Autumn leaf pictures and lots of 'problem solving, reasoning and numeracy'

The children created an autumn leaf picture from the leaves we collected at the duck pond last week.  We also used some leaves from a tree in our garden which has some lovely autumn colour.  We talked about autumn and what colours the leaves change to.  We discovered that some are red, yellow, brown and even pink. 

Later this morning, we got out lots of items for sorting, including a tray full of shells, lots of lids, some different-coloured gingerbread men and lots of pairs of socks.  The children played for a long time with the various items, counting, sorting, classifying, according to size and colour, and matching patterns.  

Menu, week beginning 27.9.10

Monday - Sausage, mash and green beans
Tuesday - Chicken, pasta in tomato/cheese sauce, peas
Wednesday - Spaghetti bolognaise
Thursday - Fish pie/fish cakes with broccoli and cauliflower
Friday - Chicken casserole and boiled rice

Duck pond yesterday

Hi, I didn't get chance to write last night - we were at Wigan watching PNE lose against them! 

We went to the duck pond yesterday.  The children ran around and we fed the ducks, who were all quite hungry!  We were also looking for changes in the leaves and collected some leaves to make a picture.  We intended to make them today, but we'd had a 'glue' accident!  We'll save them and make one next week instead, when we've had chance to buy some more PVA glue. 

We found some toadstools at the duck pond and we took the chance to remind the children that, although they look like mushrooms, they must never eat them because they will make their tummies poorly. 

Outdoor nature

We welcomed Kaiden-Lee into our setting today.  He's been a really happy little boy and the other children have been making him laugh.

I also played a game, called 'Bag of bits', which is a bag full of various items (can be anything you want) used to encourage thinking and communication in the children. 

The children had fun in the garden looking for signs of autumn.  We found some acorns, ripe rowan berries and saw that our apples were nearly ready for picking! 

Menu, week beginning 20th September

Monday - Chicken fried rice
Tuesday - Pasta bolognaise
Wednesday - Roast ham dinner
Thursday - Home made pizza
Friday - Beef casserole and mashed potato

Madhatters and blocks

We went to Madhatters this morning and again, the children enjoyed running around and playing on the equipment. 

We've also played with the plastic blocks today, making towers and 'boats', as well as recognising and classifying them into colours. 

Hope you all have a great weekend!  We're off to watch PNE probably get beaten by Norwich tomorrow!

Yesterday and today!

Sorry, I didn't get time to write the blog last night.  We spent a lot of time doing jigsaws yesterday, which is one of Adam's favourite activities. 

After our tea-time snack, the children created a masterpiece for the playroom wall, using a long piece of wallpaper!



Today, following on from the water painting last week, the children painted stones.  They really enjoyed mixing the paint colours and were quite excited about what colours the paints would make.  We will do another activity, perhaps on paper, where they can mix colours to experiment.  They have taken their stones home tonight - maybe you could use them as paperweights???





New page on potty training

Please have a look at the new page we've created advising about 'potty training'.  If you have any questions at all on this subject, please do not hesitate to ask.  We are by no means experts, but if we can help we will. :-)

New folders

We have purchased some zip-lock folders for each child to take home every day, so that they have somewhere to put their artwork, rather than squeezing it into a small ruck-sack or carrying it loosely and potentially spoiling it.

For those of you who don't use a daily diary anymore, we are going to make '2-way communication sheets' which will also go in there.  We will use them to write on messages and comments, and if you want to advise us of anything (as, like me, you may forget to mention something in the morning when dropping-off), then please use these sheets for this purpose.  

Menu - week beginning 13th September

Monday - Corned beef hash
Tuesday - Cheesy turkey and ham pasta with vegetables
Wednesday - Chicken curry and rice
Thursday - Shepherds pie
Friday - Fish fingers, potato wedges and baked beans

threading and name-labels

The children played with the buttons and strings today, threading through the little holes.  This improves fine-motor skills which is important for handwriting, plus the children really enjoy this activity which is the most important thing!!  They also played with the plastic gingerbread men, which they can attach together, sort and line-up. 

The children created a new name label for themselves for when they arrive in the morning.  We are going to change where they 'self-register' once all the children have made a new label.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend, whatever you have planned.  See you next week.

Making new name labels

Mad Hatters and dressing up

We all went to Mad Hatters this morning.  The children had a good time playing on the soft play equipment.  They were very happy to see Erin there with her mummy!

We got out the dressing up clothes too today and the children became princesses, police officers, fire fighters, monkeys and witches!

We have designed t-shirts for the children to wear when we are out, so that if they should get lost (hopefully this will never happen!), it advises that they are with their childminder and has our contact details on. 

  

Water painting

Gosh, it was hot today!!!

The children played with water and brushes, making patterns, lines, circles and other marks on the patio. This will help with handwriting, developing their fine and gross motor skills.

We also provided them with stones and shells, which we collected from the beach recently, and the children painted those, as well as swishing them around in the water and lining them up on the patio.

Menu - week beginning 6th September

Really sorry, I forgot to do it at the beginning of the week. 

Monday - Sausage, mash, vegetables
Tuesday - Pasta in cheese/tomato sauce with ham and peas
Wednesday - Spaghetti bolognaise
Thursday - Fish cakes, broccoli and cauliflower
Friday - Chicken casserole and rice

Welcome and hidden letters!

We welcomed Eszme into our setting today.  It was her first full day with us and we hope that she will be very happy here. 

This morning, we did an activity involving shaving foam and hidden letters (initial sounds of the childrens' names) and laminated names.  We also included  laminated MacDonalds and CBeebies logos.  The aim was to have fun exploring the foam and at the same time finding letters and names to teach recognition.  As you can imagine, the children were very familiar with the logos!  One child, when asked what one of them was, shouted, "Chicken nuggets!"  We all got very messy and had lots of fun. 

Duck pond today

We visited the duck pond this morning.  The ducks were quite hungry today and ate all the bread that we took for them. 

Hope you all have a great weekend - the weather forecast is fab so make the most of it!!  See you next week x

Feeding the ducks

Walk to the prom

We had a lovely walk up to the prom today.  We took drinks and a little snack and watched the trams go by. 

Thank you to Joel's mummy and Adam's mummy for the stationery supplies that you have provided recently - they are appreciated. 

Sports day

We had our annual sports day today.  We did lots of activities, such as running, egg and spoon, beanbag balancing and jumping races, throwing balls into a bucket, who could throw the furthest, penalties and we had lots of fun with the parachute.  The winners got a 1st place sticker and everyone got a certificate for taking part. 

Egg and spoon race

Running under the parachute