Small Explorers

CAMHS - NHS Highland

[01/27/21]   The prime minister has just said schools won't go back before 8th March. This isn't a definite date but the earliest they think it could happen depending on infection rates and results of vaccine.

New books.....much needed as we are reading continuously at the moment...
Although having read the Wonkey Donkey 6 times in 1 hour in not sure how long I can survive 🤣

Butterfly Conservation

We will be sharing this over the week.

Ever wondered how a caterpillar becomes a butterfly? Here’s how the amazing and beautiful process of 'metamorphosis' takes place.

Shared via The Dodo
www.butterfly-conservation.org

[01/21/21]   Whilst exploring the elastic bands the children noticed they make different noises.

After Christmas I set up a loose parts area for the children to freely access and it has been a huge success. The children often go and get resources and sit at the table. They then put away when they have finished.

The children have openly explored various ways of using different items.
Lots of conversion and learning. Talking about actions such as threading, stacking, ontop or under, through, big and little.
Always opportunity for counting, sorting by shape size or colours.
Open ended play allows the children to explore uninterrupted, use imagination, problem solving and analytical thinking.
Building focus and concentration.

The list of development is endless!

This week in our tinker tray we have phonics.. each section is one of the first phonics S,A,T,P,I,N we have the fridge phonics that match. The children can put the magnet into the machine and it sings a song that helps them remember the letter and sound it makes...
We also have some sight words and objects relating to the letter.
Then we placed the letter tracing out for the children to trace or match.

We are still open. We have a new open access loose parts shelf which the children love to explore.
We are very restricted in what we can do between home schooling my own children, government restrictions and the extra cleaning!

If you are at home and can keep your child with you then please do this will help reduce risk to all.

[01/05/21]   Sorry to everyone who's texted me last night and early this morning... Only just got all the messages through! 🤷
I thought it was a bit quiet after the announcement 🤔

[12/25/20]   Thank you for all my lovely gifts and the fabulous messages in my cards. I've been spoilt rotten and feeling very lucky to have such understanding families.
Merry Christmas. Hope your all having a lovely day x X x

Merry Christmas to all my families. Stay Safe and enjoy your time together x

[12/23/20]   So we are going into teir 4 from Boxing Day. As before I can remain open and offering childcare however their will be severe restrictions in place.
Depending on the restrictions and if my children have to be home schooled I will have to evaluate if I'm able to continue offering a service.
Things are still unclear at the moment and I will update parents as soon as I know more.
This has really been a tough year and it looks like it's going to get worse before it gets any better.
Stay Safe Everyone ❤️

[12/18/20]   Last bit of official information before signing off.

If your child or anyone in the family develops covid symptoms or has a positive test please let me know asap as I have to inform my LA and PHE.

Merry Christmas and Stay Safe. See you in 2021!!

Our last week before Christmas.... Some baking. Colouring, park, mandala, stories...busy busy!

Aldershot churches are doing a nativity trail. If anyone fancies a walk over Christmas.

Sorry I haven't posted much this week.. been really busy! We've had lots of fun decorating Christmas trees, making Christmas decorations, writing cards, small world play with some mess, using stickers to decorate.
There's lots of lovely surprises coming your way from the children... They are very proud of all their creations and can't wait to share them next week.

[12/04/20]   Good news. Results are back...no Covid and Josh no longer has a temperature so back to normal on Monday 🤞

POLL: COVID-19 VACCINATIONS

child-care.app.do The UK is the first company in the world to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine and supplies have started to arrive in the country. We are undertaking a research survey to learn more about how parents feel about having themselves and their children vaccinated against Covid-19.

[12/03/20]   I am so sorry. My son has a temperature so in line with government guidelines I am closed. 😭
We have a test booked first thing. I'll let you know as soon as we get results back and next steps.

We managed the park and a walk this morning... Wow the temperature has definitely dropped!
Then back to play with our new messy trays. We filled them with 'snow' and some Christmas characters.
We did some more Christmas crafts and the children wanted to paint some Christmas pictures.
The best bit of today was radio 2 played Christmas music all day 😍

This morning we explored Rowhill nature reserve. There were lots of birds especially Robins. We saw lots of squirrels as well.
We spent the longest time throwing stones into the pond and talking about the sound it made and the water splashing.. Then we sat on the side of the stream putting leaves in and talking about them floating along. We used sticks to try and catch them as they went by.
We also looked for bugs, fungi and fairy doors. We climbed trees and collected sticks.
We also found letters around the wood

Today we enjoyed the space around the cemetery as we walked up to the top of Redan hill. We found the cannon and the battle barricades. The children loved running through all the leaves, climbing trees and steps, exploring lots of paths and wooded areas.
We stood on top of the hill watching all the trains going through the tunnel. We found squirrels and birds.
We collected acorns, conkers and sticks.

This afternoon we had lots of fun looking through the toy catalogues and cutting out pictures to make our Christmas wish lists.

[11/23/20]   Slow motion puddle splashing. The children loved it.

I have missed the little ones....i have also missed going out and exploring! We had such a fabulous morning exploring Cecears camp. We found spiders, woodlouse, wasps and birds.
We climbed trees, collected sticks, pebbles and pine cones.
We found loads of different fungi of various sizes and colours whilst talking about not touching them.
The highlight of their day was the muddy puddles, especially the last one which was big. They threw stones in and we looked at slow motion videos talking about the reaction of the water, the patterns, sounds etc.
We walked over 10000 steps and they came back talking about everything we had seen and done 😍

[11/20/20]   Wow you guys are quick!
Some of you have already noticed a new feature on baby's days.
Any forms or documents that require a signature will now show up as soon as you log in to the system.
You are unable to go any further until you have signed the required documents.

On a happy note we are all systems go for Monday. I look forward to seeing all those happy faces again :)
Thank you for your continued support.
Tracy

The children were super excited to see Darren.. Well the ambulance this morning. It was a lovely start to a bad day.
I then got the message from the school to say someone in my son's class has tested positive for Covid 19 and he had to isolate.

Despite previous guidence to say I could remain open.. Sadly Public Health now say I can't.
So I'm currently closed until at least 20th November. :(

We have confirmation that we can meet outside with one other minder and no over 5s.
As stated by Ofsted we need to have recorded permission from parents to do this.
I'm just trying to find 5 minutes to sort out a permission form for you to sign and once done I'll put it through baby's days.
If you have any objections to me meeting up with Heather please let me know.

We know that sometimes meeting another childminder and their mindees can be beneficial for everyone. During this period, childminders can continue taking all children they care for outdoors. Under the exemptions to restrictions on leaving home, a childminder from one household can meet another childminder from a different household outdoors with any children under the age of 5 in their care. As children over the age of 5 are counted in the limit on two people meeting outside, you cannot meet another childminder if they are accompanied by children over the age of 5.

During this period, community centres and halls may stay open for childcare purposes and supervised activities for children, and again, under 5s aren’t counted in overall numbers. More information here: http://ow.ly/FZiW50CclgE

Turned out to be a beautiful day today. We spent the morning at the park with more bubbles and balls. The children airways love bubbles!
Then after lunch we made some clocks for Hickory Dickory Dock.
Whilst making them we ordered the numbers and counted as we put them on. We used the clocks as we sang the nursery rhyme to point at the right number. We also discussed time. Some of our children know that it's lunchtime when both hands are pointing up.
We are beginning to learn that when the big hand is up it's ** o'clock.
Lots of number work this week.

Today we took bubbles and balls to the park. The children always love bubbles, chasing them, catching them and popping them.
After a play at the park we went for a walk and the children loved climbing and balancing on the walls. We looked out over 'big wall' counting cars as they passed below.

This afternoon we watched Remembrance rabbit and painted our own poppy fields.

Today we have been making colourful fireworks pictures.
We also had lots of fun on the bouncy castle.

Yesterday we went to the park. Despite the most and fog the weather was actually really nice. We had a close look at all the cob webs with the most attached to them they looked pretty and we could see the patterns. We also went for a walk to see the pumpkins and decorations still out.
We also found another little park so lots of fun exploring.

Still unsure of restrictions starting tomorrow. Hopefully things will become clearer over the next few days but please be assured childcare will continue for the foreseeable future.

Today we had our own pond with numbered Lilly pads, speckled frogs and speckled logs. The children all enjoyed the mirrored tuff spot and exploring numbers using the Lilly pads and matching quantity with the frogs.
Their was lots of hopping and frog noises!

We talked about shapes as we made a bus picture. What shapes could we use for each bit of the bus? What shapes can we see in our environment?

The children stood very quietly watching a squirrel that visited the garden digging around for pumpkin seeds.