Firefighters Visit!

This week the pre school children had a very special visit from some firefighters in their fire engine and the children were so excited on the build up to it. Before the visit, the children have been learning all about fire safety and the very important job that firefighters do. On the morning of the visit Rowan asked, “Is it finally the day we get to see the fire engine yet?” And instantly had excitement beaming from his face when he knew it was! As soon as the children went outside to explore the fire engine, Isaac gasped with excitement and Sophie jumped up and down telling her friends, “This is so exciting, I’m so happy”. The pre schoolers took it in turns to carefully climb the large steps in to the fire engine, some of them choosing the back seat and some eager to be the driver. Freddie couldn’t wait to get in the drivers seat, smiling away whilst pretending to steer the wheel.

After lots of questions asked by the children, including Daniel asking, “Where does the water come from?” Whilst looking around the back of the fire engine. Flo suggested, “I think it comes from the ground”. After investigating and learning that there is a tank in the middle of the fire engine, Sadie excitedly asked, “Can we spray the water from the hose?” And the children all did a big cheer when the answer was yes. The children couldn’t wait to have a go, waiting patiently for their turn to help fireman Jack release the water and then helping to stop the water come out and also learning how to change the pressure of the water spraying out.

Once the children had had their fun aiming for the trees and cars, they were asked if they would like to hear the sirens of the engine as it drove away which of course received a very loud, “Yes” from everyone alongside some clapping and cheering. They all had the biggest smiles on their faces as they waved goodbye to the firefighters and the fire engine, with Lana and Madan talking about how much fun they had. When the children got back in to pre school, ready for lunch time, the conversation was flowing between the children and Chloe telling her friends, “I wish we could do that again”.

The firefighters plan to visit again in the summer and we can’t wait!

Ducks, Dens, Owls & New Smells!

Over the last 2 weeks the toddlers have been focusing on the story “Owl Babies” and learning about different animals and the environments and homes they live in. 

Inside, the children had lots of fun exploring a den made from blankets, cushions and tables, just like the den the Owl Babies live in. Harry looked at the den and said “Look! It’s a house!” while showing his friend Blair who couldn’t contain her excitement, rushing to be the first to crawl through whilst giggling loudly. At first George was a little unsure about going in, but as soon as he peeked under the blanket and saw Arthur and Cooper smiling back at him, he crawled right in and started to explore. Ava decided she wanted to bring her favourite cat puppet to explore the den with her while Ethan couldn’t stop zooming in and out of the blankets shouting “BOO!”.

One afternoon the toddlers enjoyed observing the rain and hail from the patio door. When it turned from rain to hail Arlo gasped excitedly and said with his hands out beside him, “What’s that noise?” Joseph responded “It’s raining!” And pointed to the sky to show his friends. Monty heard all the commotion and went over to join in chanting, “Rain, rain”. Santiago and Henrietta were mesmerised by the sound the hail made on the decking and stood watching and listening. After asking the toddlers what songs we know about rain, Hugo started to point outside and sing “Rain, rain go away”. The children couldn’t wait to get on their wetsuits to splash in all of the puddles. 

Over the last couple of weeks, the under twos have been engaging in a great deal of activities to help develop their fine and gross motor skills. The children used their imagination by taking flowers we found on a walk and using them to create a floral perfume during a small group activity. Leo particularly enjoyed scooping the flowers and water into the cup, taking a big sniff of the floral scent! Margaux enjoyed using the cups and utensils to stir, pour and splash the pretend perfume mixture, giggling as the water flowed down her hands. The children continued mixing until the water began to turn yellow and red with the colourful flowers and the beautiful smell filled the room! 

Using dry spaghetti pasta the children got to work, developing their fine motor skills by poking it through the holes of a sieve. Matilde and Lottie immediately began picking up the pasta with both hands and carefully navigating how to place it into the holes. Imogen was very intrigued by the crunchy texture of the dried pasta, and crunched down on a piece, giggling as it snapped and broke into pieces. She had a quick look around and noticed her friends placing the spaghetti through the holes. “Ooh!” she exclaimed as she pointed over before copying their actions. 

The under twos also had the opportunity to explore the natural surroundings in our local area. Beginning with a trip to the duck pond, the children were very happy looking around as they headed towards the area, even passing some of their homes on the way! Sienna saw her front door and began excitedly bouncing her legs, the other children waving as we approached. Once they had arrived at the pond, the children were encouraged to throw some bread in for the ducks. Soon the ducks came out of the water and started to waddle over, this made Finley and Sebby laugh, and begin to imitate the sound they were making! On a picnic blanket the children enjoyed eating a delicious snack of pear, banana and breadsticks, and afterwards they explored the grass area, some of them running through the fields chasing each other! 

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.