Thursday 23 March 2017

Mother's Day 2017


We have used Mothering Sunday as a good excuse to engage our creative sides as well as an opportunity to plants some seeds and learn about plant growth with a variety of kitchen herbs. 


The children all love painting and were able to experiment with different forms of mark making, using their fingers to create flowers on pots and then brushes to create some beautiful watercolours which we later cut into flowers. Our eldest mindee decided he would like to paint his mum some flowers and carefully picked the colours and washed his brush after each colour. 



To plant seeds we made use of expanding soil. The children all took turns in pouring water on to their soil and then moving the soil into pots. We introduced language to describe the change in size and texture of the soil. 


Children had great fun pressing the seeds down into the soil and watering them. All the children were very impressed with their efforts, let's hope the mums like them just as much! 

Thursday 2 March 2017

World Book Day 2017

In order to celebrate world book day this year we had a 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears' themed session courtesy of one of our fellow childminders.  


We read the book with the children who all took turns at lifting the flaps and discussing, where able, what they could see underneath. We talked about aspects of the story that hey liked and what they thought would happen next.

In order to engage the children further, various sizes of teddy bears were provided together with various sizes of chair. We used this to encourage the children to develop understanding of the language for size, shape and general numeracy although the presence of the bears also encouraged children's ability to share and engage in imaginative play. One of the youngest was particularly drawn to a large teddy bear the same size as himself!


Also provided was some sensory play based on various sizes of bowls and spoons. The children tested out their shopping and mixing skills and, with many children present, were encouraged to take turns and share.