We’ve had a wonderful week celebrating Holi in our malleable area! The children loved getting creative with their playdough, choosing a festive palette of yellow, orange, and pink. They also experimented with scents, incorporating orange and peppermint to create a multisensory experience.
Our exploration of colour continued with a colourful pasta experience, where we focused on colour recognition and fine motor development. The children showed impressive resilience and patience while making bracelets—it was a tricky task, but they stayed focused and did a brilliant job!
“I make a paw patrol one” HR
“I want to make a pink and blue one” BF
“My mummy has jewellery… like diamonds” DM
“This side is his face and this side is his hat, now i need to add more to this side” N
“This is only half full” GMc
“I’m adding some froth to it, a babychino!” IM
In our discovery area this week some of the children went on an adventure! Using a vibrant mix of coloured pens, the children designed their own sprawling giant map—featuring everything from the rugged Highlands of Scotland to mysterious Treasure Islands, and even drifting hot air balloons!
Once their world was built, the children took on the role of engineers. They used some of our programmable robots to test their designs, coding precise routes to see if they could successfully navigate the treacherous terrain they created!
What a very busy week we’ve had in the creative area. We started off the week doing a mind map with the children to see what they would like to learn about. The majority spoke about fish so we introduced the story of ‘the rainbow fish’ to spark some creativity using collage materials. This also led to a group activity to create our own aquarium. We then added some new fish to the water tray, adding pipes to extend their play.
There’s also been great interest in watching ‘under the sea live 360’ which can be found on Youtube.
This week has also been the time to celebrate “Holi Festival of Colours” marking the arrival of spring. To embrace this colourful celebration we have explored different ways of making colourful art. We used balls inside a box to shake the colours forwards, backwards, up and down to create different patterns on our paper. “Look it’s rainbow colours”, “it’s stripey”, “I can make them jump up and down”, “the ball’s stuck, shake it harder”. We also did a collaborative piece using cotton balls covered in diluted paint to throw at a large piece of paper to make colourful ‘splats’. “I can throw it so far”, “I’m doing 2 splat splat”, “look at all the colours”, “look I got it away over there it missed the paper”. Painting activities like these encourage large movements strengthening shoulders, arms and hands which is a precursor to fingers being strong enough to write.
Outside this week, we’ve been very busy making the most of our outdoor space, especially in the nicer weather. The boys and girls have enjoyed plenty of gross motor skill activities, taking part in obstacle courses that encouraged balance, coordination, agility and problem-solving. They have also loved riding the bikes on our race track — including trying out some of the new ones — which helped develop spatial awareness, control and confidence.
The children also spent time mark making with chalk, practising writing their names on the ground while developing their early writing skills, letter recognition and fine motor control. It has been lovely to see them using their imagination, teamwork and communication skills as they created their own games and supported each other while playing outdoors.
Throughout the week we have had lots of opportunities to celebrate World Book Day with lots of exciting activities across the Family Centre! Some of our children enjoyed a trip to a local bookshop where they were kindly read a wonderful story. The children listened beautifully and were very engaged with the story ‘The Café at the Edge of the Woods’.
The bookshop also gifted us a copy of the story to bring back with us, which many children have enjoyed reading. Throughout the week, the children spent time sharing and exploring books in all areas of the nursery. Bookbug came to visit us too, the children enjoyed a Bookbug session delivered by Mrs McIlwham and Mrs Howie! We have all had fun celebrating stories, using our imagination, and our sharing our love of reading!
