The Gibbons never let a minor thing like not a lot of hair keep them from giving the best hairdressing service around in their hairdresser’s role play. They’ll have the best scalps in town as they offered a shampoo and condition in their prop sink with shaving foam. They also practiced hair styles on wigs. For music and movement, the little ones explored sound with our household favorites. By our, I mean Gillian’s kitchen utensils, pots and pans. She’s very generous like that. For their sensory activity, the Gibbons made “clean” mud using toilet roll and bar soap. They ripped up the toilet roles, grated a bar of soap and then mixed everything together with water to make a very clean pile of mud. It’s a playdough sort of consistency, so the little ones had a great time molding and squishing it together. In the small world tray, they’ve had a quite a time of trying to find their teddy bears amongst the shredded paper, which just kept getting in the way. They didn’t mind though and some even had a go at hiding under all the paper as well.

The Baboons have been observing recycling in the environment and watching a recycling lorry’s journey on the tablet. Throughout the room, the Baboons have been identifying the different types of materials and determining where and if they can be recycled. At the designing and making table, created a collage of recyclable materials using both photos and real resources. As they created their junk modelling structures, the Baboons talked about the different things they could make and how they could use old things in different ways before throwing them out. It’s not all been plastic bottles and scrap paper, however, as the Baboons enjoyed and explored various animal terrains, from sand and sawdust to water and ice.  In the small world area, there’s been much talk of textures as the Baboons explored the hay and sawdust. Apparently no one noticed the brontosaurus hanging out with the ducks and horses.

Spring is in the air and the Gorillas have been chirping about noticing and talking about all the changes they’re already seeing in the environment. They’ve been very attentive to the magnolia blossom tree outside their window as they’ve been counting how many blossoms are popping up each day. In their role play area, they’ve dusted off those green thumbs for the season in their Gorilla garden, using soil, planting utensils and pots on their grassy lawn. Since it’s been waste week, the Gorillas have been taking trips to St. Anne’s Wells recycling area and sorting through their recyclables, ensuring everything goes into the correct bin. They also took a trip to the pond to observe the frog spawn. Indoors, they’ve kept a few of their recyclables behind for some colossal junk modelling activities. With Eboné, the Gorillas made a rather impressive dinosaur diorama with Eboné and a mix of recyclable and natural materials. The small world area was a sea life exploration as they splashed, glubbed, and flippered their way through the water. This week’s Tatty Bumpkin pose involved a trip to Mars as they stretched out like the sun, working on isolating their neck muscles and being aware of their breathing.