The Grand Depart

Recently we were very lucky to have the Grand Depart in our county, not only that it was practically on our doorstep. Excitement had been building in the weeks running up to the big day, hundreds of yellow bikes had been popping up all around where we live. Little Mr had been spotting them everywhere we had been and even went on a bike hunt with his pre-school.

No non of us would proclaim to be massive cycling fans but we certainly did not want to miss out on such a momentous day in our beautiful city. We wanted to make our way down early so as to grab a good spot and ensure we saw all of the support vehicles that preceded the riders.  Little Mr loved watching the sponsors drive past but particularly enjoyed waving to all of the police bikes.

 

Eventually the riders appeared to huge rounds of applause, but were gone almost as quickly as they came. It was fab to see though.

 

It was fab to walk around the usually car packed streets so beautifully decorated. We soaked up the atmosphere along one of our favourite streets in York, Bishopthorpe Road. They had closed the street for a street party following the race.

Lets Catch Up

Yikes the last few weeks have just flown by. We have been so busy doing lots of exciting things and making the most of the end of my maternity leave that I have not had much time to do any blogging. Although I have taken oodles of pictures so I am sure some of the memories created will make there way on here soon.

Some of my favourite pictures from the last couple of weeks. So adorably cute and completely in love with each other when Little Miss leaves Little Mr's things alone that is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Tropical World

Recently we visited Tropical World. Our trip really captured Little Mr's imagination and he was keen to create somewhere to live for the insects that he bought from the gift shop.

 

 

 

Together we planned what he wanted to include. He thought of most of the ideas himself as he could recall what we had seen the previous day. Though he was adament we had seen cows and pigs, I must have missed those. He was also very keen to have a car, not very tropical but he wanted to be able to drive around his small world scene.

 

We have a large round tray, which we have used for many small world play themes. It is perfect as can be easily moved around. We then began to collect the other items we needed.

 

Little Mr eager as ever to start headed outside to collect some sand to start his Tropical play scene.

 

We have already had lots of play generated from such a small collection of objects. From track making in the sand, to insects hiding an needing to be found. I am sure that we can eek out a few more days of play before changing it over.

Some of the activities we will do with this small world play scene are:

Scientific Knowledge & Understanding - Identifying the names of the toy insects, looking after plants, naming parts of a plant.

Literacy - Role play opportunities & story telling

Numeracy - Counting insects, ordering insects by length, counting legs and simple problem solving.

We have lots of fun making small world play scenes. Have you made any? I would love to find out about yours.