May-June 24
w/c 20 May 2024
Woodwork
The children have been exploring wood and experimenting with it at the Woodwork Table. Some of them chose to create ambitious designs, choosing what materials they thought would work best. Others were keen to try out some of the techniques of woodwork, such as clamping the wood in the vice, sawing it and hammering in nails, as they learned how to use real tools safely. Along the way they also developed their fine and gross motor skills, hand-to-eye coordination and their creative and problem-solving skills.
"The wood split. It's too thin. We need a harder bit like this."
"That nail is too long. It will stick through the other side."
"I want to use these buttons for eyes."
"The arms and legs can move!"
Exploring the origins and different states and forms of wood
A person, a unicorn, a heart and other designs
Setting the vice to hold the wood tight.
"I want to make a person. These can be for arms."
Sanding the wood
Choosing materials and designing.
"This will be for hair."
Sawing practice:
learning how to push and pull the saw with two hands.
Measuring
"His name is Bluey."
"I'm doing a heart."
Independent working
"We need to measure the four legs to make them all the same."
"It's an aeroplane."
"I'm making a cat. This is the eyes."
Sanding
Operating the vice
"We did it!"
w/c 12 May 2024
Cookery & Food Preparation:
The children had the opportunity to make a healthy pizza for snack and were learning where the ingredients come from. They were also developing their manual dexterity as they chopped fresh vegetables, spread tomato puree, grated cheese and sprinkled it.
Chopping
Grating
Spreading
Sprinkling
Science:
The children checked on their crystal growing experiment and found that very small crystals have started to form on the string. Exciting! We will keep monitoring their growth...
Outdoor Art:
Great concentration, excitement and colour experimentation as the children tried outdoor painting on a large canvas.
Upcycling Project:
Some of the children helped to restore an old broken ceramic planter. They mixed up plaster of paris, spread it around the pot, and decorated it with shells, buttons and tiles. Once dry they painted and varnished it, and planted some fuschias in it.
"My Dad uses plaster like this on the walls at home."
"It's going like custard."
Green Fingers
Our plants have grown so big and the pots are now too small for them. We are finding out as our plants grow and get bigger, the roots grow too and they need repotted to bigger pots to help them continue to grow.
Our budding gardeners are taking great care of their plants and making sure they have enough sunlight and water.
'it's so big!'
Now it's time to water the plants
'water will make it grow'
Flower Fun
Continuing the children's interest in flowers, the children used different materials to create various styles of flower artwork and be creative with. We tried a potato masher and a fish slice, and new painting tools to create various shapes. We had great fun experimenting, and used pastels and wax crayons.
Pastel and Wax Crayon Art - Tulip Still Life
w/c 6 May 2024
Beautiful Blossoms
The children were interested in some blossom that was brought in and how they had seen lots of blossom on the pavements. We created our own artwork using materials of our choosing (pastels was the favourite) and spoke about the many different shades of pink we had.
'This is for my mum, she loves
cherry blossom trees'
Marvellous
Mark Making
It's so much fun using shaving foam for writing and drawing! We experimented using our fingers and paint brushes and found we could easily manipulate the shaving foam as it's so soft.
The children made lots of wonderful shapes and letters - a fun, relaxing sensory play activity, plus the nursery smelled lovely afterwards!
'I can make a V'
'look a circle'
Playful Playdough
Playdough is firm favourite in the nursery and is great for creativity, strengthening muscle strength and fine motor skills.
