A B C's, Magnets & Running Races!

Over the past week, the toddlers have been exploring different letters by singing the alphabet song during circle time. Every child was shown and given their first initial and asked if they could copy the sound along with their name. Tommy got the hang of this really quickly and copied saying “T T T for Tommy”. Then Sadie had a go “S S S for Sadie”. The toddlers had the opportunity to trace and decorate their initials which they really enjoyed. Sophie had did an excellent job tracing her initial, as she held the pencil at the top of the S and steered the pencil in the right direction until she reached the bottom. As the week went on, some of the toddlers started to learn other words that started with the same letter as their names. Alastair said “A A A for Alastair, A A A for Alice and A A A for Apple!”

Outside, the children have been taking part in running races to keep themselves warm. Max put on his flashing wellies and ran as fast as he could. Rafferty ran so fast his hat flew off in the wind, but he said “Raffy hot, don’t want hat!” and continued running without it! Later on in the week, the toddlers wrapped up warm, hopped into the buggies and went on an adventure to the park. Their faces lit up as they spotted the climbing frame, swings and slide! Lana loved the swings so much that even her snack couldn’t tempt her off the swings. Ada shouted “Higher! Higher!” waiting for a push to fly higher in the sky. Rowan loved the slide, going down it many times in all different ways… forwards, backwards and even on his tummy! 

Back inside, the toddlers have continued to read the book of the month “One Snowy Night’. Whilst reading the book, they spotted a fox and Luna described that “The fox is orange” and had a “black nose”. For a morning activity, the toddlers enjoyed trying to make their own fox using lollipop sticks, paint, tissue paper and googley eyes. Come the end of the week, they had transformed the climbing frame into a cosy bedroom. They used multiple blankets and all the cushions to ensure the toddlers and animals kept warm just like in the book. 

This week in the under twos room, the children have been exploring the magnets! Margot, Esmé, Freddie and Amélie loved trying to connect the magnets together to bring the parts together and pull them apart again.

Youcef, Kitty and Ada have made their own game of walking and crawling down the ramp on the climbing frame as fast as they can, before racing back to the steps seeing how can get there first. Youcef and kitty have been testing their balance by walking down the ramp without holding onto the side for balance. Well done you!

During one art activity, the children have been using the fruit tea bags to make patterns and artwork on their paper. Esmé said “Dab dab dab!” as she made marks on her paper. After they had finished, Esmé Margot and Cecilia loved tasting the flavours of the fruit tea bags by licking them.

Ice, Animals & Foggy Walks!

The preschool children have loved exploring ice over the past couple of weeks and talking about the winter weather, including the changes in the trees in our garden and on our walks. The children collected some ice from outside that had formed overnight and placed it in to a tray inside. Shyla very excitedly told her friends, “It’s like the real Elsa has been to nursery!”. Henry, Shyla, Vivienne and Maya were holding bits of ice, laughing and watching the ice melt slowly in the palms of their hands.

Whilst out on a foggy walk, the children found several puddles that had ice formed over the top of them and they all enjoyed jumping in the puddles, watching and listening to the crack of the ice as it broke. Riley said to her friends, “This is the most funnest walk!”. Salvador looked over on to the foggy football fields and very excitedly got his friends attention, telling them, “But we can’t see the park or the trees anymore because it’s sooooo foggy out here”. 

The children have also been exploring various jungle, sea, farm animals as well as different types of dinosaurs. They have been learning about habitats and the names of some animals offspring. In the garden, we had a safari set up where Joshua, Will, William and Benjamin enjoyed playing. Joshua was quizzing his friends, “So who remembers what this ones baby is called?” holding up a different animal each time. When the children correctly answered, Joshua was praising them, “Well done, good remembering”. 

A Warm Welcome Back!

Welcome back to everyone after the Christmas break! It is lovely to see you all again.

Last week the toddlers loved coming back to nursery to see and play with their friends. Florence ran as fast as she could into the toddler room and shouted “Hello friends!” with a big smile on her face. Alastair enjoyed giving Sophie a great big cuddle when she returned from holiday and James couldn’t wait to raid the toy boxes to find his favourite car and truck. They have enjoyed going on cold frosty buggy walks to see if we could find any frozen ice. Rafferty said “Look, look!” as he spotted an icy puddle. He enjoyed hearing the ice smash onto the floor and breaking into lots of little pieces. Chloe spotted the ducks and said “Ducks, cold!” while pointing at them in the water. 

This week the toddlers have loved looking at different shapes. At circle time, they were shown different coloured shapes and Sadie cleverly knew “Purple circle, yellow triangle and red heart”. The toddlers have had shapes incorporated in their play throughout the week when playing in the messy tray trying to find them and dig them out of different materials, for example flour, sand and crazy foam. Ada wasn’t too sure on the messy shape play but instead enjoyed playing with the puzzles where she carefully slotted each shape into the correct place. 

The toddlers have enjoyed reading ‘One Snowy Night’ every day which is their book of the month. As part of looking at this book, they have been discussing how they could keep their own animal toys warm while outside in the cold weather. The toddlers were given a hat, a pot of water, a car and a felt blanket and were left to explore what material would work best. Max tried to put the hat on the horse to keep him warm, while Blake said “Ducks go in warm car”. 

This week in the baby room, the children have been settling back in after the Christmas break. They have enjoyed exploring the puzzles, Otto showed good large and fine motor skills while connecting the cogs on the caterpillar puzzle by trying to place the cogs onto the poles and kitty tried to place the duck and the fish on the animal puzzle board by turning and pushing the pieces into the spaces. Freddie, Esmé and Sebastian liked looking through the new coloured sensory boards while pulling them down from their faces so that they could see the difference in the colours of the room with the boards up to their faces and with them down.

Freddie, Otto and Amélie enjoyed listening to the stories watching as they pushed up the flaps to see the pictures in the ‘peekaboo’ books. They all took turns to by moving the sliders to they they could see the images or the animals popping out. Esmé said “Boo” and laughed as the rabbit popped out of the top of the book.

While on the walk, Amélie, Margot and kitty enjoyed feeding themselves as well as the ducks! They threw small pieces of their bread to the ducks clapping their hands and screaming as the ducks picked up the bread and ran away to eat it all up.

Christmas & End of Year Celebrations!

With this being our final weekly update of the year, we believe that we will let the pictures do the talking! The children have been enjoying many festive activities and parties and as you can see from the pictures how much fun they have had!

We hope you have a safe and healthy festive break and wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We look forward to welcoming you all back in January.

Christmas Preparations & Hail!

The pre school children have been very imaginative whilst building with the wooden blocks outside in the garden. They were exploring different types of transport that they could make. At first Joshua suggested “Let’s make an aeroplane so that we can go somewhere on our holiday”. Tomas replied, “That’s a great idea, we should go somewhere where it’s sunny and hot on our aeroplane!”. Riley sat at the front and called out, “I’m the driver of the aeroplane, it’s called a pilot”. The children then went on to designing a boat using the blocks and the balancing beams and posts. They worked together really well to maneuver the blocks around the garden and Fabian and Ari worked really hard to lift the block on the top of another, Fabian laughing and saying to Ari, “We have got very strong muscles, haven’t we?”

The children have been very excited on the build up to Christmas. They have been taking part in lots of art and creative activities including creating their own paper plate Christmas trees, holly wreaths and even helping to decorate the Christmas tree in the room. They have been talking lots about their Christmas trees at home too. The children made their own letters to Santa and enjoyed posting them in our very own postbox. Eloise very excitedly told her friends, “Father Christmas is going to be so happy with our letters, I think he will bring us lots of presents!”.

Over the past couple of weeks, the toddlers have been busy getting ready for Christmas with lots of artwork, messy play and writing letters to Santa and his elves. The toddlers loved playing on the climbing frame which had been transformed into Santa’s sleigh! The toddlers spent lots of time exploring the sleigh and talking about the presents they could see in Santa’s sack. Sadie said “Look! Tom tom presents” while Flo said “Found presents on the roof”. The home corner was turned into a Christmas post office which gave the toddlers the chance to write some letters to Santa’s elves. Reegan and Rafferty posted lots of letters to the elves while Sophie spent lots of time writing out her letter carefully. Finley was so proud of his letter he didn’t want to post it so carried it around for the rest of the morning.

Outside, the toddlers loved experiencing the different weather throughout the week. Lowri ran straight out into the rain with her arms open wide so she could feel the big splashes where as Lana stayed under the shelter covering her ears. Sophie was splashing in puddles when all of a sudden it started to hail! She pointed down at the fallen hail and commented on the “Small snow balls!”. 

Back inside, the toddlers have been singing their hearts out to some new Christmas songs they have been learning at circle time. Rowan now requests ‘When Santa got stuck up the chimney ‘ by saying “Santa chimney” and Chloe and Olivia join in with the actions. The toddlers also got to make their own reindeer food to sprinkle on their gardens on Christmas Eve so they know where to land. Zack carefully labelled his reindeer food into the bag, saying “Oh dear!” when any spilled out.

The under twos have also been busy getting ready for Christmas! Otto, Amélie and Esmé enjoyed spreading glue over their Christmas stocking pictures, adding tinsel and cotton wool whilst shaking their hands and using their fingers to try and get it cotton wool off of their fingers. Margot and Kitty have been exploring sticking with glue and buttons, pushing them around their paper.

Youcef, Margot and Esmé got stuck into the cereal messy play, crumbing it between their fingers and listening to the sound that it made and tasted each one. Kitty picked up a play spoon and started spooning the cereal into her mouth babbling and wriggling her body to show her excitement. The under twos have been exploring the kitchen utensil box banging the spoons on the metal pots and pans laughing at each other seeing who could make the loudest sound.

While playing in the garden, Amélie found the magnifying glass she pressed it up to her face then pulled it down laughing, playing peek a boo with Sophie continuing the game for most of the time outside. Otto discovered the different sized and shaped balls showing them to everyone, babbling to them telling them what he had found. Ada discovered the ramp bottom shuffling up one side then sliding down on her bottom down the other. Great fun!