Tag Archives: News

Icetastic time in the garden 🧊

Happy New Year everyone😀

What a lovely icey cold morning for the children to get wrapped up and go out to explore the ice.

The children discovered large pieces of ice inside the tyres.

” Wow its so big”

“Its cold on my hands, its so heavy”

They collected all the big chunks of ice they could find and added it to our water tray. We discussed how water turns to ice and what conditions there has to be for this to happen.

 

“It needs to be so cold”

” But there is salt on the ground, that melts the ice”

We discussed why there was salt on the ground and what other ways the ice would melt .

” My mum said the  big gritter went by my house and put grit all over the place to melt the ice”

“The sun melts the ice and turns it into water, like a snowman when the snow goes away”

The children decided the wanted to fill some things up with water to see if they could make more ice.

They put some animals, pine cones, shells etc in the water trough and filled up some cupcake cases with water and blue food colouring.

We left it over night and came back to the garden in the morning to see what had happened.

“ITS FROZEN, YAY”

The children added some more water to the tray to see what would happen to the ice. “It melting a little bit but it’s still so cold”

They have had so much fun exploring, digging the ice to break the animals out and leaving more water in the garden to see if it freezes again tomorrow.

 

 

December Round Up in the Baking Area

Over the last few weeks in the baking  area the children have enjoyed lots of different experiences starting with making our own potato scones for St Andrews day, they worked so hard peeling, chopping, mashing and shaping before practicing their spreading skills buttering and of course enjoying the taste.

They have also been busy making a variety of different muffins for snack time, we’ve had blueberry, raisin and banana.

The children have been working on developing their fine motor skills at snack time having a go at spreading butter onto crackers, cheese onto bread and jam onto bread which has been voted the best.

We enjoyed the process of making fruit kebabs, peeling, chopping and carefully pushing them onto a skewer we introduced a wee bit of maths by recognising and following a simple pattern or making up their own.

We ended by making some delicious gingerbread cookies and decorating our “ home made” empire biscuits.

Magnet ice play

In our science area we have been exploring magnet ice play. The children started their exploration thought freezing different objects in the ice. First we used plastic, glass beads, magnet tiles and screws and used the magnet wands to see which one we were able to move or pick up. The ice melted very fast and we discussed why it was melting.

”it’s melting because of the sun”

We discussed how the sun melts ice and snow because it’s hot but it’s not the sun today. The nursery is warm and our hands are warm and that is what is melting the ice.

    

Yesterday some of the children helped to freeze some magnet balls in some ice cubes to explore today.

 

 

“It’s freezing on my hands”

”I’m watching it drip on my hands”

Magnet ice play is a very hands-on experience! There were lots of attempts to see how many ice cubes we could pick up at the one time.
The record was 7 ice cubes

“I got 7!”

We discovered we could make them spin around very fast by waving the wand in a circular motion above the ice cube.

Some children enjoyed trying to stack the cubes to build a tower. It was a bit tricky.

We lifted the tray up onto blocks and explored the ice cubes further by waving the wands under the tray and watching the ice cubes dance around.

It’s fair to say that the children had fun exploring the ice and it was just a shame it melted so fast.

Article 31  You have the right to play and rest

Holidays are coming 🌲

Yesterday in the studio the children explored marbling ink. They selected different colours to create their own unique art.


Adding the marbling ink to the water and swirling it around to make cool patterns, the children added their paper to the water and we all counted to 10.  After 10 we lifted the paper out and looked at patterns that had transferred onto the paper.

“ Wow! That’s so cool , my colours pink and yellow are on the paper now”

“ Can I make a Christmas card on mine”

“ Me too can I make one?”

We put our pictures over to the drying rack and left them to dry over night.


Today the children collected different things to create their Christmas cards.

Jewels, sequins, pom-poms etc were glued on to create lovely Christmas cards, the children cut out their marbling ink pictures and added to red card.


The children practiced their writing skills as they wrote out their cards. Some for Santa, aunties, uncles, mums,dads, brothers and sisters.

We hope everyone  has a lovely Christmas and a Happy New Year🎅 🌲

 

Article 29 – I have the right to an education which develops my personality, respect for others rights and the environment.

Article 12 – I have the right to be listened to

Imaginative fun

Today some of the children enjoyed exploring their own interests through imaginative play in the home corner both independently and with their peers.

“I made pizza in the oven be careful because it is hot”

“ You can’t touch it without these special oven gloves”

”I made strawberry ice cream, I don’t think it’s to cold to eat ice cream “

”I’m making ever Pasta for their dinner it will be nice I’m putting onions in it”

“ It’s a busy day for me, first working in the office , then I need to make dinner for everyone, I hope they like it, it’s macaroni , I need to put it in the oven for 20 minutes “

” I will put the timer on ”

”Stir,stir,stir “” my baby is sleepy so I’m putting him to bed, I don’t want him to be cold, so I’m putting a blanket onto him”

”I’m reading a story to my baby’s”

“ I’m chopping up the play dough into smaller pieces “

Sometimes it is lovely to sit back and watch the children play. They have such great imaginations and how they interact can be inspiring. The boys played, happily sharing the utensils and taking turns. Role play enhances children’s social skills, communication and language development as it allows them to share ideas with one another and learn to play and socialise in group situations.

Article 31 – I have the right to relax and play

Article 28 – I have the right to an education

Thursday is for muddy movers fun 😁

Today the children helped to create and set up two separate obstacle courses  suitable for the different ages and stages of the children at Cart Mill. The obstacle courses that we set up in the garden are an excellent way for our children to develop their gross motor skills.

The children carried out their own risk assessment to make sure that the loose parts were used safely. We used questions such as is it to high to climb,  Will I slip? How can we set up the wooden planks so they are safe to balance on?  Take a look at the fantastic creation we made!


Using the loose parts provided the children decided that they would have two different sized jumps at the end of their obstacle course. A high jump using 3 boxes and a smaller jump using 2.  Our children our developing so much confidence and showing progression all the time.


Some of our younger waned to explore the larger course and were able to ask for help when they required.  The adults were able to support and encourage them as they moved across the wooden planks is different ways.  Some were crawling, walking and sliding along.  They demonstrated they could as they jumped from the boxes holding an adults hand.

Article 28 (right to education)

Berry nice smoothies 🍓🫐

Today in the home room the children decided they wanted to make fruit smoothies.

We used the internet to search for a recipe to make delicious fruit smoothies. We then collected the ingredients we needed from the kitchen to begin making our very nice smoothies.

To begin the children took turns to  scoop a spoonful of frozen berries into the bowl. Next they safely used a knife to cut up a banana to add to the bowl.

“I put strawberries and blueberries in they were stuck together with ice”

Using the measuring jug the children measured out 240ml of milk, they worked as a team to measure one tsp of honey before adding all the ingredients into the blender. We also made a water based fruit smoothie as an alternative.

“it’s so noisy”

When the ingredients were all blended together the children poured the smoothie into an jug and shared with their friends for snack.

“It tastes yummy”

“ I can taste banana, I like banana for snack”

 


 

Creative builders in the block area 🧱👷🏽‍♀️👷🏾‍♂️

Over the last week in the block area the children have been using their imagination and problem solving skills to represent their ideas in imaginative ways. We have been making ice cream shops, which has been very popular with the children and the staff!

“I need the small ones for the ice cream”

“The big blocks can be for the walls”

The children have been enhancing their Problem solving skills, mathematic skills and communication skills by working alongside their friends to create their ice cream shops. The children were able to discuss bug and small blocks and give reasons for using different ones.

“my house has a pillow for the bed, I sleep up here”

”we’re saving our house from the big bad wolf!”

The children have also shown an interest in creating and designing their own houses both individually and working together with our friends. In block play, children are able to free flow their own ideas and building their constructions brings a feeling of success and allows children to build their self-esteem.

Article 15: I have the right to meet with friends

Article 31: I have the right to play

 

Homemade banana muffins for snack 😋😋😋

Today the children made banana muffins for snack to share with their friends. This is helping develop their sense of responsibility and the pride they feel in looking after others.

First aprons on and hands washed, table cleaned ready to start..

Then we mashed up the bananas helping develop our fine motor muscles

Then we measured our ingredients helping develop our numeracy and problem solving skills..3 scoops of gluten free flour

We carefully put our mixture into the cases

Then we shared the muffins with all our friends….delicious 😋😋😋

Article 28 I have the right to an education.

Our emotions😀😢🤪😱🫣🥱😡😳

This week at the malleable area the children have been using their creative imaginations to mould our play dough into different things.

“I made a big worm, I rolled it with my hands”
“look I made my ear in the play dough, I lied down like this”

”I made a smiley face”

The smiley face sparked a conversation about the different faces we could make.

”can I show you my silly face”

The children used the iPad to take a picture of the different faces they could make, they even took a picture of Carly’s silly face but we won’t bore you with that.

Each child made a different face and we discussed what they were and why we might feel these ways. Using facial expressions we can begin to learn and recognise different feelings and emotions that we can feel and find solutions to understanding and dealing with them.

”some of the new boys and girls get sad faces when they just come to nursery, now they have happy faces”

We will continue exploring emotions in different ways at the malleable table, it is a very important way of communication especially for children as they don’t often understand their feelings.