Christmas Concert!

The preschool children have had a very busy last couple of weeks as they prepared for this weeks Christmas performance of Stickman. Each day has been filled with excited discussions about the play and what they would be wearing. Edward excitedly told his friends “I have a Stickman costume at my home!” To which Jasper replied “I have a dog costume!”. On the morning of the play, Arlo asked “Are our Mummies and Daddies coming to Stickman?” to which Freddie answered “They are coming later!”. The children have spent the last month practicing very hard each and everyday to remember their words and songs, and it was excellent to hear that a lot of them had been practicing at home too. It was so wonderful to see them all in their costumes at the final practice before the big performance and the children loved seeing each other in their costumes for the first time too. Sadie told Margot “I love your Snowman costume, look at my one too!”

As the parents filtered in, the children chattered excitedly amongst themselves, pointing out their parents and waving to them with big beaming grins on their faces. It was lovely to have such a great turnout! They did a fantastic job and brought the house down with their singing, causing a few Mummies and Daddies to shed a tear at how well they all did. The children received a well deserved round of applause at the end along with the cheers and sniffles. Lots of parents stuck around for some food and to socialise after the performance. Thank you to everyone who came along to support and well done to all the children for all their hard work! We hope you all have a fantastic Christmas and New Year!

Christmas Countdown!

The toddlers have had a great week with lots of Christmas themed activities and spending lots of time creating beautiful artwork to take home along with special cards and gifts made for their families. One activity the toddlers seemed to enjoy was writing a letter to Father Christmas. Cora sat at the table as soon as she saw the pens and began mark making, creating circles and swirls across her paper, “This is christmas”. Upon hearing the word ‘Christmas’ Margaux immediately piped up and shouted in excitement “Christmas tree, Christmas tree!”. This led to all of the children at the table chiming in and sharing about their own Christmas trees at home. The toddlers then engaged in conversations of how they wanted to spend their Christmas as well as what they wanted to eat. Finley said “I get presents and have a party” while Matilde said “I have cuddles with Mummy and Daddy”. Evie joined in stating “Yes, eating yummy food” while rubbing her hand in circles over her stomach. 

Later the next day the children were able to post their letters in the post box in the garden. Charlotte immediately knew what to do and took the letter in both hands and pushed it into the post box, clapping her hands together once it dropped in. After watching Charlotte do this Arlo and Lucy had a turn, taking their time to line up the letter with the entrance to the post box and pushing it all the way in. Lucy didn’t let go of her letter and pulled it out again, only to post it one more time with a smile of success on her face. Sebastian posted his letter and said “Do it again?”. So after sitting himself on the floor with some paper and pens he wrote another letter, getting up as soon as he had finished and posted his second letter to Father Christmas.

Over the last couple of weeks, the under twos have been getting very excited for the upcoming festive season. Together, the children have been decorating the room by painting and printing on bright coloured paper to make paper chains, along with rolling pine cones in paint to make hanging decorations. One activity the children thoroughly enjoyed was the paint splatting activity, using spoons and paint to create abstract marks across the paper. Henry stood patiently at the table whilst paper was set up and giggled every time a drop of paint hit the paper. Hearing Henry’s laughter, Theo soon approached the table and seemed eager to have a go. As they are absolute professionals at this activity now, the children got straight to work, lifting up the spoons and splatting that paint all over the place. Some paint splatter had made its way onto Zachary’s arm as they played, to which he pointed and said, “oh” and smiled, looking around to show his friends. 

 As the temperature is beginning to drop, the children have loved making dens in the garden using blankets and furniture. Before garden time, a den was set up with pillows, story books and toys inside. As the children went out into the garden, Skandar and Lowen were first to spot the den. Lowen, with a huge grin on his face said, “Ooooooo”, as he pointed in the direction of the den. Skandar was very curious too and bent down to have a look inside. After having a sneak peak, Skandar got down and crawled inside, shortly followed by Lowen and Theo! Together they sat, super cozy and having fun with their toys. 

Number 5 Hunt!

On a walk around the grounds, the children set off to look for the number of the week, number 5. Otto found the first number 5 on a speed limit sign, just at the top of the hill. Very excitedly he called out, “Look, there’s a number 5!”. Isabelle correctly pointed out, “That is so the cars need to go number 5 and slow”. When getting over the hill, Amelie found the next number 5, “There’s another car number 5 sign”. This time she used her finger to carefully trace over the number 5. Once the children got to the ducks, Basti stopped and used his eyes to count then tapped Joseph, “There’s 5 ducks” which then prompted his friends to count, “1, 2, 3, 4, 5”. On the way back to nursery, the children all collected 5 leaves to bring back to nursery for the nature tray. 

Over the last couple of weeks, the pre school children have been practising their fine motor skills in various ways. One of the activities the children really enjoyed was to cut along several shapes, numbers and letters. The letter of the week was ‘E’ and the children really challenged themselves to cut along each line of the letter. Whilst Esme was carefully cutting along the line, she announced to her fiends, “Do you know that E is for me, Esme?” With a proud smile on her face. Margot then wrote her whole name and drew a picture of her family before getting going to cut all of the letters and pictures out. After the children had successfully practised their cutting, they used various drawing and writing tools to decorate their pictures to take home. 

A group of pre school children chose to physically challenge themselves to build various sized towers and transport models with the Lego and duplo blocks. Freddie selected each piece he needed, reassuring Joshua, “It’s ok, I need just a few short pieces and then some longer pieces to connect it all together”. River and Jasper worked together to make a car transporter and listened to each others suggestions, River praising Jasper, “That’s a good idea”. Once the children had finished their models, they were comparing shapes and sizes. Cooper correctly noticed that the car transporter was smaller than the lorry whilst Freddie pointed out, “But the car transporter is taller”

Horses Leaves & Torches!

Whilst out on a walk around the grounds the toddlers were on the bridge saying hello to the ducks when they heard a familiar sound in the distance… it was the sound of a horse hooves on the path. They all turned their heads with Sebastian shouting, “Noise!?” And pointing with one hand while holding his other hand to his ear. Phoebe started making the clip clop sound of the horses feet with her mouth while other voices neighed. As they all moved closer the children were so excited to see a police man on one of the police horses who was kind enough to stop for a few minutes and say hello. Marlow shouted excitedly “A horse, a horse”. When it was time for the horse to go the children all waved and shouted “bye bye”.

One morning a group of toddlers approached the home corner with a cosy scene set up with the dolls. Halle immediately went over and after picking up one of the dolls she placed it onto the blanket and rubbed its back, as if she was trying to put it down for a nap. Meanwhile, Charlotte started to put a dress on her doll, giving its head a rub and then bringing it in for a cuddle once the doll was fully clothed.  Sienna started to feed her doll some bread, making a “Num num num” sound as she held the food to the dolls mouth. Once she had finished feeding her doll Sienna attempted to put some trousers on it when she paused and rubbed her hand over its tummy ‘He got belly butto’ which made her giggle and give it a little poke. 

One afternoon some of the children were drawn to the magnifying glasses and torches set up in the garden for them to explore with. Eliza and Phoebe both approached and picked up magnifying glasses, pressing them to their faces when Cara came along and picked up a torch, pointing it in their direction. Eliza then picked up a torch in her other hand and pointed it at a leaf. “Wow..leaf” leaning in as close as she could to get a good look. Phoebe watched as she did this and also picked up a leaf, instead holding it to the front of the torch, making a shocked face as the leaf glowed from the light. Marlow and Leo approached after hearing all of the gasps and ‘wows’ and straight away picked up their own torches. Leo pointed the beam of his torch up to the sky and carefully balanced a leaf on top, similarly showing a look of amazement. As he took in a deep breath and let out a whispered “Wow” his breath moved the leaf a little, causing it to wobble and Leo to say “ahh, oh no” as he extended his arm trying to maintain balance. Marlow saw this and began laughing, stating “leaf fall off” as he copied Leo’s actions with his own torch, cackling each time he was able to blow the leaf off the top. 

Over the last couple of weeks  the under 2’s have been exploring a sensory adventure with all kinds of textures and materials! 

Inside they have had the opportunity to explore chia seeds soaked in water which produces a thick, slime like material. Leo stuck his hands straight into the chia seeds and looked up with a big smile, letting them trickle through his fingers as he picked up a handful and let them fall through. When Madeleine saw him doing so, she quickly ran over and let out a ‘Wow!’ as she joined in. Another activity the children really enjoyed was playing with the oats in the sensory tray where they were given a range of tools to play with, including spoons, rakes, bowls and forks. Henry quickly got stuck in and picked up a spoon and toy ice cream cone, scooping up the oats and pouring them into the cone, making lots of ‘Oooww’ noises as he did so. Once he had filled up the cone, he tipped it upside down and watched as the oats fell out, clapping his hands in celebration. 

The children got to show off their artistic skills whilst mark making on cling film as they spread the blobs of paint over surface using a variety of tools such as rollers and brushes, and their hands. Skandar watched very closely as the paint was getting poured onto the table and very quickly got involved in the activity, slamming his hands straight down into the paint and making a huge ‘splat’ sound. Skandar looked around to see everyone with little spots of paint all over them and said “Oh.. Haha”. 

The under 2’s have loved exploring the grounds on our daily walks, particularly enjoying playing on the field with some balls and a parachute. Zachary loved playing with the parachute and let out a shout as he saw it getting pulled out, showing his excitement. He grabbed an edge of the parachute and began to flap it around, showing it proudly to his friends, and encouraging them to join in. Once a few more had got involved in waving the parachute around, they all sat down and gleefully watched as it got lifted up and thrown over them, all clapping and laughing happily. 

Planting Saplings!

Over the last couple of weeks, some of the preschool children have been helping to do some gardening, planting saplings of dog rose, hawthorn, hazel dogwood and crab apple at the front of the nursery which they will be able to observe growing into a hedge over the coming months and years. Izzy and Freddie were so eager to get going, Izzy proudly letting her friends know “You know I always help my mummy and daddy to do helpful things at home!”. One of the most exciting things for them was realising that they had a selection of their own child-sized gardening tools to help dig the holes. Amelie chose a fork to dig a small hole, stopping half way, before saying, “Tilly this is hard work isn’t it” with a smile. Tilly responded, “It’s ok, we can have a break soon and get some energy!”. Izzy started digging with a spade and Freddie challenged himself, “I think I need a grown-ups one because my hands are bigger now”, holding his hands up to show his friends. Once satisfied the holes were deep enough, Amelie asked, “What do we need to do now?” Confidently, Izzy explained, “Remember we need to bury the roots, down, down, underground”. 

After carefully selecting which sapling they each wanted to place in the ground, the children didn’t mind getting their hands muddy, digging down further to make sure the roots were fully covered. Once all the saplings were in the ground, Tilly went along the line counting from 1, all the way to 18 which soon caught the attention of the other children who then counted backward from 18 to 1, all of them clapping when they got to the end of the sapling line. Amelie stood next to the base of one of the saplings and told Freddie, “This is nearly at the top of my leg, and soon when we are bigger, it will be as tall as my shoulders!”. Out on a walk later that afternoon, Freddie was very proud to let some of the other children know that he had helped to plant the saplings, to which Otto replied, “Wow, that’s cool!”. 

Outside in the garden, the children had fun taking part in a letter hunt, searching for some smaller letters which were hidden in some foam. At first, Phoebe, Ollie, and Esmé used their hands to search for the letters until Arlo approached with a magnifying glass to look deeper. Once all the foam had disintegrated, Arlo, Arthur, and Isla were observing which letters they could find, Arthur very quickly called out excitedly, “Arthur” while pointing at the letter A.