Our Fun Times!

Take a look at how much fun our toddlers are having in their sessions at Learning Land...

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Meeting local mascot Spike!

The local Rugby team of Workington Town visited us in February 2025 with their own mascot Spike! The children loved meeting Spike as she discussed her role in the Rugby world. This was a great opportunity for us to connect with other members of the community.

We have been making bird feeders...

Our Toddlers have been busy making their own bird feeders. One of the children had a particular interest in birds and spotting them in the natural environment. This child's key person followed the child's interest and involved some other children who also liked spotting the birds outside. The toddlers made their own bird feeders to feed the birds. Each play time in the outdoors, the children were very excited to watch the birds in the trees eating their food. This has taught our children to care for nature and wildlife in our community but also learn lots about animals that live around us. We have also been looking at some Youtube videos on birds and how they live.

Santa's Workshop

This Christmas we have made our role play into Santa's Workshop. The children displayed a strong interest and outbursts of excitement over Christmas, therefore we followed this through our planning and transformed our role play area into Santa's workshop. The children were supported with fancy dress elf costumes, wrapping paper, tags, bows, tools and Christmas books to enjoy Christmas festivities during the month of December!

Autumn Exploration

Our Toddlers have shown curiosity in our natural environment. The children have collected natural objects from their outdoor play area, including sticks and leaves. They collected these objects with their friends to create an 'Autumn Exploration' tray indoors.

This child led activity -

-Encouraged the children to be curious about nature and their outdoor environment.

- Allowed the children to collect their own objects from their play area, to further explore their textures and features indoors.

-Demonstrates how the children worked as team with their friends to collect things for their autumn related sensory tray.

-Encouraged the children to develop their sensory exploration and knowledge of the features of the autumn season.

World Book Day in the Toddler Room

Our Toddlers have had so much fun this week dressing up as their favourite book characters and bringing in their own favourite books for us to read at circle time. Happy World Book Day!

Learning Land Hair Salon!

Following the children’s interests, the role play area in the toddler room has been transformed into a hair salon!

The children have all been amazing at modelling and pretending to be hairdressers from the knowledge they already know about the world and the community they live in.

The children have:

- developed awareness and knowledge from eachother to replicate what hairdressers do.

- helped and supported eachother to learn with their own curiosity and ideas.

- developed their imagination and pretend play development.

- been willing to have a go in new contexts.

- developed their understanding of people who help us in our community.

- been supported by practitioners to scaffold and support their learning by getting down to their level and playing in the hairdressers too.

MOST IMPORTANTLY they have had so much fun!!!

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We Play and We Explore!

PLAYING & EXPLORING!

Did you know that ‘Playing & Exploring’ is a characteristic that children use when they engage in effective learning experiences?

The children in the Toddler Room have had fun exploring the sensory beach which was made up of sand, shaving foam, shells and sea life.

The intent of this activity was to:

* Allow children to play and explore with sensory material.

* Develop their fine motor skills.

* Develop their hand eye co-ordination.

* Encourage children to use their senses as a means to develop their expressive personalities.

* Encourage speech and language, discussing what they can see and feel.

* Provide children with the cultural capital of experimenting features of a beach environment.

* Encourage the children to talk about their experiences, if they have, of going to the beach.

Meeting the Fire Fighters!

We have been learning all about people who help us in the Toddler Room. This week we had the fire fighters visit us and we had a look at their vehicles, including the fire engine!

We value that children should be provided with the opportunities to gain an insight into their cultural awareness and understand the world around them.

Lunch Time is a Learning Experience!

The children in the Toddler Room are encouraged and supported to be independent learners at meal times. The children enjoy having the responsibility to perform daily tasks such as pouring their own drinks and washing their hands and face after they have eaten. The children are provided with nutritious meal choices which are healthy, to promote children to lead healthy and happy lives.

Celebrating Children in Need

In November, the children have enjoyed participating in craft activities to celebrate children in need. They made their own pudsey buiscuits and decorated them themselves. These activities provided the children with the experiences to be create and express themselves through their senses and messy play.

Lest We Forget...

In the month of November, the toddler room children have been learning all about the brave soldiers that helped protect us many years ago in the war. The children have been making craft poppy's with paint and other materials of their choice. It is important that children are aware of their communities and it was lovely to see all the toddlers become engaged in their expressive arts and design experiences.

Meeting Olaf!

In December 2021, the children in the toddler room had a special visit from Olaf the snowman from the popular Disney film Frozen. Many of our children love Frozen so we thought inviting Olaf into the nursery would be a great idea for the children. They loved him!