Clever Clogs Day Nursery Bowburn

Lots of colourful fun with our Little Explorers! 😆🌈
For one of our tuff tray activities today we created some colourful sprinkles using rice and coloured paint which was aimed at practicing our self serving skills🎨. The children were asked the names of the different colours of rice we were using and began pouring them all into the silver dish and giving it a big mix to make it nice and colourful 😄. "I've got orange and green sprinkles on my plate!" one child said as they scooped up their sprinkles and transported it onto their plate. The children really enjoyed practicing their self serving skills in a fun and exciting way and they are all doing a great job becoming so independent! ♥️

We also practiced a matching activity today, where we laid out different coloured dinosaurs on the floor and the children had to try and find two of the same ones and match them up 🦕. An adult held up a dinosaur and asked each child individually if they were able to find the same one in amongst the variety of other dinosaurs on the floor. "I found the same blue one!" one child shouted as they held up two of the same dinosaurs and compared them together 😆. Each child did a brilliant job at listening, turn taking and helping each other ☺️.
A lot of our Little Explorers are showing a big interest in dinosaurs at the moment so this activity was extra fun and engaging, good job everybody! 😆

What fun we have had in the Tiny Miracles!

Yesterday the children enjoyed using the different shaped sponges to make lots of different marks on the paper on the table in front of them to encourage gross motor skills pulling themselves to standing. A pactitioner was there for support to help the children as they copied practioners using their fine motor skills, holding the stick in their hand and dipping the sponge into the green bubbly water and then dabbing the paper as practioners said 'dab dab' watching as the marks appeared in front of them babbling with joy.

Today we have followed on from this activity using the cars to make marks in the shaving foam on the table. The children enjoyed feeling the texture of the foam in their hands as well as pushing the vehicles along the table as practitioners used words such as 'brmmm' 'beep' it was lovely to see all of the children have such fun in both activities.

Well done Tiny Miracles!

Thursday fun with the Small Discoverers...

This morning we have had lots of fun exploring the cars in the paint, the children gathered around the tray and used the vehicles to see what marks they could make. "Ooo" one child babbled with a smile as they used the car and pushed it backwards and forwards. "Brummm" another child said, copying a practitioner. We had lots of fun watching the marks on the paper. Some of the children then put their hands in the tray and began to explore the texture of the paint, using this on the paper.

This afternoon we played animal hide and seek in the coloured paper, we had lots of fun looking through the paper to see what animals we could find. "Quack quack" one child said as she picked up a duck and held it out to a practitioner. The children used both hands to throw the shredded paper up in the air and watch as it fell back into the tray.

Well Done Everyone 🙂

Ice cream making with Little Explorers 🍧🍦
Recently the children in Little Explorers have been showing lots of interest in the weather during our group times. Today one child noticed the sun outside and so we began to talk about the things we do when it is sunny! Ice cream was a very popular option. Therefore this afternoon we have been super busy exploring our fine motor skills as we created our own ice cream with foam, pompoms and sprinkles. Children were able to label the colours of each tub and discussed likes and dislikes as we labelled the ice cream in flavours. Well done everyone amazing creations 😀

Junk modelling in the construction area 🗑🚮

This morning in our Clever Thinkers and Big Inventors some of the children have been using various materials to make anything they desired. One child said "I'm making a robot or a monster" while another child said "I'm making a pantomime. I went there last week". They used their imagination to decipher what materials they needed to use. Many of the children decided to make a face for their design having an understanding of body parts. They also used their mathematical skills to determine different shapes while also counting what they were applying.
They are very excited to take these home. Well done 😊

🫧 Blowing bubbles 🫧
Today in Little Explorers, we have been having fun blowing bubbles in different ways. What started as a plain water tray turned into a lot of bubble fun as children brought over the straws from another activity. An adult showed them how they could make some bubbles and move them about the tray. The children copied as they blew into the water to create bubbles and then blew them around the tray "it's a big bubble" one child said as they popped it with their finger. Later on after tidy up time, an adult for out some bubbles for us to blow. The children took it in turns to have a turn blowing bubbles and popping them in the air. The children laughed and pointed out the big and small bubbles as they flew through the air. Well done Little Explorers!

Wizz bang and pop in the garden for Clever Thinkers and holiday club 💥🧨🧑‍🔬🧪

Following last week's science experiment the children have been very interested in doing another so today we made EXPLOSIONS!! The children first spoke about safety of the experiment, learning all about risk taking and how we keep ourselves safe.

Next the children extended their thinking by making predictions of what they thought would happen in our science experiment, They asked lots of questions to the practitioner and eachother before starting the experiment, "We need to stand back" one child said.

The children then dropped mentos into different liquids to see what happened such as water, washing up liquid and finally cola. They became very excited when the pop started to fizz up out of the bottle using lots of descriptive words through their excitement. "How does that even do that?" One child asked and then a discussion followed with what they thought was the cause.

Finally the children spoke about cleaning up after ourselves and keeping the environment safe so they decided they would get water to wash away the cola from the floor and work as a team to get the job done!

Jigsaw Fun! 🧩
Today in Little Explorers we used our fine motor skills and our thinking skills to complete some magnetic animal jigsaws. The adult created some jigsaws using some animal pictures and some magnetic tiles. The children worked hard to figure out which way each piece of jigsaw had to go to match the animal together the correct way. "Wrong way" one child said as they flipped the magnet the other way round. "I did it" another child said with a smile. Once they had completed one side of the jigsaw, the adult flipped over the pieces to reveal another animal puzzle, the children broke up the puzzle, ready to try again. The children then spoke about the different animals on the jigsaws, "it's a monkey" one child said making a monkey noise. This activity enabled the children to show lots of perseverance and a "have a go" attitude as they tried again and again to make the puzzle while again. Well done Little Explorers!

Imagination ✂️💦💧🌞😀

This afternoon Big Inventors and Clever Thinkers have been exploring in the water and colour recognising the boats. "This is a purple boat, my favourite colour", explained one child. Another child said "i love blue". "It's freezing cold" said another child. One child emptied the love heart shaped bowls shouting "yeyyyy", as the water is emptying out. As a group we then started to count the boats, "1,2,3,4,5,6!!!". The children then started to tell the practitioner that they have been on a boat once to France with their family. Throughout this activity the children used their fine motor skills, colour recognition, number recognition, past and present skills and some communication skills too!

Next the children took there own interests onto the cutting table, one child asked "please we make our own boats". The children made their own decisions by using their imagination skills. "Mine is a smaller boat than yours". Another child replied "im making a big boat like i went on, on holiday". Throughout this activity that the children decided to do, they improved their fine motor skills, cutting skills, imagination skills, hand eye coordination and past skills.

Well done everyone, Happy Friday💧💦😀🌞✂️

Today in the mini adventures room we have been developing our self serving skills, we added pasta and a variety of spoons and dishes into the tuff tray!


The children began to make their way over "pasta" one child said as they picked up a piece.
"Spoon" another child shouted as they picked the spoon up. The children picked up the spoons and began to scoop the pasta, some children even picked the pasta up using their hands then adding it on to the spoon.

Once on the spoon the children began to slowly add it into the bowls which were placed around the tray. Then from the tray the children began to scoop it out of the bowl and back onto the tray.

Well done Mini Adventures ☺️🌟