Tag Archives: teamwork

Expressive Arts

Ahoy ship!

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The children in the Studio today created a fantastic story which started with a cardboard box .

The cardboard box became a boat and then the sea was added using a blue piece of material.

Pink material was wrapped around and suddenly there was a fish in the sea with the boat.  Then some brightly coloured mermaids joined  the gathering.


Next a crab with great big claws came to join the sea travellers.


The fish, mermaids and crab danced around the ship and the ship’s captain shouted “Ahoy ship!” and the fish said “We are swimming to America!”

The children’s role play recorded in this observation was truly creative.  They used the materials around them creatively, they worked as a team to tell the imaginative story and they directed each other’s movements like actors in a play.

“Play is the highest form of research” said Albert Einstein and we can’t agree more.

 

Digital Technology

Forwards and backwards with the bee bots🐝

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This morning in the discovery room the children decided to make a track for the bee bots to move around on.

They used different shaped blocks to create a track that was flat enough for the bee bots to move along .
We looked at the arrows on top and discussed what they mean.

”This button means forward”

”what is this one mean?”

“backwards backwards”


The children used the direction cards and placed them along the track.

“Let’s  go forward like this card”

”The green one is go”


They used their numeracy skills as they counted how many times they  pressed the forwards button and how many places the bee moved forward.

In the end they raced the bees to see who would move the furthest, it was a lot of fun cheering on the bees.

 

Expressive Arts

Cars and ramps

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Today the children have  been super busy making ramps for their cars using the blocks. They decided to make their own ramps. The toddlers self selected their own paint colours and then dipped their cars into the paint and set them off down the ramp. The children noticed that some of the cars went further than others, some went down fast, some slow and that the tyres all made different marks.  They added some textured balls to see what different marks they left. “ That’s left a bumpy mark”  They learned some new concepts including stop, go, up, down, fast, slow developing their language skills and learning about cause and effect.

When asked what they would like to do next with the cars L said “ make a garage “ So they set about creating one. H said “we should use these boxes”. L said “ I’m painting it green, it needs to have a tunnel and space for the fire engine”. The children demonstrated great team work when planning together to create their garage. They were proud of their finished result and had great fun playing together.

Special Event

Olympic Fever

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Olympic fever has arrived at Cartmill.

Yesterday the children enjoyed their own mini games which started them talking about various sports that they all take part in. Running races, jumping, bike racing, tennis, basketball, gymnastics, swimming, football, golf to name a few.

This led to talk about the Olympics being held over the next couple of weeks in Tokyo, Japan. Some children asked what the Olympics were. Through discussions with staff, they learned that the Olympics were held every 4 years with people from countries all over the world taking part in lots of different sports to win medals for their country.

The children watched some of the Opening Ceremony from London 2012 with great interest and tried to guess the countries from their flags, as well as watching the ceremony where the medals are awarded.

1st, 2nd and 3rd place
J said it goes round her neck
She looked very happy

After their mini games some of the children asked if they could make their own little medals. They found some gold, silver and a bronze coloured shiny paper and some ribbon. They glued the shiny paper onto some card, cut out a circle and attached some ribbon.

S’s medal goes over her head like the one on the screen.

C shows her silver medal off with pride.

Who knows we may have a future olympian here at Cartmill.

Taking part in sports helps to keep our bodies fit and healthy and improves our general health and wellbeing.