We would like to send a warm welcome to all our new families, all our returning term time families and also to everyone who has returned after the weekend!
As it is the first day of the new term we thought it would be good to show everyone what happens within each playroom of the centre.
Starting in the noisy/quiet room, we have our mark making area to encourage the children’s pre-writing skills, the numeracy area where the children can use loose parts to make shapes and count how many pieces they have used and we have the sewing area for the children to get creative and develop their fine motor skills.
Moving next door, we have the studio. Within this room the children are encouraged to access the resources independently. The children love to self select junk modelling materials from the shelf and get creative with their designs, learning to reduce, reuse and recycle while having fun. The staff will provide a provocation at the art area and on the clay pallet then the children can select additional resources to extend their creativity. Please remember that clothes are likely to get some paint on them in this room!
Moving through again, we have the discovery room which is the room the children enter in the morning. There is a large area dedicated to block play where the children work collaboratively to design wonderful buildings and structures. They are taught to assess their risk while building and develop their mathematical language while doing so. We have the science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) areas within this room as well. Today’s STEM challenge was to build a bridge to help the people cross the river. The boys were thinking outside of the box and decided to build boats for the people instead. We also have an area where the children can self select the resources and today they were playing with the magnets, learning about forces and cause and effect.
In the home room we have a large area where the children can role play looking after babies, dress up and ‘cook’ for their friends. We have a story corner with puppets and story sacks for the children to access independently and we also have the sensory table. Here the children will play with gloop, pasta, shaving foam, play dough, the list is endless. They have even created their own recipe book so they can make the playdough without adult help. Today the children were making cupcakes with the play dough, yummy! We have a baking area within the room where the children can learn to measure and mix while making scones or muffins, for example, and this area is also used to serve snack. The children are encouraged to serve themselves at snack and lunch to promote independence and will develop their social skills as well.
The garden is always hugely popular with the children. At the top end of the garden we have a planting area and the children are responsible for looking after the various plants and vegetables we are growing. There is a small obstacle course where the boys were playing ‘The floor is lava’ and then we have the mud kitchen and the sand pit where the children today were serving each other soup and ice cream 🍦
At the other end of the garden the children can build their own obstacle course using the crates, tyres and wooden beams. They are taught to risk assess their design and make sure the course safe is for everyone to use. We also have a loose parts area for the children to create transient art and a large construction area where, today, the children built houses, castles and ball ramps.
You can let us know which experiences your child liked best by replying to this post or on twitter @cartmillcentre.
It has been so lovely to have all the returning children back and to welcome so many new faces too. We hope everyone has had a great day.
