2 Year Olds

Welcome to our 2 Year Olds Explorers Room!

Miss Ainsley and Mrs Baines are your Early Years Practitioners.

Please find attached below information on what the children will be learning this term.

We have lots of exciting themes, books and rhymes to explore and we promise to post/share lots of photographs of our amazing learning and development!

Summer 1/ week 3: 12-16th may 2025

This week our focus theme has been all about construction, our weekly nursery rhyme has been “Tall buildings in the town”.

Staff has encouraged the children to engage in using various building construction resources including foam blocks,brick, wooden blocks,mega blocks and also duplo blocks. Working on simple turn taking and sharing the children enjoyed building their own construction models together, they also loved knocking them down afterwards. They then worked and shared together using the bricks to see if they could make their models bigger, (most of the towers where almost bigger than the children, it was so much fun). Whilst building their towers staff encouraged the children to count their blocks introducing early maths. (Staff modelled and counted with the children as they were building).

The tuff tray has been very messy again this week too, using sand and shaving foam to create sand foam the children loved getting  messy exploring with their hands and a variety of tools including wooden blocks to build, the diggers got busy digging and created heaps and also the safari animals loved it too having a roll around in the sand.

Using a variety of basic shapes the children engaged in a stamping activity, staff modelled and shared together with the children how to stamp their shapes onto the paper and explore the shapes whilst using vocabulary and language to the children to help develop their spatial awareness, use their fine motor skills whilst learning to recognise basic shapes including triangles, squares, circles and rectangles.

Outside the children have been busy developing their motor skills using the hula hoops, whilst incorporating and singing our weekly rhyme they have been stretching up tall/up, bending down low, jumping in and out of the hula hoop and running around. The swing and slide has been popular this week again as well as the mud kitchen, the climbing frame and best of all we loved a game of hide and seek together, it was so fun hiding from poor Miss Ainsley she couldn’t find the children anywhere, they were hiding so quietly and still under our picnic blanket, we couldn’t stop giggling it was so funny.

We hope all of our grown ups have a look at our fun pictures from this week and we can’t wait to see what exciting fun we will be getting up-to next week let’s hope this weather is the start of our summer we best get stocked up on ice lolly treats.

Summer 1 / week 2 : 5-9th May 2025

Summer, growing up & moving on was our focus this week, along with learning our colours. Our weekly nursery rhyme this week has been 1,2,3,4,5 Once I caught a fish alive where we have enjoyed lots of messy fun crafts together.

At carpet time the children have been joining in and actively singing the rhyme whilst also joining in with the associated actions, holding up their fingers whilst counting.

The tuff tray has been extremely messy this week we have had a variety of textures in there for the children to explore including cereals with diggers, sea foam including the sea creatures, the children thoroughly enjoyed exploring the sea foam with their hands whilst engaging in some small world play.

The children have been experimenting with primary colours too to make secondary colours whilst using their thinking, communication and language skills sharing with staff what colours they thought they had made, staff labelled the colours with the children. 

Using paper plates, the children were provided with lots of open-ended resources including paints, coloured tissue and glitter giving the children the freedom to use their own curiosity to explore and use their imagination to create a beautiful rainbow fish, they are all just wonderful.

At snack time the children designed their own pancake using their creative skills to make a fish using scotch pancakes and a variety of sliced fruits to create scales and eyes, encouraging the children to listen and follow instructions whilst also practicing to take turns and share with their friends.

It has also been a great sunny week this week for our outdoor play, playing in the mud kitchen, “The cups of tea this week have been the best we’ve tasted this week “! The water tray and the sand have been also  popular too this week, pouring and filling using the transporting schema play. 

At home times this week we have recapped on our lovely storybook WOW! said the owl! practicing our colour recognition. The children are doing an amazing job, Mrs Baines and Miss Ainsley are super proud of everyone, let’s hope the sun keeps on shining the next few weeks where we will continue with our summer focus themes and lots more fun nursery rhymes and messy play. Have a look at all our wonderful pictures from this week .

Summer 1/Week 1: 28th April - 2nd May 2025

What a warm sunny welcome back everyone! It has been great to see all of the children excited to come back to our 2 year old room and also it has also been amazing to see our new friends settle into their new environment, it has been a fun filled week.

Our focus nursery rhyme this week has been, “There’s a worm at the bottom of the garden!” Whilst allowing the children to explore the environment and familiarising themselves with all of the areas, they have also been learning our daily routine. At carpet time we have been singing our rhyme together and acting out the associated movements by wiggling our fingers to pretend to be a worm whilst they joined in together learning the rhyme with their friends. Our story has been “Wow said the owl!” staff shared the story at home time with children this story learns the children all about the lovely colours (the children were very clever at their colour recognition well done !).

We got very creative this week as the children made a wonderful wiggly worm picture, using string and a variety of paints they slid and pressed and patted their worms across their paper to make worm prints creating lots of different patterns, they are fantastic!.

The play-dough area was also full of worms too as the children rolled out the doh onto the table to see who could make the longest wiggly worm. This activity is great for practicing their fine motor skills helping to strengthen their fingers and hand muscles.

The tuff tray has been full of messy play this week we have had shaving foam, pasta, rice and also cereal to pour and fill, and best of all was the muddy gloop this also had worms in, YES WORMS! don’t worry though they weren’t real worms they were just pretend ones made from cooked spaghetti pasta but the children used their imagination and had lots of messy fun.

The sun has been beaming all week and best of all we came back  to nursery and there was an amazing new slide and swing in our garden, HOW EXCITING! well as you can imagine we couldn’t wait to try it out, we have had the best time outdoors this week playing on them working on out turn taking and sharing skills.
Outdoors the children have been following instructions helping and learning to build a den in the garden, staff asked the children to collect 3 tyres, 3 logs. They also helped to hold the wood while staff wrapped round the string to hold the den in place, they were very excited to get the sheet over and sit in it. Great den building everyone!.

We have also bathed the babies in the water, we have played in the sand, made worm pies in the mud kitchen, YUMMY! the fun just never stops here in 2s, take a look at our wonderful fun pictures from this week. We can’t wait to see what fun we will be having next week let’s hope the sun keeps on shining.

Spring 2/Week 6: 7-11th April 2025

What another eggsellent fun week we have had. Our nursery rhyme this week has been “chick, chick chicken lay a little egg for me!” along with some Easter activities.

Our week started off with some Easter crafts, using coloured eggs and coloured paints the children enjoyed painting and printing using the eggs to mark make and create wonderful patterns. The children also created their very own chick collage, using a variety of materials including feathers, googley eyes and card, we have some very unique chirpy chicks In our 2 year old room, it was so much fun. There has been lots of messy sensory play too this week in our tuff spot tray, staff added lots off Easter materials and textures for the children to be curious and explore, the play-dough area was quite popular too this week the children rolled, squashed, squeezed and pinched their dough strengthening their hand muscles and practicing their fine motor skills. The sun was shining this week so a lot of the week was spent outdoors enjoying the fresh spring air, the children had a lot of fun in the water pouring and filling and making mud pies and soup for the dinosaurs. We also had snack outside as we were having too much of a good time to go back indoors. We enjoyed some lovely stories this week too, the children really enjoyed the story “we’re  going on an egg hunt!” they got a surprise to see that there was a wolf behind the big egg who wanted to eat up all the chocolate eggs the bunnies had found, but thankfully the wolf was not successful “phew!” We were so pleased.

We also had our very own egg hunt as the Easter bunny also came into our garden and hid lots of eggs, the children were eggstra excited to find them and pop them into their own baskets, this activity was great for their social interaction together.

At the end of the hunt we had a “hop-a-thon” wearing the hats they made last week they hopped and hopped like little Easter bunnies until they could hop no more. “The children were just amazing as always!” Mrs Baines and Miss Ainsley are soooo proud of them all. 

That’s not all the Easter bunny delivered a certificate and also a very “yummy, chocolatey treat” for the children. 

This term has been so much fun we are all “EGGSHAUSTED!” we can’t wait to return 

after the holidays to see what fabulous fun we will be getting up to and also we will be having some new friends joining us. 

“HIP HOP HOPPY HOLIDAYS!” everyone.

Spring 2/Week 5: 31st March - 4th April 2025

Wow what an “eggciting!” Week we have had in 2s this week. Our focus theme and rhyme this week has been “spring” and “sleeping bunnies” the children have had so much fun doing the actions to the rhyme, paying attention and using their good listening ears, lying down pretending to be a sleeping bunny, then jumping up when staff sang “wake up bunnies!” they practiced their gross motor skills whilst pretending to hop just like a bunny and also having a go at hopping on one leg which was a little tricky.

Being creative the children made their own bunny ears using a paper plate and paint which they enjoyed using during imaginative play, they also enjoyed Easter stamping using a variety of Easter cutters, this activity was a great way to develop their hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.

Also this week we planted some carrots, we each took it in turns to fill up a big pot with soil, we sprinkled in the seeds, and now take it in turns each day to water the carrots, we can’t wait to see them grow, we may even have them for snack when they are ready to eat, this will be so exciting to eat our very own homegrown vegetable.

Talking about carrots we have been feeding the bunnies (unfortunately not real ones) but the children had a fun time taking it in turns to feed mr bunny with different sized carrots. The carrots didn’t last long though because as the children became a little peckish the carrots started to magically disappear “oh dear!”.

The children have been very busy making their grown ups a lovely Easter card too this week, which they will be bringing home this week, I’m sure everyone is going to love them. 

We also had an eggstra treat this week as we have been to have a look and have also had a hold of our baby chicks in reception/nursery, the children were so excited to see them it was such a fun time and a lovely treat just in time for Easter. 

For snack this week we made our very own bunny pancakes to eat, the children listened carefully to staff and followed instructions as they added various sliced fruits to their pancake to make a rabbits face, the children placed the facial features and bunny ears to their pancakes whilst also  extending their vocabulary and understanding using the words “two eyes, one nose, whiskers, two ears”. They looked absolutely delicious.

What a fun filled week we have had we have had lots of fun in the garden too in the water tray, in the sand, playing on the tractor, we even saw a big tractor in the big field, and the driver gave us all a wave, how exciting.

Next week we have lots and lots of eggciting Easter crafts and activities planned and who knows there might be even a surprise chocolate egg delivered.

“HOP TO IT!” and take a look at our fantastic fun pictures from this week.

Spring 2/Week 4: 24 - 28th March 2025

Our focus theme this week has been Spring and the sun has been shining for us to get outside most of the week and enjoy our fun activities together! Along with our Spring theme our weekly nursery rhyme has been can you guess? It was of course “If you’re happy and you know it!” (but with a twist) the children took it in turns to make up a rhyme to add onto the original song, we had some great ideas for example, “If your hungry and you know it rub your tummy!” “ If you’re sleepy and you know it have a yawn!” the children enjoyed showing us their faces whilst singing the rhyme we had sad, happy, tired, angry, grumpy, excited and lots more, this was great for the children’s communication and language and showing their knowledge of emotions.

The children enjoyed talking about their emotions in circle time so they enjoyed an emotions sorting activity and puzzles these enabled the children to sort the facial expression cards into specific circles of emotions happy, sad, angry. Practising and recognising facial expressions can improve the child’s social emotional skills. 

Outdoors has been lots of fun this week we have explored the sand, water and soil whilst adding lots of spring flowers and plants and lots of tools and materials, they have poured, filled, scooped, dug, also using stems, leaves, sticks and flowers to make nature brushes, they painted the most beautiful spring colourful paintings, using their fine motor skills to stamp, create lines, dot patterns and explore textures during mark making. 
 

It can’t be Spring without a little planting, we have been very busy planting a little surprise plant/flower for Mother’s Day…sssshhhhh! It’s a surprise as well as a special card which has been made with lots of love from your child, we’re sure you will love them!

At the end of each day we have been working on strengthening our hand muscles doing Dough Disco the children loved it, we had on the disco light and the children sing along as they ‘splat, squeeze, pinch, roll and prod’ the dough it’s a great hit with the children, this also helps to develop the child’s listening and attention skills as they wait to see what action they do next with their dough.

Our window looks bright and cheery, the children have made some beautiful sun catchers made from paper plates and colourful spring flowers and leaves they look amazing, they each took it in turn to colour the paper using their mark making skills then chose their flowers and leaves to stick to the sticky back plastic. We had a few stuck fingers in the process but it was so much. Let’s hope the sun keeps on shining!.

Next week we will be getting very busy doing lots and lots of Easter crafts and activities, we can’t wait, we are definitely “HAPPY AND WE KNOW IT” in the the 2 Year Old Room…don’t you agree? Just look at our amazing fun pictures we have shared.

Spring 2/Week 3: 17th - 21st March 2025

Our focus weekly nursery rhyme for this week has been “Round & round the garden” whilst also adding in some Spring activities. At carpet time, the children have enjoyed taking it in turns with their friends to do the number rhyme whilst tickling their friends after 1 step, 2 step. 

On Tuesday we had a teddy bears picnic, the children brought in a teddy from home, sharing with staff and their peers they took it in turns to tell us all about their favourite teddy developing their communication and vocabulary skills. For our picnic the children created their own teddy bear pancake, by listening and following instructions the children created a teddy bears face by spreading on Biscoff spread then adding sliced banana, blueberries for eyes, strawberry for a nose and additional smaller pieces of Scotch pancake for ears they used their cognitive skills to add the facial features to the correct parts of the pancake (they did very well!). Sitting on the floor the children sat with their teddies and enjoyed their yummy pancakes together along with some teddy shaped snacks. 
 

The children also enjoyed being creative making their own teddy bear mask using a paper plate, brown paint and a lolly stick to hold it up to their faces whilst engaging in imaginative play together.

Outdoors has been lots of fun this week as the children have been excited to access our new water trays where they have been enjoying pouring, scooping, filling and emptying whilst also accessing the mud kitchen and tuff spot tray adding compost and flowers engaging in sensory and exploration play using a variety of gardening tools and plant pots. Water was also enjoyed inside with added sliced lemons/ limes offering the children a vibrant sensory experience, engaging taste, smell and sight the children enjoyed scooping, pouring and filling and they even made lime juice! 
 

Using a variety of coloured ribbons we went on walk “round and round the garden, like a teddy bear!” The children engaged in rhythmic movements making circles in the air the children sang the nursery rhyme together whilst practicing their gross-motor skills and physical development.

On Thursday, Spring had sprung so there was time to waste, the children enjoyed planting seeds, we can’t wait to see our cress grow, we are looking forward to the coming weeks when we will be planting lots more together with our friends. 
 

What a great fun week we have had with our bear and spring activities we can ‘BEARLY’ wait for next week to enjoy more activities and learning, hopefully the sun will keep on shining! 

Take a look at all our lovely photos from this week…

 Spring 2/Week 2: 10-14th March 2025

Our focus nursery rhyme this week has been “Head, shoulders knees & toes” and this week the children have been learning all about different parts of the body and what messy creative fun we have had! Whilst singing the nursery rhyme, the children joined in with the associated actions and were able to label some body  parts. Working on their communication and language development staff talked to the children about their reflections as they each took it in turns to look in the mirror, staff then asked the children “what can you see in the mirror?” “How many eyes, nose, mouth and ears can you see…do you have?” “What colour are your eyes and hair?” Following on from this the children made a self portrait of themselves as to what they thought they looked like looking in the mirror, using a variety of materials, paper plate and paint to make different facial features they created a face, they each coloured their own skin colour, eyes and hair using felt or wool to match their own hair colour, I must say they look wonderful we are putting these on display in our classroom! 
 

Inside using pencils and outside using chalks the children drew around one another, we looked at the outline of our bodies together and the children were able to identify and label their body parts with one another, this activity helps to reinforce and learn new key body part names extending both their vocabulary and understanding whilst helping to develop their communication and language skills.

With the  playdough the children have had fun using playdough face mats by squashing, squeezing, pinching, rolling and manipulating a variety of materials whilst practicing their fine motor skills they added googley eyes and other materials to form a face whilst also promoting early maths (i.e. counting - 2 eyes, 2 ears, 1 nose, 1 mouth).

Taking turns the children used their critical thinking and problem solving skills to put together a 4-piece puzzle in the correct order of body parts head, shoulders, knees, and toes. “They did really well”! They then also coloured these in.

Most of all this week we had a fantastic day of Body Painting! It was amazing Mrs Baines and Miss Ainsley covered the classroom with paper, put out lots of coloured paints in pallets, lots of brushes, rollers, sponges, stampers and whatever the children chose to add themselves including cars and dolls. The children were given the space and freedom to explore the paint on a larger scale to print, make marks, paint their bodies, their friend’s bodies and Mrs Baines, Miss Ainsley and even Mrs Garside faces and arms! What a fantastic fun creative time we all had, I’m sure the children will have lots to tell their grown ups about the fun they had together doing this! The fun just doesn’t stop in our 2 Year Old Room! 

Children are naturally curious and creative, it is our job to give your child the freedom, space, and materials to explore and let their creativity flourish and blossom to its full potential! Here is the results from this week of the fun art work for you to see…

           Spring 2/Week 1: 3rd - 7th March 2025

Welcome back, we hope everyone has had a fantastic week off and a lovely well deserved rest with their loved ones! Our focus rhyme this week is ‘Pat a cake Pat a cake’ as well enjoying activities for Shrove Tuesday/Pancake Day and World Book Day!! What a great busy we have had this week, the children enjoyed mixing up lots of pancake ingredients in the tuff-spot tray using a variety of equipment including wooden spoons, whisks and pans they enjoyed exploring the mixture, combining it all together by mixing, pouring, filling and stirring also using their senses to smell and feel. On Tuesday the children had a yummy pancake at snack time, where they added their own choice of toppings including chocolate sauce, strawberries, blueberries, bananas and even squirty cream they were just “DELICIOUS”, they were so good that there were lots of sticky faces afterwards! The children also used their imaginations and made their own pretend cakes with play-dough squashing, patting, pressing and squeezing they added cocoa powder, sprinkles and pom- poms for cherries they smelt yummy, they even popped them in the oven for themselves and the baby!

The mud kitchen has been very popular this week too as the children made lots of delicious food and drinks even “Scetti bolognese” and “hot chocolate!” They have been on an adventure on the pretend bus they have been rolling tyres, balancing on the beams, zooming in and out on the bikes and cars and also loved “Ring-A-Ring o Roses!” promoting the child’s cognitive and development involving patience and timing.

World Book Day the children came dressed as their favourite “character” or “word” and we must say they all looked fabulous, we shared together some of our favourite stories together and also popped along to the library, where they quietly chose a book, scanned it and took it home to read and share with their grown ups.
 

We ended our week by making some delicious “Pat-a-cake, pat-a -cakes” together taking it in turns to mix up the mixture, using their fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination and practicing turn taking and sharing. They were then enjoyed at snack time. What busy busy bakers we have been this week…& Mrs Baines and Miss Ainsley have lots more fun planned for next week and weeks to follow!!

Shrove Tuesday/Pancake Day - 4th March 2025:

Spring 1/Week 7: 17th -21st February 2025

“Polly put the kettle on” was our focus nursery rhyme this week and we have had a

TEA-RRIFIC WEEK in our 2 year old room, it’s been like a tearoom all week (no one could possibly have tasted tea like ours it was delicious). Using a variety of different flavoured tea bags in the water tray and tuff tray the children enjoyed pouring cups of tea with their friends, practicing good communication and language skills as they talked and shared with each other about what colours and what smells they thought their cups of tea were like helping to stimulate their senses. Some said theirs smelt of lemons and some smelt of strawberries and some was even pink and was like coffee. Promoting hand-eye coordination the children used a variety of jugs bowls cups spoons and teapots to pour empty and fill. Oh and not forgetting the sugar lumps!

Also during a fun, messy and sensory-rich art activity, using a variety of tea bags to paint with by dipping, plopping, trailing, squeezing into water and ripping open the tea bags the children created some amazing colourful art work. We also popped some herbs into the play-dough this week which the children said was like pizza there has been lots of nose twitching this week with all the lovely aromas.

Singing together the rhyme staff asked the children at the end (after sukey took it off again and they were all gone away).Where do you think they went? They decided they had maybe gone to the shop for biscuits. (Great thinking everyone!) 

SIP SIP HOORAY we have butterflies and what beautiful colourful butterflies we have too, carrying on from our “very hungry caterpillar” story the children made their very own butterfly which we are putting on our wall, promoting colour recognition and patterns as well as early symmetry, using a butterfly shaped template the children created wonderful colourful patterns using their fingers they then squashed down the other wing to make their beautiful art work. Our life cycle of the butterfly display is all completed. (Take a look below at the pictures)

We ended our week with our very own TEA PARTY the children independently made their own sandwiches they chose between jam or cheese spread this is a great yummy activity which helps to develop hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. We also had some delicious cake too. What a TEA-RRIFIC way to end our amazing term! We can’t wait to share with you what we will be getting up to after the half-term holidays…