A Visit to the Train Station!

The children loved going on a trip to Esher station to see the trains! They all wrapped up warm and bundled in the buggies with commentary from a lot of them about what they were going to see. On the walk to the station the buggies passed a construction zone that Evie labelled as “so noisy” and Imogen pointed out the dog barking from a nearby garden and began barking back. As the children arrived at the station they were lucky enough to see a train quite quickly, although once it had passed and it was quiet again Phoebe looked around and said “Where they gone?” while swivelling her head form side to side, looking for more. It wasn’t long before more followed, at one point two went past at the same time, causing Jenson so giggle and say “More please”. Eliza began calling out for the trains by saying “Choo choo” and cheering when another went past. When it was time to leave the trains and return to nursery the toddlers left the station  with a final wave a “Bye bye” to the trains. 

Over the last couple of weeks, the toddlers have been loving the theme of transport and have had the chance to explore lots of themed activities. Arlo, Leo and Clara were very intrigued by an aeroplane activity where they were able to fly lolly stick aeroplanes through crazy foam clouds. To start with, they dove their hands straight into the crazy foam with lots of smiles and giggles, but upon Clara picking up one of the aeroplanes to take a closer look, the others joined in one by one. It wasn’t until Leo quickly plopped it into the crazy foam, gaining a cackle from Arlo, they began diving and scooping the aeroplanes through the clouds. Clara started to add sounds to this, “Niioow” which made Leo and Arlo laugh even more!

Recently, the under twos have thoroughly enjoyed their malleable play and being able to explore senses such as touch, look and smell. Inside, the children took part in a baby spa session where they could kick and splash in a builders tray, filled with a little warm water and crazy foam bubbles. Lowen showed no hesitation and stepped straight in, sitting himself down and grabbing two huge handfuls of crazy foam. He lifted each hand in the air and giggled with excitement as the crazy foam fell off and dropped onto his legs. Freya and Lyra kicked their legs and feet and laughed as the foam moved around them. Emilia found all of her friends very amusing and sat happily as she watched them.

Outside, the children have adored their adventurous walks, experiencing different kinds of weather and spotting animals along the way. One day in the garden, the children were intrigued when they saw something new. Sophia went for a look and found some ramps and a box full of colourful balls. Her ball of choice was a bright purple ball which she lifted up into the air to show her friends. As more of the children approached, Isabella tried her best to work out what the ramps were for. She picked up a yellow ball and threw it up the ramp for it to then roll all the way back down. Isabella said, “Ohhhh!” as the ball dropped onto the floor in front of her, which encouraged her friends to join in and experience the fun she was having. 

Dragon Parades & New Flavours!

The last two weeks in preschool have been filled with lots of wonderful activities as the children have celebrated the Chinese New Year! The children worked hard to create the dragon for our dragon dance as they took turns to paint the head and the body of the dragon. Whilst painting the dragon’s head, Phoebe said “We need to make the dragon red all over!” River added “The dragon is going to have really big teeth!”. Harry was painting the body and proudly showed his friends his handy work, saying “My dragon is so so red!”. When the dragon was finished, the children had lots of fun taking part in the special dragon dance and listening to traditional Chinese music. They took turns to parade the dragon around Preschool Room whilst dancing with ribbons, as well as dressing in jackets and dresses from the Chinese culture. Oliver excitedly said, “I really want a turn to hold the head!”, whilst Joseph enjoyed roaring as he took his turn to parade the dragon.

The children also had the opportunity to join in with a Chinese food tasting as they tried sweet and sour noodles, egg fried rice, prawn crackers and lychee juice. Santiago enjoyed the food; telling his friends “I like it all!”. Francis however really liked the lychee juice; saying “The juice is so yummy, can I have some more please?”.

The preschoolers have also had fun joining in with some baking, as they measured out and mixed their ingredients to make some bread rolls! Otto used the water station and a jug to pour out and measure the water to the line, saying “That’s enough water now!”. Amelie really enjoyed adding her ingredients to her mixing bowl and giving them a good stir, turning to Esmeralda beside her and saying “Look at my one Esme! It is really sticky!”. Esmeralda replied “And mine is too!” causing the two of them to share a laugh.

Snake Sock Puppets & Firework Paintings!

The toddlers have had a great time learning all about the Lunar New Year this past week, by joining in with lots of themed activities including using chopsticks in the home corner, making lanterns and paint splatting firework pictures. One day, the children all brought in their own socks to make a snake in the form of a sock puppet, to represent the year of the snake. Lots of the children walked in with happy smiles showing off their different coloured socks that they were going to decorate after breakfast. Whilst eating her toast and cereal, Sienna told each of her friends that walked in “Making a sock puppet”, informing them of the days plans with a big excited grin. Sebastian said, “I got lots of socks.. sharing” while holding out a big handful of spare socks to show everybody he had extras, just in case anyone forgot their own! While decorating her sock, Emily began hissing like a snake “Ssssss” which made her friends giggle. Evie explained, “We going to put our arm inside when it’s dry” as she decorated her sock with colourful paint and lots of pom-poms and googly eyes.

Outside, the children enjoyed role playing as dragons and stomping around the garden with big almighty roars. As the weather was cold and the children’s breaths were visible this added to the effect, with Cora pointing to her mouth as she watched her the white clouds float across the garden and saying “Like a dragon!”. The toddlers had a great time attempting to take part in a dragon dance that quickly turned into an impromptu dance party! Imogen began bending at the knees to the beat of the music while Clara and Leo jumped up and down together. Charlotte continued on stomping and roaring as she moved in circles along with the music.

Over the last couple of weeks the under 2’s have loved getting involved in a wide range of activities inside and out, exploring nature and introducing them to Chinese New Year! Whilst out on daily walks, they have explored different types of weather and nature, seeing what materials could be found. The children would stop off at different points of the grounds to come out of the buggies and collect items such as sticks, bark and leaves, to be used to make pictures. Meanwhile, the walkers of the room also went on a trip of their own to explore the grounds on foot and go to feed the ducks. Lyra very excitedly shouted “Quack quack” as she saw the first duck, and then looked over happily as she watched more appear from under the bridge. Theo smiled as he waved over at the ducks, getting very excited as they approached. 

The under 2’s have also gotten involved in some activities with inspiration from Chinese New Year, focusing on the celebration colours. One of the activities they got involved in was finger painting, with paper laid across the table and paint spread along for the children to get their hands in! Sophia quickly made her way over and slapped her hands onto the table, spraying the paint everywhere and giggling happily as she did so. They all got involved and made some beautiful pictures on the paper, showing off their artistic skills! Another Chinese New Year activity was making some ‘fireworks’ on the builders tray using the baby mops and chalk paint. The children were able to dip their baby mops into the pots filled with chalk paint and ‘splat’ them onto the tray, creating firework displays of all different colours! Zakariya splatted his mop and let out a quiet ‘Wow’ as he watched the paint explode off of it, smiling happily. 

Counting Cubes & Searching for Letters!

It’s been a fantastic fun filled 2 weeks in preschool as the children have settled back in following the Christmas break and have been getting stuck in to all the activities on offer. Isabelle and Eloise really enjoyed creating number lines with the counting cubes. Eloise quickly added cubes along her line; packing them tightly together to fit as many as possible. When she was finished she counted her cubes and excitedly told Isabelle “I have ten cubes in my line!”. Isabelle replied “I am doing the longest line, I wonder how many there will be!”. She stretched across the table as she added the last cubes to her number line and worked together with Eloise to count how many she had used. The two of them counted the cubes all the way to thirty, with only a little help. Isabelle proudly exclaimed “Wow! That is so many!” The Children also had a great time creating snowflake artwork to display in the preschool room. Matilda used a cotton bud to make lots of dots on her piece of paper and told her friends “Look at my one, there are lots of snowflakes!” Harry, however, used a paint brush and made big sweeping motions with his brush to cover his paper in blue paint. He showed his snowflake to Arlo, saying “My snowflake is really big!”

Out in the garden, Isabelle, India and Isla had fun investigating an intriguing activity in the tough tray. The three of them used their magnifying glasses to examine the tray, looking at lots of little letters that had been scattered around, in search of letters from their names. India then suddenly said “Look, it’s ‘I’ for India!” Isabelle quickly replied “That’s in my name too!” Isla then added “And me too! But my sister has ‘A’ for Ada.” The three of them searched a while longer for the letters of their brothers and sisters’ names and invited even more friends to search for theirs as well!

Frost & Lightboxes!

The toddlers have been loving the recent garden make over! They have jumped straight into the exploring every area, finding lots of excitement in the different placement of some of their favourite toys, play areas and climbing apparatus. One morning when it was particularly chilly, there was a layer of frost on one of the tables which intrigued some of the children. Eliza approached straight away and exclaimed “oh no!” at the sight of the once brown table turned white, and placed her hand on it. Madeline and Jenson followed suit, placing their hands on the table too with Madeline quickly retracting it and holding it close to her chest, giving a large shiver to show that it was cold. Jenson giggled and began stroking the table and commented, “Cold”. As Jenson moved his hand across the table, it left some marks in the frost which then encouraged the other children to touch the table and make their own marks. Eliza chose to use a stick while Jenson and Cara used their hands. Phoebe found a piece of wood and placed it on the table and began moving it back and forth, creating much larger marks which made her smile.

Back inside, the children have been enjoying using the new light boxes to investigate colourful blocks, insect toys from the nature tray as well as leaves, bark, petals and other items collected from the garden and while on walks. Imogen showed a big interest in this and immediately began carefully stacking blocks to build a tower. Leo picked up a leaf and pressed it down on the light box, leaning in close with a smile as he slid the leaf around. Evelyn watched this for a few moments, before approaching the nature tray and picking up a magnifying glass to bring over, commenting, “Ooo, what’s that?” as Leo had now swapped his leaf for a thin piece of bark. Evelyn leaned in close with the magnifying glass for a few moments before holding it up to Leo’s face, “Here Leo, you have a turn now… what can you see?”.

The under two’s have thoroughly enjoyed their first weeks of 2025 at nursery, and have been very happy in welcoming the new starters! The children have had lots of exciting activities prepared for them involving lots of fun challenges including a game where they searched for hidden animals. Farm animals were hidden under pieces of tape to reveal a new and exciting animal! Skandar and Lyra came over to have a look, intrigued by what they saw and began peeling off the tape. Bit by bit, they got closer to finding out which animal they were going to find. Lowen managed to peel off each piece of tape and found a horse. Next was a pig, which was shortly followed by a duck. A few more children came to have a look once the animals began appearing. Lyra lined up the animals on top of the tray and pointed to each one, “Neigh, oink oink, quack!”. 

In the garden and on a daily walk, the children have been experiencing the winter season, wrapping up warm, going on frosty walks in the buggy and hearing the crunchy noise of ice beneath the wheels. Whilst out a walk, Skandar came across a puddle that had completely frozen over and went to explore. He crouched down next to the puddle and touched the surface with his hand, pulling away quickly and giggling from the cold. Giulia was intrigued so checked it out for herself, leaning over and to feel the ice too. She screamed with excitement and laughter as she said, “Oh!” and leant down to touch it again.