Quackers Day Nursery Banbury

Over the past few weeks, we've had the privilege of watching a truly amazing transformation unfold. From tiny eggs to hungry caterpillars, then carefully forming their chrysalises, and finally emerging as beautiful butterflies.

Along the way, we cared for them, including putting out fresh fruit once they became butterflies to give them the energy to take flight, and today we released them into the world.

This experience has been a wonderful way to learn about life cycles, growth, and change, learning lots of new vocabulary along the way. It has also helped us understand the importance of caring for living things, showing kindness, patience, and responsibility as we supported them through each stage of their journey.

Watching these butterflies take flight was such a lovely sight, one even came back and landed on us to say goodbye before going off out into the world. 🦋

Part 2 The sensory exploration continued as the babies discovered the refreshing citrus scents through water play! 🍋💦

Using jugs, containers, and citrus-infused water with lemon and lime slices, the babies enjoyed filling, pouring, and emptying as they investigated the different smells and sensations. They were curious to explore the floating fruit and enjoyed smelling the citrus aromas as they splashed and played.

This engaging water play activity encouraged the babies to develop their hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills, and early mathematical concepts such as volume and capacity. As they poured water between containers, they practised concentration, problem-solving, and cause-and-effect learning.

The combination of sensory water play and familiar citrus scents provided a fun and stimulating experience, supporting the babies' curiosity, exploration, and confidence as they learned through play. What a wonderful way to continue their citrus-themed adventure!

Part 1 Ducklings enjoyed a wonderful sensory play experience exploring lemon and lime scented playdough!🍋🍈
The playdough was bright green and yellow, encouraging the babies to engage their senses of touch, smell, and sight. They explored the soft texture by squeezing, pressing, and manipulating the dough, while enjoying the fresh citrus scent of lemons and limes.
To extend their learning, we provided real lemons and limes for the babies to investigate. They enjoyed feeling the different textures of the fruit skins, smelling the citrus aromas and the scented playdough.
Using a variety of tools, the babies made marks, created shapes, and developed their fine motor skills as they rolled, pressed, and moulded the dough. This hands-on activity supported sensory development, fine motor skills, curiosity, creativity, and early exploration through play.
What a fun and engaging way to learn through the senses! 💛💚

Today, a small group of our children enjoyed a wonderful visit to Rosalie Care Home. Rosalie Care

When we arrived, we all joined together to sing the "Tick Tock Hello" song, helping us learn each other's names and making everyone feel welcome. One of the residents delighted us by playing the piano while the children danced and sang along, waving colourful scarves to the music. 🎹🌈

We also brought along some homemade playdough for everyone to explore together. The playdough was bright yellow and green and smelled beautifully of lemons and limes, creating a lovely sensory experience for both the children and residents. 🍋🍈 The playdough inspired lots of creativity, with everyone making different shapes and creations. One of the care assistants even fashioned a funny moustache from the playdough, which brought plenty of smiles and laughter from both the children and residents!

Before heading back to nursery, we waved goodbye to all our new friends and thanked them for such a special morning.

We can't wait for our next visit! 👋

The children were fascinated to see how quickly the caterpillars changed and have formed a chrysalis and enjoyed comparing what they observed with their predictions from our caterpillar diary.

We have been talking about the next stage of the butterfly life cycle and discussing what might be happening inside the chrysalis. The children have been asking thoughtful questions and sharing their ideas about the amazing transformation taking place.

This experience continues to encourage curiosity, scientific thinking, and a deeper understanding of the natural world as we watch this incredible process unfold.

Now the waiting begins... 👀🦋

How long do you think it will be before our butterflies emerge? Stay tuned for the next exciting update! 🌿💚

🐛✨ They're here! ✨🐛

Our special visitors have officially arrived, and the children were thrilled to meet our caterpillars!

There was lots of excitement as we carefully observed them wriggling around their habitat. The children have been using their knowledge of the butterfly life cycle to predict what will happen next and are eagerly watching for any changes.

This hands-on experience is helping to develop the children's observation skills, curiosity, and understanding of how living things grow and change. We have already started our caterpillar diary, recording what we notice each day and discussing the amazing transformation that lies ahead.

We wonder which stage we'll see next... 👀

Stay tuned as we continue to follow our caterpillars on their incredible journey from 🐛 caterpillar to 🦋 butterfly! 🌿💚

🐛🦋 Our little learners have been exploring the fascinating life cycle of a caterpillar!

Over the past few weeks, the children have been discovering how caterpillars transform into butterflies through stories, games, discussions, and hands-on activities using stacking blocks to sequence each stage of the life cycle.

The excitement has now reached a whole new level because we have some real caterpillars coming to stay with us! The children will have the wonderful opportunity to observe them up close as they grow, form their cocoons (chrysalises), and eventually emerge as beautiful butterflies.

This is a fantastic way to bring our learning to life, encouraging curiosity, observation, and a deeper understanding of the natural world. We can't wait to share updates as we follow their amazing journey and, finally, release our butterflies into the wild. 🌿

Stay tuned for photos and progress updates! 🐛➡️🦋

An early morning trip to the pet shop Croft Pet Foods Ltd to choose some pet fish for our setting. The children were excited to explore the different types of fish, observe their colours, movements and habitats, and talk about what fish need to stay healthy and happy.

During the visit, the children asked questions, listened carefully to the shop staff, and helped to choose food and equipment for the fish tank. Back at preschool, we discussed how to care for our new pets by feeding them, keeping the tank clean, and being gentle and respectful towards living creatures.

Keeping cool in this hot weather with some exploration of the meaning of ‘cold’ and ‘liquid or solid’.

The children investigated ice as it melted in their hands, watching how it changed from solid to liquid.🧊💧
Introducing the babies to new vocabulary such as cold and melt, with some of the children from Ducks and Swans describing what they could feel and see.

We also had lots of messy fun with frozen cornflour — a fascinating mixture that feels solid when on a surface or in a hand, and liquid when tipped off the surface! It sparked so much curiosity, exploration, and imaginative play while helping everyone stay cool.

Simple activities like these are a great way to encourage learning through play, support language development and understanding of new vocabulary as well as enjoy some cold sensory fun during the warmer days 🌞

This week we have had lots of fun exploring number meaning with our “Roger Robot” maths game! 🤖🔢

The children fed numbers into Roger Robot and watched as the matching dot cards came out — number 1 produced 1 dot, number 2 produced 2 dots, and so on. This helped to develop and strengthen their understanding that numbers represent quantities.

Once the children became more confident, they challenged themselves further by feeding the dot cards into Roger Robot and predicting which number would come out next!

Building counting skills, number recognition, prediction and mathematical thinking through play.