This week we’ve been busy in the garden. The mud kitchen has been enhanced with plenty of new ingredients for baking mud pies – we’ve added pebbles, shells, sticks, leaves, water and, most importantly – mud! The children have embraced this area and there has been lots of lovely role play and language as children have baked cakes, soup and mud pies!
Whilst in the garden we’ve also enjoyed hunting for bugs! We’ve noticed butterflies, spiders, bees and other bugs and used bug hunting sheets to help us log our finds. Many of the children used bugs as their inspiration at the craft zone, the drawing table and the playdough area! Inspired by the children’s interests, we’ve been learning some new bug-songs: ‘Old McDonald had a Garden,’ ‘Wiggly Woo’ and ‘Big Bugs, Small Bugs’ – see below for the words!
With so much interest in mini-beasts, we set up an ‘ant world’ on Wednesday. The children helped to fill the ant-house with a sand/soil mixture and then the fun part of trying to find inhabitants! We went on an ant hunt around the garden to see how many we could find, with children making lots of suggestions as to where we should look! Once in their new home we were able to study our finds using a magnifying glass to observe what the ants were doing!
We started to explore fruit towards the end of the week. We enjoyed using apples for art on Friday, with children making apple prints and looking at the patterns the apple made. Some of the children then painted the apples themselves and made some beautiful 3D art! We also explored pineapples – children always enjoy the feel and texture of this spikey fruit which we enjoyed at snack-time. We’re going to carry on this fruit focus next week and see what other fruits we can try!
Ideas to continue this week’s fun at home:
We’ve had fun learning new bug songs this week – why not look at our website for song ideas to share at home? You could even make your own musical instruments (yoghurt pots filled with dried pasta or rice work well) or add a microphone (a toilet roll maybe) so children can perform songs to the rest of their family?
Our new bug songs:
Old McDonald had a garden
“Old McDonald had a garden
e-i-e-i-o
And in that garden he had a bee
e-i-e-i-o
With a buzz buzz here and a buzz buzz there
Here a buzz, there a buzz, everywhere a buzz buzz
Old McDonald had a garden
e-i-e-i-o”
Repeat with
Worm – wiggle wiggle
Butterfly – flutter flutter
Grasshopper – jump jump
The Bug Song
“Big bugs, small bugs
Big bugs small bugs
Watch them crawl
Up the wall
Creepy creepy crawling
Never ever falling
Bugs bugs bugs
Bugs bugs bugs”
Wiggly Woo
“There’s a worm at the bottom of the garden
And his name is wiggly woo
There’s a worm at the bottom of the garden
And here’s what he can do
He can wiggle up high
Wiggle down low
Wiggle in a circle
And wiggle just so
There’s a worm at the bottom of the garden
And his name is wiggly woo”
Whilst in the garden we’ve also enjoyed hunting for bugs! We’ve noticed butterflies, spiders, bees and other bugs and used bug hunting sheets to help us log our finds. Many of the children used bugs as their inspiration at the craft zone, the drawing table and the playdough area! Inspired by the children’s interests, we’ve been learning some new bug-songs: ‘Old McDonald had a Garden,’ ‘Wiggly Woo’ and ‘Big Bugs, Small Bugs’ – see below for the words!
With so much interest in mini-beasts, we set up an ‘ant world’ on Wednesday. The children helped to fill the ant-house with a sand/soil mixture and then the fun part of trying to find inhabitants! We went on an ant hunt around the garden to see how many we could find, with children making lots of suggestions as to where we should look! Once in their new home we were able to study our finds using a magnifying glass to observe what the ants were doing!
We started to explore fruit towards the end of the week. We enjoyed using apples for art on Friday, with children making apple prints and looking at the patterns the apple made. Some of the children then painted the apples themselves and made some beautiful 3D art! We also explored pineapples – children always enjoy the feel and texture of this spikey fruit which we enjoyed at snack-time. We’re going to carry on this fruit focus next week and see what other fruits we can try!
Ideas to continue this week’s fun at home:
We’ve had fun learning new bug songs this week – why not look at our website for song ideas to share at home? You could even make your own musical instruments (yoghurt pots filled with dried pasta or rice work well) or add a microphone (a toilet roll maybe) so children can perform songs to the rest of their family?
Our new bug songs:
Old McDonald had a garden
“Old McDonald had a garden
e-i-e-i-o
And in that garden he had a bee
e-i-e-i-o
With a buzz buzz here and a buzz buzz there
Here a buzz, there a buzz, everywhere a buzz buzz
Old McDonald had a garden
e-i-e-i-o”
Repeat with
Worm – wiggle wiggle
Butterfly – flutter flutter
Grasshopper – jump jump
The Bug Song
“Big bugs, small bugs
Big bugs small bugs
Watch them crawl
Up the wall
Creepy creepy crawling
Never ever falling
Bugs bugs bugs
Bugs bugs bugs”
Wiggly Woo
“There’s a worm at the bottom of the garden
And his name is wiggly woo
There’s a worm at the bottom of the garden
And here’s what he can do
He can wiggle up high
Wiggle down low
Wiggle in a circle
And wiggle just so
There’s a worm at the bottom of the garden
And his name is wiggly woo”
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