Tag Archives: News

Special Event

Super Sports Day!

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Today was Sports Day here at Cart Mill! Excitement has been building over the last couple of weeks and we have all been practicing our favourite races!

It was very exciting to arrive at our sports area and see all our races set up by Chris, our Active Schools Co-ordinator.  Off we set to our first race.  After a quick run down of what we needed to do it was time to ready, steady, GO!!!

We ran and jumped over the hurdles and then ran back to the start to see who could finish first! It was so much fun that our families wanted to join in too! (Well done mums!)

Next up was our obstacle course.  We had to run up to the hula hoop, hop or star jump and then see if we could walk balancing a beanbag on our heads! It was a wee bit tricky but we took our time and demonstrated some fabulous balancing skills!

It was time for our flat race next! Some of us were a wee bit excited and forgot to wait for the ready, steady Go.  With a bit of practice, we soon got the hang of it! Who do you think was fastest!

Our final race was the egg and spoon race.  We are very imaginative here at Cart Mill, so we decided to have our own version, the tangerine and spoon race!

Of course what better way to round up sports day than  our super duper water slide!

It was so much fun to take turns sliding super fast down our slide.  We discovered if Val gave us a wee helping hand, we went even faster! And more bubbles appeared the faster we went (there’s definitely a science experiment in there somewhere!).
After all the fun it was time to head back inside for a quick change, ice pole and to receive our certificates.  We truly are sporting super stars!

A huge thank you to staff, Chris from Active Schools and to our fabulous families and children for making it such a memorable event.

Article 31 – the right to engage in play and recreational activities.

Creativity, Literacy

Billy’s Bucket

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Today we enjoyed the book Billy’s Bucket, a story about a boy who wanted a bucket for his birthday! Using his wonderful imagination, he described all the exciting events that happened and the sea creatures that came to visit. After reading our story we decided to  design our own buckets…

Then we thought about all the creatures we wanted in our own buckets….sharks, whales, sea lions!!

We thought our bucket was too little so we made an even bigger one in our water tray.  After lots of discussion, problem solving and decision making, we decided to make our water red!

Reading a story has helped us develop our literacy skills, fuels our imagination and creativity and allows us to share ideas with our friends.  We have demonstrated we can make decisions, problem solve, work together and lead our own learning.   😁

Article 28 You have the right to an education

 

 

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Sinking and floating, wind and waves 🤔

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Today we started with a scavenger hunt looking for items around the nursery that sunk or floated. We looked in all the rooms to see what we could find….



We tested the chosen items to check what category they fell into…

and recorded the results.

When we knew what items floated, we introduced some straws to create some wind and waves to see who’s item floated to the other side the quickest. We also had lots of fun making bubbles in the water and investigating cause and effect.

Article 28 You have the right to education.

Outdoor Learning

The Cart Mill Campsite!

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This week at Cart Mill, some of the children have enjoyed building dens, sparking discussions about camping. To further explore this interest, we decided to embark on a fun learning experience by pitching a tent and creating the Cart Mill Campsite!

First, we worked together to set up the tent, following the instructions and learning about its different parts along the way. Through this activity, the children not only learned practical skills but also developed important social skills such as effective communication, sharing responsibilities, and supporting each other.

We began by carefully laying out the tent, taking our time to select the perfect spot and ensuring that it would fit just right. With teamwork in full swing, we joined the tent poles together and skilfully threaded them through the fabric, gradually bringing the tent to life

We focused on securing the tent to the ground by hammering the pegs firmly into place. Working together, we used our strength to make sure each peg was secure.  One of our group stressed the importance of this, saying “It will keep it from blowing away in the wind”

 

One child suggested making a campfire, remembering how they had learned it at forest school by rubbing sticks together. Excited, some of the children got busy gathering sticks from the garden and creating the pretend campfire to cook on and keep warm.

The tent became a provocation for imaginative play, allowing the children to explore role play camping adventures, fostering creativity, storytelling, and role-playing skills. We even gathered around for some campfire songs, with “10 Fat Sausages Sizzling in a Pan” being a firm favourite, helping the children practice counting backwards from 10 to 0.

Some of the children gathered inside the tent for a story. The children chose a book that sparked a discussion about what jobs we could so when we grow up.  Take a look below at some of the suggestions.

“I want to a builder”

“I want to be a king”

“I want to be a dragon”

“I want to a teacher”

“I want to be a builder like dad”

“I want to be a princess doctor like the story”

” I want to be a vet and look after dragons”

It was a fantastic experience that combined learning and fun, fostering a love for camping and outdoor exploration in our little Cart Mill campers. 🏕️🔥🎶

(Article 12) (respect for the views of the child)

(Article 28) (right to education)

Article 29 (goals of education)

Article 31 (leisure, play and culture)

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Sensory Fun

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We have been trying out some fun sensory experiences this week.  We tried mixing custard powder with water which gave us a really smooth surface and was  hard to press into but when we lifted it up it became all runny “wow its like magic“. Did you know this is called a non Newtonian fluid?

The children enjoyed watching the mixture do its magic.

The girls and boys were able to use some great descriptive words when playing with the magic potion.  “ My potion is very sticky and cold” and it’s like a bath bomb my mummy uses.

We were able to talk about the visual elements how thick or thin, rough and smooth as well as shape, colour and patterns. What a lot of things to learn!

Our next sensory experience we decided should be crazy soap as this is always a favourite

The girls and boys enjoy moulding this foam and squeezing it through their fingers . It feels very tickly  in my hands.

This week we have made up some sensory bags. We made jelly to put in one of them although we had to use our muscles to try and break the jelly into pieces, this helps develop our fine motor skills.

Everyday we had something different in our bags and we had great fun guessing what might be in the bags, what colours they were and what the would smell like.

It was decided that the jelly bag was the best it smelled so good and was nice and “squishy”. The beans went all yucky and were cold so not as good. The tomatoes were good as you could make patterns in them with your fingers. We also had lentils one day, they felt really different.
Sensory experiences help us use all our senses while we explore them.

Article 13 – You have the right to play and learn through new experiences.

Snack

Beautiful banana and blueberry muffins independently 😁😁😁

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Today at Cart Mill we enjoyed some delicious banana and blueberry muffins.  The children are familiar with this receipe but today it was carried out independently by a 4 year old with the only assistance given was with the oven.

He collected all the ingredients he needed.

He could recall the measurements and weighed out what he needed

He peeled his banana using his fine motor muscles in his strengthening hands.

We used coconut milk and he poured out just enough using a measuring jug, supporting his numeracy skills.


He mixed all the ingredients together very well

And divided the mixture evenly into the cupcake tray

When he had finished making the muffins he washed his dishes and put all his ingredients away….well done, what a great job today!!!

Ingredients :

3 scoops of gluten free flour

1 scoop of sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon xanthum gum

100 ml of coconut milk

some blueberries and a banana

Try to make these delicious muffins we can always guarantee lots of tasters if you need any. 😜

Article 24 A right to be healthy

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Shapes are all around

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Our learning today consisted of shapes, shapes and more shapes! We started by using chalk to draw all the shapes we knew.

Then we used the balance beams to make a shape obstacle course. The children had to work out how many sides the shapes have and then collect the corresponding amount of beams. They did a fantastic job of creating a square, a rectangle, a triangle, a circle and even a star.


“The triangle looks like a tent.”

Then we took our learning indoors and went on a shape hunt inside the nursery. We used our worksheets to record each time we spotted a shape.

After all our hard work, we let loose by having a dance party. Check out those moves 😎💃🕺

UNCRC Article 29-
You have the right to education which tries to
develop your personality and abilities as much as
possible and encourages you to respect other
people’s rights and values and to respect the
environment.

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Rainy day science 😁

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The children felt that today would be a good day to try out the thermal camera. A camera that detects heat emitted by objects converting it into an electrical signal , the signal is then used to produce the thermal image on the camera.

We made some ice the night before and tested our camera on it.

The children noticed that the ice was a purple colour through the camera. We filled a cup with warm water to see to see if it looked a different colour through the camera it was bright yellow. A quickly realised that the difference in colour was because the water was warm and the cubes cold. The children decided to try putting one hand in icy water to see what colour there hands would appear through the camera they looked purple because the ice had turned them cold. We looked at each other through the cameras we looked yellow E new this is because we are warm. Next the children looked at the temperature of the ice A noticed the warm water was 20.4 degrees Celsius and the ice measured -8.4 degrees Celsius.  That’s very cold as cold as snow commented A.

Some of the children decided to see what would happen to the temperature if we used the thermal camera outside. A thought we should jump in puddles and take a before and after temperature reading to see if the puddle warmed up with us jumping in it.  There wasn’t any change in the reading so T decided we should add some ice to see what happens. After adding ice the ice melted a bit and the children seen through the camera that the puddle had turned much colder.


As it was raining today some children wanted to do the cloud in a jar experiment. We filled a beaker with water, added a layer of foam and then used pipettes to drop blue colouring into the foam. I explained that when the cloud gets too heavy the drops fall from them like rain. We discussed that when water droplets get heavy in the sky, gravity pulls them down into the atmosphere.

Maybe you could try this experiment at home with different colours and let us know your findings!

Article 29- I have the right to an education

Creativity

Pop a little Pancake

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Today we were talking about Pancake Tuesday and decided we could make our own pancakes with the playdough. We got our bowls and measured each ingredient  and used our gross motor skills to stir all the ingredients together. We added some vanilla essence  to make them smell yummy too.

“My mum makes pancakes”

“ I have pancakes in my house”

We then began creating our own pancakes  using the rolling pins and cutters  of our choice.

“ mine is going to be round”

”I am using the circle one”

 

When  we were ready we popped them into the frying pan some of the children like using the cooker  to bake them. The children then flipped their pancakes . While we didt this we sang pop a little pancake into the pan.

We then used a variety of resources sequins, pom poms to decorate our pancakes pretending they were various toppings.

“Nutella”

”Jam”

“Bananas”

“Strawberry”

Look at our delicious pancakes.

Outdoor Learning

Grow grow let our trees grow 🌳🌳🌳

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What a busy day we’ve had today, planting some baby seedling trees with the hope that they will grow and grow into big trees that we all can enjoy for many years…

We were planting a variety of different trees dogwood rose, blackthorns and elders. We could have a look at the seedlings, touch and smell the soil.

We made a hole in the ground for the seeds then the children patted it down to embed the trees into the soil.

We could share the learning that we already had on how the trees grow, they need sun, water, fresh air and love just like us and this will help the trees to grow big and strong just like us.

Isn’t it amazing to think that the children  today could visit these trees as dads and grandads and show them off  and be proud of them, providing a lifelong love of nature.

Article 29 Education must develop every child’s personality, talents and abilities to the full.