Keeping Warm, Healthy Eating & New Textures!

Since returning to nursery after the Christmas break, the toddlers have been busy talking about how to keep our bodies healthy in the cold weather which includes wrapping up warm and making sure to eat healthy foods. Harry said “I got my gloves and my hat” during a discussion about what they were going to wear in the garden and Sadie said “I got my hat too, that’s funny Harry!”. Whilst exploring with fruit peelings in the sensory tray, Emily used a toy spoon and fork to scoop the fruits into her bowl, holding up each piece for everyone to see and squealing when they plopped back down into the tray.

Despite the chilly weather, the children loved being outside on their daily explorations, even being lucky enough to see the first few snowflakes of the year! Over in the mud kitchen, some of the children collaborated during a group cooking session with Isla, Phoebe and Joseph mixing at the table, while Blair ferried the mud to and from the tray to the table and Ava poured the leftovers into a pot on the floor. Phoebe announced, “We making biscuits!” and began stirring with her stick while Isla and Joseph repeated the sentiment as they too mixed and chopped with their tool of choice. A couple of the toddlers had fun racing balls with different sized ramps and guttering. Henrietta lined up her red ball and Edward with his blue one and they began rolling them down the guttering, Edward exclaimed, “Whee! So fast!” where as Henrietta watched on quietly before running after both balls. Edward then explained the aim of the game to Henrietta when she returned with the ball “It goes down here” while showing her where to put it.

Over the last week, the under twos have been exploring various textures. Max and Rafe were very inquisitive as they watched Kelly gather the materials for the activity. Max got stuck into squishing and squeezing some cornflakes using his hands, all the while enjoying the crunchy sounds. He was bringing his hands closer to his ear each time he was squeezing the flakes. Leo then picked up a spoon and was trying to cut up the Weetabix with it. This made the cereal spill on to the floor which made Max laugh and start to babbling at Kelly as if he was telling her what had happened. Imogen carefully used her fingers to press the cornflakes onto the table top between picking up handfuls and eating them. Rafe, after seeing what Imogen was doing, took his Weetabix, giving a big, cheeky smile as he put it into his mouth. Billy was watching from the sidelines but was very quickly tempted to join in and was soon enough getting involved with picking up a handful of cereal and eating it, and as he did giving a big smile.

The babies also explored textures through paint. Matilde got stuck in by putting her hands in the sandy paint. She initially had a bit of a confused look on her face but she looked at Callie as if questioning why the paint had a strange texture to it but was keen to carry on and particularly enjoyed making marks on the paper with her hands. George watched on to start, but after some encouragement he began to explore the different pots. He was dipping his hands one after the other, watching the paint in amazement as it was spilling out of the pots, before then tapping his hands on his paper. Cora’s favourite was clearly the blue paint with risotto in it. She spent most of the activity feeling around the paint, taking hold of handfuls of the risotto and showing her peers before splatting her hands down onto her piece of paper.

Christmas Parties & Concert!

What an amazing week we have all had at nursery, with Christmas Parties, roast turkey dinners and the preschool Christmas concert! The children were brilliant and thank you for all the parents for providing their wonderful costumes and coming along to support the children!

We’d like to take this opportunity to wish each and every one of you a very merry Christmas and a happy and healthy 2024. We look forward to welcoming you and the children back on January 2nd!

Santa's Grotto & Exploring Textures!

Over the last couple of weeks, the toddlers have begun their festivities with all things Christmas, from singing Christmas songs to making beautiful hand crafted decorations. They made some scented play-dough, by adding some spices, cinnamon and ginger to the mix. The toddlers then took part in our play-dough disco which involves playing with the dough in various ways along with music, all working on their motor skills. The toddlers couldn’t wait to get stuck in and all gave it a go. During the disco, Amelie used two fingers to prod the play dough, whilst she helped and encouraged her friends to do so too. Joseph just couldn’t contain his excitement and had to stand up and have a little boogie which made everyone laugh. Sadie stood up and used her hands to play the piano on the play dough, she said, “I playing piano, beautiful song” as she also had a little dance! 

Outside in the garden, the toddlers are still not fazed at all by the wet weather and use the rain water within their play. They were in the mud kitchen pouring muddy water from one container to another. As India used a spoon to scoop out her last few drops of water, she said, “Oh no, it’s all gone, we get some more!”and with that she picked up a bowl and marched on over to a big puddle in the garden. She scooped up the water into her bowl and carefully carried it back to the mud kitchen to make mud puddings and cakes; the possibilities were endless!

Over the last couple of weeks, the under twos have been doing lots of winter activities using their senses to explore paint, shredded paper, tissue paper and feathers. Excitedly, they watched as adults tore up the tissue paper and threw it into the air. Rafe copied this and picked up the paper immediately throwing to the floor whilst smiling. Megan and Max both came to investigate and began to tear the paper as Rafe then started waving pieces of paper as if he was showing it to Max, and they were both giggling at one another whilst the paper was swishing through the air.

The little ones have also enjoyed exploring different textured paint, some mixed with sand and some mixed with porridge oats. Hugo was using kitchen utensils to splatter the oaty paint all over the tray, smiling away to himself as he looked at the marks he was making on the paper. George watched on intently and then approached, using his hands to let the paint squish between his fingers and letting out a little laugh. Hugo then began to scoop it up using his spoon pretending to eat it, making George laugh even more.

Out in the garden, the babies had a play with some of the musical instruments that were set out in the builders tray. First over was Cora, quickly grabbing one of the many instruments and immediately started to wave it around, catching the attention of a few of her friends. They sat down beside her and picked a couple instruments each. In unison they started tapping, banging, shouting and waving and really laughing amongst themselves. Megan was particularly interested in the multiple shakers set out in front of her shaking each in turn, discovering their own unique sound.

The preschool children had such a lovely visit to Santa’s Grotto this week. They enjoyed hearing about all of the different elves in the Grotto and looking into each elf’s house for their hidden items and marking them off in the booklet they were given. The children were then very lucky to meet Father Christmas and discuss what they would each like for Christmas. Santa then let each of the children choose an ornament from his Christmas tree as a reward for being so good this year and being on his Nice List. It was then time to say a big goodbye and thank you to Santa and his elves!

Winter walks and Christmas Preparations!

The preschool children have been enjoying the colder weather , wrapping up warm and playing in the nursery garden and going for walks on the Imber court site grounds. The chilly temperatures have made everyone feel very Christmassy! Work has started on the decorations including the Christmas trees in each room and the Santa’s Grotto in preschool! The children have been very excited to write their wish lists and posting them in this area. Rehearsals are under way for the Christmas concert on Wednesday 13th December. Parties and Christmas dinner and lots of activities mean a very busy and fun time ahead!

We have arranged a visit to Momentum Children’s Charity Spirit of Christmas Grotto, in Bridge Road East Molesey 12.45pm-1.30pm on 8th December. We will walk the children there and back as we do with all local trips. Sadly we are unable to take children that do not attend on a Friday due to staffing and ratios, but you may wish to book a trip yourselves as a family!
The nursery will bear the cost of the trip as our donation to the charity. This is a very worthwhile cause helping seriously ill children and their families https://www.momentumcharity.org/
We are hoping that, especially at this time of year when we think of others less fortunate, that you are able to help this cause by making a donation no matter how small as all contributions will be greatly received:  https://www.momentumcharity.org/get-involved/donate/

Planting hedges & Investigating Bug Hotels!

A small group of preschool children loved having the opportunity to help plant our new hedgerow that runs along the side of the nursery car park. The group listened to Joe as he explained how to plant the saplings of Dogwood,Hazel,Hawthorne,Crab Apple & Dog Rose. The hedge will be a fantastic way of encouraging wildlife and the children will hep to ten the saplings as they grow. Rowan carefully lifted his sapling and gently placed it in a small hole that had been dug out, saying “My one is going to grow big and strong!” Once all of the saplings were in their holes, it was time to set them in the soil. Margot especially enjoyed this part; scooping soil out of the bag with her trowel. She showed one scoop to her friends and said “Look at my one! It’s so massive!” Chloe replied “It can go in this one!” as she pointed to a sapling that needed more soil. Once the hedge saplings were all planted, the group celebrated with a round of high fives before heading back into preschool for a much needed hand wash.

Over the last couple of weeks the toddlers have really shown their love of the outside by not being deterred by the drizzly weather and getting stuck into any and every activity. During a deep exploration of the back of the garden some of the toddlers took an interest in the bug hotel in the nature area. Blair and India were first to approach and stood looking at each of the different levels for a couple of seconds before Oliver joined them and said “Let Ollie see...that one where the spider live” whilst pointing and going in for a closer look. From a distance Arlo peeked over their shoulders and said “Spider! Ahhh” before squealing and running away. India spotted a cobweb in a corner and said “Oh what that” and after closer inspection Oliver said “That’s a cobweb” and Blair commented “Oooww cobweb” with interest. 
Over in the mud kitchen the toddlers were busy cooking up a storm with mixing, scooping, pouring and chopping. Sadie and Ava were very serious about their creations and didn’t take any breaks as they as they put in the work to make their food “Potato and chocolate cake”. Eva and Monty made many trips back and forth from the mud tray, scooping and collecting the collected rain water and ferrying it to their friends who were busy cooking. On one of his trips Monty spilled a bowl of water onto the floor and said ”Look! look raining!” as the water splashed into the air. Eva comforted him with a gentle hug and said “Monty, Monty have more” and led him back to the tray.