Tanya Gorse Childminder

Neil Buchanan ain't got nothing on these guys!
This morning we used the fence as a canvas for our very own art attack. There was paint on the fence. Paint on the floor. Paint on their hands. Paint in their hair...To cut a long story short, there wasn't much that hadn't been redecorated! But mess can be cleaned up so we don't need to worry and what better way to clean up on a sunny day than using some water squirters?

We are enjoying the garden before it gets way too hot! Sun cream, water bottles and ice lollies at the ready!

One of my September starters came today for a visit. It was a very calm and peaceful time. She has tiny hands, tiny feet and big big smiles!

The children wanted to do some more baking today and requested to make biscuits. As it is World Bee Day it seemed only fitting to make some honey and cinnamon biscuits.
Whilst the biscuits were baking in the oven, I challenged the children to build a flower garden and said that maybe if there were enough flowers that a bee would come along. Challenge accepted! Before long we had a beautiful flower patch. I asked them to close their eyes and listen very carefully and you'll never guess what happened....a fluffy bee appeared in the flower patch! "It must have been magic!" our little friend guessed.
After all that excitement, it was time to taste the biscuits, for quality control purposes, with some milk. The biscuits passed the inspection and strangely disappeared, it must have been magic....

Today is World Bee Day!
As part of the activities that we did today we played at our bee themed messy table. We took turns at using the tweezers to collect the bees and put them back into their hive. We used our impressive number recognition skills to put the correct quantity of flowers into the dishes and practiced our counting as we went. It was very quiet and peaceful as the children concentrated on scooping and pouring the oats and cereal and although it got a bit messy, one little friend had a very clever and helpful idea to go and get the mini dust pan and brush to sweep it up.

We love a bit of baking! Today, we tried our hand at making honey bread which we haven't made before. Baking is always a lot of fun but when we are baking and cooking we are also...

⭐️Working our fine motor skills whilst pouring and mixing which strengthens the hand muscles.

⭐️Putting to use our fabulous communication and language skills whilst working together as a team and learning new vocabulary from our experiences.

⭐️Encouraging independence and building self esteem as we use our "can do" attitudes to join in with the fun and get stuck in!

⭐️Using our listening skills when following the instructions to complete the recipe.

It was the perfect day to put on our wellies and head out for a walk. We found lots of fallen leaves today to roll through and noted that when we throw the big and heavy stones into the water they make the best splash!
There was a request for more slime and so I set up a tuff tray to meet that need for some messy play. Thankfully they enjoy being part of the clean up these days too!

On our daily and more often than not, twice daily, visits to the local parks, the children really love looking at the flowers and are interested in what each type is called. We have taken the time to notice the bees buzzing around the flowers and have talked about why bees are so important to the planet and why we should take care of them. We took a few flowers home with us to look at more closely. Our little artists created some amazing paintings of bluebells, followed by some paintings of "mummy" "ghosts" and some "creepers"... just to add a bit of variety in there!
We mixed some fresh playdough and made some fabulous dandelion cakes and biscuits and baked them in the play oven. They then pretended that they had a shop and sold the cakes and biscuits to each other. They must have been good quality biscuits because many were priced at £4000 each.
I had also frozen some flowers in water so that they could play with ice and experiment with warm water to melt the ice blocks. We noted that after a while the flowers start to change in their appearance and that the petals wilt and change colour.
To add a bit more sensory exploring time to our play,we had some fun with some green slime and dinosaurs. I rewarded myself with some coffee for my bravery in considering this to be a good idea. All was well though. No soft furnishings were harmed in the making of this activity.

This weather is perfect for....a pool day!
I was so proud of the wonderful turn taking and sharing I saw this morning. It's not easy to wait and take turns at this age and they were amazing. What wonderful friends! All in all, a great morning.

We have been busy bees over the last few weeks settling into our new home. Fortunately, I have had my team of little helpers, who are always keen to get stuck in and have a go, to help me in the garden.
Over the past couple of weeks we have been sowing seeds and learning how to look after them so that they can grow to be big and strong. We have been using the tools to build our new teepee and water wall, the children did a very good job of using the tools safely. We have lots of birds and squirrels visiting our garden and so we made some bird feeders from the pine cones that one of our friends brought along. She had collected them at Grandad's house and couldn't wait to show everyone! Our little artists also painted some cute bird houses to hang up in the garden, they did a very good job, I'm sure everyone would agree!