🌈 Curiosity, Creativity and Collaboration – Hands-on Discovery in Early Years

This week at Fun Box Day Nursery, our children explored learning in the most natural way possible — through doing, experimenting, and sharing ideas together using frozen treasures, leaf graphs, colourful painting and outdoor play.

🧊 Ice, Curiosity and Discovery

Unity set up an inviting sensory experience for the children using ice blocks with small treasures frozen inside. The children used different tools to explore how they might “rescue” the objects — tapping, scraping and experimenting with warmth and pressure.

Our littlest ones also had their share of discoveries with exploring autumn leaves in the garden and getting their interest piqued by a Treasure Basket.

What started as simple play turned into something much more: an early STEM exploration (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). Without even realising it, the children were testing hypotheses, observing changes, and developing the persistence and fine motor control needed for more complex problem-solving later on — a wonderful example of hands-on discovery in early years.

🍂 Maths, Thinking and Intentional Teaching

Lena took this natural curiosity even further by creating a range of hands-on activities that focused on mathematical thinking and early reasoning.

The children sorted autumn leaves by colour, shape and size using a large graph to compare quantities, shapes, colours and patterns. Questions like “Which leaf family has the most?” and “How do we know?” prompted the children to count, compare and draw conclusions.

Following on from this activity, numbered leaves were hidden all around the garden and the children were encouraged to find them. They invisibly learned about quantities, number recognition and sorting.

This kind of intentional teaching brings the EYFS Mathematics area to life, showing children that numbers and patterns are part of the world around them.

🎨 Painting, Textures and Tiny Artists

Over in the baby room, Aleesha led some wonderfully messy creative sessions. Using edible paints made with yoghurt, the babies explored colours, textures and movement — a safe and sensory-rich way to encourage mark-making.

Meanwhile, our preschoolers experimented with large collaborative paintings using cardboard, different textured surfaces, rollers and brushes, strengthening their fine motor skills and creative confidence.

These experiences celebrate Expressive Arts and Design, encouraging each child to explore their individuality through texture, colour and movement.

🌬️ Teamwork and Turn-Taking Outdoors

Lena also organised some active outdoor fun with our parachute games — a brilliant way to build coordination, listening and collaboration. The children worked together to make the parachute rise and fall, predicting how the leaves would move next.

These shared moments supported Personal, Social and Emotional Development, teaching teamwork, patience and the joy of working towards a common goal.

🍁 Creative Collages and Autumn Wreaths

The older children also created autumn wreaths using real leaves, seeds and twigs. Each wreath reflected a child’s own ideas and choices — combining creativity with observation and design thinking.

It was a lovely way to connect Understanding the World with Expressive Arts and Design, bringing together science, art and imagination.

🌟 Learning That Grows With Curiosity

At Fun Box, we believe that meaningful learning happens when curiosity meets intention. Some discoveries start by chance, others are planned with purpose — but together they help children become confident, capable and creative thinkers.

Every question, every “what if”, and every shared smile builds the foundation for a lifelong love of hands-on discovery in early years.

#FunBoxDayNursery #HandsOnDiscovery #EarlyYearsSTEM