Kate's Childcare Stewkley

All ready for my last day as a childminder. Feeling very sad as I have loved the privilege of being part of the lives and development of all the children I have cared for. Very best wishes to all of them and their families.

We love to visit Waddesdon, and this new map will add another dimension. What a great idea.

Have you ever stopped to listen to the birds in the Aviary? Or touched the rough surfaces of the trees in the gardens?

We're very excited to announce our new 'reflect & roam' sensory map that will help you explore the grounds in a way that you may not have done before. Pick it up when you arrive this weekend and discover the gardens through sight, sound, smell and touch.

We went on a shape hunt walk this morning. The children took the camera and took snaps of shapes they recognised. When we got home we looked at what we'd taken on the laptop.

Some of the activities we've got up to this first week back.

A couple of today's activities.

I love this place. Just as I love open ended resources so the children's only limit to their play is their imagination, this place can be anything! I have such fond memories of visiting here as a child playing make believe and picnics in the sunshine. It was pretty chilly today but the views were spectacular.

This simple outline on the floor has led to all sorts today. I didn't take an 'after' photo but it got a whole lot more glitzy than this!

I was out of a job yesterday! Watching the relationships build between the children in my care, especially across the ages is one of the great pleasures of my job.

This Christmas card themed writing station has been really popular this week.

2 boxes of donations delivered to the MK food bank this morning. What an amazing place.

Thank you everyone who donated.

Do you want to build a snowman?

We had great fun with these tubes today, posting bells and coins down them. The children introduced metal bowls for them to ding into!

These Christmas bead strings make great counting aids.

High up on our list of absolute favourite places to visit. Today's trip to the Tring Natural History Museum sparked some fab drawing and colouring.

The children have been helping with a reverse Advent Calendar collection for the Milton Keynes Food Bank. This afternoon they have been practising their pencil skills by crossing things off the list to see what is left to collect.

Next week we will go and deliver our boxes to the food bank.

We had a lovely time pouring and scooping this morning. The noise the rice makes when hitting the metal is fab. Lots of great mathematical language of volume too.

These story stones help even very young children engage with books and their illustrations.

I planned this fine motor, finger strengthening activity to go with the children's Hungry Caterpillar project. I expected it to be a short stand alone adult led activity.

It has lasted all day!!!

The children have used the leaves in a construction site, a shop, made collages and continued with the punches and scissors. I wonder where it will take them next?

One of the children is really interested in the Very Hungry Caterpillar at the moment. So today we went to the zoo to see the butterflies and the cocoons from which they hatch.

The children all contributed to this during the week whilst we had some lovely conversations about memories and remembering.

What a beautiful morning for a walk at College Lake. I NEVER expected to get the whole way round!! The children blew me away with both their enthusiasm and the kindness they showed each other helping each other along and showing each other things they spotted. And we found a painted rock too for us to rehide somewhere else.

We experimented with paint this morning using conkers, fir cones and acorns. The children discovered that the acorns weren't heavy enough to roll, they got stuck in the paint. We then tried some printing over the top using Halloween spiders and creatures. Some of the children finished off their Halloween lanterns too. A colourful morning!

It's so important for me to get a picture of what a child is doing and how they are developing at home and in other settings.

Although one mum sharing that their child is interested in Draughts at home at the moment, led to me getting thrashed 3:1 this afternoon!

Found another pic!

I love using books as a basis for provocations. Here's some I've remembered to photograph over the last few weeks!

A fun day of Halloween themed sensory and fine motor activities and ending with these fabulous spiders webs being made in the park.

Muddy puddles!!

It's been a day of pumpkins today. Painting them, counting them, weighing them and hammering them!

Love these autumn sensory paintings we did today.

Mud kitchen time this morning!

What to do with a million conkers?