Graduation Celebrations!
What a fantastic performance from our little graduates this week! The children worked so hard to practice their animal phrases and were so excited to show their talents to their parents at the graduation. Sophie could not wait to be a lion and call out, “The loudest roar I can, that would scare all of the mummies and daddies and make them laugh!”. Sammy was even more excited that pre-school were having a graduation party that day as it was also his birthday. At group time, he told all of his friends the news and suggested, “Maybe everyone can give me an extra clap for my birthday!”.
Zac, Amelia and Tristan were so excited to find out they were going to be crocodiles together and were even spotted in the tree house, rehearsing their words and encouraging each other to get them right. The build up to the graduation was so much fun for the children and teachers too! There were stages made, audiences gathered together (the non graduating pre schoolers) and lots of singing rehearsals.
The day of the show was a joy for the children. There was a real party vibe throughout the day and the children could not wait to dress up in their outfits, especially having their faces painted. Immy was so confident with her words by this point and was asking all the nursery teachers throughout the day, “Can I say my words to you?”. She then went on to asking her friends, “Do you know your words?” If their response was yes, Immy would ask, “Come on, tell them to me? Nice and loud!”. If the response was no, Immy would kindly suggest, “Go and ask a teacher to remind you”.
Once all the parents arrived and the children all dressed up, it was time to get going and the children all did an amazing job. There was big smiles each time there was a round of applause and their singing was lovely, with their words nice and loud for all to hear. The children received their certificates and school leavers books and proudly stood up one by one to show them off to their mums, dads, siblings and grandparents.
We wish all of our school leavers the best of luck at their new big schools. They are all going to be greatly missed at nursery and it has been a pleasure to look after each and every one of them!
Going on a Bear Hunt & Sea Creatures!
Over the last couple of weeks, the toddlers have been loving the book of the month ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ and have been requesting to read it at any given chance. Most of the toddlers have been joining in with the repetitive phrases, Matilda shakes her head and says “Not scared”, while Jude and Jasper point their fingers and shout out “Go through it”, while Oliver smiles and sways his body to the different movements “Splash splosh”. The toddlers also got to have a teddy bear picnic where they brought in their own bear from home or used one from the soft toy basket. Cecilia and Amelie enjoyed sharing their sandwiches with their bears, Cecilia took one bite for herself then fed her elephant toy “He want my sandwiches too it’s yummy”.
In the garden the toddlers went on a bear hunt of their own, wading through swishy swashy grass, stumbling through a dark forest, splashing through a deep cold river and sneaking through a cave all to find the hidden bears. After the first clue of paw prints was spotted, it led to a stampede of toddlers running up to the bear and celebrating their find. As the initial excitement wore off the toddlers began really incorporating the story into their search for more bears. Kitty pretended to be walking through a cave as she crept through the path, walking on tip toes and reciting part of the book “Tip toe, tip toe, tip toe” followed by a dramatic gasp and “What’s that!”. Once the children had found all of the bears a couple of them sat down to have a look at the story again. After looking at the pictures, Margot and Jack turned to the last page in the book where the bear is walking back to the cave alone, Jack said “Bear sad” and Margot replied “Aww… bear sad. Want to give him a cuddle”.
Over the last few weeks, the under twos have really enjoyed engaging in various messy and sensory activities. When making some star fish pictures, Amelie and Blair were giggling whilst saying, “Dab dab dab” as they put paint on their pictures. Harry looked up to Kelly when he was painting and pointed, saying “Star Kelly!”. Afterwards the messy fun, some of the children were copying Alex pretending to be a star fish by laying on the floor and wriggling their arms and legs about. Monty shouted, “Wow!” before running over and laying down moving his arms and legs like a star fish. Blair started to copy Monty shrieking with delight and excitement.
Out on the field there has been a lot of running around on the grass with lots of happy faces. The little ones were trying to catch the bubbles and were chasing the flying streamers. Arlo came running over to explore and reached his arms as high as he could to try and catch the streamer as Alex waved it through the air. Ava held the handle and gave the streamer a wiggle to make the colours move, giving a big smile of satisfaction. Gabriel then copied Ava, really laughing with enjoyment. Eva was running after the bubbles and lifting her feet up to try and pop the bubbles with her shoes.
Out in the garden, there’s been lots of exploring the water tray to find what sea animals were hidden among the bubbles. Gabriel lifted up a seal shouting, “Wow” as he splashed it back down into the water. This splashed Harry and they both looked at each other for a moment before laughing along together and saying, “Oh no!”. Eva found a lobster and held it up showing how proud she was of what she had found before then moving the bubbles some more and then found a large sea shell. Harry looked “Ell, ell!” he shouted.
The Weather and Our Growing Areas!
The last two weeks in preschool have been filled with lots of fun activities where the children have been looking at mindfulness and understanding friendships, as well as learning about different weather systems.
The children loved learning about lightening and thunder by taking part in a fun measuring activity. On the table were lots of different sized lightning bolts and the children were tasked with seeing how long each one was using the connecting blocks. Charlie connected his blocks together along the length of his lightening bolt and began to count how many blocks he had used. He turned to Ari and said “My one is five!” Ari then did the same with his and replied to Charlie, saying “Mine is only 4! Your one is bigger than mine!” Louis then added “My one is the biggest because it has 6 blocks!”
Outdoors the children have been hard at work tending to the vegetable patch and herb garden. Luna enjoyed watering the vegetables and herbs with a watering can whilst Florence added “The plants need to drink lots of water!” Zack enjoyed getting stuck in with soil, helping to replant some mint that had come loose in the soil. Zack said “I’m digging a big hole!” Once the mint was placed back in the soil, Zack scooped the soil back over using his hand and said “I have a dirty hand! I need to wash it!”
