Monday
The children were busy today making their Mother's Day teapot cards (we hope you liked yours!). During Circle Time, we talked more about Mother's Day and thought about all the things that our mothers do for us. It really helped the children to appreciate how special their mothers are, and how important it is to celebrate them for everything they do. We used our popular moon sand to create an Antarctic experience for the children, replicating the snow and bringing in toy animals that might live in cold habitats. Our story for Story Theatre today was 'Handa's Surprise', a classic picture book which our practitioners brought to life with the use of wooden-spoon puppets.
Tuesday
As the weather was being kind to us today, we were able to go into the garden for a bubble exploration today - a very popular activity, as I'm sure you can imagine. Kids love bubbles! Another popular activity today was karaoke. It seems we have quite a few budding popstars in our midst... As well as being a lot of fun, this activity helped the children to develop their turn taking skills, as well as being great for building confidence. Elsewhere, things took a mathematical bent as we enjoyed a bead-threading activity - the children threaded beads onto laces (great for their fine motor skills) then measured and compared their relative lengths and weights.
Wednesday
It was Beep Beep Day at the nursery today (and Thursday and Friday too, so more children could be involved). This is a day that is organised by Brake, the road safety charity, as a way to engage children in road safety basics through fun activities, while raising awareness among parents and the wider community about protecting children on roads. We had a group activity where we quizzed children on their knowledge about how to stay safe on the roads, reinforcing the importance of 'Stop, Look and Listen' and of holding an adult's hand when crossing the road. We had an extended role play where children played pedestrians or car drivers, and they had to cross at traffic lights or pedestrian crossings correctly. Wendy got knocked over by one of the "cars" (oh no!) and we played out the consequences of this - the paramedics were called, and she was taken to hospital. Fortunately, she was very well taken care of and was back on her feet in no time! One of our children was very disappointed to have missed World Book Day because of last week's snow, so we were delighted when she came in today dressed as Hairy Maclary. We read the story to the children and talked about the characters, then put together a dog-themed small world to support the play.
Thursday
We introduced a new resource today, our alphabet ducks. These proved very popular, and it was hugely encouraging to see how many of our children were able to identify the different letters on the ducks. We encouraged the children to practise writing their letters, and there was some really great pen control on display. Continuing our Beep Beep day activities, we played with cars, coloured in pictures linked to the theme and had a traffic road safety story and songs. At lunchtime, we got the call from Ofsted to say that we were being inspected on Friday so, as you can imagine, we had some pretty stressed-out practitioners in the afternoon!
Friday
Ofsted came today to inspect the nursery. Eeeeek! Many thanks to all the parents who took the time at the start of the day to give their opinions to the inspector. We were very lucky to have a lovely lady inspecting us, who did her best to put our practitioners at ease. She was fortunate to see the nursery at its very best, as we had some really great activities planned for today. We had a drop box with a road painted on it, for the children to run cars round and show how best to safely cross the road. In the Chinese restaurant themed home corner there were coloured noodles with chopsticks for the children to practise their fine motor skills (also useful if you're ever taking them to Wagamama!), and they were writing their own menus and food orders. There was also playdough scented with Chinese spices for the children to play with. Outside, there was a drop box full of multi-coloured rice for sensory play and we were experimenting with chemical reactions, using vinegar, bicarbonate of soda and food colouring. Most excitingly, in the afternoon one of our lovely volunteer parents, Caroline Patrick, came in to show her cello to the children and to play them some classical music. The children were spellbound! We'd like to say a huge thank you to Caroline for coming in. If any other parents would like to share their skills or interests with the children, please do let us know! We were really pleased with how the Ofsted inspection went, and we received some lovely feedback from the inspector. The report will be coming out in 7-10 days, so now we just have a (slightly) nervous wait until we hear her final judgement. Keep your fingers crossed for us!
