Weekly round-up

Monday

Our first butterfly emerged from its chrysalis today! We showed the children an educational video on the interactive whiteboard, which showed the process in slow motion. The children were fascinated and can't wait for the other butterflies to emerge. One of our children brought in a bottle of frozen water this morning and the children decided to observe how long it took to melt - we made predictions, just like real scientists. We were all very surprised that it didn't fully melt until 2pm. We were excited to have our first gymnastics class this morning. Hannah from Active 1st will be coming every Monday to help the children develop their balance and movement skills. If today's session is anything to go by, it's going to be a highlight of the week. Continuing the focus on physical development, in the afternoon we did some Sticky Kids activities with the children - they did bending and stretching, followed by a cool down.  

Tuesday

It was a hectic morning today, as Tempest Photography were in to take the photos of our "graduates". While waiting to have their photos taken, the children made the most of the lovely weather by playing in the garden. We introduced some of our new resources that have been paid for by the HALO grant from East Sussex County Council - river stones, hill tops and balance tracks. As well as being insanely popular with the kids, these resources develop a whole range of skills: balance, core strength, concentration, perseverance, problem solving and turn taking. Later on, the children decided to make their own maps and go searching for treasure. We talked about the points of the compass and different landmarks that we might put on a map. And we now have seven butterflies! It will soon be time to set them free, but in the meantime we put fruit in for them and enjoyed watching them eat.

Wednesday

Three more butterflies hatched overnight, meaning that all our chrysalises were now empty. Nearly time to let them go... There were many different activities in the garden today: we explored different ways of moving down the slide and created obstacle courses using the slides and the stepping stones; the children were also using the balance bikes to move about the space, showing excellent turn-taking and an awareness of safety by using the helmets. There was also a police chase using the ride-on cars, and we discussed how the police help us if we are in trouble. And Becky planted up our new planters with beans and poppies, and the children wrote labels for the plants. We are looking forward to observing the plants growing over the coming weeks. 

Thursday

We continued to develop our garden area today, with the children planting strawberries. They enjoyed digging the holes and giving the young plants plenty of water, and we discussed what plants need in order to grow. And, talking of growth, today was the day that we released our butterflies! The children all sat round quietly and held out their hands, waiting to see if the butterflies would land on them. A few were lucky enough to have a "butterfly kiss" before the butterflies fluttered off Their imaginations were so fired by what they had seen that we created a mini-beast small world so they could recreate it. The children have adored seeing the amazing transformation of the tiny caterpillars into beautiful butterflies, and we will definitely be repeating this activity next year. 

Friday

Our butterfly display looked very empty this morning! Fortunately, there were plenty of other things to entertain the children. Some of them were constructing "castles for kings" using the magnetic shapes, which led to a discussion about the forthcoming Royal wedding. Later, they worked together to build one giant castle - great teamwork! Some other children developed an imaginative role-play about mermaids in the sea, using props and dressing up outfits to support the play. Others spent time in the quiet area, sharing books together and using descriptive languate to each other about what they saw.

Weekly round-up

Tuesday

All the children came in super refreshed from the Bank Holiday, and ready to enjoy some fun in the sun. Outside, we enjoyed going on a bug hunt and discussing the differences between spiders and beetles. The warm weather meant water play was a very popular activity, and later on the hosepipe came out for a water fight! Other children devised a game where they rolled a hula-hoop down the slide to see who could get it to roll the furthest. There was also a pretend ice cream parlour set up in the Wendy house (it would have been lovely if it had served real ice creams, though!). Inside, there was some maths going on, with some children using the Numicon scales to investigate concepts of heavier/lighter and bigger/smaller, while other children created 3D shapes using the magnets.

Wednesday

Another lovely sunny day meant more fun and games in the garden. We played 'What's The Time, Mr Wolf?' (great to support their understanding of number) and hide and seek. The children also enjoyed having glitter tattoos applied - apologies if it meant there was glitter all over your house later on! Inside, some children decided that they wanted to draw plates of food for a game. They drew pizza, fruit and salad, and we discussed which foods were healthy and which weren't as good for us. We also continued our maths work with some of the children doing sums using the foam numbers.

Thursday

As sometimes happens with child-centred planning, we had a very role-play focused day today. Some of the children paid another visit to 'Sophie's Hair Salon' today - it is such a popular game among the girls! Other children were playing a game of cops and robbers, with the police making arrests and taking the robbers to jail. Later, there was even an imaginary snowball fight! We are always amazed and delighted by the vivid imaginations of the children at Nursery.

Friday

We used our brand new oven for the first time today, with the children taking it in turns to bake fairy cakes with Wendy. They all enjoyed the experience very much, and (mostly) waited patiently for their cakes to cook. We are looking forward to providing many more opportunities for the children to cook a variety of foods while they are at Nursery. While waiting their turn to bake, the children occupied themselves with some sorting activities - some children were looking at our toy animals and sorting them according to whether the animal walked, swam or flew; other children looked at our shell collection and sorted them according to size, pattern and smell! In the afternoon, we played the "Who took the cookie?" game which tested the children's logical thinking skills, and the "What's in the box?" game where the children had to describe a hidden object and guess what it was. This latter game prompted the use of some excellent vocabulary from the children, and also led to a discussion of the different properties of plastic and metal.

Weekly round-up

Monday

We made a pond for our farmyard role play area today, showing the different stages in the life cycle of the frog to tie in with our tadpole pond in the garden. The children are excited to see if any of the tadpoles have turned into froglets yet. Continuing the farmyard theme, some children set up a pretend tractor ride using chairs and the steering wheel. There will be plenty of tractors out on the roads in the coming weeks, why not see how many your child can count?

Tuesday

There was further development to our farmyard today, as the children helped to turn a cardboard box into a barn - we painted the outside brown, and created a thatched roof with straw. In the garden, one of our children found a worm and we discussed how important it is to be kind to all animals. The children took this lesson very much to heart, and built the worm a house out of mud and sticks. What kind-hearted children we have at nursery! There were also several make-believe games going on simultaneously today - some children initiated a petrol station role play, which led to discussions about money and the consequences of driving off without paying ("Call 999!"); elsewhere, there was a Sleeping Beauty role play, with poison apples, and in another part of the nursery some children set up "Sophie's Salon".

Wednesday

The children were making farm animals out of play dough today; we also made patterns in the play dough with the wheels of toy tractors and footprints using toy farm animals. In our craft area, we were making farmyard pictures using various craft resources - grass was made from tissue paper and the stems of flowers were made from straws. Our children were also in a very musical mood today, with some fantastic dancing to 'The Wiggles' and some very enthusiastic music-making with tambourines, drums and shakers. They also very much enjoyed our drop-box full of slime!

Thursday

There were more requests for dancing to 'The Wiggles' today, and who are we to say no? Apologies if you get lots of requests to play these videos at home - the children really do love to dance along to them! Our new farmyard playset remains a popular addition to the nursery, (the children especially like the animal noises the toy makes when you press the top of the barn!). The children continued to monitor the growth of the tadpoles and caterpillars. The latter have grown enormously since they first arrived at nursery, and we expect them to enter the chrysalis stage very soon. Exciting!

Friday

The children were working on their fine motor skills today, threading beads onto strings and stacking small beads into towers. Linking in with our work on life cycles, our sensory play today was basil seed frog spawn! The children loved the strange, slimy texture and used their imaginations when handling it to create different situations. Our caterpillars have started to make their way to the top of the pot that is their current home - this means that they are preparing for the chrysalis stage. We can't wait until they turn into butterflies!

Weekly round-up

Monday

This term, we are looking at life cycles. You may have noticed the tadpoles that are in the water tray at the end of the garden (the children are fascinated!) - we are hoping that we'll have some froglets in a few weeks' time. Today we were also very excited to welcome some tiny caterpillars to the nursery. The children will be watching them feed and grow, then witness their amazing metamorphosis into butterflies. Today we also changed our role play area into a farm yard, with animals, hay bales and a picnic basket. It's already a very popular area with the children. And we didn't forget that it was St George's Day today, with the children making the English flag and learning about the story of George and the Dragon.

Tuesday

We continued our farmyard theme today - some children coloured in different farm animals, while others did a sorting activity with the animal magnets. A discussion about parades led to an impromptu carnival (with samba drumming on the interactive whiteboard) and some very enthusiastic playing of various musical instruments. They could probably hear us in the main school! Elsewhere, playing with money was developed into an opportunity for the children to do different things with the coins - balancing them, seeing how much they weigh, adding them up, and so on. And, of course, buying things with them!

Wednesday

The children were helping to improve our farmyard display today - the pictures they'd so carefully coloured in this morning were cut out (great for practising their fine motor skills) and stuck up; they also had fun creating a tree trunk using footprints made from brown paint. It felt very nice when the paint squished between their toes! We have also started work on the children's self portraits, which are going to be printed on a very nice St Mary's Nursery tote bag. Be sure to buy one at the Summer Fete!

Thursday

This morning we were delighted to welcome Jazz from Music Bus into the nursery for a fantastic music session. We sang a range of songs, including 'Dingle Dangle Scarecrow' (with the help of her scarecrow!). There was much fun using a big parachute, bouncing pom-poms on it while singing a song about popcorn, and we used floaty material to do movement to the music. All the children had a wonderful time. Later on, we were decorating leaves for our farmyard display, which is looking brilliant thanks to children's hard work. We also played a balancing game, 'Don't Wake Hank', where the children took turns balancing fish on Hank the octopus' arms. Great fun, and also great for their fine motor skills.

Friday

Our story time theatre made a welcome return today, with a presentation of 'The Tiger Who Came To Tea' (a particular favourite with the children here at nursery). Elsewhere, there were flowers frozen in ice for the children to excavate and outside there was a small world drop box with water and the pirate ship. And at the end of the day some new toys arrived - a farm play set, with animals and a tractor, which makes animal noises - the finishing touch to our farmyard role play area!

Changes are afoot...!

We have been fundraising hard recently (you may have noticed!) with an aim to developing the outdoor area at the Nursery. We've been very fortunate to be awarded a £3,000 grant by East Sussex County Council, some of which will go towards creating a kitchen garden so the children can grow their own food; we are also going to be installing a climbing frame and slide to expand the physical play opportunities for the children.

You'll see the first of many changes when you return to Nursery on Monday, as this weekend we have installed a new shed and a non-slip decking area in the unused space next to the entrance to the garden. Huge thanks to Joe, Glenn and Sam who worked their socks off to get it done - fortunately, they were working on one of the only sunny, dry days of the holiday! The area now looks really smart, and will be a great space for the children to use. We plan to install a scooter rack, so children can scoot to Nursery if they want to, as well as welly storage so they can play outside in all weathers.

Exciting times are ahead!

Term 5 Newsletter

Welcome back! It looks like Spring might have FINALLY sprung, though who knows? Maybe there's more snow around the corner... Check out this term's newsletter by clicking on the image to the right - it contains exciting news about changes to the nursery.

We're GOOD!

We are delighted to announce that our Ofsted report has been published, and once again we have been judged as good across the board. Hooray!

You can view the full report here, but here are some of the lovely things that the inspector said about our setting:

"Children are confident and motivated to learn. They have strong and secure relationships with staff who support children to feel safe."

"The quality of teaching is strong and focused on the children's interests. Staff listen to what children say and provide opportunities for them based on their current ideas."

"Staff are enthusiastic about the experiences they provide for children to extend their skills."

"Parents are encouraged and welcomed into the setting to share their interests and hobbies with the children."

"Children are confident and demonstrate positive behaviour. They take turns and listen to each other's ideas."

"All children make good progress from their starting points and are supported to develop the skills needed to prepare them for the next stage in their learning."

Huge thanks to all the staff, who worked so hard on the day of the inspection. You're all superstars!

Weekly round-up

Monday

We have several dinosaur-crazy children at nursery, so we created a dinosaur land for them to enjoy. It's always amazing hearing them correctly naming all the different dinosaurs - if you can't tell the difference between a Parasaurolophus and a Pachycephalosaurus, then just ask one of our children! Away from the dinosaurs, there was some serious tower-building going on, using Unifix cubes and Duplo. This was an opportunity for the children to use the language of comparison - which is the tallest/largest/smallest/shortest? We also challenged the children to build towers with a specific number of blocks, helping them to practise their counting skills. There was some great imaginative play going on as well today, with some of the children making pretend sweets out of paper and material (using their fine motor skills to cut them out). They looked delicious!

Tuesday

The children had fun today painting Easter chicks with Wendy (and getting very excited about Easter in the process). Other craft activities - all child-initiated - were going on at the same time, including making collages from different materials and making zebra masks. In the morning, some of our children listened to the story of Fay the Frog - this is a story designed to help the development of speech and language, something we are active in supporting in our children. Our circle time focus today was "friendship", and we talked about our golden rules and the importance of British Values in our everyday lives. We rounded off circle time with a rousing rendition of 'If You're Happy And You Know It', with some very enthusiastic actions from the children! 

Wednesday

We were hugely excited to welcome a very special visitor to nursery today - George's Nanny brought in her tortoise to meet the children. A definite highlight of this term, and we'd like to say a big thank you for giving the children the chance to get up close to such a fascinating creature. Some of the children were so inspired that afterwards they wanted to draw tortoises of their own. After the excitement had died down, there was more fun to be had - the children enjoyed some junk modelling, exploring different textures and materials, and modelling with air-drying clay. We also made a "train" for a make-believe trip to the sea-side where we sang songs and went for a pretend swim.

Thursday

The children were practising their pencil control skills today, by tracing over dotted lines. If this is something you think you'd like to try with your child at home, there are some downloadable sheets here. In the book corner, the children were retelling familiar stories in their own words; this lead on to a story theatre performance of 'Room on the Broom' using our puppets and the children wearing masks to portray the dog, cat, frog and bird. In the role-play area, we were enjoying pretending to go shopping, using money and giving correct change from the till.

Friday

It was Katie's birthday today, and Rose kindly brought her in some balloons - thank you Rose! There was definitely a celebratory atmosphere, with the children wanting to play party games. The Easter activities begun in earnest today, with a drop box full of rice dyed yellow, fluffy chicks and coloured eggs to fill. We also had Easter play-doh mats, where the children could make numbers or specific lengths out of the play-doh. The dinosaur world was also back by popular demand (so much dino-love in Nursery!), while other children continued to practise their pencil control by tracing on our print-outs.

Weekly round-up

Monday

What a lot of rain there was today! Even the most gung-ho of our children didn't fancy going outside, so much of today was spent doing indoor activities. The children enjoyed building with Duplo and playing with the Hexi-snaps, trying to recreate patterns; they also had fun with the animal magnets, matching the animal to the correct habitat. Some of our children also decided to create their own story book, using their imaginations to make up a story and drawing pictures to illustrate it.

Tuesday

There was some seriously messy play in the garden today, with the children making "chocolate potions" by mixing paint, sand and water in a bucket. It was a very popular activity, but oh heavens it was messy! Fortunately, our practitioners set up a bubbles in water activity which was equally popular and which had the happy side-effect of washing away most of the mess... Inside, there was some super junk modelling going on, as well as a spirited game of musical bumps.

Wednesday

It actually felt like Spring had finally arrived today, so the children were able to enjoy lots of fun outdoors. We made sandcastles to celebrate the fact that the sun was finally shining, and some of our children decided to wash our playhouse - how helpful! Some of the children were interested in the teabags that they'd put in their Mother's Day cards, so they took some outside and explored the smell and texture of the tea leaves and had a go brewing their own tea (using cold water, of course). Inside, we were making play dough with the children, using resources kindly donated by some of our parents. We also made a start on our new door display, with the children making hand prints and writing their names. We hope you like it!

Thursday

One of our children brought in a treasure chest that he had made at home with his sister for a school project. This really sparked the children's imaginations, and lead to some great treasure hunt games and to more "treasure" being added to the box. Elsewhere in the nursery, there was a game of giant snakes and ladders (great for practising turn-taking) while other children were getting creative with forks, using them to make paintings of spring flowers. They were very proud of their efforts. One of our children decided he wanted to be a police officer today, then arrested Sophie and put her in jail! This resulted in an interesting discussion about the role of the police, and how they are here to help everyone (not just to put baddies in prison).

Friday

The children had fun with ice today, excavating numbers using spoons, knives and warm water. Given the icy weather that was on the way, it seemed appropriate! Other children played a swimming game, where they pretended to have a swimming lesson. Some great attempts at breast stroke and front crawl from them all! Today we also started doing self-portraits with the children - we intend to get all children to do one, and these will be printed on a canvas tote bag for you to purchase as a lovely memento. The aim is to have these on sale at the Summer Fete, so do keep an eye out for them and treat yourself to a St Mary's Nursery Bag for Life!

Weekly round-up

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!