Exploring New Tastes, the Ocean & Construction!

Over the last couple of weeks, the toddlers have been focused on the book of the month, Handa’s Surprise, whilst also exploring all things construction. Inside, the children have really enjoyed reading our book of the month and were very excited to try some of the fruits from the story during a food tasting session. Arlo chose the grapefruit to try first, putting it to his mouth and immediately scrunching up his nose, “It so sour!”. Max was really enjoying his grapefruit, letting out a big “MMMM!”. Meanwhile, Megan was carefully exploring her plate; she put the avocado in her mouth and took it straight back out again whilst sticking out her tongue. Ethan picked up a chunk of pineapple and put it in his mouth; with a big smile he said “It’s juicy!”. Henrietta agreed, licking the juice from her pineapple and repeating “Yum!” after each lick. Gabriel tried everything on his plate, commenting “I like avocado!”. Finley and Cooper were giggling, dipping their fingers into the passion fruit and putting in their mouths. Cooper shouted “Like it!”. 

Outside, the toddlers did yoga on the decking with Sam. Rafe really enjoyed pretending to be a tree, swaying his arms back and forth with a big smile on his face. Arthur was able to copy all of the different poses even encouraging his friends to join in by shouting “Come on!” while Emily was very happy observing from the side with a smile. The children were each given a beautifully coloured scarf to use and Matilde copied Sam’s movements, scrunching it into a little ball then opening her hands and watching it open up like a beautiful flower. Matilde watched on with a look of amazement on her face before trying it for herself. Arlo decided to put his scarf on his head and while putting his hat back on and shouted “Look, I’m purple!”. 

Over the last couple of weeks, the under two’s have been on an adventure under the sea, exploring everything it has to offer, from the sea life, to the amazing colours, textures and sounds. They have also been focusing on their book of the month, Handa’s Surprise. Inside, the children took part in a sea creature rescue mission by saving the sea animals from the blue netted material. Charlotte, Evelyn and Phoebe were the first ones to approach and began to investigate. Charlotte bent down and could see something beneath the blue net and gasped, “oh wow, crab!”. With that, she found the edge of the netting and began searching beneath to get to the crab. Whilst rescuing the crab, she discovered more creatures further underneath and encouraged her friends Evelyn and Phoebe to help her. She pointed under the netting towards the sea creatures and said, “Look, look!”, again pointing towards them. Eventually all of the sea creatures were saved by our very brave under twos! 

Outside in the garden, the children have had so much fun in the warm weather, taking part in water play and building sand castles. One activity they all took a lot of interest in was our chalk board drawing and cleaning activity. Using the chalk to draw and the baby mops dipped in water to clean, the children had never ending fun, drawing on and cleaning the chalk board. Sienna walked over and began to draw whilst Leonardo approach and picked up the little mop. Leonardo was unsure what to do at first, so he plopped the mop back into the water. As he did this, the mop caught the chalk board, leaving very interesting marks which caught Leonardo’s attention. He pointed and said, “Oh wow!”. Leonardo dipped the mop in more water and moved it all around the chalk board in every motion he could come up with, creating such beautiful marks on the board. 

Races & Games at Sports Day!

The children had such a good time at their sports day this week, joining in with many activities including running races, toss the bean bag, balancing games even challenging each other to a game of tennis! Sadie collected all of her friends together along the start line and explained to them all, “First you need to pick up a bean bag and then you need to choose a hoop, when I say go, you have to throw and aim for a hoop”. Checking that all of her friends understood the rules of the game, she counted down, “3, 2, 1, Go!”. Once the children were satisfied with their throwing skills, Alfie instigated a new game of “balance the bean bag on our heads race”. Alfie guided his friends with balancing a bean bag on top of their heads and then guided them to where the race would start. He went on to instruct his friends, “On your marks, get set, GO!”. The children found this race very amusing, Oliver, Tilly and Ollie went straight in for the run, finding it even more amusing that their bean bag fell straight off, whilst Olivia and Tom went in with a careful approach, taking small, slow steps, ensuring they made it to the finish line with the bean bag still on their heads. Well done all!

Whilst the races were going ahead, Isaac and Max challenged each other to a game of tennis at the makeshift tennis courts. They each picked up a bat and stood either side of the net. Isaac gave Max the go ahead for him to hit the ball first and laughed, telling him, “I bet I can get to the ball first”. Max giggled and challenged him back, “I bet you can’t”. Ada loved a game of football with her friends, insisting that she would save all of the balls from going in to the goal. After running side to side to save the balls, Ada sat on the mat with a big smile on her face and a drink of water in hand and said, “That was so much fun but now I need a drink!”. 

To finish of the sports day activities, the children took part in races including skipping, running, side stepping and crawling races and all received their very own medal for taking part in all of the activities throughout the morning. The little ones couldn’t wait to show them to their families and even brought them back to nursery the following day to show each other again as they were still so proud of themselves!

Bushy Park & foam clouds!

On a sunny morning we all had a lovely idea to go for a long walk to bushy park! An invitation was extended to the preschoolers who decided to join the trip with some of their children. When it was time to set off and the children had suncream applied and hats on, they waved goodbye to the nursery and started chants of “Let’s go”. The excitement was palpable which only continued to grow as there were sightings of trucks, lorries and police cars along the way. As the buggies were nearing Hampton Court the children paused to wave hello to the police standing guard and had a quick look at the palace but hunger quickly took over as chatter upon seeing a food stand filled each buggy. This set them up perfectly for snack time and as soon we arrived at the park a few minutes later and set up camp with picnic mats the children indulged in their snack of fresh fruit and breadsticks. As soon as they were finished they were up and moving, some going in small groups to visit the play ground and others exploring the field and nature around. With the explorer bags at the picnic blanket Arlo and Henrietta quickly retrieved some binoculars and made their way to a large tree. While standing at the bottom they both looked up into the branches and Arlo stated, “Oh I can see a bird up there, it so high up in the tree…. Hello birdie” which made Henrietta react with a big “Oh!” as she quickly corrected her binoculars and echoed what Arlo had said in an excited shout “It’s a bird! Look! Bird!”.  They followed it as it flew to another nearby tree with lots of excited squeals.
Whilst sat doing drawings of the differnt things they could see Harry paused and said “What’s that over there behind that wall?” While pointing to a short wall along the side of a stream. When the group went over to investigate Matilde said “Ducks ducks” and pointed as she ran closer to the wall. They watched the ducks for a short while before bursting into laughter as one duck put his head under the water with Harry explaining, “He showed his bottom to us”. Meanwhile a few children were exploring the playground where George was able to climb up the steps of a large slide and exclaimed “I did it!” once he reached the top, sliding down in celebration. Hugo was attracted to the large hammock like swing and once settled in took this as a time to relax and fully reclined whilst closing his eyes. When it was time for lunch the children reconvened at the picnic blanket and tucked into some delicious tuna pasta and peaches before back into the buggies and heading back to nursery…having a quick nap along the way. Heaven!

Over the last couple of weeks, the under two’s have been have been busy learning all about the weather and exploring their senses during sensory and malleable play week! Inside, they were very eager to get stuck into our ‘Walking on clouds’ activity and could not contain their excitement. Charlotte clapped her hands and giggled as the foam was sprayed into the builders tray, whilst Margaux gasped and said, “Oh wow!” As soon as all was ready the children approached and their hands went in first. Next, with their shoes and socks off, they could have a real sensory experience by stepping into the foam clouds, with many of the children curious to know what it felt like on their feet. Zachary was the first to be lifted into the clouds, as he kicked around and laughed at the feeling he enjoyed so much. Shortly after his friends followed suit and had a great time playing with the foam in this whole new way. 

Outside the sensory adventure continued with activities such as crunchy sensory trays using a variety of pasta shapes and gloopy slime with scoops. One activity the children thoroughly enjoyed was the ice painting. They used various coloured paints and then chose an ice shape to investigate how the colours mixed in with the ice. Cora picked up her paintbrush and couldn’t quite work out what colour she wanted. She pointed out every colour and finally selected red, whilst encouraging her friends to join in. Sebastian picked up the blue paintbrush and decided to give himself a great, blue moustache, making his friend burst out with laughter. 

Graduation!

It was graduation day for our school leavers last week and what an amazing show the little ones put on for their parents and siblings! The children have been very busy over the last couple of weeks, rehearsing their lines and learning some new songs to sing as a part of their play and their efforts certainly paid off. We know the little ones have been practicing their words at home too with their families. The count down started on Monday with Rowan, Lana and Luna reminding all of their friends, “It’s 3 days until our graduation!”. Sadie gave the 2 day reminder on Tuesday and when it came to graduation day, the children couldn’t wait to show each other their costumes. Olivia was mostly excited about her ears and tail and Zack just couldn’t wait for a face paint. What a fantastic job the children did with their words and lyrics before getting up and receiving their leavers certificate and starting school book. Thank you to all the parents who provided the animal outfits and came to support the children. Fabulous fun!

This week, the shows have continued with the children making their own stages in the garden using the wooden platforms to be able to put on their own performance. With the new tall wooden rulers in hand, Sophie and Luna placed the benches next to each other and then checked that there was enough space. Sophie reassured her friends, “It’s ok guys, don’t worry, there’s 100 space for everyone”. Once all the children had taken their seats and Sadie letting them know, “I’m Joe, I need to read the first words!” which made her friends laugh, the show took off. 

We are very sad to see the children go and wish all them all the very best of luck at their new schools!

Bear Hunt & Sports!

Over the last couple of weeks, the children have enjoyed being active and learning about different sports as well as focusing on our book of the month 'We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’. After sharing the story at circle time, the children had the opportunity to go on their own small world bear hunt. Emily was first to the table, choosing 2 small world people and immediately heading off through the long wavy grass. Soon after came Ava, heading straight over to the deep cold river to see what she could find and was very excited to see some frogs on lily pads. She held one up for all of friends to see and shouted “Frog!… Ribbit”. Henrietta headed straight to the bears cave and let out a squeal of excitement “A bear! Look bear!” while pointing in the cave. She took hold of the bear and let out a big “Roar!”. Max giggled and took one look at the bear and excitedly said “Feed it” and ran and found some green pom poms and started to put them to the bears mouth, even storing him some extra food under a log. All of a sudden Harry said “Oh no… help… he stuck in the mud!” Arlo picked up a person and said “I help you Harry!” walking his person over to rescue him. The children had lots of fun creating their own narrative with this activity and had lots of fun exploring. 

Outside, the children have been very creative using the blocks and beams on the decking. George and Santiago set out 2 blocks on the floor then grabbed a circle block each and sat down. They twisted and turned the circle block in front of them. George shouted “Bee bee” pushing his hand onto the middle of the circle shortly followed by Santiago shouting “Beep beep!”. Once their friends heard the noise they were eager to join in. Ethan pointed and said “Look, a car!” Grabbing his own blocks to add. Arlo and Rafe went off to the shed and found some cushions to add to the car. Isla came over to see and said “Can I have a turn?” She sat in the car and said “I need to shut the door”, picking up a flat block and placed it next to her foot. The other children climbed in and when asked where they were going Leo shouted, smiling “The beach!” 

Over the past two weeks, the under twos have had a blast spending lots of time in the various outdoor areas the nursery has to offer! With the new book of the month ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ and the sports week, the children have had the opportunity to get busy with lots of activities engaging their senses and gross motor skills. 

Within the garden the children were transported into the “deep, dark cave” with their very own bear to find! A blanket covered tunnel and tuft tray made the perfect cave, allowing the children to become immersed in the story where they were able to crawl, climb and sneak their way into the cave, lifting the blankets to find the darkness underneath. Zachary and Henry were incredibly curious as they entered the garden and immediately began to explore the cave, finding their way under the blankets, whilst Evelyn crawled in through the tunnel. Whilst they were encouraged to sit within the cave, and join in the sing along of the story, Leo began tapping his legs to the beat and giggling at the sounds of ‘oozy mud’ and the ‘whirling snow storm’. 

Later in the week they also got the chance to go for a hunt of their own, but instead of a bear, the children were on the look out for the animals on the nursery grounds. At the beginning of the walk Sienna and Leonardo joined in making noises of the animals they might see, ‘clip clopping’ like horses, ‘tweeting’ like birds and ‘woof woofing’ like dogs. As soon as he entered the grounds Sebastian pointed to the field opposite, “Horse, horse!” he said and began making the sounds from before. Sebastian and Margaux were very excited to see a horse standing right next to the fence, lifting his head as the buggies approached. This horse was very brave and stayed right where he was whilst the children giggled and waved. As the walk continued they saw even more horses and sang the ‘horsey, horsey’ song as they watched from the gate. Once the bridge was in sight, Sienna and Imogen began to ‘quack’ knowing they would soon see the ducks in the water. Ready with duck food and bread to throw in, Madeline and Phoebe watched as duck after duck appeared from the bushes and swam along the water. Sienna joined in as Laura began to count the ducks, ‘one, two, three..’ but so many ducks came they couldn’t keep count!

During the sports week, the children got another opportunity to learn some numbers and begin to be introduced to counting. Cora, Cara and Charlotte were particularly interested in the ring toss, entering the mud kitchen for the game with colourful paper plate rings and being challenged to throw them onto the sticks in the soil. At first they were unsure of what to do with them, Cora holding the ring to her face as a mask, Charlotte poking her arm through as if wearing a bracelet and Cara holding it up looking at the dots. After a little demonstration of how to throw them, the group had a try on their own, launching the rings into the air and watching where they land. Each time they tried they got a little closer to the target and eventually Cara landed one on the stick, congratulated by a round of applause. Soon, it was time to count the rings the children had thrown and the children were encouraged to use the language “one” “two” “three”, with Charlotte enjoying picking the rings up as they were being counted to have another turn.