Good afternoon to all our beautiful families and happy Thursday! What a fun day we have shared with all your wonderful babies! This morning we welcomed Jordan, Larsson, Grayson, Zelia, Oliver and Dorijan with lots of cuddles! We started our morning with getting our nappies changed before Jordan, Zelia and Larsson went down for a morning sleep. Dorijan went to Babies Three for his transition and will enjoy a day playing in his what will be his new environment and all new friends! Grayson and Oliver then sat together in the highchairs and enjoyed some yummy morning tea.
We came together on the mat inside and did some puppet songs, we sang Old Macdonald had a Farm and 5 Little Speckled Frogs, watching as Miss Crystal would move the puppets about and when we would either recognise the animal or count down from five, we would take turns taking them off Miss Crystal’s finger and giggling as we did it. We also played some musical instruments alongside Miss Crystal and the puppets, shaking the bells, eggs, shakers or banging on the rainbow rain shaker. To end group time, we sang Bee Bee Bumble Bee and waiting to hear our names then moved off to the bathroom to wash our hands and sit at the table for lunch.
After morning tea this morning, we opened the doors to allow for free exploration between indoors and outdoors. We all enjoyed playing outside, exploring and engaging in child led play. Zelia went walking around the yard before she found a pop socket toy which encouraged her to engage and enhance her fine motor muscles and problem solving skills as she would need to push down each worm, watch as one pushed down another popped up and she would have to then push the next one down. Jordan then observed as Zelia was playing with it and he made his way over crawling to engage in play with it as well. Not only is he engaging and enhancing his fine motor and problem solving skills, he is also enhancing his gross motor skills lifting it up using both his hands and holding it above his head. Larsson, had a red bucket that he had found, as he was playing with it, Miss Shae put on some tunes for our friends to dance to and enjoy. Larsson listened to the music and then began hitting the bucket with his hands, manipulating it like it is a drum and laughing as he hit it, watching as Miss Crystal cheered Larsson on. He is building and strengthening his fine motor muscles while also beginning to learn to play to the rhythm of music and sounds. Following on from yesterdays event, International Dot Day, we continued to explore dots in a fun, creative and textural art approach. We had three paint dabbers, one with a soft end, one with a rough scourer like texture and one sponge like, dabbing them in three different coloured paints, purple, blue and yellow. Our friends were then encouraged to dab them on the paper creating a dot like effect. Grayson and Oliver absolutely loved this activity. Before engaging in the painting, Miss Crystal would run each textured dabber along our arms to feel and engage our sense of touch. Grayson was very intrigued while Oliver preferred to do it back to Miss Crystal. When they engaged in the art side of the learning experience, they enjoyed gripping them firmly in their hands and moving them around the table.
This afternoon we will continue finishing our dot artworks before venturing outside and engaging in more child led play. When it cools down we will then combine with our other babies rooms. The children have been happier and more engaged in activities initiated by the children and responded positively to the activities planned.
Much Love,
Miss Crystal and Miss Shae xx