Pancake Tuesday at Crawford
13 Feb, 2016
Pancake Tuesday was an eventful day here in Crawford Childcare this week with pancakes and surprise snow showers. In the Adventure Room some of the children told us about their favourite toppings. Aoife said she really liked honey, Eilish likes banana pancakes and Ellie likes hers topped with strawberries. A few other children said they like chocolate on their pancakes. Daniel said he is a chocaholic! The children all had pancakes in the Adventure Room and before eating there was a bit of a flipping contest. Aoife and Amelie’s pancakes didn’t flip but you could see the concentration on their faces as they raised the…
Many of the children in all our 3 rooms enjoy hike time over to our natural play area. There the children explore our beach area complete with sand, cobbles, water wall and water, our campsite with mud kitchen, music wall, tree stumps, loose parts and open ended structures, and our secret garden with flower beds for digging and planting. Our youngest children in the Exploring room often show excitement when they hear the words hike time. Many of our children in the Exploring room have not yet developed enough verbal language skills to put this into words but instead communicate their delight with smiles, chuckles…
At Crawford Childcare we take the words of Pablo Picasso “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up” to heart but what does that mean? Children enjoy art because it is fun and provides the opportunity to be creative. This can be for one child using a paintbrush to mix paints together to make new colours on the page or for another child it may be the process of continually gluing on a page without ever sticking anything to this glue. In both instances the child is learning through their actions, developing a sense of creativity,…
At Crawford Childcare lots of the children love to play outside and play with water. Although we have a good few puddles at the moment some of the children were worried that they might dry out. We fitted a water butt to one of our drain pipes outside to give the children easy access to their own supply of water. The rain water is collected by the shores and stored in the water butt itself ready for use. The water butt has been placed high enough to fit a collecting bucket under but low enough for children to operate themselves. The water can flow out…
The babies got messy recently as they explored strawberry, raspberry and orange jelly. All the senses are used in jelly play. Trays of jelly were placed on the floor and the children looked at and played with it in any way they wanted. Jelly is sticky and changes state easily when played with. It is fun to watch this, listen to the splats as the jelly hits the floor and trays, they smell and taste differently from another type of jelly and to squeeze, pour and spread. The adults’ role was to observe while sitting closely by describing the babies actions to build vocabulary and…
There has been a lot of work going on in all our rooms recently as the team worked together to create cosy areas in each of the rooms. Each cosy area was planned carefully. We wanted our cosy corners to be places for our children to feel safe, separate from other play areas, a place to relax, wind down and to read. Forward facing libraries, shelving and soft furniture and drapes form the basis of our cosy corners. We ensure there are a range of books including catalogues, magazines, paperbacks and hard page books on offer. Our babies love our Nursery Rhyme books and point…
On Tuesday October 6th 2015, everyone in Crawford Childcare took part in celebrating Cheerios Breakfast Together Week where children and staff wore their pyjamas to crèche for the day. For many families the excitement started well before arriving at crèche. Darragh’s first words when he woke up were “it’s pyjama day today”. Ellie’s dad said that he has never seen her so excited coming to crèche. This excitement continued throughout the whole day! The day of fun filled activities kicked off with Cathy and Charlene meeting and greeting parents and children in reception offering some well deserved teas and coffees to our parents. Also waiting…
The babies have been taking advantage of the nice weather by pumping up a paddling pool and filling it with balls to make their very own ball pit! The children were all excited about the ball pit and some dived into it the minute they laid their eyes on it. The ball pit was a great way for the children to play energetically or to wind down and relax while enjoying this sensory experience. The babies loved spending the day climbing in and out of the pool as well as rolling around inside it. Some of the children even appeared to be pretending to swim…
Tucker turtle is our new friend in the Montessori. When Tucker used to feel upset, angry or frustrated he used to hit, yell and say mean things to his friends. One day his teacher told him to think like a turtle the next time he was upset. The next time Tucker got angry he stopped, tucked inside his shell, breathed his anger away and thought about how he could solve whatever was bothering him. Then he would try out his idea! Tucker has been teaching the children in the Montessori how to think like a turtle to and we have been practising very hard so…
Imagination is the source of creativity and we certainly have an imaginative bunch here at Crawford Childcare. A recurring source of fun in the toddler room is pretending to be animals. The toddlers especially enjoy being cats! Eilish really likes to crawl around the room telling everyone she meets that she is a cat. Robert and Amelie are usually the first to join in the game and we often have a whole room of toddler cats in a short space of time. 'Pussy cat pussy cat' is one of our favourite wind down songs in the toddler room. The toddlers will often lie down when…
