Tag Archives: fine motor skills

A peek at what’s been happening in our Cart Mill garden this week 😍

June 25, 2024 Miss Mitchell Leave a comment

Whilst helping to water the plants in the greenhouse the children noticed that some of the plants were getting tall. We decided to repot the peas and the sunflowers and put them outside.

“ I’m helping the peas to grow by watering them”

“ I don’t want the peas to fall down with the wind so I’m tying a cane onto the pea plant, but I might need some help to tie a knot”

The children noticed that the sunflowers were all different heights and asked to measure them. “That one’s really tall it’s bigger than all the rest”

“That’s two number 4s 44 “

After a few days our pea plants had some nasty looking holes in their leaves the children quickly realised that slugs were the culprit. They researched human slug traps online and found out that slugs love citrus fruit so we promptly cut some orange up and arranged them around the peas.

The children seen that the spring onions had also grown and looked ready to pull out. The salad leaves in the greenhouse were around the same stage and looked ready to sample to. The children thought they could make a nice salad with the leaves spring onion and we could add some parsley from our herb garden. We set about making our salad cutting chopping washing and we even managed to make a little dressing using orange juice a squeeze of lemon and lime.

“ It’s really hard to pull the spring onions out”

” I don’t think these leaves will taste nice” “ they smell yucky”

“ I like the taste of the parsley and the onions but not the lettuce “ The lettuce was the least popular ingredient of our salad. We can’t wait to try our peppers and tomatoes when they are ripe. Do you grow any fruit and vegetables in your garden? Do you have any suggestions to what other tasty things we could grow in our garden? probably not salad 😂

Article 28 Every child has the right to an education

Creativity, Expressive Arts, Froebel, Imaginative thinking

Colour Mixing Playdough.

May 30, 2024 Miss Campbell Leave a comment

We have been learning how to make playdough all by ourselves. The playdough area is a self-serve area designed to promote the independent skills of all our children.

We have been selecting our ingredients and we are learning about the different quantities of these ingredients that we will we need for our recipe. (Following on from the new government guidelines we have been using heat treated gluten free flour in our recipe).

All our children aged 2-5 have the opportunity to make their own playdough and enjoy doing so independently.

This week in our Playdough area we have been exploring and experimenting with colour mixing.
First we made our playdough, by each collecting the bowl, spoon and ingredients we needed. We each choose a primary colour to make our playdough to start with. We had red, yellow and blue.

We were able to see if our playdough was ready, by testing if it was too dry and needed more water or too wet and needed more flour.

“more water”

“Too sticky, need more flour”

”it’s ready”

Once our playdough was perfect we set up our playdough station and invited our friends to come and join us.

We each took a pinch of two or more colours and mixed them together to see what colours we could make.

We used our gross motor skills as we rolled the playdough together to mix up the colours.

We were amazed at the colours we were able to make.

“I’ve made so many”

“I’ve made pink and purple and orange”

We discovered that we got green by mixing red and yellow. Purple by mixing the red and blue. And a pinky orange if we mixed red and yellow. We even ended up with a rainbow playdough mix.

Once we made all our new colours we got to work creating playdough masterpieces using the loose parts.

“I made a unicorn”

“A birthday cake, blow out your candles”

We also used a variety of different tools to help us mould our playdough such as scissors

rolling pins

and even used the loose parts to make patterns

We have been so busy at our playdough station. I wonder what we will make tomorrow.
Here is some of our playdough creations so far….

Article 29 – I have the right to an education which develops my personality.

Block building, Creativity

Building Bridges

April 23, 2024 Miss Simms Leave a comment

This week we decided we would use small blocks and loose parts to build our bridges.

The children began exploring the different materials provided and using their fine motor skill and hand and eye coordination to connect the pieces together.

“ this is too heavy, it’s going to fall.”

“This is really hard”

“Mine is a bit wobbly”

The children used problem solving skills while exploring a variety of ways to ensure the creations did not fall apart. The children shared their thoughts and ideas with each other.

“ I think the clips are too big and they bend”

“ glue would be good”

”mine are staying together”

”I like the pegs the best”

While building the children were discussing what they were creating and continued to share their thoughts and ideas. They used mathematical language to describe their creations and had great concentration skills.

“Mine is strong and long”

“I am building a bridge which is going going to be so long”

“I am going to build a big one for cars”

”mine is for cars too”

We then decided we would check how strong our bridges were. and chose a car or person to put on it.

“ I have 3 cars on”

”I have 3 people”

”I have 3 cars and 8 people”

The children were delighted at how strong their bridges were and that they were able to hold cars, figures or both.

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Marvellous Monday experiments 🥰

April 8, 2024 Miss Mitchell Leave a comment

Today some of our little scientists decided they would like to do a soap experiment.

We started off with our soap moulds, a plastic bag, a beaker, transparent soap base, food colouring and of course some scent. The children thought the soap base looked like crystals and noticed it was colourless with no smell “ We talked about what the main function of soap is, the children know it is used for cleaning and how they use it – “I wash all my germs off at night with soap, so I’m clean”
Next we opened up the bag and placed the transparent soap base into it. The children chose what colour and scent to put into their soap. Some wanted the peach scent in it “Mmm I like fruity smells” I explained that all hand soap starts the same and then the scents and colours are added. We popped the bag with the soap scent and colour into the hot water. The children were excited to see the soap base melt and combine with the scent and colouring. “Look it’s gone slimey it’s melted”
The children were able to follow a set of instructions and used our pipettes to fill their chosen mould.

“

What shape would you pick – we had lots of choices: I want a dolphin soap for my bath” “ No I think penguins are the best sea animal so I want that soap” The children are excited to take their soaps home and try them out. I wonder if the soap will make the bath water smell like 🍑 ?

Creativity

At the car wash 🧼🫧🚙🫧

April 2, 2024 Mrs MacRae Leave a comment

Our children have been showing an interest in washing the cars in the water tray. We set up a tray to drive the cars through the mud. The children had great fun running their car’s though the shaving foam, exploring the different track marks their car made before dipping it into the water to wash with soap and sponges. We discussed if anyone had been though a car wash and decided to watch a short video of a car going though one.

After some of the children helped to make a car wash for the cars to drive though. Marking some lines on the wash cloth, the children were encouraged to cut along the lines. Then we stapled it onto the wooden frame.

“look at my track marks”

“My cars so dirty I need to give it a wash”

With the use of the sponges and soap dispensers, the children are developing all their muscle and co ordinations in their hand. The soap dispenser was tricky to use at first, but after a quick demonstration, they soon got the hang of it!

All are cars a sparkly clean, but I’m sure it won’t be long before they get all muddy again. 💦

Article 31 – I have the right to relax and play

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Today in the discovery room we were Little scientist’s 🧑🏼‍🔬

February 14, 2024 Miss Mitchell Leave a comment

Today the children chose to do two different science experiments. The first one was called The underwater volcano experiment. For the first experience we used water, food colouring oil and an effervescent tablet. The children were able to follow my step by step instructions and used their critical thinking and problem solving skills to guess what was going to happen in the experiment. We measured out the exact amounts off water and oil using our measuring beakers and counted five drops of food colouring into the measuring beaker.

I explained how the effervescent tablet produced a large amount of carbon dioxide when it met the water the carbon dioxide then takes the coloured water out of the oil and water layer and creates an explosion.

”That’s cool, it’s gone bubbly” “ The oil and the water haven’t mixed” “I wonder what will happen when I shake it, oh the bubbles go away”

The second experiment we did was called sugar water rainbows. It didn’t go quite to plan as we didn’t really have a rainbow at the end though the children still enjoyed doing it and we can always try it again.

For this experiment we used sugar, water and food colouring again the children measured out their ingredients, the idea behind this experiment is to learn a little about different densities the colours that have more sugar in them will sink to the bottom of the beaker.

“ I’m measuring 40 ml of sugar into my cup”

” I have only to put 10ml of sugar in mine”

“ I’m squirting in one drop of colouring, I want red, I like using the dropper”

“ I need blue for mine it’s my favourite colour, I have blue in my hoodie”

“look the sugar has sank to the bottom, it’s blue at the top”

Great team work everyone.

I wonder what experiments we will choose to do next maybe colour mixing? If anyone has any other suggestions, we would love to hear them!

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Cornflour Creations

October 30, 2023 Mrs Miles Leave a comment

Throughout the week the children have been getting very excited about Halloween so today we decided to incorporate this in to the sensory area. We put some cornflour on the trays and selected a variety of mark making tools. Then we set about making our creepy creations…

“I’m making triangle eyes.”

“I’m making a spooky pumpkin with one circle eye and one triangle eye.”

“I’m making a spider and he’s coming after you!”

One of the boys experimented with moving the flour with the stick and realised he had made a bat wing! We experimented some more and worked out how to make two wings. He then took his time looking at the bat toy and added more features like a head and feet. Excellent work!

Some of the other children experimented with tracing around the Halloween toys and created some excellent pictures.

“I’m making a spider with only two legs and a pumpkin on his head.”

“My pumpkin has a silly face.”

Fantastic mark making and creativity skills from the children today!

Article 31- Every child has the right to take part in a wide range of cultural and artistic activities.

Expressive Arts

Marvellous Models

September 26, 2023 Miss Simms Leave a comment

Today in the studio the children have chosen a variety of the junk modelling materials or paper to create their own pictures and models. They talked about the different sizes and shapes they were choosing discussing with one another what their ideas were and their Imagination’s were running wild.

“I have 2 rectangle boxes”

I have a circle”

“Mine is going to be a big castle”

” I need a small box and a circle for mine.

The children then got to work using their fine motor skills and hand and eye co-ordination.while cutting various materials they could add to their creations.

“I am cutting a big bit”

“Tiny one”

“I am doing big and small bits”

The children then began to use the glue, masking tape and cellotape to add various mareials to their creations.

“ I like the cellotape”

“ it just falls off with the glue”

”” “my flag is going to be big”

They used some problem solving skills as they decided the best way for it to stick together.

The children had great concentration skills and fabulous imaginations and were very proud of their own pictures and models.

“Jewellery box”

“My big castle”

“Picture for mum”

“Look at my telescope”

Expressive Arts

Terrific Threading!

September 13, 2023 Mrs Hannah Leave a comment

We have been so busy in our sewing corner this week as we continue to focus on developing our fine motor skills and hand-eye co-ordination.
As we grow in confidence, we can use scissors safely to self select and prepare our own materials and we demonstrated fabulous concentration and perseverance when threading our own needles as “it can be a wee bit tricky!”.

“It’s a wee bit hard to cut the wool”

”I’ll hold it and you cut it”

“I’m choosing blue. My mummy likes blue”

To develop our threading skills further, we decided to see how many tubes of pasta we could thread onto our wool.
How did we do this?

”we putted the thread on the needle”.

”we had to tie a knot so it didn’t fall off”

”I putted the needle through the pasta and pulled it down. Then I did another one”

”you need to tie the bottom so the pasta doesn’t fall off”

It was a “a wee bit tricky” to push the needle through the pasta but we used our problem solving skills and discovered it was easier “if we hold it up cos it slides down”.

When we had finished our terrific threading we decided to work as a team and measure our creations to see which one was the longest, and practised our brilliant counting skills to see how many pasta tubes were on each “snake, wiggly worm and necklace”.

“Look I makes a wiggly worm”

”mine is a snake”

”mines a snake too!”

”my snake is bigger than yours. I’ve got 15 pastas”

”yours is the smallest and mines is the biggest”

Using our knowledge and experience, we have been able to demonstrate a good understanding of our safety rules and share this with our new friends, listen to and follow instructions and work both as a team and independently.

We have decided to have a meeting tomorrow to discuss what we would like to create next week!

Article 31~ I have the right to relax and play.