Tag Archives: #finemotorskills

Expressive Arts

Let’s get creative🎃

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From all the excitement of halloween last night the children were chatting with one another saying what they dressed up as. They had a brilliant idea and decided to use the junk modelling to create what they had dressed up as.


“I’m going to cover the box all orange.”
“Hedwig needs feathers and glue.”

Here is the children’s fantastic work!


“I dressed up as a pumpkin last night, like this.”
“I made Hedwig  because I was Hermione.”
“I dressed up as a train driver, this is my train.”

Through the week the children have also been super busy working together creating “halloween houses”.

“This looks like my house.” 
“I’m going to put my handprints on it.”

The children absolutely love spending time in the studio, it is an essential part of every child’s  learning, it allows them to think creatively, problem solve, explore, work independently or as a group and develop their fine motor skills as well as many more.

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Spooktacular clay creations!

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Over the last week in the clay area, the children have been making their own spooky models. Using various techniques such as rolling, pressing and moulding to make their pumpkins and spiders.

The children used their curiosity and imagination skills throughout whilst exploring texture and manipulation.

The children used their hands to roll a ball to make the spiders body and to roll the spiders legs into ”sausage shapes”.

The children then decided they wanted to make their own clay model pumpkins for Halloween! We even created a whole family of pumpkins and some pumpkin lollypops for trick-or-treating!

Clay modelling allows children to develop their fine motor skills in their hands and fingers and hand eye co-ordination. This helps with children colouring, cutting and starts off the skills needed for emergent writing.

I wonder what wonderful techniques & creations our children will come up with next week..

Article 31: I have the right to play

Article 29: I have the right to an education

 

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Clay creativity

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Today in the clay area we set up an invitation to play using leaves, sticks, feathers and pine cones to encourage creativity, individualism and independence and the children did not disappoint.

As you can see the children have been very busy…

“I’ve made a pumpkin”

“I made a forest, no it’s a bird flying in the forest, no it’s the same as the picture a forest and the water”

“I done tree”  “ me too”  “I made a sun”

Playing with clay is a multi-sensory experience as children get the chance to refine their senses as they touch the clay, feel it’s weight and texture, smell and squish it.

When our unique works of art are dried we will decorate them before taking them home.

Maths Week Scotland, Outdoor Learning, Special Event

Maths Week Scotland in the Garden

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Numeracy is all around us, and for our young children at Cartmill, developing our numeracy skills can be an exciting adventure, especially when taken outside into the garden.  In Scotland, we celebrate the importance of numeracy and outdoor learning with Math Week Scotland.  Take a look at a snapshot of the activities going on this week in the Cartmill garden.

Creating Patterns

Exploring patterns using natural resources in early numeracy involves using items like shells, pebbles, or branches to create and expand patterns. This hands-on approach not only enhances understanding of early numeracy but also encourages an appreciation for the natural world. By taking part in these activities, children develop problem-solving skills, boost their creativity, and gain a deeper understanding of numeracy in the early years.  Take a look at some of the pictures below and the patterns that were created.

Measuring

Measuring with our hands and feet is a practical and fun way to introduce children to the concept of measurement. They can use their hands or feet to gauge the size and length of everyday objects.  We explored different objets in the garden which you can see in the photos below.  This interactive activity not only helps them develop an understanding of measurement but also enhances their fine motor skills and gross motor skills.

One of the children used their hands to measure two separate pieces of wood, and then combined them, exploring addition. He said “this is 11 and 4 together” and then counted out 15 with support.

Measuring using our feet  “It’s 10” showing 10 fingers.

Shape Hunt

An outdoor shape hunt is a amazing adventure where our children explored their natural surroundings to discover shapes in the world around them. Together with curiosity the children of Cartmill embarked on a quest to find circles in tree trunks, squares in windows, triangles in buidings, and countless other shapes. Take a look at the shapes we found on our shape hunt.

“It’s a big circle”

”A triangle on the leaf”

”The window has 4 rectangles and a big one”

Why not take a look at the Maths Week Scotland website to see lots of different activities you can take part in at home. Just click the link bellow.  😃
Maths Week Scotland Website

Article 28: You have the right to education

Article 31: You have the right to play

Literacy, Social Studies

DIY sensory emotion bags😀

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Today the children have been exploring emotions through their very own sensory bags.

We began by having a discussion about what kind of things we could put in our sensory bags while making the jelly mix.

“We could put beans in, they are squidgy”

“and cornflakes, my brother likes cornflakes they feel crunchy”

We collected a variety of different things to put in such as oats, cornflakes, shaving foam,beans, rice ,custard and jelly. The children helped to make up the custard by adding 200 ml of warm water (which we measured using a measuring jug) to the custard powder.

We used ziplock bags and stuck faces on them showing different emotions. The children then added each thing to each of the bags and closed the bag over.

Using their hands to feel and move the contents of each bag they were able to see the different emotions through the bag. They guessed what each one was and how it felt.

“It’s an angry face, it’s crunchy”

“ it’s happy face, it feels gooey”

”what’s that one I don’t know that”

As well as simple emotions we are beginning to look at more complex emotions.

”that is a surprised face, when might you feel surprised”

“ When someone pops a balloon  ”

The children have enjoyed learning about emotions in different ways. During this sensory experience they have been developing their fine motor skills when using their hand muscles and learning some new vocabulary to describe what they feel.

Expressive Arts, Literacy, Outdoor Learning

Exploring the Cart Mill Garden

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This week in the garden we have had lots of learning experiences to take part in. Take a look at what we have been up to.

Duplo Rockets

We used Duplo blocks to build our own space rocket.  First we planned out our rocket on paper and got ready to build. Once we had built it we used different lengths of rulers to measure how tall our rockets were.  We have been learning different mathematical language such as centimetres, tall, short, tallest and shortest.  We were also practicing counting up to and back from 10 ready for blast off!!

Sunflower Harvest

The sunflowers that the children have grown this summer have come to an end. We decided to harvest the seeds and dry them out ready to plant next week. We looked at different parts of the plant and studied the head.  The children used the tweezers developing their fine motor skills to pull out the seeds from each head.  We will place them somewhere safe to try and store them for next years planting.

Chalk Mark Making

The children have been using the chalk to write and draw on the ground. They have created everything form spiders webs to beetles with 10 legs!  We even drew round our friends and looked to see who was the biggest and who was the smallest. Some of our children have also practiced writing their letters.

Obstacle Course

The children have helped to build different layouts using our loose parts this week. The obstacle courses help to challenge our gross motor skills. We have also been learning to manage our risk and ask for help on the more difficult parts.

What another fabulous week in the Cart Mill garden. I wonder what we will get up to next week?

 

Article 12 – Respect for the views of the child

Article 31 – Leisure, play and culture

Article 29 – Goals of education

 

 

Expressive Arts

Let’s get sewing 🧵 🪡

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Welcome to our sewing area in the noisy quiet room, let’s have a look and see what the children have been up to today.

Some of the children spent time at the threading station, here we have been focusing on developing our fine motor and hand eye co-ordination.

“ I made a knot”
“I did it.”
“I’m using pink, my favourite colour.”

Over at our sewing table the children have loved being able to self select the different colours and types of wool they’d like and independently cutting it.

”I’m going to use a very long bit of wool.”
”I can do it all by myself.”

The children have been practicing super hard at threading the wool through the needle, the children demonstrated brilliant concentration and hand eye co-ordination, great job! We have been learning to assess and manage risk when using sewing needles.

Now it’s time to get creative! The children had lots of fun working as a pair and independently, creating their own patterns on our sewing table.


“I made a cross.”
”It goes up and down.”
“It looks like a rainbow.”

Sewing is such a valuable skill for children, it is a key way that they can express their creativity, as well developing their concentration, fine manipulative skills and building their self-confidence.

Outdoor Learning

Getting busy in the Mud Kitchen

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You might be wondering how playing in a mud kitchen can be educational. Well, let’s find out:

During mud kitchen play, kids explore various soil types, textures, and material transformations. They observe how mud changes with water and experiment with different natural elements. This activity also introduces early math concepts like measurements and proportions as they scoop, pour, and mix mud. Teamwork, cooperation, and sharing blossom in the mud kitchen, enhancing social skills. The kitchen’s open canvas sparks imagination, letting children be chefs, scientists, or nature artists, opening doors to endless creativity.

So let’s see what happened in the Cart Mill Mud Kitchen today.

First we foraged the garden and collected lots of different plants to use during our play. They will make fantastic ingredients for the items on the menu today. We found pea pods, pea shoots, dock leaves, clovers and mint in the garden.

The children decided that on todays menu was “Beans and pea pie”

Next our little chefs set out to start cooking in the mud kitchen.  Exploring their imagination they worked together to chop the leaves on the chopping boards.  They scooped water using ladles, spoons and cups and mixed the mud and sand together in pots, pans and bowls.

“We need to turn the gas on to cook them”

”Chopping them all up so it’s small”

”Pour the water in the kettle”

”Mixing it all together”

One of the children opened some of the pea pods we found in the garden and explored what he found inside. “They are green beans”

The finished result! Look at the fantastic creation ready to be served.

Article 6- I should be supported to live and grow

Article 28 – I have the right to an education

Expressive Arts

What can we create with clay?

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Today in the clay area, the children enjoyed taking part in various model making, exploring different techniques to mould and design and also being kind and sharing with one another.

At cart mill we value the opportunities we have to make friends and be part of group experiences sharing our ideas and thoughts with one another.


We have been sharing and co operating with our peers and recognising how we can communicate with others in different situations.

The children then demonstrated how to use different techniques for moulding and creating in the clay area.


The children were able to create and develop using a variety of techniques in making things by hammering, rolling and cutting using different tools and materials.

The children then created their own models by using their curiosity and imagination to select different loose parts such as pebbles and sea shells.

”I made snails”

”My shells look like unicorns horns”

Expressive Arts, Literacy, Outdoor Learning, Social Studies, Technologies

New and improved wormery

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Following on from our last up-cycling project, we can now say we have finished fixing our broken wormery.

The children have worked so hard over the past couple of weeks using the tools and their problem solving skills to put it back together. They worked as a team to decide what they would use and what tools would work best.

“This small bit is too small”

“ We could use this long piece of wood on the side”

“we need a little nail and a hammer to put it on we don’t want to break the wood in half”

“What does this do? it has a bubble in it”

We learned that the spirit level indicates whether a surface is ‘Level’ or ‘plumb’.

“What does plumb mean?” We researched it and found out that ”Plumb means that the surface is sitting straight, it is vertical” This meant that we could check the sides were running straight up and down. We also used the spirit level to check the wormery was level across the top and bottom. We found out this is horizontal!

Every tinker table experience is different, even if it seems the same. We learn new vocabulary every day and learn skills that we can transfer into our everyday life, especially as we get older.

Using a wormery for compost is an easy and environmentally-friendly way of turning food waste in to nutritious compost to feed your garden.

Now we just need find some worms to come and live in it and make up its bedding! 🐛