Pizza for Lunch

The first day of the school holidays requires activities that will keep all 6 children with a 6 year age range entertained. We therefore decided to make homemade pizzas at the request of one of our three years olds. 

The children talked about the things they would like on top of the pizza, discussing what things are healthy and whether they were fruit or vegetables. We even had a request for apple which was a new one for me!

The children shared the resources, taking it in turns to spread the tomato topping on the base and then sprinkle on the cheese before choosing their preferred toppings. 

We watched the pizzas cooking in the oven as the cheese changed from its grated state to smooth, golden and bubbling as well as discussing the yummy smell. To complete our activity all the children had a yummy social meal time. 

Childminder Morning

Each term we aim to have a themed morning with other childminders. Courtesy of Michelle Edlin Childminding we attended this lovely session in Plympton today along with merry Monkeys Childminding. The theme was junk modelling and the children created a wide range of simple characters through adding eyes and shapes to their chosen boxes and cartons. 

Additionally there was so much sensory play for the children. Our youngest members particularly enjoyed the dried rice with pots and pans that they were able to spread, fill containers with and simple bang the pots together. 

A big hit with the older children was sticking spaghetti into play dough to create sculptures and then threading cheerios onto their spaghetti. They also loved the animals frozen into ice blocks, working together to work out how to free the animals.  

These sessions are so great for the children as they enable the children to socialise in big groups and enable us as childminders to swap and share ideas with each other. All in all a lovely morning!

Father's Day 2015

It is always so much harder to think of ideas that he men may like for father's day but we all though they would be appreciative of some biscuits and the children love any opportunity to do some baking so we decided upon gingerbread men and stars. 

Baking is such a great activity for the children's development in so many ways including:

Personal, social and emotional development: The children took it in turns to help with the various tasks such as weighing out ingredients, pouring them in and stirring.
Physical Development: We learnt about hygiene through washing our hands and utilised a number of tools to cut and stir.
Communication & Language: The children talked about the textures and smells encountered and followed instructions.
Literacy: We looked at a simple recipe to help us.
Mathematics: The children counted out the spoonfuls of spices and looked at the numbers on the scales as they weighed out their ingredients.
Understanding the World: We smelt the spices and discussed father's day.
Expressive art and design: The children finished up with painting fathers day cards.

The children had a great time baking although I slightly underestimated the power of the oven so some of the stars were a little crispy, sorry dads!

The children also wanted to make some cards for the dads so we used some of their paintings to create letters to spell the word 'dad'. The youngest child, currently 12 months, also participated through doing a lovely handspring painting that we turned into a card.

Happy Fathers Day to all the daddies, we hope you like the gifts!

Dartmoor Zoo

This morning we went on a visit to Dartmoor Zoo. The children had a great time looking at the animals. 

It was so quiet they were able to run around as they please in the large amount of woodland at the site. The children listened quietly to the otters and tried to impersonate the noises that they made!

The children, even our 12 month old, particularly enjoyed the comical meerkats who were darting about when they saw the children coming! They were not so keen on the large lion though, even though he was sleeping!

At the end they had a long play in the lovely natural climbing area at the site. After a lovely morning they were all shattered.