Category Archives: News

Rainy day science 😁

The children felt that today would be a good day to try out the thermal camera. A camera that detects heat emitted by objects converting it into an electrical signal , the signal is then used to produce the thermal image on the camera.

We made some ice the night before and tested our camera on it.

The children noticed that the ice was a purple colour through the camera. We filled a cup with warm water to see to see if it looked a different colour through the camera it was bright yellow. A quickly realised that the difference in colour was because the water was warm and the cubes cold. The children decided to try putting one hand in icy water to see what colour there hands would appear through the camera they looked purple because the ice had turned them cold. We looked at each other through the cameras we looked yellow E new this is because we are warm. Next the children looked at the temperature of the ice A noticed the warm water was 20.4 degrees Celsius and the ice measured -8.4 degrees Celsius.  That’s very cold as cold as snow commented A.

Some of the children decided to see what would happen to the temperature if we used the thermal camera outside. A thought we should jump in puddles and take a before and after temperature reading to see if the puddle warmed up with us jumping in it.  There wasn’t any change in the reading so T decided we should add some ice to see what happens. After adding ice the ice melted a bit and the children seen through the camera that the puddle had turned much colder.


As it was raining today some children wanted to do the cloud in a jar experiment. We filled a beaker with water, added a layer of foam and then used pipettes to drop blue colouring into the foam. I explained that when the cloud gets too heavy the drops fall from them like rain. We discussed that when water droplets get heavy in the sky, gravity pulls them down into the atmosphere.

Maybe you could try this experiment at home with different colours and let us know your findings!

Article 29- I have the right to an education

Pop a little Pancake

Today we were talking about Pancake Tuesday and decided we could make our own pancakes with the playdough. We got our bowls and measured each ingredient  and used our gross motor skills to stir all the ingredients together. We added some vanilla essence  to make them smell yummy too.

“My mum makes pancakes”

“ I have pancakes in my house”

We then began creating our own pancakes  using the rolling pins and cutters  of our choice.

“ mine is going to be round”

”I am using the circle one”

 

When  we were ready we popped them into the frying pan some of the children like using the cooker  to bake them. The children then flipped their pancakes . While we didt this we sang pop a little pancake into the pan.

We then used a variety of resources sequins, pom poms to decorate our pancakes pretending they were various toppings.

“Nutella”

”Jam”

“Bananas”

“Strawberry”

Look at our delicious pancakes.

Grow grow let our trees grow 🌳🌳🌳

What a busy day we’ve had today, planting some baby seedling trees with the hope that they will grow and grow into big trees that we all can enjoy for many years…

We were planting a variety of different trees dogwood rose, blackthorns and elders. We could have a look at the seedlings, touch and smell the soil.

We made a hole in the ground for the seeds then the children patted it down to embed the trees into the soil.

We could share the learning that we already had on how the trees grow, they need sun, water, fresh air and love just like us and this will help the trees to grow big and strong just like us.

Isn’t it amazing to think that the children  today could visit these trees as dads and grandads and show them off  and be proud of them, providing a lifelong love of nature.

Article 29 Education must develop every child’s personality, talents and abilities to the full.

Exploring our play dough area

In our play dough area this week we have been practicing our play dough making skills, we have been working together to count out how many scoops of the ingredients we need & taking turns to mix it all together to create our play dough.

We have been investigating different loose parts in our play dough area and how to use them safely. The children have made lots of creations using their natural curiosity and imagination such as faces, monsters and volcanos..

The children have also been practicing their cutting skills using different tools such as plastic knives, a pizza cutter and scissors. We have been exploring how to divide whole items into halves and quarters developing our mathematics and fractions skills.


Exploring play dough allows children to develop skills such as strengthening their hands, improving their fine motor skills and becoming confident in their hand-eye co-ordination. This helps with early emergent writing skills.

Article 31: I have the right to relax and play

Article 28: I have the right to an education

Icetastic time in the garden 🧊

Happy New Year everyone😀

What a lovely icey cold morning for the children to get wrapped up and go out to explore the ice.

The children discovered large pieces of ice inside the tyres.

” Wow its so big”

“Its cold on my hands, its so heavy”

They collected all the big chunks of ice they could find and added it to our water tray. We discussed how water turns to ice and what conditions there has to be for this to happen.

 

“It needs to be so cold”

” But there is salt on the ground, that melts the ice”

We discussed why there was salt on the ground and what other ways the ice would melt .

” My mum said the  big gritter went by my house and put grit all over the place to melt the ice”

“The sun melts the ice and turns it into water, like a snowman when the snow goes away”

The children decided the wanted to fill some things up with water to see if they could make more ice.

They put some animals, pine cones, shells etc in the water trough and filled up some cupcake cases with water and blue food colouring.

We left it over night and came back to the garden in the morning to see what had happened.

“ITS FROZEN, YAY”

The children added some more water to the tray to see what would happen to the ice. “It melting a little bit but it’s still so cold”

They have had so much fun exploring, digging the ice to break the animals out and leaving more water in the garden to see if it freezes again tomorrow.

 

 

December Round Up in the Baking Area

Over the last few weeks in the baking  area the children have enjoyed lots of different experiences starting with making our own potato scones for St Andrews day, they worked so hard peeling, chopping, mashing and shaping before practicing their spreading skills buttering and of course enjoying the taste.

They have also been busy making a variety of different muffins for snack time, we’ve had blueberry, raisin and banana.

The children have been working on developing their fine motor skills at snack time having a go at spreading butter onto crackers, cheese onto bread and jam onto bread which has been voted the best.

We enjoyed the process of making fruit kebabs, peeling, chopping and carefully pushing them onto a skewer we introduced a wee bit of maths by recognising and following a simple pattern or making up their own.

We ended by making some delicious gingerbread cookies and decorating our “ home made” empire biscuits.

Magnet ice play

In our science area we have been exploring magnet ice play. The children started their exploration thought freezing different objects in the ice. First we used plastic, glass beads, magnet tiles and screws and used the magnet wands to see which one we were able to move or pick up. The ice melted very fast and we discussed why it was melting.

”it’s melting because of the sun”

We discussed how the sun melts ice and snow because it’s hot but it’s not the sun today. The nursery is warm and our hands are warm and that is what is melting the ice.

    

Yesterday some of the children helped to freeze some magnet balls in some ice cubes to explore today.

 

 

“It’s freezing on my hands”

”I’m watching it drip on my hands”

Magnet ice play is a very hands-on experience! There were lots of attempts to see how many ice cubes we could pick up at the one time.
The record was 7 ice cubes

“I got 7!”

We discovered we could make them spin around very fast by waving the wand in a circular motion above the ice cube.

Some children enjoyed trying to stack the cubes to build a tower. It was a bit tricky.

We lifted the tray up onto blocks and explored the ice cubes further by waving the wands under the tray and watching the ice cubes dance around.

It’s fair to say that the children had fun exploring the ice and it was just a shame it melted so fast.

Article 31  You have the right to play and rest

Holidays are coming 🌲

Yesterday in the studio the children explored marbling ink. They selected different colours to create their own unique art.


Adding the marbling ink to the water and swirling it around to make cool patterns, the children added their paper to the water and we all counted to 10.  After 10 we lifted the paper out and looked at patterns that had transferred onto the paper.

“ Wow! That’s so cool , my colours pink and yellow are on the paper now”

“ Can I make a Christmas card on mine”

“ Me too can I make one?”

We put our pictures over to the drying rack and left them to dry over night.


Today the children collected different things to create their Christmas cards.

Jewels, sequins, pom-poms etc were glued on to create lovely Christmas cards, the children cut out their marbling ink pictures and added to red card.


The children practiced their writing skills as they wrote out their cards. Some for Santa, aunties, uncles, mums,dads, brothers and sisters.

We hope everyone  has a lovely Christmas and a Happy New Year🎅 🌲

 

Article 29 – I have the right to an education which develops my personality, respect for others rights and the environment.

Article 12 – I have the right to be listened to

Imaginative fun

Today some of the children enjoyed exploring their own interests through imaginative play in the home corner both independently and with their peers.

“I made pizza in the oven be careful because it is hot”

“ You can’t touch it without these special oven gloves”

”I made strawberry ice cream, I don’t think it’s to cold to eat ice cream “

”I’m making ever Pasta for their dinner it will be nice I’m putting onions in it”

“ It’s a busy day for me, first working in the office , then I need to make dinner for everyone, I hope they like it, it’s macaroni , I need to put it in the oven for 20 minutes “

” I will put the timer on ”

”Stir,stir,stir “” my baby is sleepy so I’m putting him to bed, I don’t want him to be cold, so I’m putting a blanket onto him”

”I’m reading a story to my baby’s”

“ I’m chopping up the play dough into smaller pieces “

Sometimes it is lovely to sit back and watch the children play. They have such great imaginations and how they interact can be inspiring. The boys played, happily sharing the utensils and taking turns. Role play enhances children’s social skills, communication and language development as it allows them to share ideas with one another and learn to play and socialise in group situations.

Article 31 – I have the right to relax and play

Article 28 – I have the right to an education

Thursday is for muddy movers fun 😁

Today the children helped to create and set up two separate obstacle courses  suitable for the different ages and stages of the children at Cart Mill. The obstacle courses that we set up in the garden are an excellent way for our children to develop their gross motor skills.

The children carried out their own risk assessment to make sure that the loose parts were used safely. We used questions such as is it to high to climb,  Will I slip? How can we set up the wooden planks so they are safe to balance on?  Take a look at the fantastic creation we made!


Using the loose parts provided the children decided that they would have two different sized jumps at the end of their obstacle course. A high jump using 3 boxes and a smaller jump using 2.  Our children our developing so much confidence and showing progression all the time.


Some of our younger waned to explore the larger course and were able to ask for help when they required.  The adults were able to support and encourage them as they moved across the wooden planks is different ways.  Some were crawling, walking and sliding along.  They demonstrated they could as they jumped from the boxes holding an adults hand.

Article 28 (right to education)