On 7th March the children dressed up as their favourite book characters to celebrate World Book Day. All the children made a huge effort and looked amazing. There was a Peter Rabbit, a Gruffalo, a Cat in the Hat, not to mention a huddle of Harry Potters!
We aim to nurture and encourage a love of reading and storytelling throughout the nursery and this event is now a firm favourite on the calendar.
World Book Day fun!
A huddle of Harry Potters
All About Multi-Sports with Coach Abid
We are excited to share details about the children’s sports sessions with Coach Abid at the nursery.
Coach Abid joins us every Thursday afternoon to host a series of lively sports sessions. The sessions are part of a specially designed programme and incorporate a range of sports, including Basketball, Rugby, Football and Athletics skills.
The course is a great platform for both school-readiness and future sports involvement for the children. At the same time, they help build and develop their self-confidence, coordination skills and team ethos, whilst also helping them learn about the value of a healthy lifestyle.
Studies show that children find these types of activities great fun and that they ensure a good level of dynamic physical activity is included in the children’s weekly programme.
If you would like your child to take part in Coach Abid’s sessions, please speak to Nikita, our Nursery Manager for more information.
Meet Coach Abid!
At the Riverside Day Nursery, Windsor we run a variety of extra-curricular activities to broaden the children’s skills and help them find and nurture new talents.
One of the classes we offer is Twinkle Tots Dance, a ballet class for pre-schoolers. Twinkle Tots have been coming to the Riverside Day nursery for over ten years. The ballet classes are for children age two and up and take place on a Thursday morning with qualified dance teacher, Miss Aimee.
Twinkle Tots was established in 2006 by professional ballerina and Royal Academy of Dance teacher, Maggie Purr, who has always been passionate about bringing the magic of dance to young people.
Maggie says: “All our classes are imagination-based, using fun stories, props, illustrations and classical music specially arranged for pre-school age children. The classes gradually introduce the children to the fundamentals of ballet technique, helping develop co-ordination, good posture, strength and suppleness.”
Ballet is also ideal for encouraging self-discipline, musicality, self-expression and spatial awareness. The classes also help support the children’s listening skills, instruction following and how to work on their own and with others.
Twinkle Tots Dance classes started with five children in Windsor and has grown to almost two hundred pupils across Berkshire, Buckinghamshire Surrey, Lincolnshire and Rutland.
If you would like your little one to join Twinkle Tots Dance, please talk to Nikita, our Nursery Manager for further information and fee details.
Also, if your child would like to take more ballet classes a week or would like to continue their ballet once they start school, Twinkle Tots also run Saturday classes at Clewer Youth and Community Centre, Parsonage Lane in Windsor where they offer RAD ballet examination classes for children age four and over. You can enroll online at www.twinkletotsdance.com
All About Tots Mini-Tennis
At the Riverside Day Nursery, we run a variety of extra-curricular activities to broaden the children’s learning skills and experience. One of our favourites is Tots Mini-Tennis run by the T2O Tennis Academy.
The sessions offer the chance for our children between two and five-years-old to take part in the world of tennis and are based on the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), Tots Mini-Tennis programme.
Many sports have a mini versions, such as football, rugby and cricket, which help to develop young talent in appropriate learning environments and T2O Tennis does just the same but for tennis!
The sessions have all the fun and energy of the real thing but are played on smaller courts with smaller nets and rackets and lower bouncing balls. As well as helping children learn the basics of the game, they enjoy engaging activities based on balance, co-ordination, agility, movement and racket and ball skills.
Head Coach and Owner, Doug Robinson said “We started at the Riverside Nursery a couple of years ago following the Teddy Tennis programme, and in recent months updated the agenda, bringing it into line with the Lawn Tennis Association’s Tots Tennis programme. It’s so exciting seeing such young children learning about and playing this wonderful game.”
Tots Tennis takes place every Monday at the Riverside Day Nursery between 2pm and 3pm. If you would like your little one to join, please talk to Nikita, our Nursery Manager, for further information and fee details.
Hedgehog Hides – Take a peek at the RSPB website (www.rspg.org.uk) who have a fabulous idea for a hedgehog café! This lovely project helps support the hungry hogs in your garden and is a lovely way to spend time outdoors with the children.
Bread Bird Feeders – With the weather still a touch chilly, you may need some indoor activities to keep the children busy. Transform stale slices of grainy bread into bird feeders that will keep cold-weather visitors happy outside your window. All you need is a shallow dish of birdseed and peanut butter.
DIY Bug Box – A bug box makes a lovely home for all sorts of different creepy crawlies and is interesting to observe throughout the seasons. Simply cut short lengths of hollow bamboo cane and tie them together securely in a bunch. Then leave it on the ground to attract wood lice and beetles or hang it from a tree to encourage flying insects, such as, bees and ladybirds.