Dinosaur Play

The children love playing with dinosaurs and often demonstrate the formation of very imaginative plots around these little plastic creatures so this week I tried to provide a bit of a variation. 

Using the stones and shells that we collected at the beach (complete with some water from the sea that had remained in the bottom of the bucket) the boys created a dinosaur habitat. 

The addition of 'the habitat' extended play considerably with the stones becoming mountains and at one point the shells were even dinosaur hats. I shall definitely be looking for new ways to extend our small world play in this way!

Growing Seeds

As we have been learning about life cycles we embarked on an easy indoor growing project to show the children how seeds turn into plants. We went on a trip to the shops and each of the children chose a packet of seeds, one cress and one peas. They were very proud of their packets and each insisted on paying the cashier and carrying them home. 

 Each child filled their container with cotton wool. They then added some water (some a little more than others!). Finally they got to open their seed packets. The children compared how different the seeds were and then got to work decorating their cotton wool. The boys asked several times throughout the day if their seeds had grown. 

Over the next week we watched the seeds develop although the cress was much faster than the peas. When the cress had reached the height of the jar I set the boys the task of using the scissors to cut the cress, they loved this! 

Finally, we incorporated some literacy into the whole activity and read 'The Tiny Seed' by Eric Carle which illustrated the life of a seed beautifully.   

World Earth Day

This week marked world earth day so we took this as an opportunity to learn a little bit more about our planet and the end result was these lovely world pictures. 

Using the very helpful google earth application we looked at a picture of our planet from space and then the children watched with fascination as it zoomed in to our particular location on the planet, excitedly recognising our house and the local school. Then it was time to get to work!

We decided to paint some pictures of the planet using the technique of 'cling film painting'. I placed some green and blue blobs on some circles of paper, placed them within a plastic wallet and let the children loose! Initially they began to bang the paper with their fists, moving the paint around. Then, the older children used their fingers to move the paint around under the protective plastic cover. 

The end result looked surprisingly like a globe. The most amusing part was that the children kept looking at his hands to see if they were covered in paint, which of course they were not!

Sensory Sound Bottles

My youngest mindee loves musical instruments and basically anything that makes a nice noise. As an opportunity to move away from the normal instruments I made up some bottles using everyday objects, all of which create different sounds and let him have a play. Contents included lentils, popcorn, pasta and sugar. 

When he saw the bottles, the different colours immediately caught his eye and he crawled rapidly towards them. He gently picked one up and, realising it made a noise, gave it a good shake. 

He went through all the bottles trying out the different noises and watching the contents moving as he did so. We used this as an opportunity to engage in singing some of our favourite rhymes and he was keen to give his new found instruments a shake while he danced!

Apple Life Cycles

As we regularly eat apples for our snack time I though it would be nice for the children to understand a little about where their apples come from. 

Using some lovely pictures, courtesy of 'Montessori for everyone', showing the different stages of the apple life cycles. There was a mixed age group today but the children took turns in sticking the pictures in the right order, talking about them and acting out being a tree! 


Our eldest then practised her presentation skills by putting some writing and arrows on for us. It was then time for a snack so it seemed appropriate to have some apple! The children looked inside the apples to see where the seeds were living and then asked to go and plant some outside.