Little Learners Northampton

✨Exploring our senses ✨
In fascinations the children have been exploring and learning about their five senses. This followed on from their initial interest in ice cream,flavours and ingredients.
During one of our activities the children practiced their independence and hand eye coordination when prepping herbs and fruits for our “smelling tray”. The group discussed their opinions on the different food items, sharing ideas about the flavours and smells.
Once the children had investigated the ingredients and the essentials oils we transitioned into touch and texture the following week. Fascinations explored all things crunchy,squelchy and soggy using a variety of messy play resources ranging from cornflour to lentils.
It has been lovely observing the children using descriptive language and becoming more aware of their senses and the impact our senses can have our well being.
Well Done.

Have you noticed Northamptons sky filled with hot air balloons? Well our garden is feeling the hot air balloon buzz this morning 🎈🔥

✂️Letting children use scissors is vital because it builds hand strength, improves hand-eye coordination, and develops bilateral coordination. These foundational actions prepare kids for future tasks like writing and drawing.✂️

In connections the children have really developed their understanding of how to use scissors safely, but following instructions and using them at the table. We’ve seen increased confidence by allowing them to have access to them!

🐛🦋 Learning about life cycles in the early years helps young children understand birth, growth, and change in living things. Children explore simple stages through stories, outdoor play, and hands-on activities like watching plants grow or observing caterpillars 🐛🦋

Casey has brought in some cabbage caterpillars, for our friends in connections and fascinations to take care of and watch the life cycle process unfold.

Through a song the children have learnt the term “metamorphosis” and what that means 🐛 they also watched a time lapsed video of the caterpillar creating a chrysalis.

They has then unfolded into their creations as many of the have used clay and loose parts to make their own caterpillars. Connections have been learning a symmetry for the butterflies wings and taking great pride in designing their own butterflies 🦋

🐛🦋🐛🦋

Total eclipse 2026 🌜🌞

We came together to experience the total eclipse, watching as the moon passed between us and the sun and transformed our garden with shadows.

Our garden, usually filled with bright sunshine, slowly became covered in shadows as the daylight changed.
We found different ways to safely observe the eclipse, (thanks to our Sammy L who worked her magic on cereal boxes), talked about what was happening in the sky, and watched in amazement as something happening millions of miles away changed the world around us for a few moments!🌞

🌕🌖🌗🌘🌑🌒🌓🌔🌕

Full moon, half moon, total eclipse 😎

Across Explorations, Connections and Fascinations we have been learning all about the solar eclipse. Using a projector and laptop, we showed the children videos of a real eclipse which happened in 1999🌝🌚 they then recreated their own eclipses with black paint and yellow chalk.

Explorations have been getting hands-on by creating their own cereal box solar eclipse projector. They are super excited to get to use them. Millie T then let us try out her very special solar eclipse glasses, this was a very strange experience as they made everything black!

“Its a wall tv” some children commented when we set up the projector 🔭
“It’s when the moon goes in front of the sun” 🌚
“The sun is all dark”
“You can’t stare at the sun with bare eyes because the edge of the sun can damage your eyes”😎
“It’s creates a big shadow” 👤

Who needs paper and pens when you’ve got a garden full of mud✍️

Our children in connections and discovery have spent some time mark making in the mud. Our school leavers spent some time writing letters and comparing them as many of our friends have the same letters. While our children in discovery spent some time creating patterns and drawing spiders.

“I’m making an A”
“Look mine is a house”
“Look a swirl”

✍️🕷️🍃

Employee of the month for July 2026 is the wonderful Tayja!🎉

Tayja is always so productive and creates some incredible spaces within the Inspirations room, along with showcasing some beautiful documentation!
She is a a great role model for the children and always so fun to work with!

Keep being you Tayja💫

🌻 our environments 🌻

We believe our environments are really important and therefore we take great pride in setting up our spaces each day! We tailor them to the children’s interests and extend on their learning through a range of resources 💚