Category Archives: nature

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.

Baking, Creativity, nature, Outdoor Learning

Busy Bakers

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Welcome to our mud kitchen! We have had so much fun being busy bakers and creative chefs. We have introduced some new resources to enrich our play and the children have loved exploring everything!

We have added lots of things you would find in a kitchen including; mugs, bowls, plates, pots and baking tins as well as lots of kitchen utensils. The children had helped to choose the resources from the catalogue so they were very excited when they arrived.

Before we could open our cafe, we had to decide on a name. Everyone came up with ideas before we voted for Rainbow Cafe!

For our first masterchef experience in our cafe we used our senses to make various cakes, soup, spaghetti bolognaise and lots of other delicious recipes. We looked at our fruity ingredients and we felt them between our fingers, then we explored the different smells, such as lemon, lime and orange. The children talked about their favourite scent and said that lime was the most popular.

The children showed great imagination and, using their mark making skills, took orders to give through to the chefs who were busy creating the orders, squeezing the juices from the fruits and stirring the ingredients together.

Everybody is most welcome at the Rainbow Cafe, you can find us in Cart Mill garden, open 5 days a week! Bon appetit!

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

Creativity, Froebel, Imaginative thinking, Literacy, nature

Clay Play

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The children have been exploring the great benefits of clay since returning to nursery after the holidays.

Clay modelling helps to spark the brain’s creativity and problem solving skills.  The children have been expressing their thoughts and emotions through the clay modelling, boosting their imagination and creativity.

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”The mermaids are stuck in the mud”

Some of the younger children begin by exploring the texture of the clay and quickly realised the imaginative aspects of clay play.

“Ice Cream”

The children squeeze and pinch the clay with their hands, helping to develop their fine motor skills.

“I’m making a snowman.”

The clay provides lots of play based learning, as the children count and sort materials when decorating their clay.

“1,2,3,4……..”

The children use a variety of tools when using clay such as rolling pins and wooden and metal clay tools, ensuring that they keep themselves and others safe when using the tools.

The tools allow the children to roll, cut and make patterns in the clay.

As the children develop their clay skills, they can roll clay into balls to make clay lollipops.

The clay provides a great opportunity for children to express detail in their artwork.

“This is my dog”.

We even created our own Cart Mill Forest!

The clay is a fantastic social activity as the children share ideas and learn from one another.

UNCRC Article 31 Every child has the right to relax and play.

 

Creativity, emotional literacy, Expressive Arts, Froebel, Imaginative thinking, Literacy, nature

Superworm at Book Week Scotland 2024

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Last week in our playdough area we were celebrating Book Week Scotland by reading “Superworm”.

Engaging with our favourite stories and finding joy in reading helps to strengthen our children’s literacy skills and comprehension abilities whilst having fun. Reading books with our children also helps them to enhance their cognitive abilities such as memory retention, critical thinking and problem solving.

Today we had the curiosity cube in our playdough area and who was inside? Our very own Superworm!

We made pink playdough and had a go at creating our very own Superworm. We used some of our dough disco moves we have been practicing to help us roll the playdough into a sausage to make our Superworm .

We found some googly eyes and some sticky stickers to add to our Playdough just like the real Superworm .

We enjoyed making our Superworm and some of our children even wanted to make lots of friends for Superworm.

We counted them as we made them, promoting our numeracy learning through our play experiences.

Our older children wanted to make different characters from the story. Some children chose their favourite baby toad to create.

We decided to retell the story of Superworm using our playdough creations.  Some of us decided to change the story and create their own.

We had Super worm with his friends, Superworm saving the princess in the castle, Superworm with the zoo animals and Superworm the flying worm.

We shared our ideas with our friends and discussed different characters and events in our story. Storytelling provokes conversations between our children of different ages and stages of development.

Here is a look at some of our own Superworms.

We read the story of Superworm and used Superworm and one of our playdough toads to help retell the story.

“Superworm is super long.”

”Superworm is super strong.”

“watch him wiggle.”

”see him squirm.”

”Hip hip hooray for Superworm.”

I wonder what characters from our favourite stories will be in our curiosity cube tomorrow?  Don’t forget to help yourself to a book at our front door to share with your children at home as part of our Book week Scotland.

Creativity, Imaginative thinking, Literacy, nature, Snack

Super Soup

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As part of celebrating all things autumnal, the children have been experimenting in making soup using seasonal vegetables.

During this activity the children were developing their gross motor skills when peeling and chopping the vegetables.

Firstly, the children peeled the carrots and parsnips.  The children are using their problem solving skills when using the peeler.

“This is white and this orange”

Then they chopped the vegetables into small chunks, so that we could cook them.  The children are developing their confidence when using the knife.

“I did it!”

Once the vegetable mix was chopped and washed, we added it to the soup pot with stock cubes and boiling water to cook.

The children were able to sample the soup at snack time and we discussed the taste, temperature, and texture of the soup.  Children learn with their senses and during this activity, they were able to enhance their communication, language and social skills.


“It’s good”.  “It’s hot”. “Yummy”.  “I don’t like it”

This cooking activity allowed the children to develop a healthy relationship with food and be more adventurous by sampling different tastes.

The children were able to feel competent and were proud of their ability to get involved in preparing the soup mix.  This also benefits the children from a nutrition, growth and development perspective.

The soup making allowed the children to explore their curiosity about the vegetables they were preparing (carrots, parsnips, butternut squash) and ask questions.

UNCRC Article 27 children have the right to food.

 

 

Creative movement, Creativity, Digital Technology, Expressive Arts, Literacy, Mindful moments, nature, Outdoor Learning, Social Studies, Special Event

Garden roundup

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It’s been a busy week for us in the garden. We are developing our motor skills in a variety of ways.


This simple but effective experience enabled the children to experiment with colour mixing as well as developing their fine motor and early writing skills as they made marks on the foil using different  tools.

“ The blue got on the yellow and now the yellow looks a bit green”.

“I making fireworks”


The fireworks have really grabbed the children’s attention and been the topic of conversation. Throwing the powder paint on the ground sparked an idea. “The ground is black like the sky at night”

They threw lots of different colours on the ground and used small and large items to move and redirect the paint in different shapes and patterns.


Learning how to move our bodies in different ways to develop our gross motor skills and mark making skills has been so much fun.

We filled some tights with different materials such as sponges, pasta, pom poms and balls and used them to create a piece of art. This allowed the children to explore descriptive language as they figured out how to make marks on the foil.

“The pasta is spikey”

“ This one is really heavy I had to spin round and round to get the paint up there”

“ I want to get it to the top so I have to stretch my legs and stand on my tiptoes and do a big jump”

To end the week we thought it would be a good idea to begin learning about Remembrance Day and why we mark this as a special day. We watched a short child friendly video about the Poppy and decided to create our own.
The children used cut up potatoes and loose parts to make marks on the paper to create a lovely picture.

“ My dad wears a poppy for all the soldiers”

“ We can put purple on it too to remember the Animals”

Creativity, nature

Autumn treasure in the Clay area

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Here at Cart Mill we know our children like to find little treasures when out and about. This week we have asked the children to collect some autumn treasure.  This could be from a local park, woods or simply in your garden.

Our children have not disappointed us and have come in with bags full of leaves, sticks and twigs. These will be used as we explore the changing seasons through a variety of different experiences.

Today at the clay area we started off using the sticks and conkers to make marks in the clay.   We discovered the conkers were smooth and some were very shiny. As we presses the conkers into the clay some of the children discovered that they looked like eyes. This naturally followed onto making some spooky faces.

As the children explore the clay they discussed their own experiences and shared their knowledge of autumn.

“My mummy and I went on a autumn hunt and I found an acorn it had a little top on it”

“It’s autumn today and all the leaves are falling off, falling down, falling down”

”There’s a seedling in the ground”

”it’s smooth”

The conker shell and the pine cone made lot of little holes when we rolled it over the clay. We also discovered some of the branches of the tree had little spikes. One child decided to use as vampire teeth.

“I’m using the stick to mark the blood on his face”

“My monster’s got 5 eyes”

We hope you like our spooky faces. There are still plenty of time to collect some autumn treasure. So please collect a bag from the main door before you come into the playroom. We would love to see you treasure. 🍁🍂

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.