We have been embracing spring this month and every room is planting or growing something!
We also had a very special visitor come in and help the children to plant marigolds for charity and she will be returning sometime this month to give out certificates to the children for helping and seeing how they have grown.
Jungle
The children have been planting sunflowers and green beans and are impatient to watch them grow , so while they are waiting for this miracle to show itself from the soil they have been making their own.
They made tissue paper tulips which are all the colours of the rainbow and look gorgeous and the children enjoyed extending their small motor skills by tearing and scrunching up the paper to stick on to their masterpiece.
They have also made sunflowers from paper by sticking real sunflower seeds on them for texture and to make them look more realistic while waiting for them to grow. They talk about them and water them and watch with baited breath for the first tiny shoot.
We also have a new addition to the classrooms, a tank full of tadpoles which again the children are watching avidly for any change and are fascinated by and we will keep you posted of their progress.
Castle
They are learning about lifecycles and as well as tadpoles they have caterpillars which the children are waiting to turn into painted lady butterflies and they have named them, Daniel, Ice cream , Bob, Rose and Jessica! Unfortunately they can not name all the tadpoles as there are far too many of them. However I have been assured that every child in the room now knows the lifecycle of a caterpillar and when I tested that theory they were able to tell me that the caterpillar eats a lot and then falls asleep in a cocoon for 2 weeks and comes out a butterfly.
While they wait patiently for the caterpillars to change they have been making their own using paper loops , threading pasta and using cups to print circle caterpillars.
The home corner has been turned into a potion shop with various coloured water for mixing and and putting in bottles for them to shake up and change the colour and lots of ingredients to put in themselves and stir.
Babies
The babies have been having fun with puppets this week and using them as props for their song box.
They have used the kitchen toys in the sand to pour and experiment with as well as multi-coloured rice which they could use to sieve and shake enjoying the noise it made and exploring the texture.
Also as the weather has been lovely for a change! We have spent some time in the garden washing the dollies and other types of water play.
Shaving foam play has been a big hit again with both the children and the staff! And they have made their own play dough to squidge and mould as well as using their balancing skills to build with small blocks.
