Latest From Crawford
19 Sep, 2017
Exploring Room As Laura was folding away the sheets and blankets out of the laundry basket Cillian and Jacob had other ideas! They started to take them out of the basket to hide under them, leaving off screams and laughs as the pulled them off again. This gave us the idea to take out the parachute for the children to hide under, shake off, lift up and down and to walk or sit on. We placed balls in the middle and the children then shook the parachute. They really enjoyed hiding under the parachute – screeching, laughing and shrieking throughout. Some of the boys…
Discovery Room While out on a hike one day last week Amelia spotted some apples growing on the trees. ‘Look apples!’, she exclaimed to her friends Peig and Sophia. Some of the children then decided to go on an apple tree hunt and they compared the leaves on the trees to see if any of our other trees were apple trees. Conor spotted a tree and said’ Look that one looks like a different tree.’Peig noted that we would have to wait and see if apples grew on it. After our hunt we discussed the importance of washing and cutting the apples before eating them.…
Exploring Room We wandered outside and found a big muddy puddle next to the sandpit. Cillian and Jacob mad a dash to splash in the water with their feet. Then Killian saw what great fun was being had and decided to sit down in the puddle. We gave the boys a few cups from the kitchen which they used to pour the muddy water on the ground. They realised quickly that the water was sandy as well as muddy. After a while Cillian got a brush to get the water out of the puddle. He then realised that the mud could be used as paint…
Exploring Room The children wandered over curiously to the stones that Jenny and Laura had painted. They then took some paint brushes and started to put marks on the floor so we decided to bring out trays with different coloured paints and loads of paper for the children to explore. Some children used their hands, feet and even their faces to paint! The children enjoyed mixing the paint in the trays to create new colours such as orange, purple and green. Brushes, hands feet and even their whole bodies were used to create their master pieces. Some children made master pieces of their vests! Cillian’s…
Exploring Room Last week the children engaged in activities incorporating plants and flowers. As the weather has been so nice the children began to get bored of being inside and ventured over towards the gate of the Hike area so we just had to go on an adventure! In the Hike area the children had the opportunity to explore different material areas, textures and spaces. They enjoyed banging pots and pans together for sound, bark was walked on as a different textural experience and large stones were held and walked on in the beach area. In order to develop the children's interest in exploring the…
Exploring Room There aren’t too many children that would say no to playing with a ball but in the Exploring room Fionn and Kieran really got the ball rolling this week as they had great fun playing outside with balls. Ball play is a great way to introduce physical activity into children’s lives with the added benefits of fun and lots of laughter with friends. Last week we offered the children a yoga ball and a tennis ball. Fionn really enjoys throwing balls up high in the air and catching them. Others enjoyed kicking and dribbling the ball. Following on from the great interest in…
Adventure Room Some of the children knew last week that Friday was St. Patricks day and they really enjoyed the arts and crafts. We provided a big piece of paper, glue, blue and yellow paint, glitter, shamrocks and cotton. Some children sticked on shamrocks while others stamped their fingers and hands on it. Other used the cotton to spread our the green glitter. We created a nice St. Patricks day mural which we put up on the wall. Some parents were delighted to hear their children were involved in the mural. Discover Room During circle time last week St. Patricks’ day came up in conversation…
Exploring Room Last Monday we were making playdough and decided to make it wetter than usual. The children gathered around the table eager to start playing with the dough. However, they were surprised to see it was not what they were expecting! This dough was wet and sticky. This made for a new play experience as the children experimented with the wet dough, touching , feeling, pulling it and generally creating a big mess! One parent commented’ I must start giving him playdough at him as he’s having so much fun playing with it here every day’. Adventure Room Last week we felt the…
Adventure Room As some of the children were really interested in animals last week Amanda created a folder full of animal pictures. Amanda introduced this new material to the children and a conversation began about the animals, their body parts, characteristics and what food they ate. Sam’s Mum was happy to hear that he shared his interest in animals in the crèche, while Ethan’s Dad had a chat with him about animals when he collected him. Looks like we will have to get out some more books about animals this week. Discovery Room Many an interesting conversation starts in our Cosy Corner. Last week the…
Last Thursday in the Exploring room the children got to make their own playdough. All the ingredients were laid on out the table for our enthusiastic team. We guided the children on how to progress by allowing them to put in the flour, salt and cinnamon into the bowl. They then added some oil and enjoyed stirring the ingredients before adding some water. They learnt how to stir with the spoon and knead the play dough. Elsie’s Dad thought it was great she was making playdough. In the Adventure room we observed the need of the children to paint on other surfaces and with other…
