World Book Day!

The preschool children have been very excited on the build up to World Book day with so many of the children letting their friends know what they were planning to dress up as. Isaac and his friends were discussing what superhero they were going to be and which one was their favourite over one lunch time. Max was a little more secretive and told his friends, “It’s a secret, you will just have to wait”, with a smile on his face. Daniel tried to encourage him, “Tell us, tell us” but Max was keeping his secret close to his chest.

On the day, the preschool children couldn’t wait to get inside to show off their outfits to their friends and enjoyed many activities including making their own version of the story book ‘The very hungry caterpillar’. Ada was very proud of what she had created and made sure that she showed it to all of the teachers as well as her friends. Cypher, Joshua and Jasper all took their books outside to the garden and chose to do their drawing in the tree house whilst Flo and Sadie were doing observational drawings of the trees in their books.

At group time, the children also enjoyed learning about authors and illustrators. This is something that is discussed when the new book of the month is introduced and Youcef very quickly and excitedly called out, “I know the author writes the story” and Sophie continued, “The illustrator writes the pictures for the book”. Rowan let out a little chuckle and suggested, “No you mean they draw the pictures, not write them”.

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The toddlers loved world book day, spending the entire week building up to it by doing lots of inspired activities. Some of the toddlers were very excited at the idea of making their own story and got to work straight away. George flipped opened and closed his book, turning it around and looking at the pages as if deciding where to start his story. Emily pick up a pen and opened the book, decidedly making lots of marks, telling her story with circles and swirls. Arthur and Cooper took a different approach and made small lines and dots with an assortment of colours.

The children loved getting to read and explore many stories and story sacks, repeatedly choosing to look at the ‘The Gruffalo’ and ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ story sacks. They loved telling the different stories through the props and enjoyed searching the pages to find the characters. When the day arrived, we had quite a few children dressed up and even those who weren’t were able to sift through the dressing up clothes to find an outfit to show off to their friends. They had a great time dressing up and looking at each other’s costumes. There was Santiago dressed as Spiderman who showed off how fast he could be with his extra powers, Blair serenading everybody as Elsa, George wrapped in bandages as Mr Bump, Leo made sure everyone heard him as he took on the role of his dinosaur costume, and Arlo.W who took a more laid back approach and wore a Jane Austin t-shirt. Gabriel spent the day as The Highway Rat and ran around accosting people with his sword while declaring “I’m.. THE HIGHWAY RAT!”

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The under twos also celebrated World Book Day and came fully kitted out in their amazing costumes, from The Hungry Caterpillar to Peter Rabbit and everything in between! The children enjoyed investigating their friends outfits, squishing Sienna’s many caterpillar legs, and watching Matilde’s Snow White dress twirl as she span in circles. Leo the Tiger particularly loved singing a special rendition of ‘row, row your boat’ in which the children roared like a tiger at the end of the song!

Mother's Day Tea Party

This week we had a great time as we had so many mums together for our annual Mother’s Day tea party event. The preschool children were so excited all day, in the knowledge that it was a special day and that their mummies were coming to play at nursery for the afternoon! Alfie was on a countdown from 9 am, asking very regularly, “How many hours now until our mummies are here?” When 3 o’clock came around and we were able to say just one more hour, the children got very excited and Alfie made sure all of his friends knew, “Just one more hour, that’s not long at all!”. Zack had seen the sandwiches and cakes being placed on their stands and very quickly they were gathered around, all dancing excitedly knowing that it was very close to the tea party time.

Once the mums started to arrive, the children across the nursery were clearly eager to show them around the rooms as well as outside in the garden. Ellie took her mummy into the toddler room and enjoyed cuddling in the cosy area, whilst looking at some stories together. Isaac and Gabriel couldn’t wait to show their nanny the garden for the first time. Isaac was showing his nanny the places he likes to play when in the garden and giving her a tour of where all of the children play.

Some of our under two’s ventured off in to the older garden, exploring the sand pit and investigating the bigger space. Flo was so happy to show some of her friends that her little brother had come to play but reminded them, “We have to be careful because is still only small!”.

It was wonderful to see the children so happy to have their mums come to play at nursery. There was a fantastic atmosphere throughout the nursery with lots of creative activities, role play opportunities and everyone having a chat, with some getting to know new families and catching up with others. Thank you to everyone and we hope you have a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend!

A Trip to the Supermarket!

This week a group of pre school children had a visit to the local shops to buy some fruit and vegetables. When they got to the shops, Olivia told her friends, “This is where we can do lots of shopping for our families”. Sophie then started to list off what she would like to buy from the shops, “We could get some pancakes, some apples, some strawberries and maybe some bread”. When they got in to the shop, Finley was so excited to check the list to see what they needed to find. First they went off to the fruit section and helping to fill up the basked, Sophie said, “This is so much fun. It’s the best day ever” which gained the smiles from all of her friends. At the checkout, the children carefully placed the food items on to the till and Olivia even asked the shop assistant, “How much moneys?” The children couldn’t wait to get back to nursery to show their friends what they had purchased, and excited they would be eating the produce later!

 Over the last couple of weeks, the pre school children have been very observant, noticing the buds that have started to grow on some of the trees around the garden. Luna was the first one to notice and was very intrigued by them asking, “Is that because it is spring now?” Flo informed Luna that, “We still need to wait a couple of more weeks until it’s spring”. Rowan laughed and said, “But it’s sunny today so it must be spring!”. They all went around the garden, searching for more trees that had started to grow their buds, collecting some friends on their way who were all very interested as to what was going on. After they had finished their investigations, Chloe decided it was a good point to have a relaxing time and suggested to her friends, “Why don’t we sit in our den and draw some of the trees and flowers?” This was a very popular idea and the children worked together to gather some paper alongside some pencils and rulers and positioned themselves in the new den that they had helped to make in the garden. Luna wasn’t quite ready to give up with her investigations and encouraged Rowan and Alfie to continue with her. Alfie very quickly discovered that the bird feeder had run out of food and was keen to get it topped up. The children all took it in turns, waiting very patiently to scoop some food in to both bird feeders. They were also very excited to help to hang them back up on to the trees with Cleo directing her friends exactly where they should be hung.

The pre schoolers have also taking part in a height measuring activity on the chalk board. They were taking it in to turns to guide each other slowly backwards until they were steady at the chalk board, Madan advising Caiden, “You’re feet and head need to be on the wall!”. Once Caiden was in position, Madan then drew a line above his head, which was very quickly followed by several other children lining their friends up to do the same. Once they were satisfied that they had all been measured by each other, Olivia examined the board for a moment and realised, “Caiden is the tallest, but Finley is very tall too”. The pre school children were very keen to show their teachers their height measurements.

A Visit to the Train Station!

Over the last couple of weeks, the toddlers have been learning about different types of transport. They have been exploring them through different means, one of which being through mark making. Whilst taking part in a car rolling activity, Harry dipped his car into the paint pot and began rolling it along the paper. He pointed at the tracks left behind, saying “I left lines on the paper like that cos it was going really fast!”. Ethan chose to have a car in each hand and rolled them over the same area so the lines overlapped, “Look that!” he exclaimed while tracing the marks left behind with his finger, laughing when realising he had covered his hands in paint. This then led to finger painting! Max joined in straight away and dipped his whole hands and in making hand prints on top of the tracks. 

A group of toddlers, along with some babies and preschoolers, went on a small journey to Esher station to see some trains. As they got snuggled into the buggies there was a buzz of excitement and lots of talk of “Choo choo trains!” continuing on as they started their adventure. Along the way, the toddlers saw plenty of cars and even more excitingly… buses! Blair shouted “Bus!” as one sped past with another passing a few minutes later causing Arlo to point and say “‘Nother bus! nother bus!”. Unfortunately, after reaching the station the toddlers saw that there were train cancellations, but not to worry, they then made the most of spotting other forms of transport. Joseph pointed to the sky and notified everyone “Aeroplane up there!”, leading everyone to look to the sky and watch it fly by. On the walk back to nursery gong through the golf course Emily was very excited to hear a ‘tweet tweet’ and gasped while pointing out to everyone the bird in the trees.

Over the last two weeks, the under twos have been exploring their taste buds and trying lots of new and different foods from around the world. Whilst celebrating Chinese New Year, the children had a delicious plate of noodles, egg fried rice, pineapple and even tried a small amount of lychee juice. Billy held the noodles in the air and said, “Hiya, haha!”. Later on in the week, we celebrated Shrove Tuesday and we all know what this means… Pancakes! The children were served freshly made pancakes with their choice of, fresh fruit, lemon and sauces. Margot dipped her finger into the strawberry sauce and smiled, then moving onto the lemon. She picked it up, put it to her mouth and pulled a very sour face whilst laughing with her friends. 

Outside, the under twos have been using nature to create marks. The children have helped collect mud, sticks, leaves and other resources and put them in our nature basket. Using the mud mixed with food colouring and the sticks and leaves as tools, the children created some fantastic marks on paper. Charlotte got some paint on her hand whilst dipping a leaf and said, “Uh oh!” whilst trying to brush it off, eventually choosing to create a hand print on her paper. Matilde decided to take it upon herself to make this a finger painting activity by placing her stick to one side and dipping in each finger. Each time she dipped, she looked at her hand and said, “Oh wow!”, turning it round to show her friends. After watching his friends, Finley bucked up the courage to join in and excitedly dipped both hands into the pots of muddy paint. 

Chinese New Year!

The pre school children recently have been learning all about Chinese New Year and the celebrations that take place at this time of year. When Alfie came in to nursery in the morning and had seen that all of the decorations had been put up all around the nursery, including a large scale dragon, he was so excited to show all of his friends as they arrived.

At group times, the children have intently listened and engaged in conversations around the celebration and particularly enjoyed listening to ‘The Great River Race’ story. Youcef was extremely amazed to see that a dragon was flying through the sky and Flo was keen to share with her friends, “Remember it is the year of the dragon this year”.

The children took part in many activities throughout the week including food tasting egg fried rice, noodles and lychee juice which was very well received! They also very much enjoyed sensory play with rice and noodles in the home corner where the children used their imaginations to engage in role play with Chinese patterned bowls and plates and attempt to use the chopsticks to pick up the rice! India was very keen to serve all of her friends some rice, insisting that everyone should try some, rubbing her tummy and saying, “Mmmm”.

Another activity that the children enjoyed was writing in Chinese. Sadie chose to try and write Ox whilst Lana chose a rat. They both concentrated really hard when copying the Chinese word on to their own paper and Sadie even praised Lana, “Wow Lana, that’s a very good job” which made Lana smile.

 The children took part in a Chinese dragon dance and party on Friday where they had the chance to listen and dance to some Chinese music whilst wearing Chinese style outfits and dressed in the cardboard dragon that they had all worked so hard throughout the week to make. Sophie thought this was extremely funny when she saw Madan dressed as the dragon head and told him, “You look funny”. At the end of the dancing, the children all gave a Chinese red envelope to each other which Jasper remembered, “It has some money inside it”.