Tag Archives: imaginative play

Wednesdays are for visiting dinosaurs in far away landsšŸ™‚


Today the children decided they would like to make a story map using dinosaurs. Ā They had great fun creating different habitats for their dinosaurs to live in.ā€œ I’m writing that it’s a dinosaur world we are makingā€ ā€œ I found my same stegosaurus in the bookā€ ā€œ I’m drawing some grass for my diplodocus Ā to eat he’s hungry from walking for a long timeā€


ā€I’m drawing around the triceratops’s he’s quite bigā€ ā€œI drew a cave I wonder if my eight dinosaurs will fit in itā€ ā€œ My dinosaur is going for a swim in the pondā€

ā€œThis is my triceratops he’s going to eat the purple flower for his lunch.

ā€œOh no my dinosaur is on fireā€ ā€œThe volcano is to hotā€


ā€œIt’s okay he can go to the pond he’s not hot nowā€ ā€œ He’s going for a swimā€


ā€œThe pterodactyl is flying over his landā€ ā€œ He might fly down on his friends and eat them ā€œ The children were very imaginative with their story telling .

ā€œ I have a sonic dinosaur he is very fastā€ Ā We thought that next week we could move onto story’s about woodland animals.

 

 

Christmas dinner in our home corner

Today in the home room we used the kitchen to cook up a delicious Christmas dinner.Ā  First we had a chat about what we might eat at Christmas dinner and what weĀ need to cook it. . Below are some of the suggestions.

ā€œPotatoes, broccoli and cat food for my cat. We also have paper crowns.ā€

ā€œCake for puddingā€

ā€œChocolateā€

ā€œWe have carrots and chickenā€

ā€œWe need pans to cook the foodā€

ā€œChop it with knifeā€

ā€œDish to put the carrots inā€

ā€œPlate and spoonā€

The children chopped up potatoes and carrots developing their fine and gross motor skills. We also talked about how to chop safely keeping ourselves and others safe when using knives. Developing our understanding of managing risk.

Then we started cooking everything and getting it ready to serve.

Once the Christmas dinner was ready we set the table for our Christmas dinner. With a table cloth, plates, cups, cutlery and we even made some paper crowns.

Then everyone enjoyed sitting at the table to eat our delicious dinner and chat with our peers. This helps to develop our social skills while exploring imaginative play skills.Ā  We discussed our families and Christmas traditions that we do I’m our homes .


ā€œChristmas dinner timeā€

ā€œMy gran comes for Christmas dinnerā€

ā€œChristmas crackers on the tableā€

ā€œYou tell a funny jokeā€

We even had a visitor come to our ChristmasĀ  dinner.Ā  It was ā€œbabies first Christmasā€

Well done everyone for creating a fabulous Christmas dinner.Ā  Derek really enjoyed his dinner in the home corner today šŸ˜€

Dolly Day Care

Today in our home room we shared how we used our imaginations and skills we have observed from our families home.

We demonstrated how we are caring and nurturing using our dolls. We bathed our dolls and put clothes on them to keep warm.


ā€œshe all coldā€

ā€bubble bathā€

Once our babies were dressed they had rumbley tummies and needed fed. We put some playdough into pots and carefully making sure we didn’t burn our fingers used our cooker to warm the babies food.

ā€œIt’s burntā€

ā€hot, hotā€

We placed our babies in the high chairs while their food was cooking. When it was ready we put some into a bowl and used a spoon to feed them.

ā€œYummy ā€œ

Once our babies had ate up all their food I was time to clean up, we washed our dishes in the sink.

Our next part of the day was as shopping trip. We got our handbags ready for going to the shops.

ā€œI am going for milkā€

ā€I get pastaā€

ā€I will get yummy biscuitsā€

When we got home from our shopping trip we settled our babies down by reading them a lovely story before tucking them in.

Garden fun at Cart Mill

We have been having lots of fun in our garden this week at Cart Mill. The children have been extremely busy and creative using their imagination in their play…

On Monday, we opened the ‘Cart Mill Cafe’ where macaroni cheese, chips and ice cream were the speciality! The children used various pots and pans, spoons and bowls and lots of mud to create their meals in the cafe. Throughout this experience the children were developing their role play and imagination skills and using real life experiences in their play.

What would you like from the ‘Cart Mill Cafe’ the next time you visit the nursery?

Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  Ā  ”I’m making you some macaroni cheese”

”I need to mix the cake, you scoop up the cake and mix it together in the bowl, it needs to go in the oven”

” Here’s ice cream, it has a flake in the top and chocolate sauce”

Then, today, we got a special show performance on our stage in the garden! The children treated us to a performance of ”5 little monkey’s jumping on the bed”. We had to be patient and wait for the curtains to open and for the show to begin…

”It’s nearly time for the show to begin”

Ā  Ā  Ā 

The children had so much fun putting on a show for their friends, we even had some music on to dance along to!

Let us entertain you!

We have had a busy day in our Studio. We have explored our creativity and imagination through art and storytelling.
Using a selection of junk and art materials we Ā were able to build our own puppet theatre.


We shared and discussed what our favourite fairy tale stories were and who our favourite characters from popular stories were. We then listened to some stories before creating our own puppets. Using our great craft and motor skills when glueing, sticking, cutting and drawing Ā we made our very own puppets all ready for the premier of our puppet show performances.


ā€œ I’m making a fairy for my storyā€

ā€ Sleeping beauty is my favourite so I’m making Aurora ā€œ

Once our audience settled, we began our performances! WeĀ sat very patiently and demonstrated good listening skills while we all had a turn of being the puppeteer. For some stories we needed some Ā help from a friend to puppeteer alongside us as it got a bit tricky trying to hold all the characters at once!
We used our loud speaking voices to introduce our characters and the name of our stories we would be re-enacting. Some of us were a little shy and nervous to begin but when it came to our turn our confidence shone and we were able to re-tellĀ familiar and popularĀ stories using our own words such as ā€˜The Three Bears’, ā€˜Goldilocks’, ā€˜Sleeping Beauty’ and ā€˜Jack and the Beanstalk’. SomeĀ of us were able to make our own stories up using our puppets we created.

Well done boys and girls you have been great entertainers! We all enjoyed listening and watching your stories and had so much fun with our puppet theatre, why not give this a go at home? You could make up your own puppets and stories!

The floor is lava

Today the children played Ā ā€œThe floor is lavaā€ butĀ with a twist…

They worked together to collect different materials including:

  • Paper/card
  • lollipop sticks
  • twigs
  • Small figures
  • building blocks
  • Cars
  • Bowls

They then used the materials to design and build a stable structure together that was suitable to save the little figures and cars from the lava without it falling over.

ā€œIt needs to be up high, what can we use?ā€

ā€we can use the blocks to get it highā€


The children came up with a variety of ways to save the cars and people from the lava while developingĀ their listening and teamwork skills.

They used their problem solving skills to organise the different shaped blocks by size so that the figure didn’t fall over.

ā€The big ones need to go to the bottom because they will fall if they are at the top, they won’t balanceā€

ā€œThe bowl can go under in case he fallsā€

The children had so much fun making a safe structure for the cars and people using materials around the nursery. Why don’t you try creating your own at home.

Fun time, Junk time 😊

Today in the Studio the children were inspired to be creative by some giant boxes kindly donated by one of our parents.

They decided to build a house complete with a back and front garden and even a chimney. The children worked well together planning how their house should look.


There was a lot of chat about what everyone had in their house and what they could use in the centre to replicate the items. Some of their ideas included;
ā€œ look I have made the key to get into the house, I used a cotton bud and tissue paperā€ ā€œI think I will make a table to have my dinner atā€ ā€œ I think there should be two doors at the front ā€œ ā€œ The garden should have rainbow grassā€ “I’m going to make the grass with different colours of tissue paperā€ ā€œ I want to make Ā a dinosaur room for my stegosaurusā€ Ā I think it’s snowing at our houseā€ I have made a barricade to keep everyone in the back gardenā€
What wonderful, imaginative suggestions!

The children used team work and exercised their gross motor skills to move the big boxes to where they wanted them and working together, they were able to use their problem solving skills to keep the roof up.ā€ Let’s put these supports into stop it falling downā€ Ā 

The children loved using their imagination to make their house and spent many hours playing in it. Ā Great team work everybody, well done!

Junk DNA

Today, the children have been exploring their creativity and imaginative skills through use of Junk DNA! They loved using the book as a stimulus.Ā  We put our thinking caps on to create lots of little stories and creations using different resources.

 

Junk DNA can be whatever you want it to be! Some of the children made weights ā€œto do press-upsā€, and some children made some letters from their names.

Ā 

ā€œI need 3 lines to make an E. That’s my name!ā€

Some of the children were very interested in making small world using the junk, and made a little home.

They even made a little garden and a vegetable patch!

 

ā€œLook I’ve made a little vegetable patch. And that’s the conservatory, look there’s a little doorbell!ā€.

Some children loved making robots too, and even some space robots with ā€œmoon bootsā€.

 

Ā 

ā€œHe’s got moon boots so he can walk in spaceā€

Junk DNA is a really fun way to develop our creativity skills, and the great thing is you can use anything at all. Have a look and see what else you can find in your homes or garages, and see what your littles ones can create from them. It’s also a good way for us adults to use our imaginations too and think outside the (tool) box! Good luck everyone!!!

Water Xylophone

This week is Science Week and we will be exploring science themed experiences throughout all the different areas in each of the playrooms.

Today in our music area we made a water xylophone using some glass jars and food colouring.

We were developing our fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination as we used a pipette to pour the food colouring in to the jar after which, we added some water.

Once the children had added the water, they lined up all the jars and noticed that each jar had a different volume of water.

ā€that one is filled right to the topā€

ā€the red one has just a little bitā€

We used a beater on the jars to listen to the sounds it made.

ā€The blue one sounds really low and the red one sounds really highā€

I asked if the children knew what made the sounds but they were unsure.

After searching the internet we learned that when we use the beater to tap the jar it causes sound waves which are vibrations that travel through the water to make the sound. When there is less water the pitch is higher.

We listened to the different pitches as we played our own music, we are going to collect some more jars to add lots of different sounds.

Imaginative Block play in the Discovery Room šŸ˜€

The children were discussing dens and how to build them. They had lots of ideas about what they could do inside their own den. The children had a look around the room at what they could use to make a den and how they could make it cosy. They decided that blocks would make the best den, but they thought they should research it a little first, before planning it out.

Using digital technology, the children started looking at different types of dens. After their initial research, the children decided they should draw a plan of what they wanted their den to be like.

ā€œ I want it big enough to have a tea party inā€


ā€œ I want my den to have a roof, so we don’t get wetā€

The children then put their problem solving skills to work and worked collaboratively to build their den.

They shared resources and made suggestions to each other to make sure the den they built was the best den ever!


ā€œ How will we make the roof stay upā€
The children searched the room for resources and showed their skills as future engineers and architects. Ā 
ā€œ I think that wall is tall enough nowā€
ā€œWe need the cardboard tube to keep the roof up highā€


ā€œ We need to be careful not to knock the walls down when we are insideā€

When their den was finished the children made it a home from home by adding comfy cushions and a table, they then invited some special guests to join them for afternoon tea complete with cakes and sandwiches, cheese of course!