Snake Sock Puppets & Firework Paintings!

The toddlers have had a great time learning all about the Lunar New Year this past week, by joining in with lots of themed activities including using chopsticks in the home corner, making lanterns and paint splatting firework pictures. One day, the children all brought in their own socks to make a snake in the form of a sock puppet, to represent the year of the snake. Lots of the children walked in with happy smiles showing off their different coloured socks that they were going to decorate after breakfast. Whilst eating her toast and cereal, Sienna told each of her friends that walked in “Making a sock puppet”, informing them of the days plans with a big excited grin. Sebastian said, “I got lots of socks.. sharing” while holding out a big handful of spare socks to show everybody he had extras, just in case anyone forgot their own! While decorating her sock, Emily began hissing like a snake “Ssssss” which made her friends giggle. Evie explained, “We going to put our arm inside when it’s dry” as she decorated her sock with colourful paint and lots of pom-poms and googly eyes.

Outside, the children enjoyed role playing as dragons and stomping around the garden with big almighty roars. As the weather was cold and the children’s breaths were visible this added to the effect, with Cora pointing to her mouth as she watched her the white clouds float across the garden and saying “Like a dragon!”. The toddlers had a great time attempting to take part in a dragon dance that quickly turned into an impromptu dance party! Imogen began bending at the knees to the beat of the music while Clara and Leo jumped up and down together. Charlotte continued on stomping and roaring as she moved in circles along with the music.

Over the last couple of weeks the under 2’s have loved getting involved in a wide range of activities inside and out, exploring nature and introducing them to Chinese New Year! Whilst out on daily walks, they have explored different types of weather and nature, seeing what materials could be found. The children would stop off at different points of the grounds to come out of the buggies and collect items such as sticks, bark and leaves, to be used to make pictures. Meanwhile, the walkers of the room also went on a trip of their own to explore the grounds on foot and go to feed the ducks. Lyra very excitedly shouted “Quack quack” as she saw the first duck, and then looked over happily as she watched more appear from under the bridge. Theo smiled as he waved over at the ducks, getting very excited as they approached. 

The under 2’s have also gotten involved in some activities with inspiration from Chinese New Year, focusing on the celebration colours. One of the activities they got involved in was finger painting, with paper laid across the table and paint spread along for the children to get their hands in! Sophia quickly made her way over and slapped her hands onto the table, spraying the paint everywhere and giggling happily as she did so. They all got involved and made some beautiful pictures on the paper, showing off their artistic skills! Another Chinese New Year activity was making some ‘fireworks’ on the builders tray using the baby mops and chalk paint. The children were able to dip their baby mops into the pots filled with chalk paint and ‘splat’ them onto the tray, creating firework displays of all different colours! Zakariya splatted his mop and let out a quiet ‘Wow’ as he watched the paint explode off of it, smiling happily. 

Counting Cubes & Searching for Letters!

It’s been a fantastic fun filled 2 weeks in preschool as the children have settled back in following the Christmas break and have been getting stuck in to all the activities on offer. Isabelle and Eloise really enjoyed creating number lines with the counting cubes. Eloise quickly added cubes along her line; packing them tightly together to fit as many as possible. When she was finished she counted her cubes and excitedly told Isabelle “I have ten cubes in my line!”. Isabelle replied “I am doing the longest line, I wonder how many there will be!”. She stretched across the table as she added the last cubes to her number line and worked together with Eloise to count how many she had used. The two of them counted the cubes all the way to thirty, with only a little help. Isabelle proudly exclaimed “Wow! That is so many!” The Children also had a great time creating snowflake artwork to display in the preschool room. Matilda used a cotton bud to make lots of dots on her piece of paper and told her friends “Look at my one, there are lots of snowflakes!” Harry, however, used a paint brush and made big sweeping motions with his brush to cover his paper in blue paint. He showed his snowflake to Arlo, saying “My snowflake is really big!”

Out in the garden, Isabelle, India and Isla had fun investigating an intriguing activity in the tough tray. The three of them used their magnifying glasses to examine the tray, looking at lots of little letters that had been scattered around, in search of letters from their names. India then suddenly said “Look, it’s ‘I’ for India!” Isabelle quickly replied “That’s in my name too!” Isla then added “And me too! But my sister has ‘A’ for Ada.” The three of them searched a while longer for the letters of their brothers and sisters’ names and invited even more friends to search for theirs as well!

Frost & Lightboxes!

The toddlers have been loving the recent garden make over! They have jumped straight into the exploring every area, finding lots of excitement in the different placement of some of their favourite toys, play areas and climbing apparatus. One morning when it was particularly chilly, there was a layer of frost on one of the tables which intrigued some of the children. Eliza approached straight away and exclaimed “oh no!” at the sight of the once brown table turned white, and placed her hand on it. Madeline and Jenson followed suit, placing their hands on the table too with Madeline quickly retracting it and holding it close to her chest, giving a large shiver to show that it was cold. Jenson giggled and began stroking the table and commented, “Cold”. As Jenson moved his hand across the table, it left some marks in the frost which then encouraged the other children to touch the table and make their own marks. Eliza chose to use a stick while Jenson and Cara used their hands. Phoebe found a piece of wood and placed it on the table and began moving it back and forth, creating much larger marks which made her smile.

Back inside, the children have been enjoying using the new light boxes to investigate colourful blocks, insect toys from the nature tray as well as leaves, bark, petals and other items collected from the garden and while on walks. Imogen showed a big interest in this and immediately began carefully stacking blocks to build a tower. Leo picked up a leaf and pressed it down on the light box, leaning in close with a smile as he slid the leaf around. Evelyn watched this for a few moments, before approaching the nature tray and picking up a magnifying glass to bring over, commenting, “Ooo, what’s that?” as Leo had now swapped his leaf for a thin piece of bark. Evelyn leaned in close with the magnifying glass for a few moments before holding it up to Leo’s face, “Here Leo, you have a turn now… what can you see?”.

The under two’s have thoroughly enjoyed their first weeks of 2025 at nursery, and have been very happy in welcoming the new starters! The children have had lots of exciting activities prepared for them involving lots of fun challenges including a game where they searched for hidden animals. Farm animals were hidden under pieces of tape to reveal a new and exciting animal! Skandar and Lyra came over to have a look, intrigued by what they saw and began peeling off the tape. Bit by bit, they got closer to finding out which animal they were going to find. Lowen managed to peel off each piece of tape and found a horse. Next was a pig, which was shortly followed by a duck. A few more children came to have a look once the animals began appearing. Lyra lined up the animals on top of the tray and pointed to each one, “Neigh, oink oink, quack!”. 

In the garden and on a daily walk, the children have been experiencing the winter season, wrapping up warm, going on frosty walks in the buggy and hearing the crunchy noise of ice beneath the wheels. Whilst out a walk, Skandar came across a puddle that had completely frozen over and went to explore. He crouched down next to the puddle and touched the surface with his hand, pulling away quickly and giggling from the cold. Giulia was intrigued so checked it out for herself, leaning over and to feel the ice too. She screamed with excitement and laughter as she said, “Oh!” and leant down to touch it again.