Welcome to our toddler den, a place where we can investigate, explore, shelter and use lots of natural open ended resources in our play
Our small world is a particular favourite.
Look who came to visit our den todayâŠâŠBookbug!!! The children were so pleased to see him and sing some songs and share stories.
We all enjoyed singing Incy Wincy Spider, Gail is a little nervous of the real ones đ·đł
The children love to be outside and in our den it feels like weâre inside when weâre out!
During this term we are investigating time as part of our numeracy planning. This morning we looked at our clock and discussed what we know about time, clocks and why we need them.
âItâs a circle.â- C
âItâs to put the numbers up.â- E
âItâs for play time and home time.â- L
âItâs for lunch time.â- R
Then we made our own clocks. We drew round a circle, made a great  attempt at writing all the numbers and then we discussed the hands of the clock.
Once we finished making our clocks we used them to play the game Whatâs the time Mr Wolf?
The wolf turned the hand to show which number they were calling out and, even though it was pouring rain, we all had great fun taking turns of being the Wolf.
Today, the children have been very keen to get their bodies moving! We discussed different ways we can exercise and why it is important to exercise.
â We need to keep healthyâ
â fruit makes me healthy too â
â I had vegetables with my lunch today â
We started off with a nice warm up in the garden and discussed the importance of this!
âWe might hurt our legs if we donât warm upâ
â We wonât be able to exercise right â
After our warm up we made our own obstacle course to try out!!
â Look how high I can jump â
â Iâm being careful so I donât get hurt â
We even had a cycle on the bikes!
â my legs are getting exercise! â
And finally to cool down, we tried out some yoga!
This morning in the Discovery room the children wanted to do a science experiment exploring liquid. The name of the experiment was Rainbow đ in a jar and the learning intention for the children was to be introduced to the concept of density of liquids.
4 liquids were used which were all of different densities. Â They included golden syrup, fairy liquid, oil and water. The children then had a discussion as to which liquid had the âthickest densityâ. They correctly named the golden syrup to be the first liquid in the jar.
The golden syrup was then poured into the jar followed by the fairy liquid, water and oil. A rainbow effect was then created in the jar. The children enjoyed naming the colours of the liquids and especially watching each coloured liquid sit on top of each other.
One child then asked what would happen if the jar was turned upside down. We all watched when the jar was turned upside down and watched all the colours merge together and a nice turquoise colour was created. However our experiment concluded that once the jar had been shaken that the liquids would not go back to their original layers straight away but instead stay mixed up together. Over several hours the liquids separated again.
The children enjoyed their rainbow in a jar science experiment, why donât you try it at home with your little one.
Today was very exciting, we had a music teacher visit us. Â We had our listening ears on!! . We sang some new songs and followed the actions to warm ourselves up.
We all got to choose a musical instrument and learnt their names, we played them very loudly and really quietly. We moved the instruments around high and low then left  and right to the beat and count of 1234.
Our teacher, a lovely lady called Lyndsey, then played a ukulele which is like a small guitar. We sang If You’re Happy and You Know It and then Sleeping Bunnies. As we all listened, and joined in, we got a sticker at the end. We are looking forward to next week to see what we will learn.  đ¶.
Today the children are  having fun learning about silhouettes âa shape or outline in a block colour with no detail but you can still recognise what it isâ. The children had a look at some silhouettes on the board and then we were ready to create our own.
We chose one of the children to draw around . âLook how big I amâ.  The children were very careful using the scissors to cut around our silhouette.  Some of the children wanted to draw around their own hands to make silhouettes. We then used black paint to cover our silhouette. The children worked very well together choosing different parts of the body to paint and sharing  the brushes and paint.
We then played a great guessing game using animal silhouettes . What do you think it is? â a snake.â We learned new words today and had great conversations about body parts, animals and silhouettes. We are going to continue looking at silhouettes – look out for our silhouette creations!
Today we have been talking about fireworks night . The children told us what they already knew about fireworks.
âFireworks are loud.â
âThey make a Big Bang.â
â I saw green and pink ones last night.â
âMy dad bought Sparklers.â
Some of the children didnât know what sparklers were so we used the computer to search for pictures.
We then searched for and found a firework safety video on YouTube where Fireman Sam shared some tips on how to stay safe on firework night.
We discussed what we had learned about being safe.
âStay with mum.â
âWe need to stay far away.â
âFireworks could burn us.â
âWe can wear torches so the cars can see us.”
We spoke about different ways of being seen in the dark. Wearing Hi  Visibility clothing can help. âJust like a policeman.â
Hope you all have a happy and safe fireworks night!
As we are now entering a colder period of weather and that we need to keep windows open for ventilation, the children do need warm clothing. Â Please can children come with a cosy jumper or a fleece to keep them warm indoors as well as when they go outside with their jacket on. Â Please also pop gloves and a cosy hat in your childâs bag so that they can have this when they need it.
Today in the toddler room we have been learning all about Diwali and how itâs celebrated, we watched a lovely story on the smart board and the children picked out their favourite patterns.
We then decided to create our own Diwali patterns with coloured rice, here are some of the childrenâs great work. We used different mark making utensils and our fingers to create these lovely Diwali inspired patterns.
We finished the day off listening to some Diwali music and dancing with our rainbow ribbons.
Today in the toddlers we wondered what we could do with our leftover pumpkins?
We split the pumpkins into halvesâŠ..what could we be using them for???
We scooped out the seeds
We added some water to the shells
We added some seeds to the shellsâŠ
We put them on the shelf, who could they be for??
We waited very patientlyâŠâŠ.
Yay the birds came to visit, so we used something that was going to be thrown out for another us – well done todsđđđđđđ
