The children have been busy in the woodwork area, exploring real tools and natural materials to design and create their own models. What started as a pile of wood offcuts, nails and hammers quickly became rockets, birdhouses, robots and a minecraft axe. Its been wonderful to see such creativity and imagination where the children have been bringing their ideas to life. Some have carefully thought out their designs before selecting their materials and others have experimented adapting their ideas as we go.
Using the real tools has provided meaningful opportunities in a wide range of areas from strengthening fine motor skills, testing our problem solving skills and learning to risk assess in our play.
We cant wait to see what they will create next.
“You need to do gentle taps” CS
“Look I can do it like this and then he can have hands” JK
“If I put red on there it will look like fire” SW
“ I know know I need to make it look like a minecraft axe” JW
The children have been enjoying our new bike area in the garden. This week they have been counting their laps and marking it up on the chalkboard. We have had cheerleading stations where they have been giving lots of encouragement to their friends as they ride around the track. The timer was introduced for the children to visually see when time is up, indicating a changeover for the next group’s turn. As the week progressed it got a little more competitive with who finished first, second and third and it’s been nice to hear them use this language in their play. Most of the children have a good understanding about how to be safe on the bikes and for those that don’t they have been reminded by their peers.
SB – She doesn’t have a helmet on.
FM – Time is up, time to swap the bikes.
JG – I saw the timer, its nearly up, 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1,0
MB – No you’re second, I’m first and he’s third
JMcC – I got 368 laps
IS – I won, you got second
AA – I might be the winner next time
As we have looked at Lunar New Year and Ramadan the children have been discussing the costumes and outfits they have seen, they have talking about jewellery and decorations, they have extended upon their pom poms from last week adding colours mid way in the process making the pom pom more interesting and adding decoration to pom poms.
The children have also experimented with making their own jewellery out of wool, making bracelets using a plaiting method or twisting method. Some children also made hair decorations using the same methods.
This week at the malleable area the children have been exploring different reactions with water. They have continued their interest in absorption by making their own walking rainbow where colour transitions from one container to another and have explored colour blending. The children also explored chemical reactions and were able to add different materials to water to make their popcorn dance! They were able to use their observation skills to compare and contrast mixtures and were able to use descriptive language to illustrate this. Through experimentation the children were able to look at the variables and conclude which ingredients caused the reaction.
Child observations:
SC “ Shiny glass can make a rainbow-it tells you on the back of the smoothie packet”
DM “Absorption means its soaking up”
Child observations on dancing pop corn:
DM “the powder is making them go back up” (popcorn)
“The powder is making them dance again”
JK “the bubbles are making them move up and down”
“I have vinegar on my crisps”
RM “ like a balloon it pops then it goes to the bottom”
“The bubbles at the bottom of the jar pushes them right up”
J “its making a beautiful noise”
“I’m making a tornado”
“ its exploding like a volcano”
This week in block play, the children have developed their knowledge of positional language, whilst playing with the cars.
In addition, the children have been investigating how to build secure structures, with the large loose parts. They discovered that having a larger structure area, on the bottom, helped to secure their models. The children currently have a keen interest in ‘People who help us’ and role played doctors and created houses and aeroplanes also.
Inspired by the story, ‘ Tiddles moves out’, the children opted to create beds and bunk beds from the wooden blocks. They worked together to share ideas and described their own beds at home.
Furthermore, the children used the small loose parts to create birthday cakes and ‘large mountains’ for the jungle animals. We discussed the months of the year and identified our birthday month. The children then divided the small loose parts amongst themselves and were challenged to divide a quantity equally amount a group of 2-5 children. Some of our children imagined that the corks were sausages.. one realised that they were sharing the ‘jellybeans’ just like the dinosaur in the story ‘The really, really, really big dinosaur’. The children recalled key themes of the story, then role played ‘sharing out jellybeans’.
This week in the literacy area, the children became authors and storytellers, creating their own imaginative stories. Some children drew upon their real-life experiences, incorporating the names of their pets, family members and places they have visited on holiday. This demonstrated their ability to connect personal experiences to storytelling, supporting early narrative development and sense of identity.
Other children used the story prompt cards, independently selecting characters, settings and props such as a magic wand, fairy wings, a throne or a crown. They confidently made creative choices, showing imagination and decision-making skills.
Each child verbally shared their story with Mr McIntosh, explaining:
- The names of their characters
- The setting of their story
- What happened at the beginning, middle and end
Through this process, the children developed their understanding of story structure, sequencing and expressive language. Once all the details were gathered, the stories were entered into Gemini Storybook, which generated a completed story with illustrations. The children were excited to see their ideas transformed into a printed story, reinforcing that their voice, ideas and creativity matter.
Please click on the links below to read some of the children’s and Mr McIntosh’s Stories
Frank and The Secret Sausage Scent By Mr McIntosh
The Princess and The Golden Palace By Adam
The Underwater Sea Monster by Arlo
This week in creative we have been learning about the religious celebration of Ramadan Mubarak. The children have explored images relating to Ramadan and being a Muslim, creating their own lanterns, moons and stars using bright, shiny and sparkly materials. We have read stories, watched programmes and danced to music to immerse ourselves in this cultural celebration.
One of the children pointed out the images of Mendhi in one of our stories, “I get that on my hands and my sister too” so we used some fake hands to practise how to apply ‘henna’.
It’s been lovely to hear real life stories from both staff and children. “My mum has a blanket for praying, a green one”. “She closes her eyes and puts her head down”. “I got a beautiful, shiny bracelet”. “It means good luck”(Mendhi).
