Following the announcement that schools and nurseries will close on Monday, many of you may be wondering how you are going to support your child's learning in the weeks to come. Below are some suggestions to help you structure your day and, hopefully, enjoy this extra time with your child.
Don't try to recreate "school at home"
Think of this as an unexpected staycation, where your family gets to spend time together and have some fun. Ask your child what they would like to get out of this time together.
Create a schedule for your day, but don't put too much pressure on yourself to stick to it
The best schedule is one that is spacious and flexible, and builds in plenty of independent learning and play time for kids and (just as importantly) reliable break times for you. Here is a sample timetable:
Breakfast to 10am: Play inside
10am to noon: Group project
Art, cooking, jigsaw puzzle, work assigned by the school, activities suggested by nursery
Noon to 12:30pm: Lunch
12:30pm - 2:30pm: Alone time for everyone
Books, educational tablet time, colouring, crafts.
2:30pm - 4:30pm: Outside play
Try to get the children outside everyday, whatever the weather!
4:30pm until dinner: Regroup time
TV, video games, books
Go off-book
Consider alternative ways to divert your child's attention that will be beneficial and engaging without you feeling like a substitute teacher. The internet has a wealth of suggestions for activities. You can also use this time to introduce your children to key life skills like cooking and laundry. When it's time for you to work, make sure your child knows what to do in the meantime (preferably something they look forward to, such as playing on your phone!).
Stay positive
Don't forget: this is going to be a formative time for your child. What do you hope they will say when their grandchildren ask them what they remember about the coronavirus outbreak of 2020? Try to make this time special. Share stories about your own childhood and teach them games your enjoyed as a kid. For some families, the first few days of being at home together might be the hardest; for others, the first few days might be quite fun but, once the novelty wears off, it will become harder. Above all, be compassionate - towards yourself, and your child. We have never experienced anything like the current crisis, and what will see us all through is kindness.
Social distancing
Thanks so much to all our parents and carers who have been following our new drop off and collection procedures. Following the Prime Minister’s recommendations regarding social distancing, it is definitely the right thing to be doing at this time.
If you are interested in how social distancing can affect the spread of a contagious disease like Covid-19, the Washington Post has an excellent article which illustrates it perfectly: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/corona-simulator/
New safety measures
With the Coronavirus creeping ever closer, the Nursery is implementing new measures to ensure the health and wellbeing of the children and staff. We have put any difficult to clean toys into storage until the present crisis is over; all other toys will be regularly cleaned/sterilised.
At drop-off, we are asking all parents/carers to wash their child’s and their own hands in the sink in the staff toilet. We are also requesting that parents/carers say goodbye to their child in the hallway area and do not come into the main room.
At pick up time, parents/carers should wait by the nursery door and a member of staff will bring their child out to them.
We understand that some of these measures may seem extreme, however our main concern is the health of the children, the staff and the wider community. We thank you all for your cooperation.
Coronavirus update
Coronavirus has now been declared a pandemic. Numerous cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in the UK and the Chief Medical Officer has advised that the risk to the public is moderate.
We prioritise safety and are committed to reducing the risk of spread to everyone at St Mary’s Nursery and are adhering to Government, Public Health England and the Department for Education guidance on managing the risk from Covid-19 (Coronavirus).
We are committed to reducing the risk by ensuring effective hygiene practises are put in place for both children and staff, as advised by Public Health England.
Wash hands frequently with soap, especially before eating or handling food, after toilet visits, or when hands are contaminated by respiratory secretions after coughing or sneezing.
Cover mouth and nose with a tissue when sneezing or coughing, and discard the tissue immediately into a bin. Alternatively, cough or sneeze into the crook of the elbow.
No sharing of drinks/food/utensils with others.
Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces, toys and equipment regularly and when contaminated with nasal or oral secretions.
Ensure supplies such as hand soap, tissues and paper towels are available for children and staff’s use.
We remain vigilant in ensuring regular and effective cleaning is carried out. We continually monitor the health of children in our care and will react quickly in the event of any rise in temperature or changes in behaviour. We are monitoring the unfolding situation and will inform parents/carers of any new developments as soon as possible.
Our ‘Coronavirus Policy’ can be viewed on the Policies section of the website.
Bugs welcome!
Something very exciting has arrived in the Nursery garden! We can’t wait to welcome our new six-legged, eight-legged (and maybe even no-legged) friends.
Amazing new play area: coming soon!
We are excited to announce that St Mary’s Nursery are soon to begin redeveloping their outdoor area. The first phase of the work will begin in December, with the installation of new fencing, a fantastic flow wall for water play, a low-level creativity table and a super-swanky bug hotel!
We would like to thank PlayForce, the Sussex Community Foundation and the Mrs A. Lacy Tate Trust for their generous help and support, without whom this project could not go ahead.
The nursery continues to fundraise for future phases of the project, which include improved surfacing under the gazebo, a bigger climbing frame and a grass-roofed play house, so watch this space!
Next week at Nursery
Next week at nursery we are celebrating all the colours of the rainbow. The children are going to be little scientists, investigating colour mixing and having fun with rainbow milk and the Skittles colour experiment. We will be going on a colour scavenger hunt, sorting objects by colour and enjoying playing with coloured water and fizzy bath bombs. We will be reading 'Elmer the Elephant' and thinking about "the colours of me" and what makes us special. And for snack time we will be making our own rainbow toast!
Sound of the week is 's', so please encourage your child to find something to bring in that begins with that sound. We'd love to have a display of snakes, socks, sausages, soap...
Springing into the new term
Welcome back everyone! It was lovely to see all the children again - they were all full of stories of the fun they had during the Easter holidays. Apparently the Easter Bunny was very generous this year!
Following on from our Easter Celebration at the end of term, in our art corner the children have been making lambs out of paper plates and cotton wool, and making pictures of chicks by printing with a bath puff. We have also been making flower pictures using sticky dots - though later in the week these were used in an imaginary outbreak of “chicken pox” at the nursery!
Outside, the children were delighted to find two ENORMOUS cardboard boxes at the start of the week. Their imaginations ran riot with these, as you can imagine! Although the weather wasn’t quite as glorious as it was over the Bank Holiday weekend, we still had lots of fun in the garden with the children enjoying playing with the hula-hoops and the balance equipment.
Later in the week we turned our focus to maths. At our maths table the children could explore the Numicon in various ways - counting the holes, comparing the sizes, weighing the pieces - and on Friday, we introduced a drop-box exploring numbers 1 to 5. This had various resources on so that the children could explore the different ways that they could present these numbers. The most popular resources by far were rubber gloves filled with sand to create “number fingers”! The children liked these so much that many asked to make their own to take home (apologies if these leak sand across your home this weekend…!).
Most excitingly, the resources for our Sensory Area started to arrive this week. Thanks to the generosity of our donors, we have been able to fully fund this project and cannot wait to create a fantastic sensory space for the children to enjoy. They have already had a wonderful time playing on our new liquid floor tiles, and on Friday afternoon were thrilled to see our new bubble tube turned on. Watch this space for more updates!
Green fingers and good smells
We made the most of the lovely Spring weather this week with lots of outdoor play. Out in the garden we were planting pots of cress - the children listened carefully to instructions when they planted their pots, and understood that the seeds needed light and water in order to grow. We look forward to seeing the seeds sprouting in the weeks to come. The children were also making bird feeders, using lard and seeds - they helped to mix the seeds into the melted lard and spooned it into their pots with care. All the children were excited about hanging their pots up at home to attract the birds. Maybe you could keep a note of what birds you spot at your child’s bird feeder?
Inside, the week’s focus was on our sense of smell. The children were playing with play-dough mixed with different spices, and enjoyed playing a “Smelly Socks” game where they sniffed socks stuffed with different herbs. We also cut fingers of okra in half and encouraged children to smell them, before using the cut ends to make pretty flower prints.
We continued to consolidate the children’s phonics learning with the old classic “I Spy”. The children were able to identify many things beginning with the letters we have learned this term, and they felt very proud of themselves when they got the answer right. Our phonics focus next week is the ‘g’ sound, so why not bring in something to share with the class - a goat? A ghost? A guitar? A gecko? Some gardening gloves?
Finally, don’t forget that it is our Easter Celebration next Friday from 11am to 1pm. We are having an Easter bonnet parade, so that gives you one week to make an amazing Easter-themed hat with your child. We can’t wait to see what you all come up with !
It's a Spring thing!
We brought Spring into our home corner this week, which was set up as a florist’s with real daffodils. The children used scissors to trim the daffodils and put them in water, then used the till to sell them to their “customers”. The children also took part in a still life drawing activity, where they had to look at the daffodil carefully and use pencils or crayons to draw the flower. This helped to develop their observation skills and their pencil grip.
Spring was also being celebrated in our farmyard small world area. The children enjoyed playing with the different tactile elements of this - compost, straw, grass and water - and had fun creating narratives for the various farmyard animals. Later in the week, we changed this area into an ocean small world complete with sand, water and a pirate ship. The children enjoyed making waves by moving their hands back and forth in the water, and they loved making the pirates walk the plank!
There was more sensory play elsewhere in the nursery, with the children having fun playing with slime. We talked about texture as they squeezed, stretched and squashed the slime. On another table, the children were practising mark-making in flour - some made patterns, while the older children attempted to write the letters we have been learning in phonics. Our phonics focus this week was “i” for insect, igloo, inside and iguana. Next week’s sound is “n” so don’t forget to bring in something beginning with “n” to share with the other children!
