AUGUST 2024

The children and staff have had a wonderful August, making the most of a range of resources to have lots of different messy play activities. 
It was sad to say goodbye to all our school leavers but we wish them all the best on their new adventure. It has been a pleasure watching them all grow and develop during their time with us and the goodbye letters and email we have been sent from parents have been wonderful and heartwarming.  Also a big thank you to parents for the generous leaving gifts given to the staff and the nursery. 
It has also been lovely having so many updates on Tapestry of family days out and holidays during the month. 

This month the children have been enjoying:

Ducklings: Sand play, Gloop, Water play, Kinetic sand, Leaf pictures, Books, Outside play, Shape sorter and Pop up toys.

Rainbows: Cereal sensory tray, Cling film painting, Digger sand play, Pipe Cleaner fishing, Gelli baff fish tray, Under the Sea tuff tray and Foam water.

Sunshines: Making pizzas, Tomato and brown sauce tuff tray, Paint and shaving foam tuff tray, Picking runner beans, Role play vets, Homemade kinetic sand, Frame craft, Rain cloud science experiment and Painting with tubes

JUNE 2024

The children and staff have been enjoying the lovely hot weather we had over the second part of the month. On a very hot day we all had ice lollies to help us cool down. 
On Parents Evening it was lovely to see so many parents attend and meeting with their child's key person. This gave them a perfect opportunity to catch up the child's development and to ask any questions that they might have.
For Father's Day the children had lots of fun making their Daddy a biscuit and card. 

Ducklings enjoyed: Animals - Animal touch and feel, Matching animals, Sensory animal tuff tray, and Animal books/puzzles.
Small construction-Small wooden bricks, Interlinks, Stickle bricks, Duplo bricks and Large and small bricks Sensory play- Soil play, Natural resources tray, Sensory balls, Sensory bags and Sand playArts and crafts- Sticking and glueing on flowers paper plate, Duplo painting, Pasta pictures and Stamping with paint

Rainbows got stuck into: Babies - Match the Mummy and baby animals, Cooking - fondant icing sweets, Home corner cooking

Sunshines entertained themselves with: Let’s make some Ice Cream tuff tray, Holiday Tuff Tray, Traffic Vehicle Tuff Tray, Can you make a magic Potion tuff tray, Can you decorate the Rainbow fish, Father’s Day crafts, Camping Role play set up, How to Grow Cress, Alphabet Play-dough, Tracing shapes tuff tray, Let’s make a birthday cake Tuff Tray, Making name crafts and Can you splat decorate your name.

MAY 2024

One of the highlights this month was when we brought in the Incredible Eggs hatching kit. The children were very excited to follow the progress of the hatching from eggs to little chicks. The learned about caring for them, helped to feed them and got to hold them. Afterwards the chicks were re-housed to a good home.

We also held Pet Week when our children and their families brought in their pets for all the children to meet. We talked bout caring for pets, how to handle them and what they like to eat. One of our parent, who is a vet also talked to the Sunshines about their job and brought in some equipment for them to see.

Other activities this month:
Ducklings: Outside / sit and ride cars, Exploring the garden/sit and ride cars, Large construction, Going on the balance beam, Puzzles/ bead maze, Mud kitchen / little kitchenMessy play, Blue gloop, Pasta play, Shaving foam with sea animals, Wet and dry sand and Play doughCars, trains, transport, Washing the cars, Pushing the diggers down the hill, Play dough with transport, Car painting -making tracks and Car booksHalf term-Sticking and glueing
Rainbows: Wood construction, Car wash and Painting with cars tuff tray
Sunshines: Role-play schools, Can you make a birthday cake?, Sea shell craft, Can you make a dinosaur with your hand?, Peppa pig cutting activity, Construction painting, Messy play-mixing it all together flour, water and food colouring and Pictures of hatching eggs and chicks

APRIL 2024

This month all our preschoolers found out which Primary School they will be attending, which caused a lot of excitement. Now they can plan ahead and find out who will be joining them at the same school. Everyone got stuck in with the Easter egg hunts and we found out who was the winner of the lovely decorated easter egg pictures which the children had made at home with their families. The Ducklings had an outing to the local lakes to see the ducks and the Rainbows explored different musical instruments in the garden. The Sunshine children have started to prepare and plant in the vegetable garden. Fingers crossed we will have some lovely vegetables very soon for the children to pick and eat with their lunch. 

The Ducklings had books, water and kitchen and home corner themes this month with various activites that fitted in with their themes.
The Rainbows enjoyed St George's Day activities, painting and construction themed play.
The Sunshines made shortbread biscuits with their initial on them, threading craft leaves and practiced writing their name using tissue paper.

FEBRUARY 2024

As always there has been a lot of activity at nursery this month, with the children celebrating Chinese New Year, eating delicious pancakes and enjoying some Valentine activities. The Ducklings have been busy exploring messy play and navigating through tunnels, Rainbows have had fun playing outside on the grassy area of the back garden and Sunshines have enjoyed activities focusing on school readiness such as writing their names and practicing their scissor control. 

Ducklings have been busy with Water play- Sea animals in bubble bath, Sensory water bags, Large group water play, Water painting and Coloured foam water play. Home corner and kitchen- kitchen role play, recognising and naming kitchen objects, naming fruits, washing up kitchen utensils and mud kitchen pots and pans, Outside play and pop up tents- Outside play sit on cars, Pop up tents and tunnel and large construction and stick painting

Rainbows have geen focusing on Pipette painting , water sensory bags, Chinese New Year rice tray, pancake colour and number game, sensory digger tray, love potions, pitta pizza, construction sensory tray, sensory sand drawing, number mark making and cork mark making.

Sunshines' activities have included Comparing bear colours and number matching, flower garden craft, homemade postcard craft, painting landscapes, my pancake activity, Daffodil craft, junk modelling laptops, chinese new year money bags, children's name craft, hospital role play, Valentines day cards, Chinese new year sensory tuff tray (rice and noodles), Harry Potter I spy activity sheet, Chinese new year dragons and let's cook tuff tray and tissue paper flowers.

December 2023

It has been a very festive month at nursery. The children have enjoyed Christmas parties, Christmas dinner, Father Christmas visits and not forgetting the wonderful Sunshine's nativity play at Otterbourne village hall. The children had lots of fun dressing up in their Christmas jumpers on Christmas Jumper day. 

All the staff have enjoyed doing lots of Christmas craft and activities with the children, from messy play to lots of sparkling glitter.

Ducklings' activities: 
Snowflake pictures, decorating a ball ball, making a snowman, christmas tuff tray, arctic landscape, christmas tree painting and making/decorating bells.

Rainbows got creative with:
Christmas hats,  wreaths, cutter painting, tree cones,  tree paper plates and baubles. Felt Christmas tree, Snow stamp picture, snow men craft and snow tuff tray. 

Sunshines enjoyed: 
Fake snow tuff tray with glitter, meeting Father Christmas, snowflakes craft, holly wreath craft, reindeer craft, do you want to build a Snowman tuff tray and our Christmas bags (including cards, calendars, tree ornament)