What We’ve Been Up To!
Younger babies venture out!
Our little bundles have been wrapping up warm and playing outside with the mega blocks, balls and other colourful toys this month. This has been great for their hand-eye coordination and their identification of all the different colours of the rainbow.
Exploring our garden has also been a big hit as they try to spot new signs of life, collect leaves and chase each other around to keep even warmer! The frosty mornings have created some fascinating patterns on the playground to observe.
To wind down the children have loved singing their favourite nursery rhymes and listening to stories. Not forgetting lots of lovely messy hand painting and some indoor action on the rainbow climber.
Older Babies free-play all day
From playing with toys to exploring the room and taking part in all the free play options, our older babies are making the most of their new dedicated space. The older babies have especially enjoyed sensory play this month. Sand play making sandcastles and shapes seems to be the most talked about. Messy painting and slime play were also a high point!
We have ensured that developmental exercises have featured regularly, such as encouraging pulling to standing and stepping around furniture. The children have also been enjoying role-playing in ‘home corner’. Activities include pretending to sweep up, looking after the baby dolls and organising the house – we hope you have noticed the difference at home!
Arts and crafts activities have involved using paints with sponges and rollers – great for encouraging hand-eye coordination – exploring different textures and making pigs for the nursery display. Circle time is always key to our day and as ever we have chosen some wonderful stories to share and songs to sing.
Toddlers keep on going!
The Toddler room has been a hive of activity with the children learning about different animals and shapes in the environment. To complement this in arts and crafts we have been painting, exploring colours and examining textures.
The children have also been practising new skills, from simple tasks such as rolling a ball around, to progressing to pass it to each other – which has proved slightly trickier!
Learning to count from one to five is a fantastic achievement that will put the toddlers in a good position for their pre-school activities. Whilst playing in the garden with lots of jumping in muddy puddles (of which there have been plenty just recently) releases lots of energy and never fails to raise a smile.
Pre-Schoolers go from strength to strength
What a month for these intrepid nursery residents it’s been. They’ve been stacking stickle bricks, playing in the home and construction corners – using toy hammers and tools – making jigsaws, and colouring and painting pictures of themselves and family members. We hope you’ve seen some of these at home.
The children have also been practising writing the letters of their names, an incredible development and one of which they must be very proud – I know we are. They have also been learning about the emergency services and what different people do in their roles. This has featured Policemen and women, fire crews and ambulance crews to name but a few.
Our pre-schoolers have also been identifying numbers from 10 to 20 that are odd and even and selecting objects from a group when asked. All core skills to help them prepare for starting primary school. They’ve also enjoyed making movements and actions to music, jumping in puddles and watering the Spring bulbs we planted. Oh, they also squeezed in making yummy sausage rolls! Phew, what a month!
