Hello, everyone! How are you all? We are sure missing you lots – and not only us! All of our paints, paintbrushes, instruments, the stage… The resources are missing being explored by you, too!

We thought we would start this week with a little sing-a-long. Do you remember our “Guess what’s in my box today” game? We are sure you do as it’s one of our favourites, but if not – don’t worry, it is easy to follow and you are more than welcome to join in!

And since we are doing fantastic singing, why don’t we try to make our own musical instruments to go along with our songs? Here is a few ideas of how to make your own instruments at home! Have lots of fun!

1. Water xylophone – simply fill the cups with different amounts of water and tap the glasses with a spoon – can you hear different sounds?

2. Harmonica – for this musical instruments you will need straws and some tape. Cut the straw into different sizes and tape them together – now blow through the straws and hear the music!

3. Guitar – to make your own guitar you will need a box (you could use an empty box of tissues, but don’t worry if you don’t have one, any box will do – just make sure to cut a big hole in the middle!) and elastic bands. Stretch the elastic bands over the box, you could also add a longer piece of cardboard as a handle – and voila! Here’s your own homemade guitar!

4. Cymbals – all you need is two CDs (or something else that’s round and won’t break when you hit it together!). Attach a little string or a ribbon to create handles and bang the cymbals together! WOW, how loud can they get?

And of course… We need a microphone for our beautiful signing! You could use anything – a hair brush, spatula, plastic bottle! But if you feel a little bit more creative, here’s an idea! You can make your own microphone with a tube (for example kitchen roll tube) and a ball of kitchen foil!

Let us know how you got one! Did you like our digital “Guess what’s in my box today” game? Is there anything else that’s missing from the box? Or are there any other musical instruments we could make at home? Can’t wait to hear from you in the comments!

Stay safe!

 

We hope you all enjoy the lovely sunshine today and have  a lovely bank holiday Monday.

For a little fun and as suggested by some of the lovely parents, we have decided to create a little fun challenge for you all!

Every week we will be sharing a photo of one of the ladies from when they were little! It might be a baby photograph or a photo from when they were your age! The challenge is for you to guess who it might be! Have we all changed a lot or not at all? 🙂

Just pop your guess in the comments! Good luck!

Here we go… First photo is this smiley cutie! Do you know which lady this might be?

Your wonderful ladies have been helping key workers by supporting in other nurseries.

Although it has been lovely meeting other children and seeing other nurseries it has really made us appreciate Williamsburgh Early Learning & Childcare so much.

It has reminded us that whilst other places are nice…That’s not my nursery!

The ladies have made a little book to give you a glimpse of where they are working, inspired by some of our favourite…’That’s not my…’ books.

that’s not my nursery (1)

Can you make a mask?  Which animal would you like to be today? Can you make the animals sound whilst wearing your mask?

 

 

Can you draw your favourite animal?  What colour is it?  How many legs does it have?  What size is it?

 

 

Here is a game for you to try with your family

https://mk0freehomescho2g81n.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Zoo-Animal-Action-Cards.pdf

We know you like to do jigsaw puzzles, enjoy

https://www.games.co.uk/game/wild-animals-jigsaw-puzzle

Which underwater animals can you see?  Have a look on the National Aquarium live feed

https://aqua.org/Experience/live

Do you like to explore land animals, you are going to love this live webcam

https://www.paigntonzoo.org.uk/explore/webcams

 

At this time, many of us are missing seeing family members and I bet they are missing us too. It is sad but why not take the time to learn more about these important family members. Lets make our very own family trees, these will all be very individual to each child/family and can be made in many different ways.

Some of the staff might join in too.

Here are some examples that I have found just by searching family trees made by children…

This Is something that you can take your time with and work on over a few days/weeks.

Think about;

• Name each family member who you would like to have in your family tree… Remember this is just for fun.
• Who they are to you for example gran, uncle, cousin
• Their age if you know it (if not why not give them a phone and ask them some of these questions?)
• What is your favourite thing to do with that person
• What is your favourite thing about this person for example they make you laugh, their hair, they bring you to nursery, they sing songs with me.
• You can add photographs or drawings of these and add them too.

Any other ideas?

Big ones who might be helping…

As you can see from the images there are many different ways to create these, please do not challenge yourself too much use the materials you have at home and give your children as much independence as possible. This can be a good time to help build your child’s confidence, literacy skills and numeracy skills.

• Write out names for them to copy.
• drawing pictures of family members, 2 eyes, a mouth, hair colour
• count how many family members to include, possible using a different leaf for each.
• collect sticks and leaves from outdoors.

Have fun. We are excited and cannot wait to see your family trees.

We are missing you all.

 

It was so lovely to have a chat with some of your parents – and some of you, too! It made us miss you even more! We are so glad to hear that you are all doing okay and staying safe.

We know some of you have been super busy exploring your gardens, making pictures and trying out the ideas from the blog… But – we did get a couple of requests for games and activities that haven’t been posted yet. So! Here we go – we hope you enjoy and have lots of fun!

Georgia and her family have asked if we could share a colour wheel game and our penguin dance – Georgia’s mummy shared that it’s one of Georgia’s and her brother’s favourite dances!

Is there anything else you would like to see on our blog? Would you like any ideas and inspiration for new games and activities to try out? Have you got any favourite stories that you would like to see on the blog?

1. Colour wheel game – the idea of this activity is to spin the wheel and see what colour the arrow lands on. The next step is to go around your house, garden or even the environment of your daily walks and collect as many items of this colour as you can! For example, if the arrow lands on the red colour you could collect… Red leaves, red lipstick (ask mummy first!), red buttons, red pens or crayons, red T-shirt – anything red! You can make your own spinning wheel or you can print it out. Let us know how many items you managed to collect!

 

2. Now, here is one of our favourite ways to exercise and have lots of fun! Let’s keep those muscles growing strong with these dances!

Is there anything else you would like to see on our blog? Would you like any ideas and inspiration for new games and activities to try out? Have you got any favourite stories that you would like to see on the blog?

Please – let us know in the comments! We are here for you and we can’t wait to keep you busy and happy!

Have fun and stay safe, everyone! 🙂

Our children love the story of ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea’ here is the link to the story for you to enjoy with your family …

He was a very hungry tiger 🙂 we thought you would enjoy having your own Tiger Tea Party, below are a few ideas of how you could do this.

Have fun. We are looking forward to hearing about all your tea parties.

We all love a tea party. 

Do you have a tiger toy?

If not why not make your own tiger or masks. Make some yummy snacks and enjoy some party games.

• Pick a date and send out your invitations.
• Plan your menu and select your “tea”
• Setting the Tea Table.
• Tea Party Games.

Children help your adults prepare the snacks, make a list of what you want to have at your tea part, set the table and have fun. 

 

 

Good morning everyone,

Vicky, Nicola and Helen from the Imaginative Zone in nursery wanted to say a big hello to you all.

As some of you had been showing an interest in animals they thought they would share some activities for you to enjoy with your family.

Have fun and please share your thoughts on the experiences.

Here’s to another week of fun at home 🙂

 

Check out Chester Virtual Zoo.  Look at all of these wonderful animals, how many do you recognise?  What do they like to eat?

Do you think you could use your imagination and move your bodies like the animals…

Can you stretch your body really tall like the Baby Meerkat?

Can you walk on your hands and feet like the Red Panda?

Can you hop like the Tree Kangaroo?

We hope you have lots of fun watching the animals and using your body and amazing imaginations to recreate some of their actions!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During lock down we have all had some extra time to study and research, we feel that this quote best describes children being creative and how natural it can become to them.

“There is no sense in teaching children what we think they ought to know. There is a sense in helping children to learn (teaching) what they naturally find interesting.”    (Bruce, 2012:158)

Let’s get creative and recycle using things that you may have around the home.

Children have a good knowledge of the importance of recycling, lets build on this and encourage them to use their imaginations to build and create.

Here is an idea of something you could make…

We will all have some cardboard in our houses at the minute, but if you do not you can use paper and experiment and see what will work.

Lets make some cardboard tube snakes…

Here is what you will need to make these cardboard snakes.

• cardboard tubes cut in half as many as you would like to make remember this will give opportunities of numeracy and estimations of length.
• paint or coloured pens/crayons
• hole punch
• string, ribbon, wool
• scissors
• small piece of red material or paper
• glue
• cellotape

Watch this link to see how to put it all together.

Penguins are off-limits when it comes to pets, but this DIY recycled bottle activity allows your child to create the impossible. All you need are a few basic art supplies paired with cotton balls and a recycled bottle. You can use different sized bottles and discuss sizes and how much cotton wool would be needed for each and what size needs more.

Junk modelling and being creative is a huge part of children’s active learning. They use their imaginations, problem solving skills  while developing their design skills and creativity. They develop their self-confidence as they are enabled to explore materials and how to use them.

You can then give each Penguin a name and age, possibly make up a story about your new family Penguin.

Why not research where he/she would be from?

 

Then why not dance to the Penguin song with your very own penguin pet.

 

Please share your creations with us. We can’t wait to see them all.