Father's Day Breakfast!
What a fantastic turnout for our Fathers Day Breakfast! Thank you to all the Dads for coming in to spend the morning with the children and make it such a great event. It was lovely to see the children show their dads around the nursery, share breakfast and engage with the range of activities. There were ball games galore in the garden, with lots of throwing, catching and kicking going on, and that was just the dads! Inside there was lots of interest in the new preschool role play area, with lots of budding archaeologists dressing up to look the part and explore the fossils within. It was so great to see everyone having such a good time, even if it may have made saying goodbye that little bit more difficult. We look forward to welcoming parents back soon when we have our next social event. Thank you all once again we hope you have a wonderful Fathers Day on Sunday!
Animal Habitats, Sports & Vegetables!
Over the last couple of weeks, the toddlers have been learning about different habitats that some of their favorite animals live in, as well as exploring some more exotic animals and environments they may not be familiar with. Margot absolutely loved exploring the jungle den, so much so that she didn’t want to come out! Jude and Cleo hid inside with the elephants and lions, roaring at all of their friends - “ROAR! I’m a lion!”. Kitty used all of the different animals to eat up the vines and leaves - “Munch, munch.”. While playing, Cecilia was surprised to hear jungle sounds coming from the speaker. She said, “I can hear it!” with a gasp, which led Esmeralda to whisper, “I can hear frogs in the jungle.”
After learning about some more environments through other activities, including desert, ocean, and rocky terrains, the toddlers were put to the test with a slightly more challenging activity: “Can you find where I live?”. Freddie was able to remember where some of the more tricky animals went, including the arctic fox. “He lives in the snow,” he said and the reindeer “He helps Christmas!”. Isabelle was so confident with the under the sea animals, quickly placing them in their correct habitat and telling some of her friends, “This one’s a squid. He goes there. And starfish too.” Eloise was keen to join in too, pointing out the “Big beetle” and the “Big spider! Ah, he’s a little bit scary for me.”
Outside, the toddlers loved experimenting with different sports. Jasper jumped straight into the ball games and began kicking every ball he could see, with an excited “Whoa!” and pointing every time the ball zoomed through the air. Joshua joined in with the ball games too, laughing as he ran fast after each ball, saying “Running!” and “Fast!”
Tennis was a big hit as Amélie and Oliver each picked up a racket and began throwing and hitting balls back and forth, sometimes sending balls flying in the complete opposite direction to each other. Sophie decided she was going to be a ball girl and help her friends out by fetching some of the balls for them. “Oliver, balls gone all the way over there!” she said. “Oh, it’s okay. I go get it.”
Over the past couple of weeks, the under twos have been investigating animals in their play. To encourage physical development, there was an activity available for the little ones to have the chance to unstick various sized animals that had been taped down to a table and to the floor. Arlo was the first to get fully engaged in this activity, really concentrating on what he was doing. He used his finger to peel off the initial bit and then excitedly used his whole hand to rip the rest of the tape away. Edward and India sat and watched what Arlo was doing before getting fully engaged themselves. Edward was happy to show staff that he had got a giraffe, and India had the biggest smile on her face when she managed to peel the tape away from the cow and the horse.
They also enjoyed getting messy at a group floor painting activity, using the animals to make prints on paper. Ava could not wait to get involved. Eagerly, she took hold of the horse and placed it directly into the paints, ensuring that she covered the whole of the horse's body. She then went on to rubbing the horse onto the paper, as well as her hands. Amelie watched, smiling, when she saw that some of the other children had made prints with the farm animals' feet, and then confidently leaned forward to take hold of her own horse to have a go herself. Oliver was making "clip-clop" sounds and laughing as he moved his horse around the paper.
Outside in the garden, the children enjoyed digging for carrots and potatoes in the mud garden. Monty bent down to look at what was hidden in the mud, whilst Blair used the rake to move some soil around and dig deeper for the carrots. She was babbling away whilst doing so, now and again looking at her friends as if she was talking to them. She eventually got to the buried vegetables and proudly lifted up a potato. Harry picked up a potato and said "Wow", and gave himself a clap. Monty was trying to put the potatoes and carrots back into the mud once he had pulled them out, and then used his hands to pat the soil back down over the top.
New herb garden and playing field games!
Over the past couple of weeks, the pre school children have been extremely interested in the vegetable and herb gardens. Alfie had noticed that some vegetable leaves had started to sprout through the soil and called his friends over to see, “Look, they are growing now, soon we can eat them”. Finley was intrigued by what Alfie was talking about and approached the vegetable patch, observing closely and showed Alfie, “But look, there’s even more vegetables growing”. This peaked the interest of some of their friends who came over to see. Tom suggested to his friends, “Maybe if we give them some more water, the rest of them will grow?” Alba then went on to letting her friends know which vegetable were what by looking at the pictures on the growing area wall. She told her friends, “This is lettuce, these are tomatoes and that one there is carrots I think”. Alfie reassured Alba, “Yes, look, there’s carrots” and pointed at the carrot picture. Ada then led her friends to our new herb patch telling them, “It looks pretty”. Alfie said, “It looks like where the bear goes on a bear hunt”. Finley noticed the lavender and was excited to tell everyone, “These are called lavender, I saw them when I went on a walk with my family”.
The children have also enjoyed spending plenty of time over at the field, enjoying picnics, football games, running races and aeroplane spotting. Sammy really loved a number game, throwing the large dice, then counting the spots and explaining to his friends, “Guys, however many spots you get, you have to do that many jumps”. Zac rolled the dice and they both counted together up to 6. Zac laughed and said, “This time I’m going to do 6 star jumps”. Zac then rolled to the ground and said, “That was hard work, my body needs a rest now”, which made his friends laugh. Some of the other children enjoyed a restful story time. At the end of the afternoon, Sadie, Charlotte and Rowan were discussing having, “A lovely day”. Sadie said how much she enjoyed herself and Charlotte and Rowan agreed, Luna adding, “That was a lovely day”
