2 Year Olds

Welcome to our 2 Year Old 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!

Children in need (pudsey bear day) 14/11/25

Today we had a very special visit from pudsey bear, the children were so excited when pudsey came into our nursery. We also had a fun day of activities, painting pudsey pictures, and making a yummy biscuit.

The children also enjoyed a sensory pudsey spaghetti tuff tray, and making their own pudsey bear in the playdoh area. What an exciting day.

Autumn 2/week 2/10-14th November 2025

This week we have been so busy with odd socks day, Remembrance Day, pudsey bear day and also having fun with activities linked to this weeks focus nursery rhyme which was “5 currant buns”, our weekly nursery rhymes are so beneficial to your child as they cover so many learning skills including new vocabulary, repetition and early rhyming which helps speech development. This weeks rhyme also learns basic maths concepts, and social skills, the children have loved taking turns, using their listening skills each taking it in turns with currant buns and penny props to buy a currant bun from their friends exchanging the penny prop for a currant bun during the rhyme. Each time a currant bun was bought, staff asked the children how many buns were left, we all counted the buns together, practising counting down from 5 as buns were bought, they did ever so well.

Being creative using paint, glue and paper plates the children made a currant bun, they painted half their plate brown and using their fine motor skills they used their fingertips to put on the currants using black paint, on the other half of their plate they glued their cherry on top. “They were just cherrific!”🍒

For snack this week we made our very own currant buns with a cherry on the top (“a few cherries mysterously went missing when it was time to put the buns in the oven!!”) Mrs Baines and Miss Ainsley had to get more from the tub, we still don’t know where they could of gone it’s such a mystery!! the children each took it in turns to mix the ingredients together add the currants and manipulate their dough ready for the oven, they enjoyed these when cooled for snack with a nice spread of butter, “delicious!”

We have enjoyed lots of messy, wet, muddy fun too this week in the mud planter and mud kitchen, transporting the water and mud into the mud kitchen, digging, pouring, mixing, filling, using the bowls, jugs,utensils, seives and of course hands, developing their fine motor skills, squishing and scooping whilst enjoying the sensory element feeling the textures of the mud.

Also outdoors in the tuff tray, the children got messy and sticky with gloopy baking ingredients, flour, cornstarch, sugar with added currants and cherries, they had lots of fun mixing in water, using a variety of utensils, enjoying sensory exploration describing what they could feel and see. 

“What a fun, messy week we have had!!!”

Take a look at our fun pictures from this week Mrs Baines and Miss Ainsley are super excited as we are thinking about our festive plans and activities which will be starting in the next couple of weeks “how exciting!”

Remembrance Day 11.11.25

Today we paid our respect on Remembrance Day. At 11am the children stood nice and quietly for 2 minutes (to pay our respects) as we looked and admired our wonderful poppy pictures on our nursery door. We gave Mrs hill our beautiful poppy wreath we had made during the week which was took to the memorial garden in hetton.

Today we also enjoyed making a poppy biscuit which we enjoyed for snack time. We enjoyed a sensory tuff tray which contained a big poppy made out of pastas and rice, which the children enjoyed exploring the textures with their hands, they also used spoons and bowls to pour and fill transporting to the home corner. The children made poppies with red play doh and black Pom Poms and had fun with the red water pouring and filling, having fun in the mud kitchen making “jelly” they said. “What a lovely day!!”.

Odd socks day 10.11.25

Today the children enjoyed a range of activities including pairing socks, this activity teaches the children early maths concepts including sorting, counting, pattern recognition and also colours. The children then used wooden pegs, helping to develop their fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination and finger strength whilst hanging the socks onto the washing line. Well done everyone!!!.

Outdoor classroom day Thursday 6th November 2025 

Wow what a fabulous day we have had today, the children were so excited to go outside to take part in lots of fun outdoor activities, these included:

Painting with a range of berries and spices enhancing their sensory development, creativity and confidence, adding mud and water whilst they “mashed” the berries into a pulp creating colours and creating textures. 

In the mud kitchen the children enjoyed making pretend soups with the vegetables using their fine motor skills whilst using a range of tools to mix the ingredients “yummy”.

The children had access to the water tray, the sand pit, the slide and swing, the bikes and we also had a delivery of top soil which the children were very excited about. 

This week we have learned the nursery rhyme “dingle dangle scarecrow” so there was no better way than to spend the day making our real life scarecrow for our garden he looks amazing and not scary at all in fact he looks quite friendly.

Using a scarecrow templates the children worked together to try and put mr scarecrow back together by placing his hat, face,body, legs and boots in the correct order. “Well done everyone!!” 

THATS NOT ALL!! how lucky are we, we actually got an amazing chance to go and visit our schools fire pit and have a toasted marshmallow and read “The gruffalo” story together, the children were amazing they held hands and walked very sensibly to the field following the grown ups instructions, we are so PROUD of them all.

“WHAT A GREAT DAY!!”

Autumn 2 / week 1/ 3-7th November 2025

Welcome back everyone to our autumn 2 term, this week started off with a “bang” we have had so much fun with lots of fireworks activities, whilst also enjoying our focus nursery rhyme which was “dingle dangle scarecrow” the children enjoyed joining in with the  rhyme and acting out the actions, being a scarecrow.

🎆The play dough table has been very colourful and sparkly this week, strengthening their fine motor skills whilst fostering their creativity and imagination the children enjoyed squeezing, rolling and manipulating the dough, they made some beautiful fireworks and stars, bending pipe cleaners and adding this to their creation.

The tuff trays this week have been very messy, and colourful too, promoting sensory exploration whilst supporting the children’s cognitive and language development, the children got their hands in and explored the textures of the fireworks tuff tray which contained colourful sand, glitter, Pom Poms and pipe cleaners, the children used their fingers and paintbrushes to create beautiful marks and patterns. 

Using pipe cleaners and sieves the children engaged for a while in a threading activity  using hand eye coordination, concentration and focus skills, placing the pipe cleaners into the holes of the sieve “well done everyone” lots of patience and perseverance you all had.

🎨🖌️Being creative, using a cardboard tube to stamp and swirl, black card and a variety of coloured paints and glitter the children made an amazing firework picture, I’m sure you will agree they were “dynamite”. 

🔨We had a smashing time too indoors, using bubble wrap, paints and a variety of tools including hammers to “bang” “smash” “splat” and rolling pins to “roll” and combine colours to create colours, potato mashers to “mash” and oh not forgetting our feet and fingers to also “pop” the bubble wrap while enjoying the sensory element of the activity. The finished art product was wonderful whilst the children enjoyed the whole process of this activity. We just love to get messy in our explorer room.

Outdoors we enjoyed a fireworks experiment using plastic cups, oil, water and food colouring, the children poured the water into the oil, then using a pipette they added drops of colour and watched as the colours swirled around in their cups, wow how amazing just like magic.

Also outdoors the children made lots of colourful marks and patterns, using chalks to create their very own fireworks, lines, dots, swirls, and zig zags.

💦Glow sticks and Pom Poms were added to the water trays, where the children enjoyed pouring and filling using a variety of tools including spoons ladles jugs, bowls and cups to transport the Pom Poms and slide them down the pipes.

🧑‍🍳Busy bakers again this week, star biscuits this week, rolling out the dough, cutting out the star and decorating their biscuit with icing and coloured firework sprinkles, “yummy” also not forgetting the delicious sparkler the children also made for snack this week on bonfire night, using breadsticks, taking it in turns using their attention and listening skills, and patience to wait for their turn to dip the stick into chocolate and sprinkles, of course they couldn’t wait to be told to eat it, they were just too delicious to wait for that instruction. 

For Remembrance Day this week the children got together and made a lovely poppy wreath made from cake cases, they each painted the cases red and popped a little black spot in the middle with a sponge, Mrs Baines and Miss Ainsley are so proud of each and everyone of them.

This week we also visited our school library for a lovely story the children did so well listening and following instructions, holding hands with their friends and walking “quietly” “sssh”. 

Wow what an “explosive” week we have had!!!!

Take a look at all our fun filled messy, sparkly awesome pictures from this week.

Autumn 1/week 7/20-24th October 2025

It’s the last week of our autumn term and what a wonderful frightful fun week we have had.

Our focus nursery rhyme this week has been incey wincey spider along with spooky, scary Halloween activities.

🎃We started off our week decorating our very own mini pumpkins using a variety of coloured paints, using a variety of collage materials and glue using the curiosity approach to explore and create. The children had a choice of coloured tissue paper, sequins, ribbons to design their own pumpkin, I’m sure you will agree they were beautiful and very unique, I hope you all have these displayed at home on your window sills to show them off for halloween.

There has been lots of colourful hands in the water tray this week “oh dear not real hands!” frozen ones, the children communicated with their friends and shared their vocabulary and language with one another, they told one another the hands were “cold” “hard” “spooky” and “juicy” they used the pipettes to squeeze and squirt water onto the hands to try and melt the ice, they then went to get hammer to smash the the ice, some children I think thought the hands were ice pops as they had a little slurp. They even gave Mrs Baines a “hi 5” with one of the hands, they thought this was very funny.

Also in the water tray this week we have had frozen shaving foam shaped ghosts, sliced citrus fruits, which the children have loved pouring and filling using various containers and utensils, there were also incey wincey spiders in the water tray too which were climbing up the water spout, the children used utensils to pour water down to wash poor incey wincey out.

In the tuff tray this week we have had lots of messy, sensory exploration including ghost shaving foam, Halloween spaghetti which contained lots of creepy crawlies and also Halloween jelly which also had creepy crawlies in, the children enjoyed making magic potions with the pumpkins together they were just amazing, the children loved exploring with their senses to feel, smell and also of course have a little taste.

🎨🧹🧙Our art work has been Spooktacular too this week, painting outdoors on a large scale, using witches brooms, the children got messy and pretended to fly like a witch across the yard, helping to develop their gross motor skills, running and jumping, they then dipped their brooms into more paint making colourful marks and patterns, this activity was so much fun we repeated this throughout the week they enjoyed it that much.

Using washing up liquid and paint the children had some popping fun using toilet roll tubes, the children brought their cauldron template to life with a magic potion art activity, stamping the tube onto the paper creating bubbles and circles.

👩‍🍳We have been extremely busy baking and enjoying food this week, we have all made scary colourful monster biscuits, squeezing, squashing and pinching our biscuit mix to create a monster shape using our hands and fingers to strengthen our hand and finger muscles, when the mix was cooked we chose our icing and added edible eyeballs, staff were that scared they didn’t want to get them out of the oven, there were some really scary shaped monsters in that oven, the children enjoyed these at snack time with their friends. Also for snack this week we enjoyed ghost banana lollies, covered in yummy squirty cream and choc chip eyes and mouth, “delicious!”

🎃Practising their fine motor skills the children made a pumpkin soup, they used their hands to “scoop” and “scrape”out the insides, using a safe knife and a chopping board the children “chopped”the pumpkin into little cubes, staff then added vegetable stock and cream, popped it into the slow cooker to cook and after a busy day the next day playing in the garden the children got all warm and cosy and enjoyed it for snack with some yummy pumpkin shaped bread. “Good job everyone I’m sure we have some great future cooks in our explorers room it looked and smelt delicious!”.

“Phew!!!!” what a week we have jam packed lots into this week but sadly we have come to the end of our autumn 1 term, in that 7 weeks we have had such a busy, fun time learning and making new friends all of the children have settled so well, we hope everyone has a lovely half term, we are already looking forward to coming back for more fun.

Take a look at all of our spooky fun pictures.

Autumn 1/week 6/13-17th October 2025

What eggciting adventures we have had this week in our explorer room. Our focus rhyme this week has been “Humpty Dumpty!” the children enjoyed joining in the rhyme together whilst joining in the actions by pretending to fall off the wall falling backwards onto the carpet.

🎨Being creative the children designed their very own Humpty Dumpty using felt tip pens to mark make, staff then cut out the Humpty Dumpty, the children then used the trial and error method to figure out which pieces fit together to put Humpty Dumpty back together again using plasters to stick the pieces together. 

🎨Using plastic egg shapes the children used coloured paints allowing experimentation and the freedom to create new colours whilst they created a collage of circles, helping to learn and identify shape recognition introducing early maths.

🎨In the tuff tray the children using the curiosity approach, they used open ended resources including a range of ribbons, foils, papers, sequins, paints and glue, to design their own Humpty Dumpty egg they enjoyed rolling, painting and sticking and creating their very own unique egg craft, the next day in the tuff tray they had a “smashing” time as they used hammers, rolling pins and even shakers to crack their hard boiled eggs under some bubble wrap paper which contained lots of colourful paints, which they explored with their hands and fingers to make secondary colours, there was a lot of communication and language from the children as they eggcitedly popped the bubble wrap “pop!” they all shouted “bang” this activity was so much fun.

👷In the construction area all of the children were very busy with the tools and the building bricks, as they built a wall for Humpty Dumpty to sit on, but “oh no!” he kept falling off, the children took it in turns with their friends to help built Humpty Dumpty a wall to sit on “well done everyone for taking turns and sharing with your friends!”.

🎃In the tuff tray outside using pumpkins, baking soda, white vinegar and washing up liquid we made some magic potions together, the children were so excited as they poured, scooped, and mixed the ingredients together, using some very good vocabulary with one another “exploding and lava!” Wow Mrs Baines and Miss Ainsley are super impressed.

🍁🍏For snack we made our very own autumn apple and blackberry crumble together taking it in turns to mix, and rub together the ingredients with a little cinnamon dusted on top, I must say it smelt and looked delicious, the children enjoyed this for snack with custard after a very busy day in the garden.

🪣Mentioning garden, wow we are so lucky we have had a gigantic sand pit delivered this week in our garden, the children have had so much fun exploring, digging, scooping, pouring and filling together with their friends.

🐥Also outside today we enjoyed making some autumn acorn bird feeders the children enjoyed squeezing the lard into the acorns and then rolling them into the bird seed on the tuff tray, using their hands and fingers helping to develop their fine motor skills, the children then went to hang their acorns into our garden.

📚This week we have started going to our school library again, the children were ever so good listening and following instructions as they quietly walked to the library, they then enjoyed a story together. We will be continuing this each week.

We have had a “cracking!” week again this week but unfortunately poor Humpty Dumpty didn’t get put back together again.

Take a look at our smashing pictures from their week I’m sure you will love them. We have a lot of spooky Halloween fun planned for our last week of our autumn term for next week, we can’t wait.

Autumn 1/week 5:6-10th October 2025

What  great adventures we have been on this week in our explorer room. Our focus nursery rhyme this week has been “old macdonalds had a farm!” Along with our seasonal autumn activities. At carpet time the children enjoyed joining in with staff to sing and also act out the noises and movements of the farm animals, they all paused and waited patiently using their attention and listening skills for staff to say their name and choose an animal, we had some funny animal noises in the room, they also enjoyed using the role play masks taking it in turns with their friends.

In the tuff tray we had some exciting sensory ingredients including a range of cereals, shaving foam with added farm animals including a barn, fences and even a farmer with his tractor. We also had some lovely autumnal tuff trays this week including a range of different coloured leaves, twigs, acorns and even Conkers which we also used to make some amazing art work using the shells from the conkers to stamp, mark make and make patterns. The children used their communication and language skills sharing their vocabulary with their friends about what they could see and feel in the tuff trays. The wibbly wobbly orange jelly was definitely the favourite this week along with mini pumpkins using their senses to smell, feel and taste the jelly (I think possibly they may of liked the taste best, who wouldn’t “yummy!”).

Using the farm animals the children enjoyed animal printing with the different variety of animal footprints, the children were really knowledgeable recognising size perception, telling staff there was a mammy sheep, and a baby sheep, a baby cow and a mammy cow, “well done everyone!”.

At the beginning of the week all of the children made a beautiful autumn wreath, using paper plates, autumn coloured paints, glue and autumn leaves, they are absolutely beautiful, I’m sure our grown ups are going to love them.

We also had cinnamon/ginger playdough this week with leaf shaped cutters where the children also made some wiggly worms and also some yummy cupcakes. 

The water tray was filled with sliced citrus fruits including limes/lemons/oranges where the children loved to pour and fill and make their own delicious potions and drinks.

We had lots of fun outdoors too this week playing on the bikes/cars and even a game of golf using apples and utensils in the garden, using their fine motor skills, hand eye coordination to pass the apple (ball) to their friends. The climbing frame was very popular too once again this week working on developing their gross motor skills including balancing, jumping, crawling and climbing. The children also had lots of fun on the horses inside and out, pretending to gallop chasing one another, the horses even had a drink and a look over the gate into nursery at the children having fun next door, the nursery children came over and stroked the horses. What a fun week once again.

Take a look at our fabulous pictures from this week, we have so much fun planned for the next 2 weeks, we just hope we can fit it all in n there might be a few spooky surprises too.

Autumn 1/week 4/ 29th September-3rd October 2025 

Our focus nursery rhyme this week was “Miss polly had a dolly!” along with some autumn season activities.🍂🍁

The children enjoyed joining in with the ryhme and acting out the actions during carpet time, they then had lots of fun dressing up as doctors and nurses acting out real life scenarios in the role play area, poor Mrs Baines went into surgery but with an x-ray, medicines and a couple of bandages she was fit and well to return to her duties in our 2 year old room, Phew!!! Miss Ainsley was so pleased.

It had a great autumnal feeling outdoors this week as we had lots of autumnal activities outdoors, in the tuff tray, we had some delicious blackberries and raspberries, the children enjoyed using a variety of tools to mash,chop,cut,squish and squash the berries, whilst also using their hands at times, to build up their hand and finger muscles and helping to practice developing their fine motor skills, their fingers were very handy too to accidentally pop the berries into their mouths “ooops!!!” but they were very juicy. After the berries were squished the children used a variety of brushes and stampers to create some lovely paintings on the wall they were berry good.

Also in the tuff tray this week the children have participated in a pine cone rolling art activity and an apple stamping art activity using the apples to “stamp!”whilst also using the apples to “roll!” down the chute into the water too, using their vocabulary whilst doing so. Pouring and filling and transporting is the children’s best thing to do, in the water tray using funnels,spoons, jugs, and other utensils, they mixed, stirred,scooped poured and filled the water jugs with sliced lemon and limes to make delicious potions with their friends.

In the water tray the dolly's all got a good wash, using sponges and cloths to squeeze and wring out, the children washed and dried the dolls together.

At the play doh table this week, staff added a variety of herbs to the table, the children used their senses to smell, look and feel the different herbs, using their language and communication skills, the children told staff what they thought the herbs smelt, looked and felt like, some children even had a sneaky taste which I don’t think went down to well, they also used the herbs to add to their delicious meals they had made in the mud kitchen outdoors, Oh and the dinosaurs didn’t want to miss out either so they also had a taste, “yummy!” the children are doing ever so well on sharing with their friends and the dinosaurs “well done!”.

Again lots of fun outdoors everyday this week, the tyres and bikes have been very popular, building with the tyres sharing and taking turns with their friends, Mrs Baines and Miss Ainsley are so proud of how amazing you all are.

Take a look at our lovely pictures, and next week we will have a new rhyme and will continue with some more exciting autumn activities.

Autumn 1/ week 3/ 22-26th September 2025

What another fun week we have all had in our explorer room. Our focus nursery rhyme this week was “Baa baa black sheep” the children have enjoyed learning and joining in the rhyme with their friends whilst joining in with the actions using their fingers to count “1 for the master, 1 for the dame and 1 for the little boy who lives down the lane!” Introducing early maths, they all did amazing and have settled into their new routine so well, coming to the carpet for our daily welcome song singing hello to their friends and singing “If you’re happy and you know it!” singing and acting out the different emotions, “happy” “sad” “angry” and “scared”.

Whilst being creative in an open ended activity outdoors, using wooden clothes pegs, cotton wool and black paint, the children got creative mark making creating a variety of pattens using pincer grip (helping to strengthen the fingers) they coloured in baa baa black sheep along side each other, they had so much fun together.

The tuff tray this week has been fun too, the farm animals where stuck in the mud, the children enjoyed the sensory exploration of muddy gloop along with the variety of farm animals, using their vocabulary the children told staff there was a “mammy” sheep and a “baby” sheep, recognising the comparison in sizes “bigger” and “smaller” using their communication and language skills they were able to tell staff the sounds that a sheep makes “baa” along with other farm animals sounds “moo” and “oink” they also had fun making footprints with the different farm animals “stamping” and “stomping” the animals into the paint.

Also this week the children were introduced to clay and what a Roar-some time they had making a dinosaur park, they added trees and lots of dinosaurs using all of the different tools to cut, scrape, chop and mash, whilst squeezing, squashing, patting, rolling  and pressing using their fine motor skills. “ROAR!!”.

The weather has been fine this week, so we have had lots of fun outdoors accessing all of the lovely areas in our garden, getting muddy in our mud kitchen, fun splashing in our water trays, quiet time in our reading den, making ramps for the bikes and practising our gross motor skills on our climbing frames. The fun just does not stop in our explorer room and garden, take a look at our pictures from our adventures from this week, more adventures are already being planned for next week where we will be introducing a new nursery rhyme to the children, “we can’t wait!”.

Autumn 1/week 2: 15-19th September 2025

Wow what a fun, messy week we have had this week. Our focus nursery rhyme this week has been “Twinkle, twinkle little star !”the children have loved joining in the rhyme with Staff and their friends whilst also copying the actions using their hands to twinkle the stars up in the sky reaching up tall. 

Getting creative,the children made their very own “star” wand, they decorated their star using the curiosity approach using glue and a variety of sequins, staff then helped to stick the star to a lollipop stick, they then used their wands at carpet time to sing the nursery rhyme. The children even sang to Mrs hill who was super impressed. The tuff trays this week has been a range of lots of sensory based ingredients, we have had lots of dried pasta, rice and lentils, which the children have loved to pour and fill, we have have had sparkly starry rainbow shaving foam and even a large golden spaghetti star shaped tuff tray, using their senses the children have loved exploring all of the ingredients with their hands to feel, using their nose to smell and even on the odd occasion having a little taste, using their vocabulary to tell staff what it felt, smelt and even tasted like “Yuk!!”

We have been very busy baking star biscuits too, rolling out the mixture using their fine motor skills, then cutting out the star shapes using different sizes cutters using their vocabulary “little” and “big”. We hope all of the grown ups enjoyed sharing their yummy biscuits with a nice cup of tea at home!” (I must say they looked delicious).

We have been very creative this week, the art work was just super, first of all the children made their very own starry night picture, using black card and gold and silver paint using again a variety of different size star cutters, staff modelled to the children how to stamp to make the star shape appear on their picture “stamp” “star” they said again using their communication and language skills, as they stamped the cutter onto the card. Well done everyone!

The children were so excited as they got to make a colourful sparkly sensory bottle, using Pom Poms, glitter, sequins and water, using their fine motor skills, hand eye coordination and cognitive skills whilst pouring the water using grip strength to carefully pour in the water. They were just amazing, what superstars you all are!

But I think the best time this week has definitely been the love of being outdoors in our lovely spacious garden, Wow we have all had the best time, we have made a den (which they loved so much we had our snacks inside). We got all muddy in our giant mud planter together, where the children enjoyed digging, pouring, filling, mixing in water and even raking up the soil, there was even a digger in the soil too. The children transported the mud to and from the mud kitchen making the most delicious foods, drinks and potions for their friends.

Also outdoors, whilst wearing waterproofs and wellies the children “gave it some welly” and made a beautiful colourful wall art for our 2 year old provision using their gross motor skills, standing, jumping in a variety lots of different coloured paint they mixed and combined the colours together to create new colours developing their colour recognition skills. “I’m sure this is going to look just amazing up on our wall, well done everyone!!!”

Phew!! what a busy, fun, messy exciting week we have had, we have lots more planned and also a new nursery rhyme to sing, We look forward to lots more fun next week.

Have a look at all of our fun pictures I’m sure you will love them.

Autumn 1/week 1/ 8-12 September 2025

Welcome back everyone to the first week of our new academic year, and what a fun week it has been! It has been so lovely welcoming 5 new starters to our explorer room as well as welcoming our wonderful recent children back to the setting. We are so proud of how well they have settled in and how well they have returned after the Summer Holidays! (It’s as if they haven’t been off, straight back to their routines). Well done everyone! The children have had lots of fun enjoying and exploring the environment and the different areas of play. Also enjoying joining in activities & accessing all of the resources available both indoors and outdoors!! We have had lots of fun learning our daily routine, reading stories, singing songs and also sitting smartly at snack time for some tasty healthy snacks. 
Next week we have lots of exciting activities planned where we will be starting off our week with learning a lovely nursery rhyme.

Mrs Baines and Miss Ainsley are super duper proud of each and every one of you.