Explore Nature Childminding

As well as all our nature based fun we like to get out in the community to places like the library, role play centres, farms, local playgroups, messy play and the castle.

Wriggly worm week 🪱 digging for worms, worm sensory, singing there's a worm at the bottom of the garden and rolling playdough worms. Lots of early maths this week- A treasure hunt to match numerals and amounts of worms, finger painting to match numerals, talking about the playdough worms being long/short/big/small and counting spagetti worms in the mud.

Bird week- this week was the big garden bird watch so we made bird feeders, stuck bird stickers onto a scene and watched and named the birds in the garden. We made binoculars to spot birds and nests in the woods and we also saw some birds on a trip to the farm. We painted a Robin and made some birds with multicoloured feathers 🐦 🦜 🦚 🪶

Hands on learning alongside the weather and seasons- ice and snow week ❄️ 🧊

Winter trees ❄️🌲

Feeling festive this week - enjoying the snow and ice ❄️, colour sorting pom poms, peeling sticker decorations for our paper tree and playing with the animals in the cornflour snow and real snow. We've also been exploring mark making by decorating on brown paper to make wrapping paper, watching stickman and collecting sticks to make our own stick man, scooping baubles and making our own trifles. As well, we've been making an ice wreath to explore and we went on a Christmas stone hunt in the woods and on the garden.
Holistic activities that promote learning in all areas of the EYFS- from sensory experiences to extending and learning new vocabulary to developing their fine and gross motor movements! I look forward to next week's festivities 🎁 🎄

Mushroom weekend 🍄 and a trip to the farm 🚜

Star week

Hedgehog week

Nature theme- Pumpkins 🎃 Counting pumpkins as the children search for them '1, 2, 3, 4, 5', talking about the pumpkins drawn on happy/sad/scared faces and why they might feel these emotions, exploring the textures inside the pumpkins and being creative painting them. Also making potions in pumpkins, baking pumpkin muffins, talking about where pumpkins come from and pretending to harvest them with the tractors.

Nature theme-Spiders- We've been singing spider songs, making webs with twigs and wool, searching for spiders and learning the names of the ones in the UK. Along with spider rice sensory, paper plate spiders and an invitation to make a playdough spider.

How does this link to the EYFS?
Communication and Language- extending the children's language and vocabulary about the natural world and spiders as language is modelled and conversations are shared
Personal, Social and Emotional- getting themselves dressed to head outside to find spiders, taking turns with the resources when using the playdough and playing alongside each other/engaging in play with each other
Physical development- opportunities to manipulate playdough, weave wool in and out twigs and pour rice all supporting their fine motor development. In addition, making larger marks in flour, participating in actions to spider songs and moving like a spider supporting their gross motor development
Mathematics- using mathematical language (big spider, small spider, lots, more), counting spiders in the natural world and learning about space and quantity through rice play.
Literacy- listening to the very busy spider daily, talking about the story and supporting early writing with mark making in flour, the muddy ground, paint and crayons.
Understanding the world- hands on experiences in the natural world exploring sounds, colours and textures. Being curious as they hunted for spiders by stamping in puddles, gathering leaves, listening to the birds and talking about the size and colours of the spiders.
Expressive art and design- using their imaginations and exploring different media to paint, draw, build and create different representations of spiders and webs

Leaf week 🍃 🍂