Toot! Toot! and off the Starfish go...

The Starfish children finished making their train and had some good times playing in it. They love to get into boxes and feel enclosed while checking out what the other children are doing in their carriages.

The next big project is making a jungle with the children. The children will be doing all the greenery for the jungle by stamping shades of green paint with sponges. They also have loads of shredded paper and shapes of animals to stick in the jungle where they choose.

This week we had some really torrential rain and getting outside for the morning was impossible, so the teachers set up our bouncy castle inside for the children and we played our Brazilian Cafe Club CD loud for the children to bounce to. They had an amazing time. There where squeals of laughter bouncing around the castle from toddlers who found the challenge of staying up right and on feet in such wobbly circumstances hilarious.

The Starfish children also had a turn playing with the hamster, Hamlin. They loved to watch him as he whizzed around the room in his special ball. Some of the children were most interested in the cage he lives in with all its ramps, ladders, tunnels and boxes. The others were more interested in him as he washes his whiskers. Some of them held Hamlin and were incredibly careful with him.

Seahorses in the sand, water and bubbles...

Seahorses have had a wonderful messy couple of weeks with extra opportunities for sand and water play scooping up bubbles with spoons and cups. The babies loved to get messy and relax in the different sensations. They also had paint brishes in the water to watch the water change colour and move it about.

Our babies have really begun to enjoy their little singing time and love to watch and listen to the teachers singing songs like The Wheels on The Bus (a firm favourite). They sit and happily listen, or get up and dance about the space.

Mark making has also been a big feature with the babies taking opportunities to hold and use pencils and crayons. It is amazing how they pick up the cause and effect of using the pencils to make marks and changing colours as they feel the need.

A really fun part of this week has been playing with Hamlin the hamster that one of our teachers brought in. He is a really calm and happy little hamster who doesn’t mind being handled at all. He also loves to run around the room in his little ball and the babies watch in utter fascination.

The Starfish group invited us to join them when they set up the bouncy castle inside on a heavy rain day. They had Brazilian music playing in the background and the babies really enjoyed being able to roll about on the soft uneven surface.

Planting...growing....watching...
and making in Dolphins

Over the last two weeks we have had a busy little time in Dolphins. Our trip to Homebase gardening area has really inspired some green fingers and the children have helped plant the hanging baskets around the outdoor play area, they have planted the tomatoes and strawberries and one of the parents even brought us in tomato and courgette plants.

The children planted their own peas and beans from seeds and they have sprouted already. So the children have been doing drawings of them to compile together to make a ‘gallery of shoots’.
We also got a new painting easel that has been in good use every day. The children can paint whatever they choose but we have also been talking about looking at things we like and then trying to paint them. We have had some pictures displayed at the top of the easel like flowers for the children to try to copy or interpret and paint.

Some of the children have been examining orchids and talking about the different parts of the plant and then having a go at drawing them.

Some of us went on a trip to our local park, where we collected sticks, leaves, dried pods and other natural materials to bring back to the nursery to collage with. We were lucky when we were there because there was a man cutting down a tree with a chain saw. It was very noisy, but very fun to watch. When the children got back to nursery they told the children who didn’t go on the trip all about it at our discussion time before lunch.

We have started to get really interested in modelling and so the teachers have given us lots of extra opportunities to play with clay and play dough. We have been making 3D sculptures, masks, boats and robots.

We had a mucky week in Seahorses- we usually do!

The children had a wonderful time running their hands through corn flour finger play (slime). It has an amazing viscosity and feels soft and liquidly, then hard and stiff depending on how you touch it and what you do with it. Here is a recipe if you want to have a go at home.

Corn flour slime

You will need:

A bowl
Corn flour made from corn (i.e. not wheaten corn flour) – The amount will depend on how much slime you want. A 300 g packet of corn flour will make about two cups of slime.
Food colouring
A large spoon

What to do:
1. Put the corn flour in the bowl and while stirring, add water a little at a time until all the corn flour is wet.
2. Add a few drops of food colouring to the mixture.
3. Keep adding water and stirring until a thick slime forms.
4. Make a fist and punch the surface of the slime - the slime will feel hard. Do the same thing, but very slowly and your hand will emerge from the bowl covered in wet, sloppy slime.

We also had some fun with painting using rollers and string. Take a look at our pictures.

Hello! from Starfish

The big song in Starfish this week has got to be the Hello Song. It is sung everyday to welcome the children and they love it! Every visitor who goes through the room has at least one Starfish child calling out 'Hello' to them and the children sing the song happily as they play singing ‘Hello’ to anything from a bus to a friend!

We replanted our radishes this week, in the hopes that these ones will survive and we will be able to sample our produce very soon. We are very carefully checking them, and watering them. So soon, we will know if our last crop were a bad packet or we just don’t have green fingers!

The children have enjoyed making a train this week. We collected old boxes from our supplies orders and cut them to size and put shaped windows in them. The children have decorated them with paint and stuck numbers on them. We have not used it yet because we are waiting for it to dry but we are looking forward to that fun next week.

We have also made some beautiful underwater collages. The children loved painting, sticking and putting glitter on them. Take a look at our lovely work!

Farewell Butterflies!

On Monday morning this week the Dolphin children came into the nursery and discovered our first butterfly had come out of its cocoon. Then another came out and another until all of the butterflies had hatched from their cocoons.

The children have been so excited watching the butterflies come out to dry their wings in the butterfly tent. We gave the butterflies some flowers and some orange to feed from until all of the butterflies had emerged, then on Thursday, we set them free.

Some of the children put their hands into the butterfly tent to wait for a butterfly to land on their hand so they could carefully pull it out and set the butterfly free. They felt tickly. We watched the butterflies fly away and waved them off calling out ‘Bye bye butterfly!’ It was a really exciting experience, if not a little sad to see them all go after watching them some intently for the last three weeks. We have been learning lots of new language with the butterflies and these are some of the more tricky new words we have learned; chrysalis, exoskeleton, proboscis.

Our Trip to Homebase

On Monday we took a trip to Homebase with eight of our Dolphin children and two teachers. We caught a bus from just outside the nursery and got off just outside of Homebase.

The purpose of the trip was to choose some plants for our hanging baskets in the Dolphin nursery garden. The children will be creating mini gardens that will be both decorative and useful, and will allow us to learn about living things and growing.

While we were there the children were able to look at, touch and choose some flowers, plants and seeds. The children noticed the colours, shapes and smell of the different plants and flowers.
We also watched a man watering the plants. We talked together about how the plants need sunlight and water to grow. We also talked about how some plants provide us with food, like lemons and strawberries.

The children chose the plants that they thought would look nice in the garden and that they would like to grow to eat. They chose; tomatoes, beans, peas and strawberries for growing and eating. Then they chose confiners, ornamental grasses, marigolds, dahlias, petunias and dianthus for decoration.

One of the children had a particular favourite place in Homebase, which was the sprinkler section. So, he showed the children how to get to the sprinkler section and was very proud when they got there. He showed the children and teachers how all the hoses and the attachments go together to make the sprinklers work.

Another child was concerned that we would not have enough money for our purchases so he offered the 30p he had in his pocket to help out if needed.
When the children had made all of their selections, they took them to the till and took turns at loading them on the checkout desk. Then one of the children handed over the money and then took the change and receipt before handing it to a teacher.

When we left Homebase the children were surprised to find the nursery manager there with her car. They were very relieved because they were worrying about how they were going to get all of the plants back to the nursery!

We had a wonder time with lots of discussion and learning. These are some of the words that we used a lot during our trip:

Flowers, trees, plants, pots, gnomes, soft, tickly, spiky, colourful, smells, nice, pretty.