splash they could make!

”I made a great big splash!”      “The water feels so cold on me!”

Once we got back to nursery we did some printing with our leaves using different coloured paint. The children noticed that the different leaves made different patterns on the paper! We also dipped our pine cones in paint and rolled them across the paper to create some nice patterns.

Whilst making some amazing pictures with the materials we gathered, the children were developing their gross motor skills and had great conversations about their outing! What a fun morning we had!

Literacy, Social Studies

Busy Builders

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All go this morning in the construction corner but safety first! We ensured we had our high viz jackets and goggles on and most importantly our checklist. We had a discussion on why we wear protective clothing and complete checklists to ensure our safety for ourselves and others around us…

The children took time to design what they would like to build using clipboards, paper, rulers and pens. Then we got to work, we looked around at different blocks shapes and sizes.

The children built their own creations from the variety of resources on offer to them and then worked together as a group expanding their ideas to create a big castle using their imagination. During this time the children were using mathematical language such as taller, smaller, long and short,  The children demonstrated good communication skills when sharing ideas. They also shared equipment and worked together, passing blocks to each other.

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.

Literacy

How measurement can help us !

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Today in our baking area we decided to investigate how measurement helps us with our recipes. We had a look at our measuring cups . They were all different sizes so firstly we put them in a line biggest to smallest. We discovered that the biggest cup can hold lots of smaller ones.
We counted as we filled up the bowls with water. “Oh this is getting heavy” . “This bowl is full now” . “We cannot pour it back into a smaller bowl now as it will spill”. “I think it sounds like a waterfall when it goes over the sides “.

We then has a look at our scales and how we use them. We filled different sizes of cups and put them on the scales. We discovered the bigger the cup the higher number on the scale.

“Look mine is lots of numbers !”  We had a look at our recipes and matched the cups to the quantity we would require.

We had lots of fun with the flour creating shapes using the cups and bowls. The girls and boys were very creative making hand prints and creating shapes.

“ look I made a diamond”

We made different size spheres using the measuring cups. We enjoyed a little bit of a “snow storm”  and then a bit of clearing up, which all the boys and girls helped with.

Well done everyone!

Literacy, Outdoor Learning, Trips and Outings

Outdoor Sensory Area

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We have decided to create a sensory area in our garden. We made a list of all natural resources that we could collect when on our local walk. We all helped to collect stones, sticks, leaves and pinecones.
“
“I found a big stone, let’s put it in the bag.”

Once back from our walk we made labels so that we could sort the loose parts into a section each.

The children then had fun working together to match and sort.

“We’re almost finished.”

”We need to collect more stones.”

Our sensory area is beginning to take shape and we have lots of great ideas for different natural resources we could collect to add to it.

Literacy

Bookbug, stories, puppets and fun!

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Today Bookbug came to nursery to share some rhymes, stories and songs with the children.

We stretched, pulled and moved the lycra to make our toys bounce up so high in the air! We had lots of fun singing 1,2,3,4,5, Humpty Dumpty and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. We had to be very careful not to let them fall off the Lycra (we’ll need to practice this 😀)

We enjoyed reading the story of Little Red Riding Hood. We had so much fun using puppets to retell the story ourselves.

Bookbug supports the development of children’s language and vocabulary, turn taking, being with our friends and being involved by choosing the songs and story.

It’s always fun when Bookbug comes to nursery!😀