Category Archives: Literacy

Literacy

Bubbly fun washing our babies!

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Today in the Home room the children were asking to wash their babies and their babies’ clothes! We got basins of water and added lots of bubbles to make it fun for our babies. We got some sponges and towels ready! First, we had to take off the clothes that the babies were wearing!

Then it was time for the fun part! Using the sponges, we gave our babies a lovely clean!

We tried very hard to keep the babies faces out of the water.

”I have lots of bubbles in my bath!”

”I have a baby sister!”

The children loved the feeling of the water and the bubbles running through their fingers. This can be very relaxing for some children.

”My baby is all cleaned and sparkly now!”

Once the babies were washed the children dried them with the towels.  They all took great care when doing this.

The children wanted to wash some of the babies clothes that looked dirty! They used soapy water and dipped the clothes in, they gave them a good squeeze at the end to get all the water out!

Some of the children wanted to put some clothes into the washing machine to get them clean!

”I have one of these in my kitchen!”

Now that we had a big pile of wet clothes the children hung them, on the washing line to dry! We enjoyed using our fine motor skills to squeeze the pegs!

“I help my Mummy with the pegs at home!”

The children left the washing to dry, put clean clothes on their babies and gave them lots of cuddles.

This is such a great activity which the children really enjoy doing.  The role play helps the children to make sense of the world around them by re-enacting what they see their parents doing. This also helps to develop their social, emotional and verbal skills whilst having great fun!

Expressive Arts, Literacy

More than just a box………

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What is a box? Is it just something to keep things in? Not according to our very clever creative children in the junk modelling area.


We have been so pleased with all your donations for our junk modelling area. We love turning an ordinary box into something completely different, creative and unique.

Today our children picked a box and I asked “what would you like to make?

We worked as a team to cut the box in half so we could share with our friend.

We discussed with our friends what we were designing.

One of our children was using his writing skills to paint their name on their box.

Another child was practicing his speed painting wondering how quickly he could paint the box.

One of our children seen a familiar face on one of the boxes. “Look it’s Bookbug can I paint it?”

Some of our children wanted to add things to their box. Using different boxes to create more detailed models.

Some children used the boxes to cut up and use parts of them to add to their masterpieces.

And of course we had to have a high speed chase in the police cars we made. It was the most fun in our studio room.

So as you can see, a box is not just a box.

Literacy, Outdoor Learning

Sewing the seeds… (of potatoes)

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Today we decided to grow some potatoes! We rolled two tyres from the top of the garden all the way to the bottom practising our hand to eye co-ordination and balance. We put some top soil into the tyres and covered up the potatoes.


We wrote potatoes on our tyres practising our mark making skills.

We enjoyed planting the potatoes so we made a seed station, an area that the children could self select a pot and gardening tool and plant a seed to put into the green house to grow.

We made our own label so we could recognise our pot when we looked after our seeds, nurturing them to continue in their life cycle.

We hope our seeds will grow as well as our cucumber, tomatoes and peppers.

Article 28 You have the right to education.

Expressive Arts, Literacy, Outdoor Learning, Social Studies, Technologies

New and improved wormery

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Following on from our last up-cycling project, we can now say we have finished fixing our broken wormery.

The children have worked so hard over the past couple of weeks using the tools and their problem solving skills to put it back together. They worked as a team to decide what they would use and what tools would work best.

“This small bit is too small”

“ We could use this long piece of wood on the side”

“we need a little nail and a hammer to put it on we don’t want to break the wood in half”

“What does this do? it has a bubble in it”

We learned that the spirit level indicates whether a surface is ‘Level’ or ‘plumb’.

“What does plumb mean?” We researched it and found out that ”Plumb means that the surface is sitting straight, it is vertical” This meant that we could check the sides were running straight up and down. We also used the spirit level to check the wormery was level across the top and bottom. We found out this is horizontal!

Every tinker table experience is different, even if it seems the same. We learn new vocabulary every day and learn skills that we can transfer into our everyday life, especially as we get older.

Using a wormery for compost is an easy and environmentally-friendly way of turning food waste in to nutritious compost to feed your garden.

Now we just need find some worms to come and live in it and make up its bedding! 🐛

Literacy, Special Event

Cart Mill School

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The children have been very excitedly discussing starting school which sparked us to create a little school in our role play area. The children have been really enjoying playing the role of the teacher, taking the register and making sure everyone has ordered their lunch.

We are enjoying packing our bags, getting dressed up and practising writing letters.

We have even created our own school rules. We decided the most important one was ‘Listen to the teacher’!

A big thank you to the parents who donated bags, pencil cases and uniforms to make this possible for the children 👍

UNCRC- Article 29- You have the right to education which tries to develop your personality and abilities as much as possible.

Literacy, Snack

Rhyme Time

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The children have recently been enjoying reading rhyming stories and singing nursery rhymes during Bookbug so we have added some more rhyming resources to the story corner.

Our younger children are learning new nursery rhymes and playing instruments while singing along and our pre-school children are starting to learn to distinguish sounds. Nursery rhymes are a great way to learn early phonic skills and build a child’s vocabulary.

Today we have played rhyming pairs and the children were great at taking turns, helping each other to find the cards and even suggesting other words that rhyme.


We also played a game of rhyming partners where the children walk around the room with their picture card and find a friend that has the rhyming card.
We continued to rhyme while having  snack, making up words that rhyme with what we were eating;

cucumber- boocumber

apple- snapple

melon- Ellon

After snack Gail decided to host a Bookbug session in the garden. Twinkle, twinkle chocolate bar definitely being the favourite song!

Please remember to check the annual calendar for dates you can attend Bookbug sessions at nursery with your child.

UNCRC Article 15- You have the right to be with friends.

Literacy, Outdoor Learning

We’re Going on a Book Hunt

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Today we took a trip to the library to return some books and also to choose new ones. We are focusing on rhyming in the story corner this month so we chose a book full of nursery rhymes and also a story which rhymes. While at the library, Peter read us a story about a cat and we had to help choose the cat’s name by giving a thumbs up or a thumbs down. He ended up being called Tricky because he was tricky to name!

We also learned how to use the special machine to check in and check out books.

On the way back to nursery we decided to go through the forest to collect sticks for throwing over the bridge. We spotted a huge hole in the ground and thought maybe a bear would live in there! 🐻

We have decided to find books about bears on our next visit to the library.

Check out the website for your local library as they are running lots of family and special events during the school holidays.

Expressive Arts, Literacy, music, Special Event

Singing along with Grandpa.

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Today at Cart Mill we had a very special visitor. We had Grandpa Tommy who came along with his guitar to sing songs with our children.

We sang lots of songs such as Twinkle, twinkle, 5 little ducks, 1,2,3,4,5, Baby shark and lots more. He even took requests we had Yellow submarine and How much is that doggy in the window.

We all joined in and sang along. We even remembered all the actions to our songs.
At the end of our singing session we each choose and instrument to play and chose twinkle twinkle again as our last song.

Singing is a great way for our children to engage with music and learn lots new skills and vocabulary.
A huge thank you to Grandpa Tommy for coming in as part of our intergenerational project.
We have another mummy who is coming in to play piano and sing with us. We are very excited about this.

My name is Emma and as part of my Froebel in Childhood Practice course I’ve been set a challenge to promote a Froebelian approach within Cart Mill.
My project is “a Froebel Approach to intergenerational links within the community.”  As part of my project we will be reconnecting the link with Bonnyton house in the next few weeks to share stories etc with the older generation and continue our links with Williamwood High School after the summer.

We would love to invite any parents/carers/grandparents to come in to take part in any sessions or show case any talents within our nursery children. Are you good at baking? gardening? arts? Or can you spare half an hour to read a story with us? Thank you in advance and look forward to welcoming you in.

 

Literacy

Safety checks with the children.

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Within our Cart Mill Hospital, we have been talking about how to keep ourselves safe.  The boys and girls are able to identify and describe people who can help us in an emergency. We decide to have a look round the nursery to identify things that keep us safe as well as simple ways of avoiding accidents.

When we arrive at nursery our parents and carers ring the buzzer, Janet will let us in and mark on the register that we are in the building.

We sometimes have a fire alarm practice where we have to leave the building. We spotted the exit signs, the fire extinguishers, which can only be used by adults or fire agents and a special trolley to put small children in or children who need help with mobility to safely move them out the nursery.

When the alarm goes off we follow the adults who are wearing safety vests so we can see them clearly. We go through the gate and away from the nursery to keep safe.

There are other ways to stay safe in Cart Mill. At lunch time we wash our hands, front and back, to clean away the germs. In the kitchen we have a safety gate which we cannot go through as the hot ovens are on the other side. We have a fire blanket which our catering staff can use if there is a very small fire 🔥. If we put out our yellow wet floor sign it means we need to be very careful as the floor maybe slippy.

At the front entrance we have sun cream for everyone to use on our sunny days to stop our skin being damaged by the sun. We also have helpful leaflets about how to keep safe. In each of our playrooms we have a first aid box which we sometimes need when we fall or have a bump. We use sterile wipes and plasters and sometimes need a cool pack from the fridge to put on any bumps.

The children also spotted “Santa’s camera” in a lot of the rooms 🤤 or maybe they could be the alarm sensors!
At the end of our nursery day when we leave the nursery we must let the staff or parents press the exit button as we would not like any of our lovely children to get out by accident.

Keep safe and remember to let us know if you see any safety signs when you are out and about.

Article 11 -You have the right to be protected.

Literacy

Flash Card Fun 🤩👍

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Today the children have enjoyed exploring their numeracy and literacy skills in nursery.  They showed excellent shape recognition, which they highlighted through some fun numeracy games…

“Triangles got 3 sides. Look, 1 2 3!”

 

Some  children enjoyed sorting them into groups, finding all the matching shapes and some even noticed a pattern…

“There’s only 3 pentagons. We need to find another one!”

Some of our children had lots of fun exploring the letter flash cards,  and could even identify familiar letters to spell out their names..

Some children used the pictures as context clues if they were unfamiliar with the letters, trying to guess what it said. “I for igloo. That’s in my name!”

The children have enjoyed developing their numeracy and literacy skills through these flash card games, and had lots of fun looking at all the funny pictures on the cards too. Maybe next time we can make our very own flash cards!

Keep up the great work everybody 🤩👍