Thursday 28 March 2013

Easter Crispy Nests

Today is our last day before the Easter break so to give the children a lovely Easter treat we did some baking. We decided to make classic chocolate crispy nest cakes.



The boys helped to measure out the ingredients, talking about adding and counting as we put everything in the bowl. They both enjoyed sharing the mixing and spooning the mixture in to each cake case. Their most important question was when could they eat them!



After sending the cakes to various homes I can confirm that the end result was lots of very happy but chocolate covered children.

Wednesday 27 March 2013

Easter Pictures

This week we have been making some Easter pictures. These had a general egg theme to them much to the delight of the children who are demonstrating a great deal of excitement about Easter Eggs at the moment! 


 We started off with some egg shapes and three colours. The children were then invited to paint using the provided cotton buds, all except our youngest who chose to use his hands, something that he loves doing! 


Our eldest also had her own ideas as to how to represent an Easter Egg but enjoyed using the cotton buds.

Monday 25 March 2013

Rain Gauge

Having enjoyed a little sunshine this week we are now back to persistent rain so, to make the most of the bad weather we decided to measure the rain using a home made rain gauge! 


 I cut the top off a large empty plastic bottle and then the boys helped measure some numbers that they recognised using their toy ruler. I wrote the numbers on the bottle and drew circles at regular intervals. This activity was great as it helped the boys learn about using numbers and measuring in context.Wrapping up in our wet weather gear the children set off to find a place in the garden that they could put their bottle. 



Several days later the children went out to check their bottle and the weather had not disappointed. They read off the level of the water that had reached 5cm in our bottle. They then set off to play with the water that they had collected. 

Thursday 21 March 2013

Spring in the Park

This week we have been making the most of the lovely spring weather. We have been outdoors lots, much to the delight of the children.



Enjoying the swings


Socialising with friends

Playing Chase 


Here are just a few snapshots of the outdoor things we have been up to in order to make the most of spring before the predicted down-pours begin again!

Collecting Natural Materials

Spring Daisy
Watching the squirrels 

Wednesday 20 March 2013

Spring Blossom Art

As it is finally looking like spring here in Plymouth, we have been out and about in the local parks looking at the flowers in the trees. This has given us inspiration to create some of our own spring blossom pictures. 


For our 2 year old this involved lots of lovely glue and scrunching up tissue paper. I drew the branches for him and showed him how to scrunch up the flowers. He then chose the colours of the paper, scrunched them up and decided where to stick them. The concentration involved in sticking the tissue paper on the glue spots was easy to spot and definitely helped his fine motor skills. 


For our 10 month old tissue paper is something to be thrown on the floor so we tried a different method. After drawing him some branches I placed some spots of blossom coloured paint on the paper. He eyed it up with curiosity and then began to feel the paint. Deciding that this was ok he then excitedly spread the paint around, banging his hands into the paint with delight!

Thursday 14 March 2013

Sensory Play with Spaghetti

This week I have had great fun introducing our 10 month old mindee to our sensory play. He was slightly unsure about a bowl of rubbbery spaghetti being placed within his reach and it took him a while to pluck up the courage to touch it! 

He gingerly picked out a piece of spaghetti and found out, after the obvious mouthing, that he could shake it around pretty well. 

Gradually he saw the fun side and began to pick up huge clumps of pasta, swinging it around quite nicely, laughing and gurgling as he did so! I think he approves of sensory play!

Wednesday 13 March 2013

Childminder Play Session

This morning we had a lovely morning at our monthly childminder messy play session run by Lark Children's Centre. 
Home Corner
Peek a Boo
Self Reflection
With the massive range of activities on offer the boys had a lovely time and were on the go solidly, until snack time that is!
Rainbow Blocks
Snack Time!





We enjoyed meeting up with lots of other childminders and their mindees. What a shame that this group will close in September due to government cuts, we shall be on the look out for something new!  

Sunday 10 March 2013

Happy Mothers Day!

A happy mothers day to all our mummies!! The children have been working very hard on some lovely little creations to show their appreciation to their mummies. 

Here's our finished indoor plant pots and our painted cards and a few pictures of the fun we had creating them. I hope the mummies enjoy them!


Tuesday 5 March 2013

Bubbles

As we have had such lovely spring weather we have been making the most of being outside without freezing! This coincided nicely with the arrival of our new bubble machine. 


The children had great fun chasing the bubbles and trying to pop them. We also talked about the wind blowing the bubbles and attempted to count several of them before they blew away.



Even our youngest enjoyed trying to poke and catch the bubbles!

Saturday 2 March 2013

March Topic

Our underlying topic this month will be SPRING (let's hope that it brings some more spring like weather with it!)




As well as making some nice spring creations we will venture outdoors to attempt to find signs of spring, looking at the leaves and blossom growing on the trees. We have plenty of spring themed books and will endeavour to create spring in our small world play. We will also be looking at Easter this month.