Tag Archives: fine motor skills

Halloween Sensory Play



Today the children used pipettes to draw up coloured ink and then dropped it onto the paper. They then used a straw to blow patterns. The children noticed the colours changing as the inks merged. They also noticed that the ink behaved differently on different materials eg “ It’s more watery on the tin foil” “ It doesn’t make patterns on the bubble wrap”

The children talked about the colours they were using and which was their favourite they were able to work together and showed great turn taking skills waiting for their turn of the pipettes.

In preparation for Halloween the children asked for something slimy and gooey to explore. The children decided that jelly would be best. The toddlers helped to make the jelly on Thursday  evening, they measured and stirred following my instructions closely. The children then  hid some natural autumnal items and some not so natural inspired by Halloween in the jelly.

The children used all five senses to explore the jelly. Some used tweezers to take the objects out of the jelly developing their fine motor skills, others dived straight in with their hands.  The children used lots of descriptive language. “”So sticky and cold””Jelly is delicious “ I’ve got an orange jelly” “I see a pumpkin “”This one has a pine cone in it” “This jelly feels good it’s wobbly and wet” “A bug it’s hard and black” “let’s see how many flowers we can get out”” I see three spiders they are tiny”.

 

 

 

 

 

Water mixtures!

Today in the garden the children had great fun at the water area! They used the hose to fill up bottles and jugs! They each added a different colour of food colouring to their water using pipettes to see what happened! This helps to develop their fine motor skills.

“The water is all blue!”

”My water has all orange swirls!”

The children thought it would be fun to mix colours together! They added the blue food colouring to the orange water!
”Its turned green!!!”

The blue food colouring was added to the red! “It’s made purple!!!”

The children then just had fun pouring all the  different coloured water into different jugs and tubs and finding out what colours they could make!
“They all make brown!!”

What amazing colour mixing and colour recognition!

Pumpkin Playdough!

Today, the boys and girls have been discussing Halloween and the things associated with it.
We had a look at some pumpkins online and some we had at Cart Mill. We discussed the different shapes and colours.

After discussing the pumpkins, the children decided they wanted to make their own pumpkins,  so we thought we would make some orange pumpkin playdough!

We even added in some cinnamon!

Once the playdough was made, it was time to create our own pumpkins…

Super Soup!

Our Cart Mill children have been thoroughly enjoying our new lunch regime. We are very excited about our new lunch menu and we have been tasting lots of delicious  new foods.

One our favourites is Stephanie’s super lentil soup. It is so yummy!

Pouring our own water helps us develop our measuring skills  and promotes independence . We are very careful not to spill any! We are also very good at turn taking and passing the jug carefully around the table.

Sitting around the table together helps us develop our language and communication skills. We love to discuss what foods keep us healthy and can recognise and name our favourite fruit and vegetables and discuss our likes and dislikes!

“I like cucumber, do you want some?”
”I like the red pepper, I don’t like the green”

We also further developed our fine motor skills by using the tongs to select our own crudités.

We love to help tidy up and practise resetting our table for our friends to have their lunch!

“We need to clean the table. Then we need a bowl and spoon for our soup”

“I’ll put the water and vegetable tray out”

Our super soup got a big thumbs up today!

“I’m finished. It was so yummy!”

 

 

 

 

Patterns in the sand

This morning we have been creating patterns in the sand trays. The children have used the pattern stones to print a pattern and have also been using sticks or their fingers to trace the pattern. Some of the children even started creating their own. We have enjoyed discussing the different shapes within the patterns and what we think they look like.


“They’re squares.”


“It’s a 1, 1, 1, 1.”


“It’s my name.”


“I think it’s curly.”


“I’ve got stripes. “

Yummy Blueberry Muffins

This week the toddlers have been extremely busy. After enjoying home grown vegetables for snack this week, they decided to make some yummy blueberry muffins to enjoy for snack.

We all washed our hands and found a recipe book to let us know what ingredients we needed.

This is what we needed:

Plain Flour
Caster Sugar
Baking Powder
Salt
Melted Butter
Buttermilk
Lemon Rind
2 Eggs
Blueberries

We put all of the dry ingredients into a bowl, flour, sugar, baking powder, lemon rind and salt and gave it a stir.

Now we had to mix the wet ingredients, buttermilk, eggs and melted butter.

And gave it a good stir.

We carefully added the wet ingredients to the flour mix and gave it a good mix. It became very gloopy!

Pop in some blueberries.

The children took great care filling the muffin cases before putting them in the oven to cook.
The muffins looked delicious when they were cooked. The children had to wait till they had cooled before enjoying them for snack.

Some of the children wanted to taste some of the blueberries…. even the lemon!

What will we make next time?