The babies have been busy exploring lots of new materials in their treasure basket. Our basket is full of safe and interesting materials. Babies learn through their senses so we have included materials which stimulate all 5 including sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. Baby toys are often made of plastic but with so many things made from this material it limits the babies’ experiences and learning. Objects in our treasure basket are made of natural materials including metal, leather and wood. Our babies are left to explore these on their own while their keyworker sits closely nearby to supervise. Once a baby is able to sit and hold things they love to be able to explore in this way. We rotate the objects in our basket to add interest. At the moment we have pine cones, spoons, CDs, sponges, cloths, sea shells, key rings, purses, wallets, bottles filled with rice, scrunchies, make-up and even an orange!

Bubbles are another wonderful sensory experience for babies and young children. Blowing bubbles for children to stare at, chase, catch and pop is a rich and relaxing past time for all involved and one that the children at Crawford Cork Childcare and their teachers really enjoy.

The toddlers have been learning about water and have been practising pouring water from jug to jug. The water spilled sometimes but this was ok as the toddlers enjoyed helping to clean up too. With all the rain outside we were inspired to make our own rain clouds for the classroom to decorate our walls. We spoke about how rain comes from clouds and we even engaged in a bit of cloud watching. A few of the toddlers were very enthusiastic when it came to telling us about how they like splashing water in puddles and their baths.

Meanwhile the Montessori children have been making a tour of the globe. So far they have visited Antartcica, Europe, Asia and North America. Their passports are getting pretty full as we learn about the animals, people, buildings, food and weather in these continents.

The weather has been very wet and windy but we have managed to get outside during a few dry spells. One of our Montessori children has been busy looking for orange weather after hearing an orange alert on the radio of his mum’s car! We have all been keeping a close eye on the weather and although we may not see the orange weather predicted by one of our 3 year olds maybe we will be lucky enough to spot a rainbow!