January fun at Hampton

Happy New Year to everyone! It has been lovely to welcome the children back, and a welcome also to the new children and their families. The children have been busy as usual! Oliver and Sophia created different artwork with lovely cutting and sticking. Oliver finished sticking and decided instead to make a game of rolling the pom poms off the table, which made Sophia laugh and she was eager to join in, and when one fell off Oliver said ‘Uh-oh!’ The children explored colour as they explored the peg boards and sorting dinosaurs, and Varun used the pegs and boards to make wonderful patterns. Meanwhile Zach and William used the dinosaurs and wooden blocks to make a lovely pathway through the nursery.

The Children have also played with some small world models. Jasper much preferred the cars playing with Lyra and Ines on a roadway and car park moving the cars around together, and when they crashed they all laughed and started to push their cars as far away from each other as possible, then rushing back together. Ines said ‘Look, we crashed! Hlenhaze loved the train track and spent a long time building it. Zayne came over to play and accidentally stumbled into and broke the track; however this gave the children a new idea, of racing the train around the track and when it fell off the gap created they would laugh and start again. The Children also went on walks, and on one in the park looked for different flowers pointing them out. They also spotted some tall trees, Alba pointed up and said ‘Ooow’ whilst Isla ran around babbling away. Eve and Xanthe spoke about the tree, and Eve said ‘I want to climb it’, Xanthe replied ‘Climb it? You can’t climb it!’

The babies had a good time on the baby gym. Bodie used the steering wheel to spin around whilst Jessie went down the slide shouting ‘Down!’ They have also enjoyed a light disco, and Emma loved experimenting with the light shakers as crawled around the room. Isla and Alba danced around to the music and Alba said ‘Blue!’ pointing to the blue lights. Well done!

Christmas parties and dinners week!

As this week is the last nursery news of the year, we wanted the pictures to do the talking! You will see all the lovely small group events in both nurseries to celebrate Christmas, which is always a magical time of the year for the children and staff team. There have been several parties with party games such as musical chairs and statues, pass the parcel and dancing with lots of smiles and laughter. A tasty Christmas roast lunch was served also this week and the children sat together very nicely, and sang Christmas songs afterwards.

Your children will bring home all the amazing things they have made in their Christmas bags which they have beautifully decorated. They also have a gift from Father Christmas inside which we hope they will enjoy! These will be brought home which you can treasure for years to come.

Thank you to those parents for your very kind gifts for the staff team which are greatly appreciated.

We all look forward to a more stable 2021 and to some sort of new normality, and wish you all a peaceful, happy and healthy Christmas and New Year.

Christmas is coming!

Over the past two weeks the children have been getting into the Christmas spirit! They have taken part in a variety of different Christmas activities, as well as reading Christmas stories and singing Christmas songs. The children and staff collectively have been working on a junk modelling project where they have made a life-size snowman. The children have decided to call him Snowy the Snowman and he is now on display in the window of the nursery! Whilst making the snowman Isla said “Hat, hat” rubbing her head as she helped to put the hat on the snowman, which fell off onto the floor. Alba said “Uh oh” laughing, and then she picked up the hat and put it on her head, dancing around the room !

Another activity that the children have really enjoyed taking part in recently has been Christmas themed stamp painting. We have stamps of Christmas trees, reindeers, stockings, and lots more, and the children dipped these in paint before printing them on the paper to make colourful festive pictures. The children have also been using our Christmas stencils to create pictures of snowmen using white paint on black paper to give a wintry effect. Ines said that she was a painter during these activities and that this is what she wanted to do when she is a grown up!

In the garden the children mixed up mud and water and used it to create their own mud painting pictures. They really enjoyed using the mixtures and Thomas decided to paint a dinosaur with the mud!

The children have been practicing their Christmas songs and have been great at remembering the words and some of the actions too; the favourite songs seem to be ‘When Santa got stuck up the chimney’ and ‘Jingle bells’. They have been listening to Christmas music and practicing their best dance moves to! They were very helpful and decorated the entire nursery with lots of tinsel, bunting and lights, and not forgetting the Christmas tree. They made many of the decorations , including some snowflakes and Christmas trees. Maxwell told us that ‘The elf comes to life at night-time and does silly things, he is always clumsy and if you touch him then the magic will go away!’.

Trolls and bridges!

The pre school children have taken a keen interest in ‘The Troll’ story book by Julia Donaldson this week. After reading the story, some of the children went off to build their own bridges. Eddie was pretending to be the troll and as he was balancing along the blocks, he was calling out, “Who’s that trip trapping over my bridge?” Each time he called it out, his friends were laughing and running away from him. William said to Eddie, “But I’m not the goat, I’m the mouse” and Millie replied, “Noooo, you’re the spider!”

The children did some planting in the raised bed this week. They planted some peas and looked through a gardening book on planting different types of seeds and where various produce grow. Ezra told his friends, “Apples grow on the trees and the potatoes under the ground”. Benjamin replied, “I know that because my mummy told me that”. They helped dig up some of the soil and each took it in turns to plant some seeds and then covered them back over with the soil. Shyla asked, “When this grows, can we climb it just like Jack and the beanstalk?”, to which Tom replied whilst watering the soil, “We need to pour loads of water to help them grow that big!”

The children also made their own versions of the story book, ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’ using their imaginations to add parts to the story and then told their stories to small groups of their friends. They then acted the book out in the garden, taking it in turns to be the bear in the tree house. When Max came out to scare his friends, he noticed his shadow on the floor as he raised his arms. The children then compared their shadow heights, Mateo telling everyone, “Mine is the tallest ever”.

This week toddlers have loved running around and exploring the outside. They went on a few trips over to the big field to have a run around and play some football, which the children loved! Zach and Rhys enjoyed kicking the ball short distances and walking after it to kick it away again. Leo found some mud and had a whale of a time digging and picking the grass, he said “Yuck it’s mud!” Ari and Leo had fun rolling around on the floor and laughing, Ari said “We laying down”. Millie went on a hunt for some leaves and secretly put them all in one staff’s pockets without her noticing! Fabian had lots of fun running as far as he could, laughing as he saw members of staff chasing after him! Toddlers also loved taking part in art activities, as usual! One day they made party masks, using the glue to stick on sequins and feathers. Connie took great care in adding the sequins one by one saying “It’s sparkly”. Ari added lots of sequins to his mask saying “No feathers”. Chloe was the opposite and got excited when she saw the feathers, grabbing handfuls to add to her mask. The children were very proud to wear their masks home as well as pose for some pictures !

This week in babies they have explored a lot of dry messy play ! They have enjoyed playing with the dry oats throwing them on the floor. Samuel, Harriet and Imogen swished the oats that’s were on the floor with their hands watching it fly around the room. When playing with the cereal Isla enjoyed mixing the cornflakes from the messy tray with the oats from the table scooping up handfuls and mixing them together. Tomas loved feeling the texture picking up handfuls of the cornflakes and squishing them in his hands, also enjoying the sound.

All of the babies explored the water play this week. Harriet loved splashing the water, making her friends around her wet. Everyone laughed, enjoying the game, and all joining in. Sophie loved it when the water was flicked in her face, closing her eyes and laughing, Alastair, Jonathan and Tomas enjoy pushing the boats around the water try watching them as they floated on the water . Babies have also made a start for Christmas, decorating candy with carious materials including stars and getting getting it stuck to their fingers !

Muddy adventures!

This week the children have explored lots of different things. They read some stories as a small group, and whilst looking through the books William noticed a rocket ship. This gave him the great idea to build some saying ‘I know, let’s get mobilo, build a rocket!’ to his friends. Zach added wheels to his and said ‘It can drive, look, whee!’ making Sophia laugh and point at her ship saying ‘Look, mine flies’. 

The children also had some music time, playing with the instruments, and trying to make the loudest noise they could! Abigail shouted ‘More!’ encouraging her friends to play even louder, and Elissa made all the children laugh jumping up and down and the nursery became very loud! Whilst in the garden we explored some underwater creatures, using mini water trays and different animals. They investigated the creatures, naming their colours and type, and talking about the animals and where they came from live. Lyra was really fascinated with the lobster and kept returning to the lobster tray saying ‘red!’ On one of their walks the children were so excited to splash in puddles. Hlenhaze jumped higher and higher , and stomped his feet to make the biggest splash, which made Xanthe laugh and laugh as they all became covered in muddy splashes. Xanthe then joined in splashing her other friends, as they laughed at the mess they were making. Ines said ‘Look, we’re all muddy now’. In the meantime Maxwell investigated some paw prints in the wet mud, calling for his friends saying ‘Look, let’s see where these go!’. The children followed the trail for a short while before coming up with ideas as to what it could be. Nyra said ‘Gruffalo!’, Imani said ‘Bear!’ and Eve said ‘Monster!’

The babies have also been busy this week. Whilst in the park they played some football. Oliver said ‘Ball!’ as he passed and kicked the ball towards Isla. Isla picked up the ball and ran around for a while before giggling and dropping the ball at her feet, kicking it away. Isla also jumped in some puddles splashing others. Alba explored some light up shakers, under colourful paper, she and Isla took the shakers out and shook them around. Alba then hid it under the paper, she tossed the paper to one side, making both children giggle. They then both put them back as quick as they could to start again. Jessie did some lovely dabber painting, exploring it on her hands first and then printing it on to her paper and then the table! Her hands definitely looked a different colour, and when she looked at them she frowned, and then smiled, clapping her hands together.