In the lead up to the Christmas break, the children have been very busy celebrating with festive parties and Christmas dinners ! On this last week of the nursery year, we would like to let the pictures speak for themselves!
As a reminder: the nursery will be closed on Tuesday 23rd December and will reopen on Friday 2nd January.
We’d like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year and a well-earned restful break!
The preschool children have been very excited on the build up to their Christmas performance of Stick Man, and have been counting down the days until their mummies and daddies would be coming to watch them. The children have been doing group practices, helping each other with their lines and singing the songs together. A group of children set themselves up a stage in the garden using the wooden platforms and were putting on performances to each other, cheering at the end of each song. Many of the children have also been practicing their lines and songs at home. During a lunch time, a group of children were discussing which characters they were going to be in the play and were very excited to tell each other about their costumes for the big day. The day before the performance, the children were very excited to do a dress rehearsal for the toddler room children. Once their audience went back to the toddler room, the preschool children were excitedly having discussions between themselves about how the toddlers enjoyed their practice and that their mummies and daddies will be so happy and proud.
On the day of the performance, the children were very eager for it to be time for the play and were keen throughout the day to know how many minutes and hours it was until it was time for the show! Once in their seats and ready for the big moment, the children were very excited to welcome their parents with a big wave and a smile. The children put all of their hard work from their practice in to action and put on a lovely Stick man performance. The children confidently stood up in their groups to say their words, some children stepped in to say each other lines and some even choosing to narrate the play alongside Joe. Thank you all for a lovely turn out and well done to all of the preschool children for their fantastic show!
The preschool children have continued to explore nature over the last couple of weeks and have been very keen to ensure that the bird feeders are topped up with seeds, as well as observing the bug houses and nature crates on a daily basis. A group of the children went out to check the nature house with their magnifying glasses and had noticed a bird eating from the bird feeder. The children stood back and quietly watched as the bird sat perched on the bird feeder and ate the remainder of the seeds that were in there. This prompted a group of children to help to fill up the bird feeders, carefully scooping up spoonfuls of seeds and placing them in to the feeders. Whilst sat at the lunch table, a couple of children noticed a magpie and a crow eating the seeds that had fallen on the floor and were very excited that the birds were pecking at the food they had left out. Whilst a group of children were playing in the garden later in the afternoon, they noticed that a flock of birds had formed an arrow shape whilst flying through the sky and soon enough, they were all watching almost in amazement as lots more flocks flew past.
The children have been very busy practicing for their stick man Christmas concert next week and are very excited to perform this to their parents and are on a countdown. The children have been singing the songs throughout the day within their play and have especially been interested in the musical instruments to aid their singing. Some children have been doing performances to each other, whilst others have taken the story a little more serious and been sitting each other down with the book to take it in turns to practice their words.
We look forward to seeing the preschool parents at the concert this coming Wednesday at 4:00pm - more information can be found here.
The toddlers have been loving stories recently, even more so than usual, and have started to gather in groups in the book corner and other cosy areas of the room to read together. During free play, a couple of children sat themselves down with a story, then a few more, and then a few more, until every child was sat looking at a book. In one area two children were pointing and smiling at a dragon in a story, while a few other children began swapping their books once they had finished looking at them, “Here go, I have that one now.. you take this”. On the other side of the book corner one child had a book held open to three friends and began telling them all the story of “Zog”.
One morning, a few of the toddlers were taking part in different activities inside toddler room when all of a sudden it was noticed that through the doors to the garden there were large flakes floating down from the skies. As soon as the words “ITS SNOWING!” were announced they all ran outside in excitement and wonder, looking up to the skies with big smiles. After being quickly wrapped up warm in coats, hats and gloves there was no stopping them. A couple of the children began running laps of the garden with big beaming smiles and squeals of excitement while a few others moved more slowly, watching the snowflakes fall and holding out their hands to catch them. There was lots of giggles and comments of “There’s one on my nose!” and “There’s one your head!” as they all pointed out where the snow was landing. Meanwhile, another group of toddlers were on a walk around the Imber court grounds and had a whale of a time running around on the field in the snow, catching the flakes and chasing after them. Even though the snow didn’t settle it was such a magical moment for the children that it was the main conversation for the rest of the day!
Over the last couple of weeks in the Under 2s Room, the children have been exploring the weather as the seasons begin the change. During morning play, a few children approached the table set up for modelling with recycled materials so they could make a snowman for the winter display. Various sized boxes were spread across the table with a selection of paints and painting tools. The children scanned the table, looking for their choice of paintbrush and the artwork began. Some children chose chunky paint brushes to dip and paint, and others chose sponges to spread and dab the paint. As the children decorated the boxes they said, “Bang-bang!”, as they hit the paint brush down, giggling as it made a very loud sound! Once the painting was complete, a small group of children took part in some sticking and helped bring the snowman to life by adding a hat, scarf, carrot nose and some paper buttons. The final touch was sticks for the arms that the children helped collect during a walk around the Imber Court grounds.
Whilst in the garden, the children have enjoyed exploring everything winter has had to offer like falling leaves, icy sticks and even snow. The children were getting ready to go in the garden and in the middle of getting their coats on, a call came form outside shouting, “Snow, snow!”. The children hurried to the door to have a look, eyes beaming as they saw the huge snowflakes falling from the sky. After working their way outside, the children gathered in the garden and reached their hands out trying to catch the snowflakes. They looked around at each other, seemingly excited and giggling as they did. Some of the children even attempted the word ‘Snow’, copying the older children and adults around them.
Over the last couple of weeks, the preschool children have been engaging in many activities surrounding the focus of “Our families”. A group of children particularly enjoyed a play dough activity, firstly looking at pictures of their families on the family board in preschool and then moulding the dough in to shapes to form themselves and members of their families. Some chose to do mummies and daddies, whilst others chose siblings and some children even tried to mould their pets. The children also enjoyed drawing their own family portraits whilst others chose to use natural resources such as leaves, sticks and pine cones to design 3D families.
A group of preschool children have enjoyed a trip to the local shops this week to purchase fruits to make some fruit kebabs. The children made their lists of favourite fruits before setting off to go to the shops and took their lists with them to be able to find the fruits they would like. Once they had gathered all of the ingredients and placed them in the basket, some of the children were very excited to scan the items through the till, with a couple of children discussing how much money they think they need to pay. Once back at nursery, all of the preschool children enjoyed making their own fruit kebab skewers, selecting the fruits they would like to try.
Outside in the garden, the children fully embraced a snowy morning. Some of the children were so eager to get out in to the snow, they had a little run around in it before returning for their coats to be able to stay out and play in the snow. Some of the children stared up almost in amazement at the sky, letting the snow fall on to their faces, some even opening up their mouths to catch the snowflakes. A couple of the children agreed that it must now be Christmas time because it was snowing!
Molesey Day Nursery Childcare Hamptons Day Nursery Tadpoles Nursery
