Paddling pools and a vet visit

The children have had a very busy week with spending time cooling off in the paddling pool on Tuesday and Wednesday and a visit from Jo a vet at Bath Vet group. Jo brought with her Parker the surgery cat ( a toy) and showed the children how she would give a cat a health check and bandage his paw as he had hurt it. The children also looked at a model of a tick, flea and worm. Jo also brought wither her a surgical gown and hat along with a poster and activity pack for the children to take home.

Jon in Outdoor adventure's was looking at floating and sinking along with keeping cool in the shade!!

Getting to grips with writing our names

This week lots of the children have been practicing writing their names, this has happened through child initiated play with the children copying each other in trying out this new found skill for some and well practiced for others. Throughout the year we offer activities and experiences that build the children's muscles from their shoulders to their fingertips to be able to hold a pen and write recognisable letters. These activities include threading, painting, shaving foam play, throwing balls, painting with water on the paths and walls outside, using tweezers to pick up small objects and using the climbing frame.

The children have also played a number recognition game with fish and looked for Bugs in Outdoor Adventures.

Building muscles for writing workshop

On Tuesday we had our final parent and child workshop based on building muscles for writing. We had lots of activities to build large and small motor skills, from threading cooked spaghetti through the holes on a colander to making a rice bouncer from old tights and rice!! Lots of fun had by both parents and children. We had some great feed back; " I really enjoyed the range of activities on offer, and the ethos that mess is good!!", "spending time with my children and trying the activities", "The rice bouncer - a massive hit!" " I appreciate the work you put in to run them, thank you!"

Please have a look at our gallery for more photo's of our workshop morning.

Numbers...

This week the children have been exploring numbers in the environment - we played a game of matching quantity to number using a dice. Every day we count the number of boys and girls we have in our singing groups and then add the two numbers together. We have numbers at snack time to indicate how many pieces of toast, fruit or crackers that the children can take, encouraging both number recognition and matching quantity to number.

Garden Sandpit

We have been lucky enough to have a sand pit built in the garden. The children have had great time digging and building sandcastles. In outdoor adventures the children made prints on cotton from flowers that they found in the garden. Its been lovely to be out in the sunshine even if it has been a little chilly sometimes. we are looking forward to lots more time in the garden in the coming months.

Easter biscuits

We had fun his morning making Easter Biscuits and choosing which cutter shapes to use. We used mixed spice to flavour our them which some of us thought smelt nice. They looked delicious when they came out of the oven. You can find the receipe on our Facebook page.

Let's get building...

This week the children have continued with their building theme. The children have made tall towers often needing support from adults to make the towers as tall as we can and they have also used the step ladder to make their towers taller. We have used big bricks, small bricks and our placement student Hannah as made the 3 little pigs house's from big cardboard boxes.

In the garden the children have been making mud pies in the sunshine and using water to mark make on the building walls and paths. What a difference some sunshine makes!!

Next week we have our Easter bonnet making and parade, along with an Easter egg hunt in the garden.