Tuesday 29 July 2014

Paper Plate Birds

The children all have a love of nature and are keen to point out any birds we see when we are out and about so when I spotted this activity I thought they would like it. We were rather pleased with the end result - they looked very sweet and were so easy to make, even for our two year old.

The children chose the colours they wanted to paint their paper plates. We used pearlised acrylic paint for an extra glittery effect. The youngest used a paint dabber rather than a brush to help him cover the card. Once they were dry the children had great fun sticking on beaks, eyes and feathers, all activities that enabled practise of fine motor skills.
The children love doing crafts where they can play with the end result and there was much fascination with the way they could rock their birds back and forth, making the eyes wiggle around!

Tuesday 22 July 2014

Fruit Picking


I always aim to promote a healthy diet amongst the children and aim to educate them from a young age about the foods that they eat. For this fruit picking is the perfect activity, fun in the fields while seeing where our food actually comes from. 



This morning we met up with friends to enable the children to pick variety of fruit ranging from raspberries through to black currants and black berries. We also investigated broad beans, shallots and local chard. 


The children loved picking (and tasting!) the fruits and were fascinated with the process of shelling the peas. After munching on some of our fruit we set about painting pictures of the morning which was such fun and really got the children talking about what they had seen. 

Thursday 17 July 2014

Sports Day

As a mum of two primary school children I have attended my share of sports days and seen the enjoyment that the children gain from running around amongst a group of peers so when a fellow childminder suggested that several of us bring all our little ones and all our sports equipment out to the park for a sports day I thought it was a great idea. 


We enabled the children to have a free play session with all the equipment initially which they loved and it is always great to see the different ways that equipment can be used when left to a child's imagination. 



We then set up a few activities ranging from throw the beanbags in the hoop through to running races and an assault course that obviously turned into chaos with children running in all directions but having a great time! 

Tuesday 8 July 2014

Pirate Party

We love toddler groups for the vast range of skills that the children learn while attending. They gain both social skills and independence through interacting with others as well as developing physical skills, creativity and sensory awareness through the many great activities provided. 

Today was our last toddler group of the term and for our oldest mindee who is moving up to bigger school, his last ever group with us and it was particularly fun due to the pirate party theme. 

The children had a great time with all the themed activities ranging from colouring in and sticking pictures of pirates through to shaving foam, pop tunnels and sand out in the garden.  

After a great pirate feast our leaver was presented with a present much to his delight, a pirate book which we have now read together several times.