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Hello Everyone!

This blog is now closed. For all the news on our events, activities and fun, the parents will receive weekly newsletters!

Katie McGraffin

(Angels Team Leader)

Hello everyone!

The sun is shining, the sun cream is on and the flowers are blooming beautifully on the Roof Garden.

Summer is lovely at Working Mums' as the children are able to enjoy the sun in our beautiful open Roof Garden space, as well as enjoying the cool inside room if it gets too warm. We have got a lot to talk about this month as the children have been involving in a lot of fun filled activities from their monthly topics and a lot more excursions have been happening due to the lovely weather, as well as fitting in with our topics.

Also, a massive thanks to all the parents who attended parents evening, we really hope you enjoyed it and it was insightful. We know that expectations and the education system we follow (EYFS) might be a little confusing, so we use this opportunity to answer any questions you may have on your child's development as well as their general well being and happiness at the  nursery. Not only is parents evening good for getting a more in depth view of your childs day of  learning and play, it is also good to get to know other parents and colleagues whom you may not have had the chance to talk to before.

So, what's been happening?!

Singing with Gerti (Angels and Cherubs)

Singing with Gerti sessions

We have had a lovely opportunity to introduce Gerti from floor two who sings and plays the Guitar. She has joined our day to day rouine on Wednesdays and Thursdays. As Gerti is from Germany, she also has introduced some lovely German songs to our children as well as English songs such as ' I Like The Daffodils' and ' Twinkle Twinkle'. Gerti has also recently sung 'Let it Go' from the classic 'Frozen' film, and as you can imagine, the children really enjoyed it! We have also been introducing the musical instruments to the children during the sessions for the children to explore, express their musical skills, and some of the older children enjoy strumming Gerti's guitar.

Cherubs

Throughout May and June the Cherubs have been focusing on 'Pond Life' due to the high interest from our little ducklings that came to stay. The Cherubs have been enjoying some new songs that Margaret has been singing such as 'Five Little Speckle Frogs', ' Little White Duck', and  'Galoop Went The Little Green Frog'. Margaret has also introduced little singing booklets and laminated images that are on the wall for the children to look at and for the staff to learn. The children have also been enjoying the  little frog and duck puppets, they make the songs more fun and it brings them to life.

Pond life pictures

Lovely water play activities with pond life, such as ducks and fish have been a big part of the Cherubs play (plastic of course) and the children love exploring them. On several occasions we have changed the colour of the water such as bright blue to create a pond/ river effect. As well as splashing around, the children have thoroughly enjoyed getting creative by creating lovely little frog pictures using a variety of coloured paint.

Pictures of pond life and treasure baskets have also been available for the cherubs to explore. Babies really enjoy natural materials such as pine cones, rough materials and wooden spoons. finding old baskets in the home and filling them with random kitchen utensils will encourage your baby to explore a variety of textures which can promote sensory development.


 

Angels

Car painting

You may have heard you child say a lot of vehicle names such as 'Boat' ' Car' and 'Train'. That's because the Angels have been exploring transportation throughout  May and June. The children have thoroughly enjoyed this monthly topic, and therefore we have decided to extend it again in June, but focus on service vehicles such as Fire Engines and Police cars. The children have been involved in lots of creative art work to do with transport, such as car painting and decorating train and car templates. However, the definite highlight in supporting the childrens learning and development with transport was by far the excursions. Some of the children  had the opportunity to watch the boats pass  by the River, catch a bus to Richmond Park, and go to the Train Station. The children really enjoyed these excursions and we plan to go on many more in the future.

The children have also developed an interest on playing with the train set and the small world garage and cars. We borrowed the big wooden garage from floor two and the children loved pushing the cars down it.

The Boats by the river

We are also very lucky to have aeroplanes fly by every few minutes on the Roof Garden. This has been a great opportunity to get more excited about planes with children and to encourage transportation words,nouns and phrases such as Airport, Aeroplane, Plane, Loud and  'Up high!' . The children also like looking out of the windows in the classroom and on the Roof Garden to spot the buses and cars in the street and in the car parks.

Stars and Shooting Stars

Its been a creepy crawly month for floor two during May and early June and the Monthly topic has been 'Mini Beasts'. The children have been involved in learning about a variety of mini beasts such as caterpillars, spiders, ants and butterflies.

Hatching Butterflies

Floor one's Butterfly Pavilion

As well as seeing some bugs naturally on the Roof garden, i.e Bees flying around and the odd ant and spider, the children on floor two and floor one  have had the exciting opportunity to  help hatch butterflies from baby caterpillars. Avalon arranged for caterpillars to be sent to the nursery and  they were kept in little containers attached to some tissue with some food. Over time the caterpillars grew bigger and eventually formed their cacooon. Once the caterpillars were big enough, they were then transferred to the butterfly pavilion, which is where they are then placed gently inside, still attached to the tissue. It was really lovely to watch the butterflies hatch and it was a great way for the children to learn about life cycles and how some bugs are born right in front of their eyes. Unfortunately most of the butterflies hatched over night  so the children did not get to see them hatch. However it was still a lovely experience for the children.  The butterflies stayed in their pavilion for around a week until they were set free in to the wild. The children really enjoyed watching the butterflies fly away, and one of the butterflies from the floor one pavilion decided to return within 30 minutes of being released to say hello!

Snail Trails Art-work

Also on floor two you have probably noticed the beautiful colourful paintings all around the room of butterflies and mini beasts. The children have had lovely creative opportunities to create some fantastic art work to do with mini beasts and small animals such as Snail Trail paintings, Spider pictures and butterfly painting.

Mini beast Art-work

Small world play has also been set up for the children involving big bugs, moss and magnifying glasses for the children to expand their knowledge and understanding of mini beasts colours, names and how many legs they have.

Preschool

Avalon has introduced a lot of mini beast themes into her pre school sessions to enhance learning of creepy crawleys and life cycles. Avalon has been focusing on a number of stories to do with mini beasts such as ' The Hungry Caterpillar',  'The Very Busy Spider', ' The Bad Tempered Ladybird' and 'What the Lady Bird Heard'. The children thoroughly enjoyed these stories, and used the stories as an adaptation to create pictures, expressing feelings for when they feel grumpy and also to learn the life about how different the bugs are in comparison to colour, size and how they grow. The children also enjoyed talking about their favourite bugs and wrote their own name in a column with which bug the like the most. The children are certainly showing significant development and skill in their writing skills.

The Hungry Caterpillar painting

In addition to learning about the hatching of butterflies, pre school have also had the opportunity to look at a butterfly that sadly did not make it under a microscope. Also, whilst waiting for the butterflies to hatch in their cocoon's, the children also had a butterfly calendar, and they ticked off each day that went by until the butterflies hatched. This was a great way for the children to enhance their learning on the days of a week, mathematics development and also a sense of time. The children have also been involved in bug hunts in the park. Avalon has been taking the children out to explore mini beasts in their natural environment, such as bees, spiders, ants and woodlice.

Preschool's Bug pictures

So what are we going to get up to in the summer months?

As the Summer is in full swing, the paddling pool will be returning to the Roof Garden on warm days. Floor two will need to have swimming gear on really hot days, and floor one usually paddle in a fresh nappy, and if you can supply a swimming nappy, tit would be really helpful.We will let you know when we are going to plan for a paddling pool day!

Also during the summer months sometimes we get the hose out, and sprinkle the children lightly with the water. The children love this, and its a great way to cool down and cool down the soft fall matting!

Summer ideas, treats and activities!


That's it for now!

Keep enjoying the rays!

Katie McGraffin

Spring is properly here! Flowers are blooming, the sun is shining, the ducklings have come and gone and the chocolate eggs have become a memory. Apart from all the glorious spring and Easter celebrations, the nursery has also been celebrating a variety of other festivities such as St Patricks day, Mothers day and Anzac day for our resident Australians and New Zealanders.
The nursery has had  a lot of fun exploring spring and Easter. All floors have been doing some gardening which the children thoroughly enjoyed. The children have been watering, digging, planting and smelling the flowers and it has been a beautiful and educational experience for them.
 
All the nursery children had had the pleasure of a lovely Easter egg hunt and a Easter Bonnet Parade just before Easter and it was made so much more fun by the contribution of  all the parents and children who took part in creating the Easter bonnets. They were all so creative and unique, it certainly was a tough decision in picking first, second and third prize! 

The ducks!

The definite highlight over month of April was by far the lovely little ducklings that came to stay. The duck eggs arrived on the 13^TH of April and we kept them up in the pre school room for ten days. We were very lucky to have this opportunity and it was such a special experience for the children as well as the adults. Some of the team and children were very lucky to get to watch some of the ducklings hatch out of their eggs- and some of the ducklings decided they would hatch over night! If you haven’t seen already, we have some amazing footage of the ducks hatching on our Facebook page.

Beautiful picture of one of our ducklings, taken by Avalon

All floors experienced looking at the ducks, we talked about what the ducks looked like and what sounds they make. Stars and Shooting stars had a great opportunity in looking at the ducks outside of their cage. On several occasions we let the ducks walk around the children and drink water from a shallow tray. We encouraged the children to have their hands on their knees, but as time went on some of the children’s confidence grew and they wanted to touch the ducklings and they did not mind if the ducks pecked at their shoes!



The ducklings in their cage

 

The ducklings having a paddle

 

 









 
The Easter Bonnet Parade

We had a lovely Easter bonnet party for the children and parents on floor one and floor two this year. Both parties were fantastic, and there were some beautiful hats created, well done and special thanks  to all of you that took part, it really did bring a lot of smiles to the children's faces!

To top it all off, the weather was gorgeous, especially at the Angels and Cherubs party. Mini chocolate eggs were scattered all around the Roof garden and the children were given baskets to find some eggs.  Both floors also had a party tea such as bunny shaped biscuits and nibbles. The highlight of the party was most definitely the appearance of the Easter Bunny (Charmayne). Floor two’s children loved  asking why Charmayne was dressed up in the bunny costume!

At the Angels and Cherubs party The children had access to a wide range of activities such as books about ducks and bunnies, a water tray filled with shredded paper and plastic eggs and lovely little yellow ducks scattered on the Roof Garden. At the Stars and Shooting stars party, the children thoroughly enjoyed  dancing around with their Easter hats with the Easter bunny and enjoyed joining in with songs such as ‘Peter Cotton Tail’.

 

Mother’s Day, St Patricks, St Georges and Anzac day

All floors celebrated Mother’s day as it is a special day for the children’s mothers  and we wanted to make sure the mums at the nursery got a lovely treat from their loved ones. On floor two the children made beautiful Mother’s day cards and on floor one the children created some lovely flowers with paint and card. The Angels also created some lovely foot print paintings for their mums to take home.

For St Patricks day, floor one created some vibrant green four leaf clovers and explored some lovely green play dough.

One of our Angels making a four leaf clover

St Georges day was a big hit with the children, and all floors read the classic tale of 'George and the Dragon'. The children loved this story and floor one read the story with a little red dragon to bring the story to life.

Floor one celebrated Anzac day by creating beautiful poppies out of red card and paint and the preschool group made ANZAC biscuits to take home and try.

 The Cherubs

One of our cherubs gardening with Charlotte

The babies have had a lovely time over April. They have done a lot of creative activities to do with spring and Easter. The babies have been creating beautiful duck pictures with Sophie. Sophie pre-cut out a duck shape and the children painted their duck with various colours of paint.

The daffodil pictures

The babies have also created beautiful daffodil pictures using lovely yellow and green paint looking at a real daffodil flower. The cherub’s room has also had a few changes around the room. We have made a beautiful book corner with little books that are stuck on to the wall for the children to get at when they please. We all know that the babies love exploring reflective objects so we put another mirror in the book corner for them to explore. We have also created a lovely soft play area in the main room on the Cherubs side so the babies can climb and roll around as much as they like!

The babies also joined in with the gardening activities on the Roof Garden, those babies really do love exploring the soil and making a mess!

The Angels

One of the Angels help paint the Easter bunny

The Angels have had a lovely time over April too. They have done a range of creative spring activities such as painting a huge Easter Bunny, painting flowers for our windows, and they have also done a lot of planting of flowers and painting Easter eggs. The children love getting creative and have created some beautiful Easter pictures. If you're a parent at our nursery, next time you're in, have a look around the room and see if you can find your child’s lovely Easter Egg.

The Angels looking at the spring photographs

The children have also been looking at the book ‘The Hungry Caterpillar’ a firm favourite amongst children and the adults, to help the children learn about new life. The children love looking at all the beautiful pictures and they get really excited when they see the butterfly.

The Angels have also had access to a wide range of spring pictures, such as caterpillars, rabbits, ducks and daffodils. They have been looking and naming them at circle times and they are also stuck around the room for the children to look at, pull off and stick back on again -thanks to our wonderful felt walls and Velcro displays!

The Angels gardening

The children have had a lovely time gardening on the Roof garden. The children loved feeling the
soil with their hands and smelling the flowers and talking about them at every opportunity.

 Stars

'Quack, Quack'

Spring is blooming on Floor two  as well, with lovely creative activities and gardening. All the children have been involved in creating beautiful egg pictures, painting flowers and creating Easter bonnets and baskets. The children have also been enjoying singing the ‘Peter Cotton Tail’ song on a regular basis during circle times, and of course enjoying playing with the little ducklings in preschool.

The children on floor two have also been gardening and helping to grow some beautiful flowers to bring the natural world into our castle in the sky. 

Shooting Stars (Pre school)

Floor two children gardening

Avalon has been focusing on ‘New life’ in the Easter months and the children have had a great opportunity to learn about animals, flowers and growth. The ducklings were a big hit with the pre-schoolers, and the children thoroughly enjoyed learning about the ducklings, such as following the transition from the egg to the duckling, learning about the parts of the duckling, i.e. the webbed feet and beak and learning about what the ducklings eat and drink.

The children also learnt about the life cycle of a frog and also had the opportunity to grow fruits and salads on the Roof Garden. The children have panted sunflowers, cucumbers, tomatoes and broad beans. They have also been learning how to care for flowers, focusing on the three basic needs such as sunlight, water and air. They have also been painting some lovely daffodil and duck pictures too.

That's it from me for now, I hope you continue to enjoy the sunshine with your children!

A fun spring idea!

I have come across this cool idea from www.pinterest.com to help your child with fine motor skills development.

If you have a spare colander at home, why don't you make use of it by letting your child put some plastic flowers inside the holes. This is a fun way to help promote your child's fine motor skills.

Happy spring activities!

Katie McGraffin

 

We're coming into Spring!!!!



Hello!

We can finally say bye-bye to the winter feel and hello to spring! It is still a bit chilly but the sun as out and ready for Easter celebrations and fun in the sun! We hope you have all been enjoying the sunny days as much as us and the children! We will also be hearing the sound of little duckling feet soon as we will help to hatch little ducklings! (Due April 13th) There has also been quite a few events that the nursery have been celebrating such as Chinese New year and Valentines day!

 The snow!

Arctic Animals in the snow

So we caught a glimpse of snow in early February! And of course we had to let all of the children experience it. Josephine, as she has never seen it before due to being born in Australia, was particularly excited. We were all very excited actually and wrapped the children up warmly and took them to explore it on the Roof Garden. Floor  one set up the Roof Garden in to an arctic themed place for the children to explore the snow. We put little arctic animals on a huge tuff tray that were embedded in to the snow. We also provided the children with buckets and spades so the children could dig the snow and place some in the digger truck toys.  The children also enjoyed throwing snow balls (not at each other) and making snowmen!

Chinese New Year

Jenny making the tofu parcels

Both floors enjoyed celebrating Chinese New Year this year. It was especially special for us as we had a greater insight in to the Chinese culture due to similar cultures and traditions from our lovely Jenny from floor one. Even though Jenny is from Korea, Jenny provided floor one with Chinese lanterns and cooked a variety of Korean dumplings with her mother for the all the children to eat on the day. They were truly delicious, the team enjoyed them also!  The Angels also played some classical Chinese  music in the background when the children were eating. Floor one  also decorated the classroom with lovely laminated pictures of Chinese food, clothing and Chinese letters for the children to explore.

Floor two's Chinese lanterns

As it was the year of the sheep, floor two’s children were provided with a picture of a sheep  to look at and draw their own interpretation of. The children also painted  and decorated these lovely lanterns that they hung up in the classroom. They look beautiful hanging up!

 

 

 

Valentines day

All floors joined in with this heart filled day! Floor one created some beautiful hearts to take home to their mummies and daddies whilst on floor two the parents received some lovely cards with hearts on them. We all hope all our parents enjoyed their lovely surprise!

Cherubs

The cherubs have had a lot of messy play from February to March as their monthly topic. The children have been exploring gloop, which is corn flour and water mixed together to create a sticky, thick consistency. We also provided the children  with pots and spoons. The babies love exploring the texture with their hands and mouth which is great for their sensory development. The cherubs have also been doing a lot of painting using a variety of colours to promote their expressive arts and design development and handling skills with the  brushes!

The Cherubs exploring the gloop

Margaret said ‘We have been doing a lot of sand and water play, the babies loved splashing the water with their hands and exploring the water toys with their mouths and putting them inside the water tray’.

The Cherubs also love playing in the home corner and with the play food, they especially enjoy putting the play food inside the little cooker cupboard! Children enjoy hiding and finding objects which is also a part of their understanding of the world and mathematical development. If you have any little containers at home such as little cardboard/ trinket boxes or pots safe enough for your child to hold,  provide your child with little rubber ducks or something similar and  your baby will love to put the toys inside the boxes and explore the different shapes of the lids.

The Cherub's painting

 

 

 

Angels

Our little Angels have really enjoyed themselves through February to March. We have been focusing on Sea Animals for our monthly topic. Most of the children knew basic animals such as fish and turtles with the help of our nursery rhymes but the children have gained more of understanding of the different kinds of fish and sea creatures such as whales, sea lions and octopuses. In the Angels room there is an underwater sea corner with laminated pictures of the sea animals and words associated with the sea. The children have been enjoying exploring the pictures and of course moving them around the room. We have also put up some beautiful sea blue material to create the ocean feel for the children. Children love hiding and being in dens and under material, if you have any material at home like old bed sheets you don’t use anymore, you can create some dens for your child with cardboard boxes or anything that is substantial to hold the sheet and that is safe, trust me, your child will love it and will probably play in there all day!

The children created some beautiful fish with Josephine, these are hung up around the Angels room at the moment. Josephine stuffed some old newspaper in a brown bag and tied it the end together with string to create a 3D fish shape. The children then painted their fish and decorated it with various shiny collage pieces to create the illusion of scales and to create colourful fishes. The children really enjoyed this and they look really great hung up due to the 3D effect! Katie also did some paper plate fishes with the children using coloured cellophane, paint and bubble wrap, these are also hung up around the room.

The Angels have also been showing a keen interest in the circle time songs at the moment. The children really enjoy  our nursery rhymes, especially Roly Poly. We have also spiced up our turtle song with little miniature turtles for each child to hold during the song. The children love this idea and aside from making the song more fun, it also allows children to learn about putting them away in the box when the song is finished to help them understand about tidying up.

We have also been promoting the children’s language development with the sea animal flash cards.

Painting

Angels balloon painting

Aside from our monthly topic on sea animals, the Angels were also given the children the opportunity to explore different ways of painting and creative thinking. Josie did a lovely activity with the children called ‘Balloon painting’. The children were provided with various coloured paint and a small blown up balloon. The children then dipped their balloon in the paint and then dipped it on to their paper. This created a lovely effect and was a unique way to create beautiful colours.

The Angels Car painting

The children also did ‘Car painting’. This is a brilliant activity, especially if your child loves cars! The children were provided with big sheets of paper and white paint in dishes, the children then dipped their car in to the paint to create lots of lines and patterns on to their paper. If you would like to try this at home, make sure the car is washable i.e plastic and the bigger the wheels the better!

 Floor two- Stars

February to March the Stars have been exploring fairy tales. The children have been doing some lovely activities to do with fairy tales. The children have  explored countless traditional fairy-tale stories as well as not so well known tales. Such as the classic ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ and the ‘King and his son’. 

Castle Printing

Katarina did some lovely creative activities such as making a castle print which is currently on the wall on floor two. The children painted over the top of a cardboard cut-out of a castle using pinks, purples, greens and blues and when the cardboard was taken off it created a lovely castle picture. Katarina said ‘ Cutting the castle and sticking it on the poster was great fun for the children, the  children came up with their own ideas on the animals that lived in their castles, such as foxes and horses and the children are very proud of their work!’ 

'Mirror,  Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?'

Katarina also provided the children with shiny silver foil to create their own mirrors to symbolize ‘Mirror Mirror on the Wall’, associated with the classic tale ‘Snow White’.  The children used various colours of shiny foil such as silver and gold to create a reflection, and also various other coloured cellophane. The children thoroughly enjoyed exploring the shiny foil as it was a new type of media most of them have not used before.

Shooting Stars (Preschool)

Pre-school blow painting

Shooting Stars have also explored ‘fairy tales’ as their monthly focus topic. Avalon came up with some wonderful ideas to expand the children’s areas of learning and development, yet doing so in a fun and magical way! Avalon said ‘"We have looked at the story of ‘The three little pigs’, and we made ‘huff puff’ pictures by blowing paint with straws and modelling with clay". The children made beautiful blow paintings that are displayed in pre school. The children used a variety of colours such as green, pink, red and orange which created a beautiful effect! Avalon also said ‘"We also explored the story ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ through role play and also looked at what’s fact and fiction’". The children also explored the story ‘Goldilocks and the three bears’ and sorted hard and soft objects as well as the opposites. Avalon also created some bean pictures using marbling inks  with the children, relating to the classic story of  ‘Jack and the Bean Stalk’. The children also had the chance to talk, discuss and compare ideas on what it takes to grown their very own magic beans in pre school!

As the spring holidays are coming up, I have put some links and ideas below to share with you some Easter Activities for your children to do to keep them busy!

Easter Egg hunt

Going to Easter egg hunts arranged in the community can be expensive sometimes, and it doesn’t have to be! Why don’t you hide some eggs in your very own garden or in the house, and  provide your child with little plastic baskets for them to find them. If you don’t like the idea of chocolate, hiding pretend eggs or little fluffy animals such as rabbits and chicks can be just as fun!

Strawberry Carrots!

I came across this adorable idea to make mini looking carrots out of strawberries. Mix orange food colouring in a bowl of melted white chocolate and then coat the strawberries to create a carrot looking effect. Great for if you're going to have an Easter party!
 

There are so many other  ideas at www.pinterest.com Type in ‘Easter’ in the search box and there are loads of Easter related at activities to get involved in.

That’s it for now!

Keep enjoying the sunshine!

Katie Mcgraffin

 

 

What have we been doing in January and early February?

Welcome to my first post! It’s Katie McGraffin here and I am our new nursery blogger! Each month I will be writing about the wonderful events in our nursery to keep our families updated and also anyone else interested in the fun and ideas we have going on at our nursery. So, here goes…

Happy New Year and back to work for our families, and back to the fun at Working Mums. The words I would use to describe the month of January and early February for Working mums would be; chilly, inspiringly creative and bursting with culture!

All floors were exploring winter and cold weather related topics as their monthly focus.  The children have had a great opportunity to learn about winter from all the creative activities with the team. From making igloos, exploring winter animals and habitats to painting umbrella’s and making foot prints in the fake cotton wool snow. There have also been other opportunities to expand the children’s learning on different cultures, languages, new ideas for cooking and gross motor movements.

We are very lucky to have a lovely multicultural team in our nursery as it allows children to learn about a variety of different cultures, backgrounds and ethnicity. Children love music and nursery rhymes. As Gertrude is from Germany, she has been teaching the children on floor two some German songs and nursery rhymes. This has been a great experience for the children as well as the team to learn a new language. Seva and Marta are from Poland so they have also been teaching the children on floor two some Polish songs to help further the children’s learning on the Polish culture.

Recently, we have also had the opportunity to introduce multi-cultural meal dishes for the children to try at lunch time. This has been a fantastic experience so far and the children and staff have really enjoyed it. Tuhena, Su and Ian put together a lovely Bengali dish called Biryani. One contained rice with meat and one was plain rice with vegetables. Some of the children really enjoyed this dish and some of the children and team had second and third helpings! Margaret also put together a tasty Kenyan dish called Gigheri with various types of beans and vegetables. This has been a great way to introduce children to new tastes, flavours and textures.



Boomerang painting using cotton buds.



On the 26^th of January it was Australia day, and of course it was going to be celebrated as our lovely Josephine from floor one is a born and bred Aussie! Josephine decided to share with the Angels and Stars how to decorate a vanilla sponge cake with chocolate sauce and coconut sprinkles. These are called Lamingtons.  Josephine also provided the children with pictures of Australian animals such as possum’s and kangaroos. On floor one the children used cotton buds to paint some boomerang shapes using aboriginal colours.

Making lamingtons with the children.

 

The final works. Images of ourselves.

The children also had the opportunity to learn about each other’s differences; colour of skin, gender, hair colour and eye colour. On floor two, Lizzie drew around the children on a big sheet of paper and the children painted themselves how they wished. Some of the children painted themselves very alike to their actual appearance, whilst others really enjoyed the colour red so much they decided to paint themselves that colour! It was a lovely activity to show children that not everyone is the same and that we all are unique and special in our own way. Physical development is one of the prime areas we focus children’s development and we all know that children love to climb. On floor three we have a lovely new resource for the children to promote their physical development . We have a big climbing activity with ramps, steps and a bright orange bridge. The children on all floors are loving it and it’s a great way for them to express themselves physically on our lovely Roof Garden. On floor one, we have introduced some balancing beams that we connect together for the children to walk, step over and climb on indoors. The children love these and they

Holding still and not giggling!

will soon be moving to the roof garden. We feel that it is helping the children to understand about their spatial awareness as well as gross motor movements. This is also good for the new group of children that have just moved over from Cherubs on to the Angel’s side  as some of them have just got on to their feet.

Overall the children have had a lot of fun, and I am sure you are all aware of this due to all the lovely Facebook updates! We hope you have enjoyed these.

Floor one- Angels and Cherubs

The Angels and Cherubs have had a lovely time on floor one. We would like to welcome the children who have moved over to Angels side  at the beginning of the year from the Cherubs side. The children have really settled in and are really enjoying the play space and of course the home corner. We feel that their personalities are really shining through and it is so lovely to see!

Angels.

The nature area has been transformed into a weather theme. The children painted some lovely big umbrellas, rain drops and also created winter coloured pictures. We also have some laminated words and pictures relating to weather for the children to explore, we all know now how the children love laminated pictures!

Our umbrella collages.

The children loved painting the umbrellas and some of the children were fascinated with the umbrellas so much that Sophia picked up the umbrella shape and sung “Rain go away, come back another day”. The children are also really starting to enjoy glue and stick, especially with the cellophane, and they love looking through it to see all the different colours. The children are also developing their knowledge on colours through this.

This month we have also helped the children to learn about winter clothing such as hats, gloves, waterproofs and wellies. We regularly talk with the children about the importance of warm clothing and we have also been teaching the children how to put on wellies and hats themselves. The children love wearing their welly boots out on the roof garden and love to point out their own clothes when we are ready to go up on to the roof.

Jenny did a lovely activity to also support the knowledge and understanding of outer gear such as gloves, hats and scarfs. Jenny gave the children a cut out shape of gloves , hats and scarfs for the children to paint. The children really enjoyed this activity and as well as promoting their creativity skills, some of the children were also recognising the shapes and saying words such as ‘gloves’ and ‘hat’. This is displayed in our creative room.

 Cherubs

There are a few new little faces on our Cherubs side, and already they are having fun exploring their play spaces. The cherubs have a lovely little home corner now, along with cups, plates and a little cooker. The children love this area and enjoy looking at themselves in the mirror.

Our new home corner in the Cherubs

The room has also transformed in to laminate picture heaven and the children really enjoy pulling off all of the pictures and putting them back on again.

The Cherubs have also had a lot of creative experiences in their room. The Cherubs made some beautiful scarfs and hats that they painted using card and have done a lot of finger painting! A lot of our little ones have also started walking and are pulling themselves up on to their feet, so there are lots of walkers and small units for the children to promote this further. The cherubs have also had a lot of fun exploring our beautiful sensory room and playing in the water tray.

 

 

Floor two- Stars and Shooting Stars

Whenever I go up to floor two I always love listening to what the children have been up to during their nursery day and about their activities so I thought it would be a nice idea to talk to the children about their experiences, we all know how children love to talk and express themselves. I also spoke to the adults on their experiences on January and early February.

The igloos we made.

Katarina did a lovely activity making igloos out of cardboard, glitter and white paint. The children also made a chimney on the top and the little people were there for the children to place inside.  I asked Martha, Ayla and Daniel about their igloo. Martha said, “I put the people inside, the chimney fell over the igloo!”. Martha then began to sing, “When Santa got stuck up the chimney, he began to achoo!”. Ayla added “We done a chimney, the chimney got stuck!”. And Daniel said “ I made a house and a chimney”. Katarina then explained that whilst making the cardboard igloo, the igloo fell down. But this did not stop the fun, the children really enjoyed it and it was a great way for the children to learn about various habitats and the way people live in colder regions.

Cutting out things that keep us warm!

The children also had an insight on various winter sports, winter gear, winter animals as well as the texture of snow. The children created some lovely winter themed pictures, and some collage making with pictures of gloves and hats. The children cut the pictures out themselves and then stuck it on the paper using glue. Seva said “The children really enjoy cutting out, they are doing really well and are able to cut round the pictures nicely, the children also enjoy cutting play dough at the moment”.

Using scissors safely and supervised is a great way to promote children’s fine motor skills and hand and eye coordination, as well as preparing them for school! Laminated pictures of winter sports and animals were also on the wall for the children to explore.

Unfortunately the snow hadn’t arrived until February, but this didn’t stop our lovely Lizzie from letting the children walk on our fake cotton snow! Lizzie put down a long sheet of fake cotton wool snow for the children to walk on in bare foot. The children dipped their feet in to a variety of coloured paint and the children walked on top of it. Lizzie was talking to the children about how it felt on their feet, what colours they were making and the different textures. Lizzie asked Samuel how the paint felt on his feet on the cotton wool and he said, “It tickles”. Hector added, “It’s cold”, and Luke thought it would be fun to walk on the snow with his sunglasses on! Overall this activity was hit and the children loved their snowy cat walk!

Gertrude has been introducing her guitar and recorder to the children to promote the children’s learning on these instruments. Gertrude said “The children love copying how I play the guitar, they seem to really concentrate and love to pretend they are playing it”. Gertrude also added, “I have also been playing on the recorder with them, we did ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’ with them and the children really enjoyed it!”

Making our own pizzas

Not only have floor two been creative in the classroom, they have also had a lot of creative ideas in the kitchen! The children have been involved in creating their very own pizza toppings on top of their pizza’s for tea time. Some of the children enjoyed carefully placing their topping choices on to their pizza, whilst others enjoyed making faces!

 

 Preschoolers

Submerging our hands in ice cold water, protected by the lard.

In preschool, the children have done a variety of activities on winter related topics. Each week the children had the opportunity to focus on the Arctic theme. The children looked at various arctic animals such as penguins and polar bears and learnt about their habitats and how they survive in winter. The children also did an interesting science experiment with Avalon representing how penguins survive in cold temperatures. Avalon said, “We put some lard in a sandwich bag and put another bag inside of it and taped it up, this acted like a blubber”.  Avalon then added “We then put it in a bucket of water with ice to show the children that their hand will not feel the cold. The children loved the activity and we also learnt about Inuits, how they live and how they survive in cold temperatures”. I also spoke to some of the pre-schoolers on their thoughts on the arctic activities. Felicity told me about her igloo picture and said, “we made mittens using tissue paper and glue!”.  The children created some beautiful arctic art work that is displayed in the preschool room, such as penguins, blow painting, igloos  and polar bear art work.

Making paint move with your blow.

Avalon also told me about her penguin race activity. The children were given balloons and they put them between their knees and they did a race in the roof garden and inside. Felicity said ‘”We did a race outside and the balloon flown away”. The children really enjoyed this activity and it was an alternative, yet fun way to teach the children about penguins, as well as a bit of healthy competition!  

The Frozen party spread

Avalon asked the children what else they would like to do in preschool, the children said a party- of course! So the children threw their own Frozen party! I asked Felicity about the party and she said “We made muffins, drew pictures of Elsa and some of us had the Elsa dress on”. Felicity also talked about how they played musical statues. Avalon said, “They planned the party completely themselves. They wrote shopping lists, made invitations and decorated the pre-school room with buntings and balloons. They loved it!”.  I thought this was lovely, and the children certainly enjoyed themselves as well as learning about cooking, designing and organisation skills.

And finally, Preschool Outdoor Learning!

Penguin races!

We all know that the pre-schoolers thoroughly enjoy outdoor learning experiences. In January, the children were focusing on animal tracks, bark rubbing and stick collecting. “We investigated horse tracks, duck tracks and we also made prints in our welly boots”, said Avalon. Avalon also talked about how the children read the book, Stickman, by Julia Donaldson. The weather in January was perfect for the animal tracks to the muddy and wet weather, so the children were able to explore a wide range of patterns in the mud. The children were given paper and crayons so they could create marks from the tree bark.



We made wind catchers and ran with them in the park.

 

 

 



Whose footprint could this be??

 

 

 

 

 

Sitting around a tree stump is the perfect place for a snack while at Outdoor Learning.