The finished product.
Making playdoh
Connecting Camels and Mother’s Day
On Monday one of our little ones was lining up the weights in size and weight order.
We got out the connecting camels to add to his interest. Other children joined him.
Lining them up
Putting the camels into colour groups
Repeating patterns
Buried treasure, under all the chains
Making circles. adding a smaller one.
Lining up.
A few of our activities on one day.
On Wednesday we took our older children to Sutton Lower school for our usual half termly visit. The children loved having a ride in the cars and then avoiding the puddles as we made our way to school. Once at school we had a brief play in the class before the sun came out and we were able to play outside in the sand, doing some digging for gold in the dirt and then fishing for feet! We had a lovely play in the field exploring the lovely wooden pirate ship and climbing frame. Then we met the parents and carers in the front car park.
Thank you so much to Sutton for having us, we’re already looking forward to our visit next term.
The children really enjoyed working on their gifts for their Mummy’s. The artwork on the cups will fade over time if put in the dishwasher.
Bubbly water play and drums
Last week has been lots of fun, carrying on with the week before’s interests- lots of water and splashing. We added bubbly water to the tuff spots, pots, teapots, bowls, sponges, syringes and spoons.
All these activities of squeezing the sponge and using the syringes to fill the pots, will help the muscles the children need to write- grow, form and work at becoming stronger. The pouring and measuring of water will enhance the children’s mathematical skills by allowing them to work out how much they need to fill the pot up, how heavy the pots is and that it gets lighter as the water is poured into bowl. They develop and idea of whether the small pot will hold the same as the large pot. They are doing such fantastic learning but as far as they are concerned they are having lots of fun and playing.
We got our beautiful drums out this week, another interest followed. The children had helped themselves to the beaters from the instrument drawer and try out the noises on the tables, chairs and tuff spots in the room. We had 4 drums between 18 children. The drums were spaced between the children, those that did not have a drum, clapped their hands. They all listened well and practised doing loud, slow, fast and quiet by rubbing their hand over the drum. To ensure all the children had a go with the drum, we said ‘stop’ and used the sign for stop, then the children had to pass their drum to the next person.
Our activities this week were:-
The children tried to build a tower as tall as them using the Duplo. They worked hard together, whilst one held the tower the others would find the bricks they needed. Then they would swap over. It was a real joint effort and only fell apart when the tower got too tall to be added to. That didn’t put them off they tried again, giving the tower a bigger base to see if that would make it more stable.
I wonder what fun and learning will happen this week.
Celebrating Mothers Day
We had a fabulous session this morning where we were joined by 30 adults and their children to celebrate Mothers Day. The children had been busy bees in the week making biscuits which they decorated with their special adult. They also made their mums a necklace and decorated a cup ready to do a flower display using a small piece of oasis. Parents and carers were treated to a bacon or sausage roll and a hot drink. The children in the week decorated some bunting which we hung in the room. We are so lucky to be supported by 2 fabulous businesses – Clayton Butchers donated the Bacon and sausages and Highland garage donated the bread rolls and supplied the flowers. Thank you both so much.
Fixing up the units.
Our wheels on our wooden units have fallen apart so today, Tim and I have spent time replacing 16 wheels on 4 of our units. These are used for our children’s drawers where they place their artwork and bits ready to take home. They velcro their names to the drawer front so reinforcing name recognition.
Salad wraps
The children had a super time making their wraps. Some of the children helped cut up the vegetables. They were very good at squeezing the sauce out of the bottles. Some of them were very creative making faces out of tge vegetables before rolling them up and wrapping in foil.
Father’s Day celebration
We had a fabulous morning when we celebrated Father’s Day with Daddy’s, Mummies and Grandads. We hope you enjoyed yourselves, we certainly enjoyed sharing our breakfast rolls with you all.
We hope all the children’s Special Adults enjoy what they have made for them. The children loved doing the candle holders, they got very sticky. We hope they look pretty when you light a tea light in the jar.
Curiosity Approach Accreditation
We are really proud to announce we have achieved the accreditation. This has been a long journey which has been very eye opening in what we do and how we do it. It has really encouraged us to look at the children’s learning and interests bringing in resources not only to enhance their learning but to move them forward developing well rounded children. This helps them to move forward to their next stage of learning and we hope will support them in being fabulous members of our community.
Donna, our assessor said…….
Jackie and Kathryn and their staff have worked really hard to gain the accreditation. Firstly, I would like to thank them for their patience, and for providing me with lots of extra evidence and in answering my questions. They have been real stars.
There are a lot of things they can not change due to them being in a football club. They have worked with the setting to the best of their abilities.
They provide some wonderful provocations to learn and fully understand The Curiosity Approach.
They provide lots of loose parts and authentic materials.
I particularly like the apple trees they have grown in pots at the setting. They are going to take them to a local orchard that has been set up near them. This is an area that they are going to use for forest schools.
One of my favourite sentences from their submission was “We have discovered that things do not have to be beautiful to be interesting “
I would like to wish them every success for the future”.
Glorious sun all week
This week, we were lucky enough to have the garden accessible all day long, every day.
Making Easter nests.
When we do cooking, the children make their own food with help and guidance from the staff.
We scrunched up a shredded wheat biscuit. It’s really good as it looks like straw or twigs when squashed.
We added some melted dark chocolate. We worked for each shredded wheat biscuit we needed 17 dark chocolate ‘buttons’ to cover. We melted the chocolate in the microwave for around 20 seconds.
We stirred the mixture, making sure the chocolate covered all the shredded wheat.
The finished product smelt delicious and the children were eager to take their nests home.
Looking for ‘bugs’
We lifted the mat and had a good look.
Making Mud Pies
The children have a great time in the mud kitchen area. They add water to make the mud all sloppy, measure and spoon out what they need. They have lots of discussions about what they are doing and why, then they share their ‘food’ with their friends and staff.
Preschool Childcare. 