Tag Archives: Science

life cycles, nature

Magic beans at Cartmill 🌱

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It the science area we have been learning how to record our findings in different ways.

To do this we have planted some magic beans (broad beans) in a jar to watch how it begins to grow. We noticed that after only a few days our beans started to sprout and change daily.

“Mine starting to pop out”

Using a Calendar we marked on the date of when we planted the beans and have been marking it everyday to show how long it takes to grow our beanstalk.

“why does it have that tooth?”

The children are super excited to grow a gigantic beanstalk. This got us talking more about how long it would take to grow the beanstalk.

Here are some of the predictions we marked on the Calendar

“30days”

“45days”

“48days”

“60days”

As the children observed the beans growing daily we have been talking about which part of the plant they can see?, what helps the plant stand up? and what do we think the roots do to help the plant.?

“it’s growing”

”what is the white bit?”

“It’s going to be gigantic “

Article 13 – I have the right to find out and share information

Article 28 – I have the right to an education

 

life cycles, nature, Outdoor Learning

Mondays garden fun including Releasing our beautiful butterflies🐛🦋

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Today the children decided it was time to release our butterflies. The species we have are called Painted Ladies. We made sure the weather conditions were suitable for example the temperature was above 12 degrees and it wasn’t to windy. The children measured out a nectar solution of one teaspoon sugar to 100mls of water  cut up some tangerines and mashed a small slice of banana to put outside in case the butterflies needed energy to look for flowers.  I explained that the butterflies mouth functions like a straw to sip up the nutritious liquids and that they should live two to five weeks. Then the children unzipped the habitat and patiently waited for the butterflies to fly away.

 

The children were delighted to see the butterflies so close up. “ It’s got a very furry body” “It’s tickling my nose” “I think butterflies have a nice pattern on them, I like the colours on them”


In the garden today we also did a little weeding  and planted some herbs to make our mud kitchen concoctions a bit more interesting. The children planted parsley coriander and basil they thought the basil had the nicest  scent.


The children were very gentle while planting their herbs and knew that they would need sunshine and water to grow. It has been such a busy day, planting and releasing our butterflies. Maybe you could have a look and see what other species of butterflies you have in your garden or in the local community when you are out and about. We would love to see any pictures!

Article 28 Every Child has the right to an education.

 

Snack

Homemade Cart Mill Crumble!

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In the bustling kitchen of Cart Mill, our young chefs have been busy making their very own apple crumble from scratch.  Working together they have transformed simple ingredients into a mouth watering dessert. Let’s dive into what they did today.

Ingredients:

  • Fresh, crisp apples
  • Gluten-free flour
  • Butter (Homemade of course)

Cooking Steps:

Peeling and Chopping Apples: With careful guidance and a trusty peeler, the children skilfully removed the apple skins supported by an adult to ensure every apple was perfectly peeled. Once peeled the apples were diced into tiny pieces ready to be cooked till nice and soft.

Making Homemade Butter: The kitchen was full of excitement as the children embarked on a butter-making adventure. Filling a container with double cream, and a few marbles they were ready to begin.  Woking together they shook the contents for a very very long time, but their persistence paid off. When we opened the container what did we find….BUTTER!

“It takes a very very long time”

“look its butter”

“Butter comes from cows”

“You make butter with milk”

Creating the Crumbly Crumble: With homemade butter in hand and flour at the ready, the children blended the two ingredients together. Displaying excellent fine motor skills they rubbed until a crumbly concoction emerged. It will be a perfect topping!

Layering and Topping: As the final step, the children layered the cooked apples into a dish. Adding  generous sprinkles of the crumble mixture on top they were complete and smelling delicious!

Now, with their apple crumbles assembled they are ready to take home for baking until golden and bubbling. We wrote our names on the lid so we could identify them at home time.  Well done team!

At Cart Mill, cooking is all about fun and teamwork! Making apple crumble together not only filled their tummies but also explored new skills.  Cheers to their cooking adventure!

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Article 1
Everyone under 18 has all these rights

Article 28
You have the right to education

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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Some marvellous Monday fun for our little scientists 😍

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Today some of the children wanted to do the sticky ice experiment for today’s experiment. We used some ice and then put some thread in the centre of the ice cube. Then we sprinkled salt onto it waited a few minutes and just like magic the thread had stuck to the ice cube enough for us to lift the cube up using the thread. I explained to the children that salt lowers the freezing point of water making the ice easier to melt. After sprinkling the salt around the thread the melted water is affected by the surrounding low temperature and freezes again so the thread and ice are frozen together.

The next experiment the children asked to do was the blow up the balloon without blowing experiment. Firstly we had to measure out 100mls of water into a beaker. We then added two spoons of baking soda and poured the mixture into a bottle. We then carefully used the funnel to fill our balloon with two spoons of citric acid put the balloon on the lip of the bottle and poured the citric acid from the balloon into the bottle.

To the children’s delight the balloon started to slowly inflate. I explained that the reason for this is baking soda is an alkaline substance that reacts with acidic citric acid to produce a large amount carbon dioxide gas the more carbon dioxide produced the more the balloon inflates. The children followed my instructions and measured the ingredients out accurately  they quickly realised that the more baking soda and citric acid they used the bigger their balloons got.


Our last experiment of the day was to see if oil and coconut milk which we added food colouring to would mix the children quickly seen that it doesn’t. This is because the molecular structure is very different as is their density so that when the milk is dropped into the oil it forms small droplets.
Well done everyone, you made predictions about what you thought would happen next, studied cause and effect and answered my questions about what actually happened during the experiment. You truly are the best scientists.

Outdoor Learning

The Bug Collectors

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The children have noticed that when it is raining we find more worms in the garden. Today we decided to go on a bug hunt to discover what other bugs live in our garden. We started by reading the story of The Bug Collector.

We talked about all the different bugs in the story and which ones we though we might find today. The children also shared stories of their own bug hunts..

“I have a frog in my garden and one time a bee landed on my nose.”

“I saw a frog in the fountain at Greenbank Gardens.”

Next we got our magnifying glasses and our bug catchers and set off round the garden. The children said we need to look under things because the bugs like living underground. Look at all the worms we found…

We  decided to move them somewhere safe so “the birds can’t get them.”

Then we discovered lots of spider webs but we didn’t see any spiders! We thought they must be hiding from the rain so we decided to make our own. We looked at the story of ‘Aargh Spider’ to see what the webs and the spiders look like then created some beautiful bug artwork…

“I made a bed for my spider to sleep in.”

What can you find in your garden? Please share with us @cartmillcentre

Article 13- Every child must be free to express their
thoughts and opinions and to access all
kinds of information.

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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

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Let’s explore Science through water play!

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British Science Week is a 10 day celebration of science, technology, engineering and maths, otherwise known as STEM. The children in Cart Mill have been exploring many aspects of science through their water play.

30th Anniversary: British Science Week 2024! | All About STEMAll About STEM

Children can learn lots about maths and measurement through water play. We have explored this by adding a variety of containers to our water tray to allow the children to observe which container fills up the fastest and which shape and size holds the most water. This also allows children to use vocabulary related to measurement such as full, empty and some.

Some of the children helped with a colour mixing experiment in the water tray. J decided that he wanted to choose blue and orange and selected them from the art trolley himself. The children used their hands and utensils such as wooden spoons to see what happens when the two colours mixed together. They discovered that it turned a yucky colour!

‘’that’s like mud outside’’

‘’it’s the same colour as clay’’

       

The children also discovered, that by mixing the paint into the water, they created bubbles!

‘’Look at that one, it’s so big!’’

‘’I want to pop it’’.

The children were able to watch the bubbles form in front of their eyes knowing that they were creating them by mixing the water together with soap. Bubble experiments endorses scientific thinking through observation and exploration.

 

The children suggested that maybe next time we put some items into the water tray to see if they ‘’go under’’ or ‘’stay at the top’’ so next time, we will be exploring sinking and floating. I wonder what objects the children will choose…

Article 31: I have the right to play

Article 29: I have the right to an education which develops my personality.

Creativity, Expressive Arts, Literacy

Holidays are coming 🌲

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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

Technologies

Snowstorm in a jar ❄️

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This morning we have been chatting about all the snow that fell over the weekend and how much we had fun playing in it…

“I made a snowman, he was giant!”

“I threw snowballs at my Nana.”

“I walked to nursery in the snow, it was crunchy.”

Continuing on our snowy theme we decided to make a snowstorm in a jar in our STEM area. We started by putting oil in a jar then poured in water mixed with white paint and looked at what happened.

We noticed that the painty water fell to the bottom and the oil stayed on top. Then we added some blue food colouring and glitter and mixed it up to see what difference that would make.

Now we had glitter on the bottom , blue water in the middle and oil still on top. One of the boys suggested they weren’t mixing because “they just don’t want to!” I explained that because the oil is less dense it will sit on top of the water, pushing the water down.

Next we added the magic ingredient to create the snowstorm, we put an alka seltzer tablet in the mix!


It fizzed and it bubbled and it swirled the mixture all around!

“It’s going to bubble over!”

“The bubbles are going up and down.”

The alka seltzer when mixed with the water creates carbon dioxide and pushes the water up in the form of a bubble but the less dense oil pushes it back down creating the repetitive motion of the bubbles going up and down. The boys and girls had a great time watching the reaction!

To extend this experiment further we have popped the mixture outside in the snow and we will find out tomorrow if each of the layers will freeze… 🥶

Article 13- you have the right to find out things and share what you think with others.

Expressive Arts, Outdoor Learning

Exploding Paint Rockets 🚀

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Today we have continued celebrating space week in nursery. Space week runs from the 4th of October, the date that Sputnik was launched in 1957, until the 10th of October, the date of the signing of the Outer Space Treaty in 1967.

In the garden we have been creating the constellations using the gem blocks,

enjoying lots of space related stories,

and, the most exciting part, making exploding space rockets!

Using old photo spool canisters, we filled them with powder paint, water and a piece of alka seltzer tablet. (Only the adults touched the tablets!) Then we gave them a shake and waited, at a safe distance, to watch them explode.

We made up three cannisters at a time with different coloured paints and made predictions about which one we thought would explode first.

Each pop, bang and whizz brought great excitement. Just look at the faces!

UNCRC article 31- Each child has the right to play and take part in a wide range of artistic abilities.