Children experimented with baking powder and vinegar and made fizzing, bubbling patterns on trays of baking powder.  We put coloured dyes into the vinegar and the results were beautiful.  The children improved their fine motor skills too by learning how to use a pipette.  They were able to explore how colours can be mixed as well as about the chemical reaction which takes place when baking powder is mixed with an acid such as vinegar.

The children also worked together to make a volcano garden.  First they collected plants and flowers, rocks , twigs and shells from our garden.  We used three small bottles to make our volcanos.  We made a mixture of warm water, vinegar, red colouring and washing up liquid and filled the bottles two thirds full.  Then we used some brown play dough to build around the bottles to make the volcanoes look realistic!

After this the children got creative and used all the things they had collected and found to make the project into a miniature prehistoric volcano garden.  They even put a few dinosaurs in too!  We talked a little bit about natural history and dinosaurs.  Then the exciting bit.  We put a small spoonful of baking powder into the top of each volcano and then waited.

The children were really exciting to see their volcanoes erupt and were asking to do it again right away.  This is a really easy experiment to try at home and all the ingredients are very easy to get hold of.  If you are interested in getting instructions for this activity, please ask a member of Pre-School staff who will be happy to help you.

We enjoyed pretty pink fairy cakes decorated by the children themselves, fresh cream scones and a selection of delicious cakes, some of which were made by the children themselves.  There was also some scrummy ice cream for the children to enjoy!

Some of the children who are leaving us have been at Little Champions since they were very young babies and we will be sad to see them go.  They are all so precious and we are confident that they will continue to grow and shine as they move on to this next exciting stage in their lives.  You will be missed, remember to keep in touch!

This week our Little Champions have been celebrating everything to do with mud.  We have been making good use of our Mud Pie Kitchen and foraging around the site for ingredients to mix and cook up in our mud pies.  The children really enjoy this sensory experience where they can be creative and engage in role play with their friends, learning to negotiate, take turns and to use their imagination.  We are always on the lookout for new Mud Pie Kitchen equipment to add to our current collection so if you have any pots and pans, cake tins, spoons, spatulas, bowls or anything else we could use please bring it along when your child next attends nursery!

We have been making Mud Paintings by mixing mud into our paints.  The children used a variety of tools to do this.  Brushes, knives and forks, and hands and fingers too!  Some children took this a step further and enjoyed making a plaster like substance using mud and sand.  They then spread this over different objects in the garden.  The children’s hand eye co-ordination is developing by doing this and they are learning how to effectively manipulate and use a variety of tools. This forms part of their physical development.

We also created a swamp for the children to play in.  They had a fantastic time jumping into the mud from large objects which we placed nearby.  Some children experimented by making mud sculptures too!  A few of our older children decided to bring some slides over to the area and use them to slide into the swamp.  They had an enormous amount of fun and our garden became a muddy swamp slide spectacular in the beautiful sunshine!  The children worked collaboratively to create this area with us, suggesting where they would like the slides, crates and other objects to be.  They supported one another in their play, demonstrating an increasing personal, emotional and social intelligence.

The children have really embraced the mud this week!  Children can learn so much from taking part in messy activities like these.  As part of our commitment to outdoor learning we recognise this and we make every effort to encourage the children to take part in and learn from outdoor experiences.  Recent research conducted in New Zealand has shown that mud is beneficial to children’s development.  The different bacterias present in mud are inhaled by the children during their play.  This increases their serotonin levels giving them a positive sense of wellbeing. This process can stimulate the growth of important neurons in the child’s brain.  Mud is good for children!

I’m in Love with Mud!

I’m in love with mud,
It’s sad, I know, but true.
I just can’t help but splash in it,
Or stomp a path right through.

It’s sticky and it’s dirty,
And it covers all my clothes.
But when I see it lying there,
A voice inside me grows…

I splatter in the grimy gloop,
I can’t resist the ooze!
I run, I jump, I stamp about,
It drips into my shoes!

By Gareth Lancaster

Children need lots of large physical activity, to build their muscles in their arms and hands in order to begin to use them for writing at school age. Children need to be able to dig, make marks in mud, and clay pour and transport water, move large objects such as crates and tyres around and to do more intricate things such as use pegs for hanging up pictures or washing on the line, before they can hold a pencil properly!

The boys LOVE BEING Outdoors!

FACT: Boys brains develop differently to girls and in order to think, they need to be able to move. They become fidgety if they are sitting in a group or on a carpet and can become physically painful at around about the age of 4 to sit for too long. This is due to the high amount of testosterone that is racing around their little bodies We recognise this that they have as many opportunities to move, run and use their imaginations outside as much as possible.
We will be providing materials to make large dens! Paint it large! Chalk it large! Build it Large! –you get the picture – as well as our ongoing gardening projects; fun with the wooden water system; building with the crates and balancing on our wooden beams, there will be many more things happening!
We would like to design a musical area, where ordinary household kitchen utensils are hung on the fence and used with pots and pans. We are currently creating a mud pie kitchen area and need garden pots, spoons, herbs, and jugs.  We will be making boxes up for different types of weather days so that children make the most of all their opportunities.

If you have any junk equipment at home that is suitable for outdoors, then we can make great use of it!!
Thanks again

Steph

The toddlers all went to Esholt farm and enjoyed seeing lots of different types of animals such as pigs, chickens, rabbits, ducks. Their favourite animals were the turkeys and the pigs!!

At Easter time the day care had a surprise visit from a group of ducklings as they were on their way to our Easter farm at Abundant Life Church! Some children were brave enough to hold them and we let them splash around in our water tray!

Look out for information on some more summer trips coming soon!