Blog Cothrom Òg

Spring time play and crafting

4/3/2021

We have been spending a little time practicing our pencil grip and control. Here George is using a chalk pen, they are great (we even use them on the windows sometimes).

The boys are outside, enjoying some time to investigate the amount of water that has gathered in the tyres. One found a star fish in the sand area and took it up to put it in the water, telling us "it needs water to survive". Also ‘double trouble’ gathering water for their mud pies! Our poor mud kitchen took a bit of a battering in the recent gales, but this doesn’t stop us having some messy outdoor fun!

An artist at work – adding small detail to another masterpiece. Finn is drawing a picture of his family in the playpark

Coinneach has just joined us – he has had a great first week, particularly exploring our outdoor area. He enjoyed climbing our tyre climbing frame and investigating our tyre ladder.

Olivia is loving covering Daddy Pig in bubbles. She spent ages playing in the water and extending the bubble blowing to make patterns.

Ceitidh is enjoying the feeling of the artificial snow, making her animals get stuck in the snow for her to rescue. The artificial snow is dry powder, mixed with water to make snow, which felt cold to the touch. Our winter theme is coming to an end.

Seonaidh is taking his time gluing his torn pieces of tissue paper onto his snowflake as part of our winter topic. Seonaidh spent quite a bit of time deciding which colour to put where.

Miller enjoying some creating time at the art easel. She loves to explore different brush strokes and has good control of the paint brush. Miller is making a purple shape to go on the colour wall.

Jo loving the texture of the paint and getting her hands messy. This is an orange shape to be added to the colour wall, a visual tool to become more aware of ‘na dathan’.

Darragh making a valentine’s card, he is concentrating so hard, taking in the effect the paint has on the paper.

Home activities for young children

20/3/2020

0-2 years old

Water play – sit in the bath or shallow tray with nappies and vests still on and let them explore with bubbles, glitter, colours, toys, ball, bath crayons…
Jelly play – make jelly and set small items or pieces of fruit in it.
Foam – shaving foam or bath foam (in a tub or direct on the table) and allow them to play at the table, explore texture, hide toys, items in the foam and count them as they are found.
Emptying and filling different shape/size containers with different materials (sand, grit, water, peat) pouring and encourage them to explore the materials and how different materials move.
Mirrors – study reflections sitting/standing in front of the mirror – naming different body parts, pulling faces
Stacking cups, empty tubs, take away containers, counting them, colour recognition, knocking them down and start again
Posting items into a box – tape closed the lid of boxes, make different size/shape holes in the tops to get them to work out what finds in which box
Empty tins, containers with lids – fill empty them and put lid on/off
Rolling sensory bottles – fill used bottles with water, food colouring and glitter or buttons or sequence etc and glue or tape closed.
Musical instruments – pots and pans with wooden spoons, tin trays, containers with rice taped closed
Pom pom drop – kitchen roll tubes, or inner tube from wrapping paper – drop pom poms through them, small soft balls – see how far they travel when held at different heights – they like to put them in and watch for them. Tape 2 or 3 tubes together.
Sensory hula hoop – if you have a hula hoop, cover with various materials and textures, dangly toys etc
Tugging box – punch holes in a box and thread ribbon, pipe cleaners, wool, string etc through the holes, tie on the inside of the box and they can pull them through
Gloop – mix corn flour with a little water (you can also add small items for them to find) good to strengthen fine motor skills

Cloud dough – hair conditioner and corn flour

Non-cook play dough
Baking
Any gluing and sticking – cutting out or tearing form an old catalogue or magazines/comics etc. and glue shopping lists or wish lists or get them to look for things that are all the same colour
Painting activities – using sponges, potatoes or different veg to mark make, household equipment that can be washed i.e potato masher, whisk.
Slime - PVA glue, baking soda, contact lens solution, food colouring

Baby yoga – can be found on Kids YouTube and is great fun

Pinterest is also great for searching for different ideas.

2-5 years old

Cutting, sticking and gluing (we often use old catalogues/magazines/comics) get them to group items into colour, or make a shopping list, or put things together they would expect to see in a kitchen, or a bedroom etc.
Make sock puppets and put on a performance with any props available– encourage imaginations as we might see a plastic jug as a plastic jug but it could be a space rocket to them.
Numeracy related activities – ask them to find so many of a similar item (hide bits of Lego/Duplo about an area and ask them to find 3 pieces, then ask them to find 6 pieces and ask them to count them out to you when they come back with them. (you can do the same for colour recognition, ask them to find 4 blue pieces, or 2 red pieces for example.)
Tray with sand, peat dust, water, gravel to use and they will recreate a number of different scenarios – we have been using sand on a large tray with some stones. This became their quarry and some have spent ages talking about going to work, who was driving the digger and what the sand was for etc.
Wash toys with soapy water, in a basin or at the sink. They love to get their sleeves rolled up and get stuck in.
Baking – encourage them to get the ingredients together, count out so many spoon of flour into the bowl etc, how to tidy up and keep the area clean and put away the ingredients as we try to have them involved as much as possible in tidying away when they have finished an activity before the next one.
Painting – using sponges or potatoes for making patterns and pattern repetition, then turning it into something ie, caterpillar, rocket, planets, flowers etc.
Chalk on the outside path to mark make – hop scotch, round zig zag patterns and make an obstacle course.
Make a den - outside children love a den and you can use an old sheet over the washing line and have pillows or a duvet, with a bin bag on the ground. Inside, a blanket tucked under the mattress of a bed and over a clothes airier or between 2 beds for example.
Gloop – mix corn flour with a little water (you can also add small items for them to find and count out, could get them to only use one hand or index finger and thumb) good to strengthen fine motor skills
Slime - PVA glue, baking soda, contact lens solution, food colouring – endless fun (you can also add glitter)
Face painting and introduce role play
Line chairs up and sing the wheels on the bus, pretend you are on a trip and take a diversion for example to the zoo and talk about different animals and plants they eat.
Painting rocks – different colours, once dry use them to make rock pictures and patterns.
Card games and board games – good to teach about taking turns.
Dancing and singing around the kitchen, make up new songs
An element of daily outside activity – it might even be to help wash a car.
Learn together about gardening – a couple of old car tyres make a good start for growing a couple of potatoes – wait till they have ‘eyes’ and plant them and have a competition, who’s will grow the most potatoes. Grow sunflowers – once the start to grow, keep a log of the number of leaves, check the height weekly and record in a log.
Look for insects and count how many worms you find. What do they do? The life cycle of a butterfly. Have a look in some wet areas around your house, you might be lucky enough to find frog spawn, keep watch over it every few days and wait to see the tadpoles hatch and grow.

Loose parts play – google ‘loose parts paly for early years’ and you will have access to endless ideas of what you can use to enhance playtime at home.

Some useful websites include:

www.twinkl.co.uk/offer - enter CVDTWINKLHELPS if you are not given a code.
www.sparklebox.co.uk - 1000’s of free teaching resources for early years and primary
www.go-gaelic.scot
www.gaelic4parents.com - there are read aloud book bug story books, live chat for support for parents with Gaelic homework, songs and several other ideas for parents.

Wild things visit

10/2/2020

Emily from Wild Things Uist visited us today to lead outdoor play. When the weather got a bit too rough we played inside instead.
Emily brought in fish boxes that we used to make a space ship, a plane, and a ferry. We went to Alien Pizza Land in our space ship, and to Barra via Madeira on the ferry.
Wearing our hi-viz jackets and helmets we pretended we were builders as part of our new construction topic. One of the most important parts of being a builder is to have a tea break!
We also played with loose parts to independently exercise our imagination

Chinese new Year

8/2/2020

We celebrated Chinese new Year by making our own chicken and vegetable Chow Mein with prawn crackers.

Baby room play

6/2/2020

Interactive and "messy" play is a great way for young children to develop their motor skills and playing with others develops important social skills such as co-operation and sharing.

Playing with colours and shapes

5/2/2020

We are learning about shapes and colours by playing with different blocks. It takes lots of concentration, but it's also fun!

Baby room winter topic

2/2/2020

The children in the baby room have been making foot print penguin and hand print robins for their winter topic.
They also celebrated Robert Burns and got to try haggis, neeps, and tatties - as well as a little bit of Irn Bru! Kenny very kindly came in and played the pipes for us too.

Playing and Learning

31/1/2020

This week we've been learning more about numbers, but we've also had lots of independent and guided play!

Baby room play kitchen

29/1/2020

The Daliburgh Thrift Shop very kindly donated a play kitchen for the children in the baby room. The children have enjoyed role playing making tea and lunch, and even doing the dishes!

Playing with foam

29/1/2020

We've been experimenting making our own colours using foam. We started mixing with paint brushes so we could improve our fine motor skills, but eventually mixing with our hands was more fun!