Snails, Bird Nests & Building Houses!

Over the last couple of weeks, the preschool children have shown a particular interest in caring for the bugs and insects that have made their homes in the nature areas of the garden. The children have spent quite some time using magnifying glasses to aid them when finding some smaller insects. Luna has taken a particular interest in wanting to care for the snails and slugs and at snack time whilst she was eating her cucumber, Luna suggested to her friends, “I have a good idea, I think we should save some cucumber for the snails and slugs” and that’s exactly what they did! Placing a couple of portions of cucumber around where the snails and slugs were, Flo, Rowan, Daniel and Luna waited patiently and were very pleased with themselves when the snails made their way over. Daniel asked, “Do snails have teeth to eat cucumber?” Rowan promptly replied, “They do have lots of teeth but we can’t see them because they are so small”. Whilst quietly concentrating to observe what the snails were doing, a couple of children could hear very small tweets close by, followed by a small bird going in to one of the bird houses which led the children on to discover that there was in fact a birds nest in one of the bird houses! Upon discovering this, Sadie instantly checked that the bird feeder was full and was relieved to find that it was, letting her friends know, “That’s a good job, the birds won’t be hungry!”. 

The preschool children engaged themselves in a mark making activity this week, some children choosing to use their fingers and others using paintbrushes. Sophie used her finger to drawer a ‘S’ in the tray and then attempted to copy this using her paintbrush. After a first attempt, Sophie looked at Finley and said, “It’s a little bit more tricky using a paintbrush”. Finley reassured Sophie, “It’s ok, try again, if you keep trying it will work!”. This is exactly what Sophie did and very quickly realised after just a few attempts that she was able to draw an ‘S’ with the brush. Sophie then went on to writing her whole name with the paintbrush with Finley praising her, “Well done, Sophie, I told you you can do it!”, both of them smiling at each other and Sophie returning the praise, “Finley, you did your name too” and gave him a clap. 

Outside in the garden, a group of children worked together to make a house using the wooden blocks. At first Freddie collected some of the flat blocks and placed them on the floor. Alfie observed for a moment and then suggested to Freddie, “How about we use these ones, they are bigger and taller and will hold the house together better”. Freddie thought for a moment before agreeing, “Yeah, let’s do that”. Together they collected the biggest blocks from the pile and placed them in a square shape as the base of the house before building up. By this point, they had piqued the interest of quite a few of the other children, who were all keen to help out to make a house. Once they had worked very well together to build the walls, Isaac said, “Now we need a roof, but we need to find bits that are long enough to cover the walls!”. Working their way through the block pile, Isaac found the perfect ones, telling his friends, “These ones are perfect, they are just the right size”, whilst placing them on top to finish their house. 

Exploring Insects, Flowers & Herbs!

Over the last couple of weeks the toddlers have been experiencing lots of seasonal changes with both the weather getting warmer, seeing plants and leaves brightening in colour, as well as getting the chance to see more insects in their everyday environment. 

Whilst on a walk around the Imber Court grounds, the children led the way to a grassy area in search of flowers. Henrietta and Rafe went straight towards the daisies and plucked them from the ground, Rafe immediately held it up so show off his success of finding a flower, “Flower!” he exclaimed for all his friends to hear. This then attracted other children to the area, one of them being Blair, who came across a dandelion. With three big huffs and puffs, Blair blew all off the seeds off the stalk and squealed with delight as she watched them get carried by the breeze, pointing to show everyone. Megan thought this was a great idea and plucked a dandelion of her own, only to misjudge how close it was and accidentally suck the dandelion fluff into her mouth. Ooops! As the children were searching the area for more dandelions, Maximilian and Santiago wondered over to a fallen tree and both bent down to have a closer look. Santiago quickly leaned back with a shout and a point, “Ahh!”. They had stumbled across a trail of ants making their way into the cracks of the tree. Maximilian commented “Spider” but then corrected himself, “Ant” as a member of staff explained what insect they were looking at. This again intrigued the other children and they too all joined in to watch the ants, occasionally saying “Shhh” to each other so as not to scare them away.

The children have been loving planting with lots of soil and cress. As the theme of that week was gardening, the toddlers gathered their tools and pots, ready to replant some cress. Arthur and Gabriel got stuck straight in, both picking up a glove to put on before picking up their choice of gardening tool. Monty grabbed a tool belt and once that was on he selected a trowel and began scooping the soil and transferring it from the tray to the pot. Arlo picked up some cress and said “What that I going to put it in my pot” before filling his pot with soil and patting it down with his gloved hand.

Over the last couple of weeks, the under two’s have really shown their love of the outside, enjoying the sunshine and exploring our brand new herb garden. This includes, rosemary, thyme, lemon variegated thyme and curry plant. Whilst looking at some of the very beautiful plants, the children have been testing their sense of smell. Finley picked up a piece of rosemary and showed an adult. Finley was asked, “What does it smell like Finley?”. Finley put the rosemary carefully to his nose and said, “Mmmm nice”. Finley and his friends continued to pick small pieces of each herb in order to see what each of them smelt like. 

Inside, the under two’s particularly enjoyed an activity related to our book of the month, ‘Dear Zoo’. The activity involved discovering the zoo animals, hidden by pieces of paper. Leo approached this activity straight away and really showed off his love of animals by being able to name almost every one. Leo would lift up each ‘door’ to reveal the animal and say either the name of the animal or the sound. Phoebe wanted to see what was going on, so pulled herself up from the floor and stood next to her friends. After watching and working out what to do, she began searching for animals. Sienna then approached the activity after seeing how much fun her friends were having and began lifting the doors to see what animals she could find. When finding the lion, she gasped and said, “Rahhh!”, as loud as she could, making her friends giggle.

Wet Walks & Sunny Sand Play!

The pre school children have continued to enjoy exploring the nursery grounds over the last couple of weeks. Even on a rainy day, the children set out to find some puddles, looking for the “The biggest puddles we could find” as referred to by Luna. Whilst getting ready for the walk, Max asked his friends, “On our walk, when we look for puddles, do you think there might be some ducks in there?” When Max realised that his friends looked a little confused, he started to laugh and reminded them, “Remember there was ducks in the big puddles on the big field”. A couple of the children remembered and started to recall the story, “Oh yes, remember we were splashing in the puddles with the ducks and geese!”.

Whilst out on the walk, it didn’t take long at all to find some big puddles and the children couldn’t wait to stomp through them, giggling as the water splashed everywhere. Some of the children decided to make their own fishing rods with sticks they had collected on the way and Tom used his to make swirling patterns in one of the puddles. This peeked the interest of his friends, some of who copied the motions that Tom was making and other moving their sticks up and down whilst watching the ripples form around the sticks. Rowan had collected some small stones and very gently tossed one in to the water, watching closely as they hit the surface. He called his friends over, “Guys look! When the stones land in the water, they make circle shaped ripples!”. Rowan showed his friends exactly what he meant, whilst reminding them, “Remember not to throw the stones, you just need to gently drop them”. All the children loved having a go with this, taking turns at dropping stones in the puddles.

The children have also really embraced the warmer weather and taken the opportunity to engage in lots of water play based activities. Alfie had collected some sand and placed it in careful lines along the outsides of the water flowing trays and told his friends, “If you make it tall enough, the water will go down the middle”. This piqued the interest of quite a few children who were soon enough all helping to make water dams. Caiden started to collect some bark where he could see the water was slightly seeping through the sand and made an extra barricade. When Madan asked him curiously, “Why did you put that there?” Caiden explained, “It’s because the fish can’t escape, they need to make it down to the bottom of the ocean”. Youcef loved playing with the crabs, pretending to snip his friends and giggling, “Be careful of your fingers!”. 
A Small group of children went to the supermarket to buy some fruit and vegetables this week. They were very excited to choose, weigh and pay for the produce, and even more so to cut and share with the group when they returned.

Celebrating 5 Years at Molesey Day Nursery!

What a fun filled day the pre school children had for our 5 year celebration. The children arrived at the nursery looking fantastic in their party outfits and couldn’t wait to show their friends. Throughout the morning, the pre schoolers were very busy helping to bake muffins and making their own pizzas for the party. Rowan asked, “Are we going to eat these for tea or take them home?” To which Luna told him, “They are for the tea party!”. The room was decorated with bunting and balloons which the children all found very exciting. Joshua had been playing in the garden and when running past the pre school door, he spotted the balloons and gasped, saying “Wow!” with a very big smile on his face. He went and gathered his friends, bringing them all to pre school to show them what he had seen. Zack couldn’t contain his excitement and ran straight in, investigating the balloons, noticing that there was a bee, a snail and a ladybird. Very quickly, Finley noticed some number 5 balloons and curiously asked, “Why are there so many number 5 balloons though?” and when explaining to him that the nursery was having a 5 year celebration party, Daniel laughed and said, “That’s even older than all of us!”.

When it was time for the party, the children couldn’t wait to get on their hand crafted party hats and loved getting involved with the entertainment with Elly from Crafty Tales. Their favourite part was clearly the parachute game, all of them so excited when it was time to hide under the parachute. Sophie was giggling away whilst Esmé was guiding her friends under the parachute each time it was lifted in the air. After exploring the musical instruments, the entertainment was finished off with some bubbles and a goodbye song. Sadie smiled to Lana and said, “That was so much fun!”.

When it was time for the party tea, Rowan helped to set up the table, saying, “This has been so much fun, it’s been a fun party!”. The children sat together, eating their party food and discussing and comparing their face paints. As a present from the nursery, the children all received a book as a present to take home which they couldn’t wait to show to their parents as well as their painted faces!

The toddlers absolutely loved the celebrations for the nursery’s 5th anniversary this week and all worked together to decorate the room for the special day. Each of the children decorated pieces of paper with felt tips, wax pens and Pom poms which would be turned into a crown to wear at the party. The main excitement for the children, other than the dancing, was making their own pizzas! They added their sauce before sprinkling on handfuls of cheese on top.. most of them popping a few handfuls of cheese in their mouth too! Once the pizzas were ready, each of the children sat with their party hats and enjoyed their party tea, with a lot of them pointing out they made their own pizza. Arlo held up his pizza, took a big bite and said, “It my pizza, I did it, it yummy!” Whereas Harry stated through a mouthful of pizza “It’s delicious!”. The children also had the choice to have face paint with the a few spring themed options. Rafe was the first to approach the face painting and chose “A bee buzzz” and sat patiently, giggling every so often as the brush tickled his face. There was a mix of chicks, butterflies, bumble bees and flowers dancing to music and playing with friends all afternoon!

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The under twos had a fantastic time at the nursery 5 year anniversary party! From music, party outfits, dancing and ribbons, to pizza, party hats and face painting! All of the children loved getting involved with the celebrations, enjoying exploring the room which was decorated with bunting, balloons and colourful lights. When party time came, Lottie and Cora were straight in, showing off their wiggling dance moves and soon enough, everyone wanted to join in. Finley was especially amused by chasing the snail balloon around, whilst Leo couldn’t contain his excitement when the bubbles started flying. After the disco extravaganza, the children sat down for a lovely party tea, wearing their beautiful handmade party hats, tucking in to pizza, sandwiches, bear crisps and finishing up with some homemade muffins! What great fun!

Our New Chicks!

What an exciting couple of weeks at nursery with the arrival of the chick eggs! The pre school children have been doing lots of chick themed activities, as well as learning about life cycles of frogs and continuing to observe the passing butterflies in the garden. A group of the pre school children participated in an activity where they had the opportunity to draw their own chicks and particularly enjoyed sticking on their feathers, before going off to hide their chicks around the garden for their friends to find at garden time. Rowan hid his chicks amongst some sand, telling his friends, “You will never be able to find my chick, he’s hidden too good!”. Whilst Ada chose to hide hers in the nature crates, telling her friends, “My chick is somewhere nice and cosy!”, giving them clues as to where they could find her chick. 

Over the past week, the children have closely observed the chick eggs transform from being eggs safely placed in their warm incubator, to hatching and becoming, as Sadie called them, “Beautiful fluffy chicks!”. Whilst visiting the chicks still in their eggs, Daniel asked, “But when the chicks come out from their shell, what will they eat and drink?” Finley suggested to him, “I think they will drink water?”. Olivia followed up, “But will they eat the same food as us? Which made Alfie laugh and said, “No, of course not, they can’t eat pasta or chicken curry”, which made all of their friends laugh. When being showed the chicks food, Madan correctly pointed out, “That looks like the food that we feed the birds in the garden”. 

Once six fluffy chicks hatched from their eggs, with some of the children being able to observe this happen, they couldn’t wait to be able to hold them. Each morning the first question often was, “Can we go and see the chicks?” The children were all so gentle whilst holding the chicks. Chloe reminded her friends on several occasions, “They only have very small bones so we have to be very careful, just like when I hold my baby at home!”. What a wonderful experience this has been for the children.

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The under twos have loved meeting the chicks over the last two weeks! As eggs, the children got to see them in the incubator, waiting to come out! They sang songs like ‘Humpty Dumpty’ to learn about the eggs and watch out for cracks. Once the chicks had hatched, the under twos built a pen in the classroom for them to come and visit. All of the children sat excitedly waiting to see the fluffy chicks, and began giggling and clapping their hands together when the six chicks were placed in the pen. Sebby told his friends they were “Chickens” and flapped his arms at his sides! The under twos enjoyed singing “Old MacDonald” and “Chick chick chicken” whilst having the opportunity to hold the chicks carefully in their hands and stroke their feathers!