Tanya Gorse Childminder

Last week four friends took a trip to the farm. There were so many animals to see and we even got the chance to hold and pet some animals in the petting barn. We watched the farmers milk the cows which was very interesting and before we set off home, tried the ice cream made at the farm. This went down a treat! As usual, I was so proud of their wonderful behaviour and happy to share such a lovely day with these amazing little people.

On Monday we ventured off out on a walk to say hello to the cows and throw some pebbles in the stream. We stopped off at Turton Tower which is a place that I love. The children were excited to see the bee hives and to explore the kitchen garden. The flowers have really bloomed since we last went and there were so many colours and scents to talk about. One thing I love about Turton Tower is the volunteers who take so much time to talk to people. A lady who was watering the plants took some time to show the children around the herb garden and to talk to them about the plants. She also picked some herbs for them to smell. I really appreciated her kindness and it really added something extra to our walk❤️ As we draw closer to the end of term and closer to everyone going off to big school, I keep thinking back to the three little friends who came to play and noticing how much they have grown and developed. I'm so proud of their behaviour when we are meeting new people. I'm really going to miss these guys!

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.