Big Trucks, Fruit Prints & More: This Week’s EYFS Adventures🎨🚛🧘

What a wonderfully busy and engaging week it’s been here at Fun Box Day Nursery in Totton! As always, our activities have been shaped by the children’s interests, allowing them to lead the way as they explore, experiment and create. This child-led approach is at the heart of everything we do — supporting learning across all areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) through meaningful, playful experiences.

Here’s a look at what we got up to this week:

🎲 Pattern Play and Tabletop Games

We kicked off the week with a selection of tabletop games designed to challenge thinking, boost coordination and encourage collaborative play. The children engaged with:

• A fruit lolly matching game, where they followed numbered pattern cards to place wooden lollies into slots from 1 to 5.

• A fishbone colour sequencing activity, where children carefully matched coloured rods between wooden fish heads and tails, following specific colour sequences.

• Animal dominoes, encouraging turn-taking, pattern recognition and problem-solving.

These games supported the EYFS areas of Mathematics, Communication and Language, and Personal, Social and Emotional Development, all while having a brilliant time working together.

🍊 Exploring Fruit Prints

Next, we delved into the world of fruit printing. The children examined apples, oranges and lemons, exploring their textures and shapes after they were sliced in half. Then came the colourful fun — pressing them into paint and stamping them onto paper to discover the unique prints each fruit created.

This activity was rich in Expressive Arts and Design and supported Understanding the World as children observed patterns, discussed smells and textures, and experimented with colour and pressure.

🚒 Big Trucks and Imaginative Play

Later in the week, there was a strong interest in our collection of large toy vehicles, which included a fire engine, bus, police car, DHL van, tow truck, and even a dinosaur-themed truck. Many of these had buttons that activated lights and sirens, sparking imaginative role play and plenty of lively sound effects!

Some of the trucks also included toy screws, allowing the children to become ‘mechanics’ — removing and reattaching parts. This supported Physical Development through fine motor skills and linked beautifully to Understanding the World through real-world role play and problem-solving.

📦 Building Our Own Big Truck

Inspired by their truck play, the children decided to build a truck of their own using a large cardboard box. Together, they decorated it with colourful paper, glitter, bottle tops and recycled materials. This open-ended, collaborative project encouraged creativity, communication, and decision-making.

This hands-on experience connected to Expressive Arts and Design, Communication and Language, and Personal, Social and Emotional Development as children shared materials, ideas and excitement.

🧘 Guided Children’s Yoga

We also made time to slow down with a calming session of children’s yoga. The children listened carefully to instructions and followed along with gentle movements and breathing techniques.

This activity supported Physical Development through balance and coordination and contributed to Personal, Social and Emotional Development by promoting calm, self-awareness, and emotional regulation.

🎨 Marble Painting with Rolling Balls

In one of our most visually exciting activities, the children tried marbling paint with rolling balls. They placed paper in trays, added a few small drops of paint, and then tilted the trays to move a small ball across the surface. As the ball rolled through the colours, it created beautiful swirling patterns.

This activity supported Expressive Arts and Design and Physical Development, as children practised coordination and explored colour mixing in a highly sensory way.

👐 Clay Bowl Creations

Later in the week, the children had the chance to create small bowls from clay using only their fingers. They pinched, pressed and shaped the clay with care, developing their fine motor skills and exploring the properties of this natural material.

This tactile activity supported Expressive Arts and Design and encouraged concentration, perseverance, and a sense of achievement.

⚖️ Measuring with Lentils

We rounded off the week with a calm and absorbing lentil pouring and measuring activity. Using scoops, spoons and funnels, the children transferred lentils into small bowls, experimenting with volume and quantity.

This activity connected directly to Mathematics (particularly early concepts of measure and capacity) and Understanding the World through sensory exploration.

EYFS Adventures

Each activity this week was sparked by the children’s own interests — a perfect example of how child-led learning creates rich opportunities for exploration, creativity and development and turns them into EYFS adventures. Through play, our children have built skills across all seven EYFS areas, while building friendships, confidence, and joy along the way.

We’re already looking forward to seeing where their imaginations will take us next week!