The Gibbons caused a bit of a stir in their kitchen role play this week as spatulas, giant spoons, and tongs were waved around like flags. Cupboard doors and pans were being shut, imitating the sound of drums. Some children got a bit distracted and hid inside the kitchen cupboards for a little game of ‘boo’. They have been playing at being explorers – searching for shiny necklaces, bangles and CD’s in sand mixed with shredded paper, not that the shredded paper stayed inside the small world tray for long. It never does. Your little darlings threw it around the room like confetti and I guess who could blame them? Coloured water, rice, shaving foam and sand have been the order of the day and put to very good use to create some fabulous iced sensory gloves for the Gibbons to explore. They also reveled in the aromas of nutmeg, lemon, and coconut playdough.
The Baboons have been dropping all kinds of objects into our water tray to investigate floating and sinking. Some children discovered what objects sink and what objects float, whilst others simply enjoyed adding objects from around the room – we are sure it was for scientific purposes. The children danced along to classic theme tunes in the dance studio – favourites being ‘Bare Necessities’, and ‘Under the Sea’ and they inspired some rather impressive moves. Some children held each other’s hands and danced together – cute. The Reggio Emilia table has had bowls of rice for the children to poke uncooked spaghetti into, also used for threading through objects. There was a very busy train station created in the conservatory to rival Paddington – they lined up their chairs and shouted out classic sayings such as ‘Choo Choo’ and ‘All aboard’. Some children said they were going to France, some town, but the beach was the most frequent stop.
The Gorillas have been talking about animals and where they live whilst promoting fine motor skills by cutting out pictures of them and their babies. Inspired by the rather dramatic thunderstorm on Tuesday, some children decided to draw weather scenes around the animal picture they had created. All the children in Brighton and Hove seemed to be screaming and running about – the Preschoolers watched the somerhill children going crazy in the field which they thought was hilarious – and it actually was. Pots and bowls have been filled with rice, couscous, buttons and beads on the Reggio table and instigated no end of investigation. Children were separating the different resources and ‘cooking’ all kinds of marvelous mixtures. The new math’s patch has been enjoyed by all and the Gorillas have been using the math’s machine and weaving ties through our loom. They’ve been filling up buckets with stones and pegs and working out which bucket is heavier and how to make it lighter. Tatty Bumpkin taught the children the new ‘seagull pose’ and took the children on a pirate adventure using imaginary binoculars, maps and treasure chests.
Louise did a bit of gardening with whoever was in the garden this week and they had a lovely time. Together they carefully planted sweetcorn so we can take the seedlings to the allotment and wild flower seeds so we can start a wild area in our garden and encourage butterflies and other minibeasts – we just have to help the children be patient and watch them grow. Next stop a homemade bug hotel…
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