Michelle’s Meadow Childminding Service

A snapshot of the fun and learning the children have had at Michelle’s Meadow. The children love spotting the signs of spring, feeding the birds and our walks around the local area.

Just some of the fun we had in term 3!

We have had a busy term, see below for a few of the highlights…

Over the last few weeks we have enjoyed picking Blackberries and making Blackberry crumble, observing the signs of Autumn, making and flying kites, bike riding, feeding the ducks and celebrating our friends birthdays.

The children have enjoyed the summer holidays and have…

- Harvested their homegrown Beetroot and Broad Beans.
- Used Beetroot juice to paint with.
- Pickled Beetroot.
- Looked for a dragon at Caldicot Castle.
- Visited the garden centre.
- Made paper mache hot air balloons.
- Balance bike races and so much more

Wishing all children starting school for the first time or returning a fun year!

At Michelle’s Meadow we have been enjoying the summer sun with lots of water play, paddling pool fun and ice-creams. Since opening in January it has been lovely to watch the children grow, develop and form special friendships.

Following the children’s interests in knights and castles we have recently made swords. Unfortunately, the cardboard they used was not strong enough. This led to a discussion about why the cardboard bent? What the strongest material is? How we can make them stronger? The children decided to use lots of glue, tape and lollipop sticks to make them stronger. They showed good problem solving, resilience and creative thinking.

We have also enjoyed…

* Feeding the ducks and geese
* Face painting
* Making and playing with coloured rice
* Growing and planting, where we have had to overcome many challenges.
* Decorating t-shirts ready for the England game. Each one was unique and allowed each child’s creativity to flourish.
* Making flapjacks and cakes
* Celebrating our birthdays
* The children have become skilled on the balance bikes and scooters.
* After making our own treasure maps the children were excited to find treasure.
* They love to tell, act and listen to stories.
* They are so enthusiastic when learning the actions to a new poem, our favourite poem is ‘stop little bird’

As the children have started to settle I have enjoyed getting to know their gorgeous personalities. Over the last few weeks I’ve seen lots of smiles, laughter and powerful play opportunities. This has made me feel lucky to be part of their lives. One of the many highlights of the last two weeks was robot making. The children worked as a team to make a big robot. They added lots of hands, sellotape and blue paint. We have also…

- Played in our newly built sandpit
- Made obstacle courses
- Poured water and rolled balls down guttering
- Climbed a mud mountain and found lots of worms.
- Went on several nature walk looking for animal habitats.
- Learned about animals that hibernate during winter.
- Played with some very sticky slime.
- Pizza making
- Saltdough animals
- Observing what happens to fir cones when they are put in water

Last week we enjoyed lots of cuddles and stories as children continued to settle.

The children showed a keen interest in the temperature and we were very excited when the temperature reached 3 degrees!

They enjoyed roll playing firefighters and putting out (pretend) fires. They used their counting skills to make sure all of the fires were put out.

The children all agree that this week’s highlight was bread making, they enjoyed eating their homemade bread with soup.

Wow, Michelle’s Meadow opened to the first group of children on Thursday and Friday this week and what a busy but fun two days it’s been. I finished the week with a smile as I have been lucky enough to welcome new children to my setting, who were all amazing and settled very well 😊 We have played, laughed and smiled.

This week we have…

Made cakes.

Celebrated a birthday

Started to make bunting to decorate our outdoor area.

Read stories whilst warming our hands with a hot chocolate.

The play-dough table has been a huge hit!

Made a big mess mixing water and flour

In the short time the children have been here they have shown an interest in many things, fitting them all in next week will be tricky, here are a few things we are planing to do…

Bread making

Playing with slime

Continuing to make bunting

Reading stories, stories and more stories

Drawing and making butterflies

Tea parties

Exploring how things work

Exploring water and ice

More mixing flour and water adding a few extra ingredients.

Wishing everyone a happy weekend!