Tag Archives: taking turns

Painting with passion

The children have been thoroughly enjoying exploring lots of vibrant colours in the gross motor art area.

Today the children chose the paint they wanted to use, along with the rollers and brushes. We gathered our resources and decided we would use different textures of paper. We began by talking about the different textures and how they felt.

“This is bumpy”

“This one is shiny and smooth”

“It bumpy”

“It’s rough too”


The children then chose whether they wanted to use the brush or the roller and began exploring with the colours and the textures to make some big art! They used their gross motor skills to make the big movements required to roll and brush on the paper. Working together, they all took turns swapping the resources and colours making sure that everybody got a shot of everything they wanted.


The children then decided to explore their colour mixing skills. As they mixed, they became more confident using their design process, they created new secondary and tertiary colours.
“ look purple”

“I made brown”

“I love orange”.

Our older children really enjoyed using the new paint tools to create vibrant and wonderful patterns, in the style of our featured artist “Steven Brown”. While our younger children enjoyed using their gross motor skills to make marks on the ground using a big space to expand their creative skills.
We used so many skills in our gross motor art area today without even realising because we were having so much fun creating our abstract art.

“I am using my hands”

” I am making lots of lines”

I am making my shapes different colours”

”I am making shapes and mixing the colours together”

Who knows what creations we might make tomorrow in our gross motor art area!

Safety First at Cart Mill construction site!

Today in our construction area we had a discussion on Health and Safety and why we wear protective clothing along with some important signs we may see in our local environment.

The children took turns within the conversations with their peers and  listened to each others ideas. Then they took turns trying on the protective clothing. Good sharing everyone!

Why do we wear helmets?

”they might fall”

”too keep there head good”

“something might fall on your head”

”you might bash into a pole”

“we also wear helmets on our bicycle”

Why do we wear high vis jackets?

”So everyone can see you”

“It’s bright”

”Keeps you safe”

”We wear them when we go out walks at nursery”

Why do we wear goggles?

”It stops something going in your eye”

”It looks after your eyes”

”Something might fly in it”

We then looked at a few signs and the children were very good at identifying each of them and talking about what they mean.

They were then keen to create their own poster to put up in our construction area to make sure all our friends know how to be safe.

We talked about what safety rules we could have in our Cart Mill construction site. These will keep us safe when building with the blocks.

”Share with your friends”

”Not too high”

”Carry them carefully”

”Help my friends”

Article 28 – I have the right to an education 

Article 32 – I should not be made to do dangerous work

 

 

Glorious Gloop

Today at the malleable table the children chose to make gloop . They each had their own tray and took turns to add the ingredients; cornflour and water. The children used their hands  to mix the ingredients together till the gloop was ready.

“Mine is too thick I need some more water”

“Mine is watery so I need more cornflour”

The children then began to explore the gloop  using their hands  and fingers discussing the different the textures they could feel.

“It’s sticky”

“Mine is all gooey”

“I am going to add more water to make it slime”

“Mines is so soft”

“I like the feeling”

“It looks like milk”

“I made a line and it disappeared”

The  longer the children  explored they became intrigued why it was hard to touch but then when running through their fingers it changes textures and turns into liquid when picking it up. The children continued exploring the gloop and talking about the feeling of it.

“It’s hard and then turns to liquid”

“Water makes it loosen”

“Look it’s running through my hands”

“My handprint has just gone”

“Hard and then it’s just runs”

“It’s melting”

Little did the children know, they had performed a science experiment and had produced a non Newtonian fluid. Impressive!

Potion Lab

Today we searched through the science book together to choose which experiment we would like to explore. We decided on the Potion Lab.

“This one looks fun”

“ It’s the best”

“ I am excited will ours look like that”

We took turns to gather all the materials and set them on the table. Before we started we made some predictions what  do you think will happen if we mix vinegar and bicarbonate of soda. A few of the children made predictions.

“Bubbles
“Sparkles”

“ it fizzes”

“Magic potion”

First of all we added vinegar to make it half full. We then used our fine motor skills and chose between a droplet or a syringe to squeeze in some food colouring. We used our pincer grip to add some glitter and then added a large spoonful of bicarbonate of soda. We then mixed the potion and watched for the reaction of the ingredients mixing together. The children were curious and stayed focused throughout the experiment sharing their thought and ideas.

“ it’s working

“Wow it’s fizzing”

“It’s nearly at the top”

“Bubbles”

“Let’s do it again.

“ bath foam like my bath”

“It’s going to explode”

“Look at this potion”

“ The colours are mixing together and changing colour.

“ it’s so cool”

.The children were fascinated by the reactions and they continued to try out their own experiment  using a variety of small and big jars and adding different amounts of ingredients and watching their own eruptions. Lots of fun and laughter was had


We came to the conclusion the best and foamiest experiment was adding fairy liquid to it.
“ can we do this one everyday?”

What can you SEE👀?

It’s STEM  week! (Science, Technology,Engineering, Mathematics)

Following on from learning about the sense of hearing in the science area we have been talking about how many senses there are and what they all are. We found out there are 5 senses. Today we discussed which of our senses we would like to focus on, we chose sight.

The children looked through the microscope to SEE the different specimens on the micro slides.

“I can see it, it looks like a little bit of grass from the garden”

“It’s tiny stones”  “Now it is BIG”

Next we did an experiment to SEE if the items we chose would Sink or Float. We discussed each item before it went in the water. We predicted whether each individual item  would float or sink, developing our critical thinking skills.

“The golf ball will sink”

“Why do you think it will sink?”

“Because it’s heavy”

“The pom pom will float”

“i know, it’s not heavy, it’s light”

”I can see it sinking all the way to the bottom”

We used our mark making skills to record our findings. The children made tally marks for each item and recorded them on a table.

“3 floated and 2 sinked”

For our final experiment, the children used pipettes (developing their fine motor skills and hand- eye co-ordination) to add different coloured food colouring to individual glases and then filled them up with water.

In each glass they added a paper towel so that half was in one glass and half in the one beside.

We watched as the coloured water transferred from one glass to another causing some of the colours to mix creating different colours in the empty glass.

“Look i can SEE it moving, the blue and yellow have turned green”

“They mix together”

The children have had lots of fun exploring their sight while being mini scientists.

Super sewing in the studio😍

Today in the sewing area we had a discussion about why we sew?

“ it makes stitches”

“”It’s fun”

“My mum sews”

We looked to see if anyone had buttons on their clothes

“I have a button on my jeans”

“My cardigan has buttons”

“My jacket has buttons”

We looked at the seam on our clothes and could see the stitches that had been made.

“ I can see lots on my leggings”

“They’re on my sleeve”

”look at my shoes”

We talked about sewing is a process of using a needle and thread to connect pieces of fabric or attach something like a button to a fabric surface. It’s a practical skill used to make or repair.

It was then our turn to have a go, some of the children chose and attached the buttons to the fabric.

“That was very hard”

“The little needle is very jaggy”

“ the eye of the needle is so small”

“I done it, it’s together”

A few of the other children chose to sew bits of material together we made holes with the punch and then used the needle and thread to attach the fabrics together using our hand and  eye coordination and lots of concentration.

“Look at mine is so colourful”

“Mine is together”

That’s so cool”

“Can we make some clothes for the puppet?”

The children had great listening and communication skills took turns  and were able to follow my instructions. Good job everyone 😁

Ready, Steady, Go!

Today in the Discovery room the children have been building ramps to see which car would go the fastest and win the race.

To explore this further, we decided to build a variety of different heights and level of ramps. We gathered together some of our planks of wood and different materials we could use to test and explore different types of forces.

The children took turns and predicted what ramp would be the fastest. We found the higher the ramp was, the faster the car would travel.

“high one is the best ,it’s the fastest”
”It is speedy”

”Watch mine zoom”

We added bubble wrap to one ramp to see how it affected the speed of the cars travelling down them.


We found that adding the bubble wrap this would make our cars slower and not travel so far.

”This makes it go too slow”

”Look how far mine went”

”My one is the fastest now”

To investigate time and distance further, we used a stop watch to time our cars travelling and a tape measure to see how far they could go.

Why not explore this at home! You could try using balls or pebbles to investigate force, distance and time.