Week beginning 3rd October 2022
This week it was World space week and World animal day so we have had great fun celebrating both!
Can you make your own planets?
We used our fantastic fine motor skills to make some unique planets using coloured water, cotton pads and pipettes. We had to squeeze the pipette bulb to take up some coloured water and then carefully transfer it to the cotton pads. It was really exciting to see the colours merge and create new colours and we all made some fantastic planets as you can see.
Space mobiles
We also coloured in some different pictures of planets and spaceships so that we could hang them in the playhouse. Lots of the children enjoy colouring in printed shapes and tried very hard to stay within the lines creating beautiful mobiles to decorate our playroom.
Planet printing
We had a go at printing using a pre made print of planets.
We had to apply our paint onto the print before covering it with our paper, we then carefully peeled our paper off of the print to reveal our picture. This was lots of fun and all of the pictures ended up a little different as each child had a unique way of loading the paint onto the print. We had also had other stamps like stars etc so that the children could go on to make their own individual space pictures if they wanted to.
Shape Rockets
We tested our shape knowledge and thought about which shapes were the best to make a space rocket. The adult then used the children’s ideas to come up with a rocket before the children had a go to see if they could also make a rocket themselves. At community playgroup there is always a lot of child led activities and also provocations where the children can take the play and exploration in whichever direction they like, however we see the value in adult led activities which can also teach the children many new concepts and ideas and it’s always interesting to see children questioning things and challenging what they see if they have a better idea or plan.
Space play dough️
Play dough is a staple at most early years settings and the children at community playgroup love nothing more than helping to make it each week. Measuring, pouring scooping and counting are just a few of the great skills that they learn as well as working together to create something. This week in line with our space theme we created black play dough with sparkling glitter added to make it look like the night sky.
Space eggs - STEM activity
We were amazed when we arrived at playgroup today and saw some very strange looking eggs in little nests. Ratna explained that overnight we had had a visit from some very strange space creatures who had left us some egg. We had to use the special space mixture (vinegar) to help melt the eggs (made from bicarbonate of soda) and release whatever was inside. It was great fun carefully squirting the eggs with the space mixture until they dissolved and revealed their hidden treasures!!! And do you know what those cheeky space creatures had done……they had hidden our toys inside and they weren’t new space creatures at all!!
World animal day
We had so much fun celebrating world animal day, there were lots of different animal habitats on offer for us to explore with lots of different sensory elements like aqua beads, rice, polystyrene balls to name a few. We thought about what each habitat might be like and which animals suited those environments best. Here are some of the things we explored.
Polar sun catchers
We also made some lovely polar sun catchers to hang up in the playhouse. The autumn sunlight streams through our windows and sun catchers cast beautiful colours across the room. The children chose and applied an animal, small pieces of tissue paper and glitter to the contact paper to create their beautiful hangers and they look lovely hanging in front of the windows.
Week beginning 10th October 2022
Autumn exploration
This week we have started exploring the sights and sounds of Autumn. As the days turn a little cooler and the trees begin to show their vibrant Autumnal colours we encourage our children to think about what they see and hear all around them. We are lucky to have lots of mature trees around us and the children love to watch the squirrels scurrying about storing their autumnal treasures for the months ahead.
Here are some of the things we’ve been up to
Can you find the animals hiding
The children spent time finding the animals in our autumnal themed tray, thinking about what type of homes the animals might live in and also what they might be eating as the weather gets colder….. can you spot some of the animals?
Colours of Autumn sensory tray
We had lots of fun scooping pouring and exploring the colours of Autumn tray and it wasn’t long before the children had lots of ideas of how to use the items in this tray, from throwing it in the air and watching it fall to transporting it to other areas of the Playhouse to facilitate their play elsewhere. It’s lovely to sit back and watch the potential children see in such simple items and how they use them in their play.
Finger print autumn trees
This year the children love to use paint, and more often than not want to get their hands in it, from hand printing to just enjoying the sensory experience of painting their hands and arms it’s amazing where paint gets! So, we thought we would set up a fingerprint tree table where the children could use their fingers and hands to create some beautiful Autumn trees. As you can see the children didn’t disappoint with their artistic flair and unique ways of approaching activities.
Autumn squirrels
The children have loved watching the squirrels so we thought we might make some for our Autumn display. We provided paint, forks, wool and a squirrel template and the children were free to create. Some noticed squirrels have big bushy tails whilst others focussed on creating their warm fur using the forks provided. The resulting squirrels were amazing!
Nature weaving
The children had a go at weaving with leaves, herbs and other autumnal bounty. They selected the leaves they wanted to use and then threaded them onto their weaving boards. The children showed high levels of engagement and concentration carefully choosing what they would like to use then weaving them in place creating lovely tactile sensory art pieces.
Autumn treasure hunt
Some of the children enjoyed a treasure hunt, looking for acorns, interesting leaves and other autumnal treasures. It’s so nice at this time of year to watch the children searching for things that catch their eye and it’s a great activity to extend to the wider environment with their families too.
Autumn leaves
The children have been looking at all of the beautiful autumnal colours that are all around us, so we explored colour mixing using just brown yellow and red paint to see if we could create some of the autumnal colours we had observed. As you can see the children all chose different ways to approach this, some mixed the colours on their paper whilst others chose to use the paint palette.
More Autumnal fun!
We also had lots of other fun autumnal activities on offer this week from practicing our counting and number recognition skills with our spotty hedgehogs, to honing our fine motor skills with leaf threading and making potato hedgehogs. We also enjoyed making some lovely concoctions with fruits and herbs, using our gross motor skills to bang and squeeze all of the juice and aromas from the lovely seasonal produce.
Week beginning 17th October 2022
This week we continued exploring the wonderful sights, sounds and smells of Autumn
Autumn leaves
This week we collected some colourful leaves and had a go at colour mixing hoping to create some lovely autumnal colours that we saw, we also did lots of lovely leaf prints and some of the children decided to try and paint the leaves carefully brushing the paint onto the leaves.
Leaf threading on our wicker webs
The children had lots of fun creating some beautiful natural artwork using our wicker webs, it took a lot of patience and steady hands for the children to manipulate the natural resources and weave them onto the webs, the finished webs were absolutely beautiful and the children were very proud of their creations
Autumnal fine motor skills
To be able to hold a pen you need to have good fine motor skills so we regularly set up fine motor trays as part of our invitations to play. This week the children had lots of different activities to help them strengthen and develop the muscles in their fingers, here are a couple that we enjoyed. The first tray the children had to carefully place autumnal treasures on the lines in the tray to create lovely shapes and patterns and the second they had lots of small materials that they could transfer into pots or onto the special boards using either tweezers or a pincer grasp, both of these activities can be very challenging for little hands but our children really enjoy these types of activities.
Colourful fish
Another fun fine motor game the children absolutely loved, they had to use the tweezers to collect fish and place them into their bowls. Some children wanted to place the fish in the correct corresponding colour whilst others focussed on catching as many fish as possible, the children at community playgroup love to play with water so some just enjoyed the sensory aspect of the water! Lots of fun was had by all
Week beginning 31st October 2022
This week we have been exploring all things Halloween from gloopy potions and pumpkins to spiders and other creepy crawlies, we have had lots of fun!
Spiders and their sticky colourful webs
This week we explored the crazy colourful webs that the playgroup spiders had made, we are not sure if it was a Halloween spell or some other Halloween magic but the webs were vivid green orange and purple and we had to try and rescue the spiders from the slimy mess, some children chose to dive right in and grab fistfuls whilst others carefully extracted the spiders using the tongs….. some of this gloopy mess even ended all over the playhouse….. now we aren’t sure if it was some more Halloween high jinks or if we have a cheeky spider on the loose!!!
Pumpkins and Golf Tees
We had lots of fun decorating the pumpkins with golf tees, this is a very simple idea but the children learn so much from it. They have to carefully hold the tees in place before using the hammer safely to hammer the tees in. They also have some fabulous sensory experiences like touch, what does it feel like, is it heavy or light. What does it smell like.
They learn about force, trying to get the tee through the tough exterior to the soft inner flesh of the pumpkin. And it was wonderful to listen to the great descriptive language and planning that went on as children shared their ideas and plans.
Scooping out and carving pumpkins
We definitely got a lot of play and fun experiences from our pumpkins this year. From decorating and painting them to finally scooping out and carving faces in them, the children were free to explore as they wished and staff were on hand to help them carve their individual designs onto the pumpkins, lots of the children were able to share and talk about pumpkins they had made at home or seen around the village and they all worked together to carve some great looking pumpkins.
Bugs in jelly
When the children arrived at playgroup they saw that the playgroup mini beasts had been captured and set into some gloopy jelly! They had to get to work releasing them before the naughty witches returned for their cauldrons. This was lots of sticky fun as the children worked to release the trapped insects in time. Thankfully all of the insects were released washed and put away before we saw any witches loitering around.
Halloween masks
So that all of the children could get into the Halloween spirit and maybe disguise themselves for some trick or treating fun we made some colourful masks using a special scrape art kit. We carefully scrapped away the black coating to reveal the beautiful rainbow colours beneath, the children loved wearing the masks to make the staff jump as they snuck up behind them shouting “BOOOO!”
Black bats and spooky sensory trays
We had lots of sensory fun exploring the different trays on offer this week, from capturing the black pasta bats to scooping and pouring and enjoying the feeling of the pulses and beans slipping through our fingers as we poured them from height. The children all used these trays in such different ways and we even had a Halloween tea party after some children transported the mini pumpkin pots to the home corner and proceeded to make special Halloween tea for everyone.
And finally some spooky threading
We spent time weaving and threading to create some lovely spider webs and help the mummies cover up and keep warm, it was so tricky to thread the string and plastic needles through the small holes but with lots of patience and persistence the children managed to create some wonderful webs and mummies.
