Tag Archives: communication and language

Literacy

Oh no, it’s a Gruffalo!

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In our story corner today we have been discussing  books we have  at home and took great delight in sharing our favourites with our friends.  We couldn’t decide which was our overall favourite, so we voted by raising our hands and then counting to see which story had the most votes.

Our winner was ……. The Gruffalo!

Lots of exciting discussion followed and we were able to name the Mouse and the Gruffalo as the main characters, and remember which animals the mouse met on his walk through “the deep, dark wood!”.  We decided we wouldn’t like to walk in the “deep, dark wood cos it might be a wee bit scary”, but “maybe we could take a torch and it wouldn’t be scary anymore!”

It was so exciting to choose which character we would like to be.  Listening very carefully, we were able to take turns and use our story  spoons to predict which character the Mouse would meet next!  Some of us demonstrated we know the Gruffalo really well by joining in with repeated phrases, “oh help, oh no, it’s a Gruffalo!” being a firm favourite! To challenge ourselves further, we even added in some sound effects and actions!

“The snake goes sssssssss”

”Owl goes toowittoowoo”

”look I’ve got terrible teeth and I’ve got big claws”

”his prickles were purple”

”his eyes are orange, mines are brown.”

Using a thumbs up, thumbs to the side and thumbs down, we shared our likes and dislikes of each character and then decided we would like to swap our spoons and read the story again! (Repeated at least 5 times!)

Article 12 – you have the right to give your opinion
Article 29 – Your education should help you use and develop your talents and abilities.

Baking, Expressive Arts, Outdoor Learning

Welcome to the Cart Mill kitchen 😀🥤🎂

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Today in the mud kitchen the children were pretending to work at Cartmill Cafe. They discussed with each other what they going to make.
” I  love tomato soup” “I like the colour of it, Red is my favourite colour “

”I am making a birthday cake, a chocolate flavoured one”

“Hot chocolate, but you need to be careful it’s not too hot when you drink it, I like it with marshmallows “

”spaghetti bolognaise, with wiggly spaghetti “

The children then wrote their ideas on the menu

The children gathered their utensils and began filling and pouring their ingredients. They used gross motor skills to mix and stir added natural resources such as leaves, stick, stones and pine cones to their recipes.

“It needs to cook in the oven for 10minutes”

”I need more water in the soup”

”It’s still too hot, it needs a little water to cool it down”

We then showed each other our creations and  had a little pretend nibble.

“ Here’s a drink with a straw”

”My birthday cake has lots of candles”

” I have the bestest chocolate cake”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Block building, Creativity, Expressive Arts, Literacy, Social Studies

“Let’s make the biggest train track in the world”

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We have been reading lots of stories this week and this has sparked some great ideas for the block area.

“I want to make a big office like that, I will need lots of blocks. My  mum goes to the office”

The children decided to choose their favourite book first and then make something from the book. We made a chart where each child ticked the side of their favourite book.

Fergus’s Scary night was the favourite! They decided on making a dogs bed for ‘Fergus’ to hide when he is scared.

“It’s triangle and square beds, Fergus not scared in here”. The children worked well together to build the dogs beds.


“We are building the biggest train track like Thomas, and a bridge look we can go under too”

Finally, the children built some of the buildings and structures from the story ‘All through the night’. “I’m building  the digger with a snow shovel that can lift snow and rocks, it has a train track under it”.

“This ones mummy’s office”

The children have loved creating things from their favour stories this week, using their imagination and problem solving to fit the pieces together.

Digital Technology, Literacy, Snack

Berry nice smoothies 🍓🫐

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Today in the home room the children decided they wanted to make fruit smoothies.

We used the internet to search for a recipe to make delicious fruit smoothies. We then collected the ingredients we needed from the kitchen to begin making our very nice smoothies.

To begin the children took turns to  scoop a spoonful of frozen berries into the bowl. Next they safely used a knife to cut up a banana to add to the bowl.

“I put strawberries and blueberries in they were stuck together with ice”

Using the measuring jug the children measured out 240ml of milk, they worked as a team to measure one tsp of honey before adding all the ingredients into the blender. We also made a water based fruit smoothie as an alternative.

“it’s so noisy”

When the ingredients were all blended together the children poured the smoothie into an jug and shared with their friends for snack.

“It tastes yummy”

“ I can taste banana, I like banana for snack”

 


 

Digital Technology, Social Studies, Technologies

Our emotions😀😢🤪😱🫣🥱😡😳

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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.

Expressive Arts

Creative Cloud Dough

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Today in our malleable area the children chose to make cloud dough..  There are two different ways to make cloud dough,  so we decided to try both and see which one works the best  We gathered our bowls and began to take turns to add our first ingredient. First of all it was 2 scoops of cornflour and then 3 squirts of shaving foam or conditioner.

The children then used their gross motor skills to mix the ingredients together. During this time the children described the various textures they good feel.

“It’s so sticky”

“Mine is flakey”

”It gooey”

The children then made some predictions of what ingredient they could add more of to make the texture smooth. We continued to mix and experiment with our ingredients  until it became smooth and mouldable.

“Mine is soft like my teddy”

“I love squashing it”

“It’s like snow”

“Fluffy”

The children came to the conclusion that the cloud dough with conditioner was better.

shaving foam

“it crumbles”

” it’s like snow”

conditioner

”it all stays together”

”it’s smooth”

 

The children began to explore with the cloud dough using their hands. They began creating their own ideas using their imaginations and communicating with each other describing what they were creating. They then added some loose parts to help detail their masterpiece

“pirate Ship”

” a face”

”I made a circle”

” I have made sand and shells”

Technologies

Glorious Gloop

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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!

Uncategorized

Potion Lab

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Today we searched through the science book together to choose which experiment we would like to explore. We decided on the Potion Lab.

“This one looks fun”

“ It’s the best”

“ I am excited will ours look like that”

We took turns to gather all the materials and set them on the table. Before we started we made some predictions what  do you think will happen if we mix vinegar and bicarbonate of soda. A few of the children made predictions.

“Bubbles
“Sparkles”

“ it fizzes”

“Magic potion”

First of all we added vinegar to make it half full. We then used our fine motor skills and chose between a droplet or a syringe to squeeze in some food colouring. We used our pincer grip to add some glitter and then added a large spoonful of bicarbonate of soda. We then mixed the potion and watched for the reaction of the ingredients mixing together. The children were curious and stayed focused throughout the experiment sharing their thought and ideas.

“ it’s working

“Wow it’s fizzing”

“It’s nearly at the top”

“Bubbles”

“Let’s do it again.

“ bath foam like my bath”

“It’s going to explode”

“Look at this potion”

“ The colours are mixing together and changing colour.

“ it’s so cool”

.The children were fascinated by the reactions and they continued to try out their own experiment  using a variety of small and big jars and adding different amounts of ingredients and watching their own eruptions. Lots of fun and laughter was had


We came to the conclusion the best and foamiest experiment was adding fairy liquid to it.
“ can we do this one everyday?”

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Super sewing in the studio😍

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Today in the sewing area we had a discussion about why we sew?

“ it makes stitches”

“”It’s fun”

“My mum sews”

We looked to see if anyone had buttons on their clothes

“I have a button on my jeans”

“My cardigan has buttons”

“My jacket has buttons”

We looked at the seam on our clothes and could see the stitches that had been made.

“ I can see lots on my leggings”

“They’re on my sleeve”

”look at my shoes”

We talked about sewing is a process of using a needle and thread to connect pieces of fabric or attach something like a button to a fabric surface. It’s a practical skill used to make or repair.

It was then our turn to have a go, some of the children chose and attached the buttons to the fabric.

“That was very hard”

“The little needle is very jaggy”

“ the eye of the needle is so small”

“I done it, it’s together”

A few of the other children chose to sew bits of material together we made holes with the punch and then used the needle and thread to attach the fabrics together using our hand and  eye coordination and lots of concentration.

“Look at mine is so colourful”

“Mine is together”

That’s so cool”

“Can we make some clothes for the puppet?”

The children had great listening and communication skills took turns  and were able to follow my instructions. Good job everyone 😁

Expressive Arts, Outdoor Learning

Pretty Pinecones

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Today  the children were interested exploring the pine cones, sticks and wooden trees. We had a discussion about what we could do with them and decided we could give them some colour by weaving and twirling using ribbon, pipe cleaners, wool and felt.

It was lovely watching the children explore different weaving options and discover different methods and techniques. The children loved mixing up the wool, pipe cleaners and felt to weave and twirl round their chosen object.

“mine is like a rainbow”

“Look it’s pretty now”

“I love pink”

”I am making one for all my family”

The children used  both their hands to grasp the pine cone and using pincer grip to weave the material. They manipulated the different materials in lots of different ways building their muscle strength and dexterity  and developing their hand and eye co-ordination.

There was lots of patience and concentration and the children shared their ideas throughout and spoke about what they were doing.