Whalsay Early Years Blog 2021/22

This week we received some new resources into the setting which means we now have even more opportunities to learn through play and even more interesting spaces in which to learn!

Our new loose parts table has been a huge hit and we have all spent time exploring what is available and adding our own interesting objects to it. Playing and experimenting with open-ended materials encourages our creativity and imaginations as well as developing our planning, communication and problem solving skills.

Our colourful stacking men have encouraged us to use our fingers, developing our fine motor control, and been an avenue through which to learn number recognition and counting, as well as being part of imaginative play. Sophie’s men were “climbing a ladder” and Lewis men all stood on their heads to perform a really hard magic trick.

Lucas tried hard to balance the men all the way up to number 9. He explained how to do this to Millie too.

Thea and Lottie explored many loose parts, using them in different ways and discussing how to use them as part of their pretend play. During a moment in play each wooden log was matched with a wooden mushroom shape.

Lucas created a pipe using loose parts plastic, he found a spider called “long legs”, carefully placed the spider inside the pipe and then sang “Incy Wincy” as it moved through the pipe before being released back outside. Sophia joined in singing to “long legs” and watching him/her move up and down.

Many loose parts were transported to other areas as part of play and then transported back again when the play was complete. Transporting objects like this is an important part of cognitive development.

Our new playdough/sensory exploration area has also proved to be very popular. Having more space has allowed us to play together imaginatively using playdough, developing our literacy and numeracy skills in many ways.

Thea, Alfie and Millie shared tools, compared patterns and spoke about the numbers that they could see on the weighing scales. Alfie said his playdough was “100 big!”. They worked hard developing finger and hand strength as they rolled, pulled, pinched and pushed the playdough in different ways.

Annie pushed the slice into her playdough “pizza” to create patterns.

Sophie made a playdough cake. She first rolled the playdough flat and then pushed coins in to decorate. Being able to use our hands and fingers in this way is fundamental for writing later on.

Lewis and Lucas spent a lot of time talking together and sharing ideas on how to make pizzas and which toppings to include. Lewis said it was a good idea to cut off the crust after rolling it flat. Lucas added pepperoni to the top of his and took a photo of the finished product before serving it up to his friends nearby.

There’s also been sensory play with slimy spaghetti this week as we continue to be interested in exploring pasta. We recalled how we had made our own pasta last week as we played, discussed the lengths of the spaghetti and the texture and some of us imagined the strands were wiggly worms! The slimy spaghetti was hard to get hold of as it was so oily! Experiencing real life resources, linked to our interests, in contexts that are meaningful, to us is very important for our learning as we learn best in environments that inspire us to be curious and creative and where we feel that we are listened to.

Some of us wanted to use spaghetti in paint but it got very mushy so Mrs Williamson found some spaghetti string which we could dip in paint. It left much clearer marks on our paper and encouraged us to use our pincer grip.

Sophie folded her paper over and squashed the string. She created different coloured symmetrical pictures.

We have also been mark making on very large boxes this week. These boxes have been used as many things including garages, houses, boats, dens, ramps, storyboards and an overall great surface on which we can be creative with mark making. Sharing large surfaces like this and sharing our ideas and thoughts about play challenge our emotional regulation systems and help us become better communicators.

Lewis “scribble monster” had “a really really big mooth to eat everything up!” Annie created a long skinny monster and a tiny monster which could hide. Alfie listened to them telling their “scribble monster” stories.

Lottie followed the “Sharks teeth” zig zag lines using a pink chunky chalk.

The sand tray has also been a great place for us to develop our pre writing and story telling skills as we scooped and poured, washed the babies and used the sand as soup, coffee, tea and much more as part of our co-operative play.

Pouring also occurred outdoors this week too…but that was mostly the weather! Some rain doesn’t stop us from learning outdoors though and more water means even more, and even bigger, puddles to investigate, explore and use in our play.

Cornflour and water was great for painting and mark making outdoors. We made different consistencies of paint depending on how much flour or water we used in the tray. We used brushes and rollers to make marks on the pavement and to paint or clean our outdoor cars. Sometimes our paint powder, sometimes gloop and sometimes water depending on which measurements we used. Stanley and Annie also created “milk” by squeezing the liquid out of the rollers into cups – a great way to strengthen hands in preparation for writing.

There was also mark making/emerging literacy using chalk on the pavement, making car tracks from water and mud and using sticks in sand this week.

Sophia even welcomed a passenger in her car, in the form of “cupcake” the slug, who went on a short drive before being placed into some leaves.

By playing outdoors we become confident individuals. Confidence grows through taking part in play which support our independence, that we find personally meaningful, and that help us feel connected to others. What better way to become confident individuals than through splashing in puddles together!

Harry, Alfie and Lewis took turns jumping into the big puddle from a height and by approaching it from different distances and speeds. They compared how big the splash was depending on how they took off and landed.

 

Tommy, Alfie and Sophie discovered puddles on their visit to the polytunnel. We counted how many steps long the puddles were and discussed what they felt like to touch.

The puddles were also a source of wonder and stimulated our imaginative play. They were used as rock pools and fishing areas, linking our play to our real life experiences such as our trip to the beach and our fishing community.

Puddle jumping was not the only way we developed core strength and balance this week. The long planks, pallets and tyres were well used to walk and run along as part of our play. Sometimes the grass was lava so it was very important to stay on the wood!

Not every day this week has been rainy though. On Tuesday the sun shone. Sophie thought it was a lovely day to go to the playpark and everybody else wanted to go too.

As we walk to and from the playpark we develop independence in dressing/undressing and we learn about road safety while developing our listening skills.

The playpark is an ideal place for us to further develop our gross motor skills, literacy and numeracy through play. Sharing equipment at the playpark also helps us to learn how to collaborate and cooperate with one another. This positive interdependence promotes learning and motivation which we will use throughout our lives.

And on Wednesday some of us chose to visit the polytunnel to plant some seeds and to help water the herbs and flowers. Learning about how things grow and being interested in how look after nature is part of our scientific learning and improves our health and wellbeing. Planting seeds, watering flowers and being part of nature develops our senses and our knowledge of the world.

Finally, it was really lovely to see so many of you at our “stay and play” events this week. The children really loved sharing some of their outdoor experiences with you! Hopefully sometime in the near future we will be able to share the indoor experiences with you too. We hope you all have a lovely October break.

Fine Motor Skills are the building blocks to writing. We develop our fine motor skills and our pre-writing skills through much of our play. In order to develop fine motor skills we also must develop gross motor skills.

Pre-Writing involves using cognitive skills, visual skills, coordination skills and pencil control skills.

Talking about our drawings and marks, or things we have made, helps develop our cognitive and visual skills. We need cognitive skills for writing because writing needs us to use our memory, attention and sequencing. We need visual skills in order to place letters and words in the correct places when we do formal writing later.

Before we went to the shop on Wednesday some of us decided to write shopping lists. There was a lot of discussion about things we would like to buy as well as the ingredients we needed to make pasta. We spoke about what we would need first, next and last and we recalled pasta ingredients we had learned about.

Harry drew a story. He explained “the digger is working very fast. Dir is a lot of gutter going into d park I need to draw more gutter.”

Lottie experimented with making letters and spoke about people that she included in her letter story, “Here is Henry’s name. He is feeling better noo.”

Tommy wanted to show Mrs Williamson all the lines he could draw and asked her to draw some shapes. They spent time talking about the marks they were making.

Stanley took his time and carefully drew two zombies. He shared his ideas about them and told Miss Stewart some stories about the adventures the zombies were going on.

Jim drew his dad’s car. He spent time concentrating on the shapes he would need to draw. He told Miss Sandison all about the type of car it was.

Sophie drew her family going for a walk to the beach. She drew daddy first, then mummy and then Joanna.

Looking at books and stories and picking out different things that we notice also develops our visual skills. Throughout each day in nursery we talk about stories and books. Sometimes we relax with a book alone and sometimes we want an adult to read to us and help us to talk about the pictures and words that we see and hear.

Every day at nursery, through our play, we naturally develop our pencil control skills. Often we develop these skills without a pencil in our hands.

Gross motor skills involved in handwriting mainly refer to postural control. Developing control of our larger muscle groups in the neck, shoulders and trunk is important as they are used to maintain stability of our fingers and hands in handwriting tasks later on in school. We need good gross motor control in order to have good fine motor control. Writing requires a lot of motor planning and coordination so it’s important we develop these before formal writing.

Drawing on the Smartboard uses our full arms and shoulders as well as our fingers control.

As does using a rolling pin to roll out dough when baking.

Outdoor play that includes running, jumping, balancing and climbing is very important for developing core strength and arm and shoulder stability. Our big blocks area indoor also helps us develop our gross motor skills as we lift, manoeuvre and position heavy bits of wood.

Holding on to the see-saw as it moves makes our core, arms and shoulders strong.

Making a tunnel together really works that core, arms and shoulders!

Scooping sand, mud, stones into pots builds strength in muscles and develops our balance.

Pouring from heavy pots and pans develops shoulder stability, core strength, wrist and hand strength and co-ordination.

Splashing in puddles works our core and big body muscles and develops our visual perception and depth perception as we take off and land.

Climbing increases shoulder strength and stability and our overall balance.

Developing big body movements helps to make our smaller movements easier to master. In nursery we need to be able to make marks and move our bodies through playing on the floor. Here are some examples from this week.

It is also important for us to play and mark make on horizonal surfaces, such as tables, and on a vertical planes, such as walls (with wash away resources), the Smartboard and easels. Floor play and mark making on horizontal and vertical surfaces help us to develop all of the skills necessary for formal writing later on.

Here are some ways that we have been mark making on horizontal and vertical surfaces recently.

Painting…

Using chalk to draw on pavements and different surfaces. Drawing over the bumpy stone really works our hand and finger coordination and strength.

As does mark making on the rubber tyres. Sophia noticed there were letters and numbers on the tyre and tried to trace some of them.

In sand…

Using finger paints really gets all of the muscles in our hands and fingers working!

We made pasta from scratch this week too. A great way to get our fingers and hands moving in functional ways!

Using glue and sellotape to stick letters on the wall of peerie hoose when making a banner naturally enabled us to make marks on a vertical surface…

As did using chalk outdoors…

and painting at the easel….

It is important for us to build hand and fingers strength and develop the skills needed for our fingers to work together so that we can grasp a pencil correctly and control it when writing. We do this through developing fine motor skills through play at nursery. Here are some ways we have been building strength and coordination in our hands and fingers this week.

Through nipping water…

Scooping…

Twisting taps…

Pouring…

Squeezing and grasping bottles, clothes pegs and sponges…

Pushing and pressing wood into holes and hammering in nails…

Getting dressed for outdoors…

Pinching hard pasta and soft dough…

Developing our fine motor skills in these ways also help us to learn how to operate scissors effectively. Being able to use scissors correctly helps us prepare for handwriting later on. Cutting skills are complex and it takes time and practice for us to develop and master this skill with many stages of development to master. There are scissors available for us to use throughout the nursery. Here are some examples of our recent play with scissors.

Cutting playdough…

Cutting, tearing and snipping paper…

And cutting forwards along lines…which increases our focus and attention skills, promotes bilateral coordination, as we hold scissors in one hand and paper in another, and helps develop our eye-had coordination. All of which we need for writing.

As you can see developing gross motor and fine motor skills and scissor skills is a very enjoyable and fun experience for us! When we enjoy learning we keep learning. We look forward to sharing more of our learning with you next week.

It’s been another busy week of learning through play at nursery. Here are a few of the things we’ve been up to.

Lottie, Alfie and Harry spent time at the beginning of the week building with blocks outdoors. During construction there was a lot of discussion about what each of us were building. “I’m biggin’ a road” (Alfie), “I am making a garage for the cars.” (Harry), “I’m biggin’ something wi dis shapes on tap.” (Lottie). Creating in this way develops our language and communication skills as we discuss our structures and what they represent. We also developed numeracy skills during building such as pattern making, learning about 3D shapes, comparing size, using positional language and problem solving.

“I hae two triangles noo. One of them is lower doon”

“I need to pit on annider bit at the front.”

“Noo the cars can park at the front!”

“Dis bit is at d front and dis bit is at d back so that the top piece canoo fall ower.” Harry made sure his garage was sturdy and functional.

Alfie realised his road was too narrow. He solved the problem by widening the end of his road. “I can fit more cars on noo!”

We have also been developing our strength, balance and sensory systems outdoors this week, all of which are essential for being able to sit, write and focus later on in our school journey.

At the start of the week some of us wanted to climb on the wall and jump off. We discussed height and how the wall got higher as we moved along. It was important to balance, take our time and assess how safe we felt.

We agreed that a safer place to practice climbing would be on the grass area. We chose planks of wood and placed them at different heights to walk along just as we’d explored on the wall. Moving up and down the angled plank helps develop our linear sensory system.

“I can jump fae dis height and land on my feet!” (Alfie). “It’s a bit wobbly and bouncy” (Sophie)

Placing a tray underneath the middle of the plank helped solve the  bouncy wobble a little…

A sturdy step underneath solved the bouncy wobble completely. “I can walk the whole way across the lang een and the short een.” (Lottie)

Ali noticed the plank was very close to the edge. “Hang on! It’s going to fall aff!” Stanley helped to fix it. Creating places to climb together and working together to solve problems helps us develop our co-operation and team work as well as our awareness of risk.

On Thursday the very windy day made it even harder to balance! This was great for developing our sensory systems even more as we needed to adapt and adjust our centres of gravity and balance skills to stay on our feet and on the planks!

“It’s blowing!” (Lottie)

“I’m flying backwards!!” (Harry)

“Push into the wind Sophia!” (Thea)

“I’m blowing away yeeeee!” (Sophia)

“I’m going backwards fast” (Lottie)

 

It was so windy that our long plank looked like it might blow and move. Ali and Thea agreed that it would be a good idea to put something heavy on the end. We moved a pallet to secure it.

We noticed the pallet had left shapes on the ground. “Two rectangles!” (Thea) “Why is dis bits broon?” wondered Alfie. Alfie’s question led to some discussion about sunlight and what grass needs in order to grow.

Even though the long plank was secure it was still very difficult to balance on it as the wind kept blowing us off but it was great fun to keep persevering!

Thea realised it was easier to balance sitting down.

Elsie noticed that the wind was blowing some dust around. She solved the problem of dusty eyes by finding some goggles. Thea and Annie thought this was a great idea. They then explored the best body stances to use to push against the gusts of wind.

After exploring the effects of the wind Miss Stewart told us a story about tornadoes and “The wizard of Oz.” Some of us drew tornadoes after hearing her story and imagined that we were blowing all the way to Oz when we stood on our tornadoes! Playing outdoors in all weathers stimulates our imaginations and helps us to connect language and words that we hear in stories with real life experiences.

On Wednesday we walked to the polytunnel to see what was growing and to think about things that we would like to grow as we continue to be very interested in our food and where it comes from. Growing things is good for learning. It encourages healthy eating, helps us become responsible citizens who can take care of things and develops our problem solving skills.

We look forward to trying to grow some of these things and to explore where some of our favourite food comes from.

We spotted an apple tree. “Look! It’s apples!” (Lewis), “See them all!” (Millie). Some of the apples had fallen off. That meant they were ripe and ready to eat so we gathered some to take back to nursery.

 

We also noticed pears, carrots and some pretty flowers growing. Sophia decided she would like to grow some pink flowers.

On Friday morning there was a lot of discussion about the apples we had brought back. “Dis apple is bruised”(Jim), “It will taste yukky” (Elsie). “We could make apple cranberry juice” decided Jim. Miss Stewart found a video on the iPad with instructions on how to do this. Ali and Annie came to help too. Making the juice was great for developing our independence, confidence, turn taking, risk awareness, literacy and numeracy skills.

First step: chop up the apple.

Second step: Take the cores out.

Third step: put the chunks into a pot. “We need water too” reminded Elsie.

Fourth Step: Boil the apple chunks. “It’s steaming and getting hot noo. It’s ready to mash. ” (Jim)

After mashing Elsie and Jim had a taste, using seperate spoons and only putting the spoon in once. It’s important to learn hygiene rules when baking and cooking. “mmmmm it’s good” (Elsie) “Yes it is!” (Jim).

In other areas of the nursery we have been using other resources that we have found outdoors to enhance our play. The “treasures” that we collected at the beach last week have been using in water and sand for imaginary play, re-living real life experiences, counting, sorting, learning about shapes and building shell pyramids which taught us about gravity.

This week we had a very special visitor…Henrietta! Mrs Williamson took Henrietta the cat into nursery for a visit as many of us had been talking about animals and pets. Learning about animals and pets, and how to look after them, is good for our health and wellbeing. We become more thoughtful and aware of feelings, more aware of non verbal communication and the importance of gentleness towards creatures and each other. Sharing time with Henrietta enhanced our curiosity as we asked questions about her and found out some interesting facts.

Some of us were not sure if we would like Henrietta. Mrs Williamson explained that Henrietta is a very special cat called a Ragdoll cat which means she doesn’t scratch or bite and she likes cuddles.

Once Henrietta had had some time to settle in we got to gently pet her. “She is so saft and her eyes ir blue” (Alfie).

“See her tail” (Jim)

“Can I brush her?” asked Lottie. We learned that Ragdoll cats get brushed against their fur instead of with their fur which was an interesting fact.

Some of us wanted to hold her. “She is warm and fluffy!” (Sophia)

“I like her” (Ali)

And a big well done to Stanley who wasn’t sure he liked Henrietta at first but her gentle nature helped him feel at ease and before she went home he petted her softly.

And finally we celebrated a big happy 4th birthday to Thea who requested tattie waffles for her birthday snack. Happy birthday Thea!

Our interests this week have led to some great learning adventures including a trip to the beach! Here’s a peek at what we’ve been learning…

This week our ongoing interest in, and questions about, food has led to “smelly” playdough making and vegetable exploration. It is important that we are involved in planning our learning experiences. Being able to choose what we want to explore is part of this process. Our questions and statements about food such as “what is dis green thing?”, “carrots ir good and rabbits like them,” “Does sweetcorn grow on trees?” shows that we want to learn more.

Ali, Annie and Lottie wanted to include the herbs that we had in our setting into playdough. They compared the different smells before taking the dough to the home/kitchen area and using it as “mashed tatties.”

Miss Sandison brought in some vegetables for us to explore. It is important for us to be able to use resources in spontaneous and dynamic ways and for the adults around us to respond to what we can learn through our play.

We found some cutlery nearby and chose to chop, cut, slice and stab these using the cutlery. Playing with vegetables in this way is great for developing our co-ordination and perseverance, as well as teaching us about force, texture, shape.

Some of us explored using the vegetables in paint to print, roll and mark make on paper. Using interesting materials to make marks like this helps us become motivated writers in the future.

Some of us decided to take the vegetables to the water tray to enhance our imaginative play. We created a variety of different “soups”, explored scientific concepts such as floating and sinking, we learned about quantity and engaged in counting and sharing through our play.

Water was also a very popular resource outdoors too! This week some of us investigated force, speed and direction using the water tap, a big bucket and some plastic divers. “Look how fast it’s going! The diver is going really fast aroond and aroond!” (Alfie), “yeah aroond in a big circle!” (Lottie), “And up and down!” (Lucas)

Lottie and Lewis discovered that it was really difficult to fill buckets and watering cans when the tap was turned on full speed. Lewis solved the problem by dipping his can into the big bucket. He then shared the water with Jessie- Anne so that she could fill her bucket.

After some time all the water from our play created a stream which resulted in a muddy puddle forming. “Look look!! It’s coming down!!” (Lucas)

Alfie and Lucas investigated it’s depth. They concluded that it was not deep enough, ” I can still see the bottom” (Alfie). Lewis helped make it deeper by transporting water in the back of a truck… Hurray! A nice deep puddle to jump in! Jumping in puddles is a great way for us to learn two feet jumping, to improve our balance and depth perception as well as investigate scientific concepts (i.e. infiltration and evaporation) and mathematics (i.e. depth, length, counting jumps).

After a lot of puddle jumping we naturally turned to using the muddy puddle in a different way. It became a fantastic place for mud pies and mud soup creations. We took turns, shared space, discussed our ideas, created recipes, listened to each other and developed our mathematical knowledge through counting, comparing quantities and discussing volume and size.

There was more jumping outdoors this week away from muddy puddles and through hoops instead. Taking part in daily outdoor play encourages us to explore size and perspective through our movements and by seeing familiar objects from a different angle, height or distance. Big movements like jumping, running, skipping and hopping helps us learn how to move our bodies, manage and control them and how to use and share space.

From big movements outdoors to smaller movements indoors. Our love of playdough, and our motivation to create pictures, has helped us work on developing our cutting skills this week.

Lucas and Millie used scissors to cut through their playdough cakes.

Annie, Thea and Sonny used scissors to snip and to cut in straight lines to create pictures. Sonny thought the scissors opened and closed like a “Tick tock crocodile’s mouth”.

Digging, filling buckets with sand and creating sandcastles has continued to be popular this week. This week staff supported some of us to take our learning further by adding decorations in the form of natural loose parts to our creations and exploring different sizes and shapes of castles.

Sophia added leaves, shells and stones to her castle.

Lewis made “five peerie round flat castles”. He stuck one leaf in each and put shells around the perimeters.

Tommy was inspired by watching the castle creations and decided to use materials nearby to build a different construction. He spent time persevering with building a roof by balancing wood and stones.

On Thursday we combined our interests of finding out about Whalsay and Sandcastles by a spontaneous visit to the beach. We would like to say a huge thanks to Jeemie Tetley for taking us there and back on the bus at short notice!

Investigating and exploring interesting and motivating environments, such as the beach, is important for stimulating our learning and connects us to our local community and the environment. Outdoor environments like this offers different surfaces, different levels and lots of natural features for us to explore. Our morning at the beach was full of learning through play. We “fished”, looked for crabs and other wildlife, made sandcastles, made marks in the sand, found treasure and interesting objects, collected interesting shells, stones and sea glass in buckets, explored different textures of sand, did a lot of splashing, filled buckets and skimmed and threw stones into the water. We used the whole beach to move our bodies and stimulate our minds!

 

Our trip to the beach was so enjoyable that some of us wanted to continue the experience back at nursery! Ali, Sophia and Lewis made their own paddling pool. They wanted warmer water than the sea this time!

We wonder what experiences we will want to re-live, learn about and deepen next week!

Welcome to the Whalsay ELC new blog for 2021/22!  We hope you enjoy seeing what your bairns have been doing and following our early years journey to summer 2022.