Category Archives: Technologies

Splish Splash 💩

Today we have been using what nature gives us for our outdoor play, we have been splashing in muddy puddles.

The children wanted to measure how high they could jump so we decided to bring some digital learning into our outdoor play to facilitate this. We used a slow motion video and then watched them back on the big screen so we could measure the size of the splashes.


“My splash is bigger then me!”

We paused the video when the splash was at its highest then the children took turns of standing next to the board to discover if it was bigger or smaller than them. The first one we looked at was bigger than all the children and came all the way up to my shoulders.

Another one was the same height as one of the boys on his top toes.

This experience has allowed us to use lots of comparative language, to measure using non standard units and best of all to have fun in the rain. There’s no such thing as bad weather at Cart Mill 🌧😄

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

Snowstorm in a jar ❄

This morning we have been chatting about all the snow that fell over the weekend and how much we had fun playing in it


“I made a snowman, he was giant!”

“I threw snowballs at my Nana.”

“I walked to nursery in the snow, it was crunchy.”

Continuing on our snowy theme we decided to make a snowstorm in a jar in our STEM area. We started by putting oil in a jar then poured in water mixed with white paint and looked at what happened.

We noticed that the painty water fell to the bottom and the oil stayed on top. Then we added some blue food colouring and glitter and mixed it up to see what difference that would make.

Now we had glitter on the bottom , blue water in the middle and oil still on top. One of the boys suggested they weren’t mixing because “they just don’t want to!” I explained that because the oil is less dense it will sit on top of the water, pushing the water down.

Next we added the magic ingredient to create the snowstorm, we put an alka seltzer tablet in the mix!


It fizzed and it bubbled and it swirled the mixture all around!

“It’s going to bubble over!”

“The bubbles are going up and down.”

The alka seltzer when mixed with the water creates carbon dioxide and pushes the water up in the form of a bubble but the less dense oil pushes it back down creating the repetitive motion of the bubbles going up and down. The boys and girls had a great time watching the reaction!

To extend this experiment further we have popped the mixture outside in the snow and we will find out tomorrow if each of the layers will freeze
 đŸ„¶

Article 13- you have the right to find out things and share what you think with others.

Our emotions😀😱đŸ€ȘđŸ˜±đŸ«ŁđŸ„±đŸ˜ĄđŸ˜ł

This week at the malleable area the children have been using their creative imaginations to mould our play dough into different things.

“I made a big worm, I rolled it with my hands”
“look I made my ear in the play dough, I lied down like this”

”I made a smiley face”

The smiley face sparked a conversation about the different faces we could make.

”can I show you my silly face”

The children used the iPad to take a picture of the different faces they could make, they even took a picture of Carly’s silly face but we won’t bore you with that.

Each child made a different face and we discussed what they were and why we might feel these ways. Using facial expressions we can begin to learn and recognise different feelings and emotions that we can feel and find solutions to understanding and dealing with them.

”some of the new boys and girls get sad faces when they just come to nursery, now they have happy faces”

We will continue exploring emotions in different ways at the malleable table, it is a very important way of communication especially for children as they don’t often understand their feelings.

Science- Abstract Liquids and Patterns

In the nursery we sometimes like to have relaxing background music on , which we noticed today had moving abstract pictures to go with it. We decided to see if we could recreate the patterns in our science area.

.

First we gathered up some clear jars so we would be able to see the patterns. We then carefully filled the jars with some water, practising our balancing and pouring skills.

We then put shaving foam on top of the water. This was quite tricky the button was quite hard to press and some of our friends had to help us

.

The next part of our experiment was to use food colouring and pipettes to drop the colours into the foam and watch as it seeped through the foam and made patterns when it reached the water it swirled round and made the abstract patterns we were looking for.

We had fun discussing what our patterns looked like “ mine is like a rainbow”  “ I am mixing mine to look like a storm” . We mixed some colours too and discovered if we added more shaving foam the colours became lighter “ I have made a strawberry smoothie “

Some of our two year olds  enjoyed the sensory feeling when using the foam and spent time mixing and pouring it from jar to jar this will help develop their hand and eye co ordination skills and fine motor skills.

The children enjoy recording and taking photos of their own work to keep a record of the great science experiments we have tried out. I think you will agree that this one was a great success.

Article 13 – You have the right to find out things and share what you think with others by talking and experimenting.

Budding architects and construction engineers!

It’s been a brilliant few weeks in our busy block area! A number of our 4&5 year olds have become expert architects and construction engineers! They are able to describe what they are going to build before they start, draw their own plan, demonstrate excellent problem solving skills when creating their fabulous models and then use our iPads to capture images to create a fabulous display of their work.

”I used lots of blocks. I did it like symmetry, the same on each side. We found a picture that looks like it on the iPad”.

”We made a high chair for the teddy to sit in to eat his lunch, and a bed for the dolly cos she was tired”.

”I builded my house. These are the walls. I made a table and chairs and bunk beds to sleep in”.

Our 2 & 3 year olds have had lots of fun exploring stacking, demonstrating excellent problem solving skills by investigating how the blocks turn, fit on top of each other and different sizes, shapes and weights.

It was so much fun to see how many we could put on top of each other before they fell over!

Through observing and learning from our more experienced children, our 2&3 year olds are at the early stages of creating their own bridges.  Although they much prefer using their friends creations for their cars and trucks!


To add further challenge and depth to their learning, our children were set a challenge to see if they could build a bridge to help our small world people cross the river safely!   This sparked some wonderful conversation, problem solving, creativity and teamwork! Our children designed their own village with a school, park, shops and lots of houses and constructed some wonderful bridges to allow our people to cross the river safely to “go to the shops and the park”.


“I builded a bridge. There’s crocodiles in the water!”
“Look the people can cross the river to get to the park and the shop”.

”This bit doesn’t fit. We need a longer bit. Why don’t we try this bit?”

It has been so much fun watching our children develop their design and creativity talents, we can’t wait to share our future creations with you!

Articles 28 & 29 – children have the right to an education, children have the right to an education which tries to develop your talents and abilities.

 

Glorious Gloop

Today at the malleable table the children chose to make gloop . They each had their own tray and took turns to add the ingredients; cornflour and water. The children used their hands  to mix the ingredients together till the gloop was ready.

“Mine is too thick I need some more water”

“Mine is watery so I need more cornflour”

The children then began to explore the gloop  using their hands  and fingers discussing the different the textures they could feel.

“It’s sticky”

“Mine is all gooey”

“I am going to add more water to make it slime”

“Mines is so soft”

“I like the feeling”

“It looks like milk”

“I made a line and it disappeared”

The  longer the children  explored they became intrigued why it was hard to touch but then when running through their fingers it changes textures and turns into liquid when picking it up. The children continued exploring the gloop and talking about the feeling of it.

“It’s hard and then turns to liquid”

“Water makes it loosen”

“Look it’s running through my hands”

“My handprint has just gone”

“Hard and then it’s just runs”

“It’s melting”

Little did the children know, they had performed a science experiment and had produced a non Newtonian fluid. Impressive!

New and improved wormery

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! 🐛

Summer holiday fun 🌞

This week the children  have had lots of fun building dens and making summer homes in the garden! They have loved talking to each other about their busy summer plans. The children enjoyed sharing stories with their peers about all the fun things they have been getting up to, which sparked lots of creative role playing fun


”I’ve got a beach house in Italy. We have pasta and clams there, that’s my favourite. I can make you some”

“Who wants gelato? Come and get it!”

We have been experimenting different problem solving techniques as we create our dens, using various resources from the garden and working cooperatively with one another offering suggestions to help implement our designs


“let’s put it through the wee hole so it doesn’t fall down . Look, it worked!”

The children showed great imagination, exploring the garden to find different cosy spots to decorate 


“cheeeeese!”

After being so busy decorating our little summer homes it was time for a well deserved rest!

The children demonstrated great communication skills throughout as they worked as a team to help each other, and most importantly they had fun! Keep up the great work everybody đŸ€©đŸ‘

 

 

Upcycling project

This week the children have been working very hard to start their up cycling project at the tinker table.

They began by  looking for something around the playroom that they could ‘Up cycle’. They found an old storage drawer that had missing handles on the boxes. They collected loose materials such as buttons, pipe cleaners, beads, bottle lids,  small wood chips and twigs to use as new handles for the boxes.


They used skills they had previously learned at the tinker table to join the new handles to the box.

“I can use the hammer and nails to put this wood on”

 

Once all the new handles were on the children noticed one of the drawers were missing. Using their problem solving skills one of the older children suggested making a sign to let everyone know that the new up cycled storage drawers belong to the tinker table.

The next job on the list is to up cycle our broken wormery, we are looking for longer pieces of wood if anyone has any lying about that they no longer need.

Creative clay ⚒

In the clay area today the children have been super creative and using their design skills and imagination to create models. We have also been exploring and using different tools and techniques to create patterns and prints on the clay…

we used lots of different loose parts to create some “birthday cakes” and sang happy birthday to our friends.

then we used different tools to copy and create patterns and textures on the clay, we practiced hammering, rolling and creating prints showing how creative and imaginative we can be!


Exploring with clay helps to develop our hand eye co-ordination and fine motor manipulating skills. It gives the children the opportunity to socialise with their friends through talking and listening to each other’s ideas and also work independently.

i wonder what creations we will make over the next few weeks! đŸ€©