The Herren's Nest

Recently we explored emotions (a topic we discuss everyday) using emotion cards, wooden emotion pegs, books, discussions and songs. 

We identified a variety of different emotions by talking about different ways we feel when things happen, identifying emotions using emotion cards and thinking what emotion they are expressing. We also matched up our emotion pegs to the emotion cards and they did a great job. Very focused. For our younger kids there was alot of repeating the emotion words and mimicking the expressions and having alot fo fun singing If You're Happy and You Know It (we changed up the words to express a variety of emotions) 

We had fun doing a variety of fall/Halloween activities

Observing & exploring pumpkins & gourds
Halloween books
Sensory exploration (using our Halloween mix from )
Bubbling cauldron
Pumpkin volcano
Carving out class pumpkin
Exploring pumpkins guts

&effect

October was a month full of art activities; especially fall and Halloween art. 

Corn on the cob painting 

Handprint wreath 

Apple stamping 

Leaf shadow painting 

Foot and handprint Halloween art 

Paint pouring 

Fall scene 

Paint monsters 

Cling wrap Halloween art 

Here are some of the opportunities to play and learn we've had over the last few weeks. 

Opportunities to/for: 

Role play 
Build 3D structures
Colour recognition 
Spend time with books 
Sensory exploration 
Gross motor (balance, taking turns) 
Auditory exploration 
Fine motor 
Observation skills 
Problem-solving 
Cause effect exploration 

play 
recognition  time with books 
exploration  motor exploration  motor  skills  -solving  effect exploration

Spencer had so much fun exploring this new colour lab from . He enjoyed watching the colour pucks change the colour of the water and revisiting how we make secondary colours. This activity provided almost an hour of fun and learning. 

"I made purple" 

Using the droppers he created designs and mixed colours on the bamboo cloth. 

" Look at all the colours" 

"It's like magic" 

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The Herren’s Nest has 2 fulltime spaces available for September 2025. Please share if you know anyone looking for care

Spencer spent some time doing colour sorting today. He enjoyed identifying the colours and putting the animals in the corresponding bowl.

“This is blue. Look mama it’s a lion”
“This is a green cow”

When Arya got home from school she decided to play to and we changed it up having her use the secondary colour bowls and using the primary coloured animals to identify which two colours make the colour of the bowl.

“This is blue and red, that makes purple”
“I’m really good at this”
“Red and yellow make orange right?”

Me It sure does!

Arya had so much fun exploring our new Easter sensory filler from

Such a variety of learning from fine motor to counting and colouring recognition.

“These look like jelly beans”
“I love how it feels”
“So many beans”
“These chicks are fuzzy”
“I wonder how many beans there are?”
“There are 12 carrots!”

This is by far our favourite filler from
The girls had so much fun exploring the mix. I added some PVC organs for them as well. There was a lot of different play that they did.
They matched the PVC organs to the wonderful cards we printed and laminated from identifying them along the way.

Then they enjoyed learning about each organ with the fact cards from as well as matching the organ to the picture which Arya really enjoyed.

Once they were done with that they each individually found the pieces for the skeleton from and put it together identifying each part as they went.

It was so much fun watching them so excited to learn and fascinated by new facts they learnt.

Zoey “I didn’t know the brain is 75% water, cool!”

Arya “mommy the brain makes everything work. It’s a very strong organ”

Arya “I think the brain is my favourite. It’s does a lot”

Zoey “I love the way the mix feels and all the shapes and colours”

Zoey “the skeleton was tricky but lots of fun”

So much fun exploring our filler today. Spencer enjoyed using the trucks to pick up the mix and fill cups. Had fun stacking the wooden pieces and knocking them down and lots of conversation.
“I’m making a pile”
“the truck is picking it up”
“I knocked it down mommy”
“ I like all the colours. Blue is my favourite”

We loved reading Love from the Crayons. After we read it I asked the kids what colour makes them think of love and why. Then they drew a picture using that colour

Spencer love is BLUE because “I like blue”
He drew “me and daddy playing games”

Zoey love is RED because “rose and hearts are red and I love red”
She drew “pretty red things that make me smile”

Arya love is PINK because “it’s a valentines colour and beautiful like love”
She drew “my family and Meemaw”

We had so much fun making Valentines Day art these last few weeks

Squeegee art (we turned these into a heart garland)
Z “it so fun mixing the colours. It’s also satisfying”
A “wow! Look how pretty it is”

Flower pot (we used an inflated plastic bag to make the flower and cut a paper cup in half to create the pot)
Z “this is so cool”
A “mommy I made a flower”
Z “I like mixing the colours. It has a marble effect”

Dragonfly (we traced hands and used our thumbs to create the dragonfly body. We then cut out little hearts to paste on the handprint)
A “my hand is bigger than Spencer’s”
S “a dragonfly mommy”

Love tree (we printed out a tree template and cut out small hearts and pasted them onto the tree)
A “I wish this was a real tree. It’s so pretty.”

Footprint art (we painted feet and then created the berry)