Buds that Blossom Wendover

Buds that blossom Wendover wanted to congratulate Tracey on getting Employee Of The Month!

Well done Tracey 🎉

The children have shown lots of enjoyment in celebrating the King’s Coronation over the last couple of weeks. We have had a royal dress up day, a disco, various arts and crafts activities, a royal bake off and a tea party.
We use the event to support the children’s development in understanding the world, encouraging them to ask plenty of questions.

Caterpillars 🐛
Our caterpillars have arrived and the children have shown lots of enjoyment in learning about the insect’s life cycle.
For the next month we will be observing the caterpillars as they turn into butterflies, supporting the children to understand their world, specifically how things work.

This was made by our lovely Chef for our Buds that Blossom staff for our Thursday treat. Thank you Chef David they were very yummy! 🍓🍫

On Monday in Buds we celebrated St George’s Day and Earth Day.

For St George’s Day we had a messy tray with coloured rice, the children showed enjoyment in waving the flags around and using their hands to explore the feel of the rice in the tray, promoting their physical skills. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

For Earth Day we had a messy tray with coloured pasta and different animals. The children use the different utensils to explore the tray. The children also act out their own experiences, pretending to feed the animals the pasta. We talk about the different animals and the sounds they make. 🌎

The impact of this activity is expressive arts and design, linking to ‘exploring and using media and materials’ through the use of various sensory play.

Eid Mubarak 🌙

Today we focused on talking about Ramadan and Eid. One of our lovely team members, Haleemah is sharing her experience and celebration with the children and is talking about Eid. The children are showing high levels of interest and fascination as she talks from her own experience.

In the Buds room they explored the sensory books, showing high levels of engagement whilst also talking about the images they see. We also decorated our own Henna hands using paint to make marks on the hand.
In Blossoms we talked about the importance of fasting and the celebration of Eid. The activities prompt the children to ask lots of questions as they develop their understanding of different celebrations promoting our British Values and Cultural Capital.

Today was St Patrick’s Day and Red Nose Day. We did all different activities around the nursery during the day.

In Buds for St Patrick’s Day we had two Irish messy tray’s and the Buds were using all their senses to explore them. We also did some pepper and celery painting to make shamrocks on the paper. The impact of these activities were expressive arts and design which links to Creating with Materials because the children were exploring all the objets in the tray and the texture of the vegetables and paint. For Red Nose Day in Buds we had a tray that had all sorts of red objects in. We also made some red noses with red paper with white and yellow paint. The impact of this activity was physical development which links too moving and handling because they were using there hands and body’s to explore it.

In Blossoms for St Patrick’s Day we sellotaped three corks together to put in green paint which looked like shamrocks on the paper. The impact of this activity was expressive arts and design which links to Creating with Materials because the children were using tools for a purpose. For Red Nose Day we made some red play dough and we used all sorts or different face parts to make our own red noses. The impact of this activity was Personal, Social and Emotional Development which links too the children talking about how they might be feeling and how others are feeling.

International Polar Bear Day.🐻‍❄️
Did you know that a polar bear’s fur isn’t white? It’s actually transparent with a hollow core that reflects light.
To coincide with International Polar Bear Day the children get to explore the animals through lots of messy sensory play. The children show enjoyment in feeling the different textures and learning all about the animals.

Our story of the month for February has been ‘Superworm’.
Our Blossom’s children show lots of enjoyment in joining in with repeated refrains in the story such has “hip, hip hooray for… SUPERWORM!”.
Across both rooms, the children explore various materials and resources to develop their understanding of the world as they use their curiosity to begin to notice detailed features of objects in their environment.

Shrove Tuesday 🥞
To celebrate Shrove Tuesday the children participate in making their own play dough pancakes. The activity enhances their mathematical skills as they measure out the ingredients and in the Blossoms room communicate using mathematical language. They also develop their fine motor skills as they experiment with different ways of moulding the play dough such as, stretching, poking and rolling.
For tea the children have pancakes, where in the Blossom’s Room they chose their toppings and roll them up themselves to support their independence. The children in the Buds Room show enjoyment in trying new textures and manipulating the pancakes with their hands.

Our story of the month for January had been ‘The Gruffalo’.
In the Buds Room we have been encouraging the children to notice pictures and begin to recognise what they stand for.
In the Blossom’s Room we have been talking about key events and principal characters. We have created various different crafts based on this, presented on our story of the month display board.
The children have shown lots of interest in the various activities, further supporting their development in literacy and expressive arts and design.

Sophie and Jodies Emmetts Genies Fundraiser

Sophie and Jodie will be completing a Tough Mudder run in May to raise money for the wonderful charity, Emmett's Genies who’s long-term goal is to create a wish village for critically ill children.
Attached below is Sophie and Jodie’s fundraising page for those of you who would like to donate. We would be incredibly grateful for any donation that you’re able to make☺️

Sophie and Jodies Emmetts Genies Fundraiser Help Sophie and Jodie raise money to support Emmett's Genies

Our world map at the end of the year🌎
Each week we have celebrated a different country to enhance the childrens understanding of the world and implement fundamental British values. The map includes a variety of different artwork, celebrating different cultures, faiths and learning styles.

Christmas Dinner! 🎄🎅🏼

Blossom’s show high levels of excitement at their Christmas dinner party. Lunch is always a sociable occasion and the children communicate to each other about what they are eating and their excitement about Christmas. They eat all of their Christmas dinner with some even going back for seconds! Blossom’s develop their social and communication skills alongside their physical as they demonstrate willingness to try new foods and textures.

The snow is here! ❄️
We have been having lots of fun in the snow these last couple of days. The children develop their understanding of the world as we observe and communicate about the changes happening, as we get well into winter. The Blossom’s work as a team to build their own snowman, showing excitement the next day when checking it is still there.

Women’s Aid is a grassroots federation working together to provide life-saving services in England and build a future where domestic abuse is not tolerated.

We at Buds That Blossom feel very passionate about helping those vulnerable and so to offer our support this winter we have worked together to build a collection of boxes, filled with gifts for both woman and children fleeing domestic abuse this Christmas.

Children in Need 💛
Today we celebrate diversity and inclusion as we promote and raise money for Children in Need

We understand the importance of promoting independence for children to recognise their capabilities, and the control they develop as they recognise their own needs. Mealtimes are a sociable time, and we provide the opportunity to explore food and self-serve at mealtimes in our Blossom room. This reduces anxiety around food, and creates an environment of curiosity as we explore new tastes and textures.

This week for Remembrance we have been expressing our learning through different activities. We have used sensory play with rice and play dough, as well as creating our own poppies to take home using paint and rollers. We have also created our own soldier hats using paper plates and paint.
This is important for the children to talk about with us as we are so close to a RAF base and have parents who are actively serving. These activities help develop the childrens understanding of the world, expressive art and design and communication and language.

Today the Buds have been exploring our messy tray. This includes shaving foam and duplo. The children used the tweezers to pick up the duplo and pull through the string. The children enjoyed using the tweezers to pick up the blocks and enjoyed using their fingers to feel the texture. This activity develops their physical development through moving and handling of the tweezers, alongside expressive arts and design.

Halloween 🎃👻
For Halloween, the Blossom’s take part in a variety of fun activities, including pumpkin carving, a halloween disco, lots of arts and crafts and many more! Followed by a spooky afternoon tea.
The activities all help to support the children’s development in communication and language, specifically speaking and listening and attention. Blossom’s communicate to one another about what they are doing and ask a variety of simple questions.

We saw some amazing costumes, well done everyone! ☺️

Happy Diwali!💫✨
To celebrate Diwali, the festival of light, the Blossom’s have experimented with a variety of bright and vibrant colours. The children observe what happens when they mix colours together to create new ones, developing their skills in expressive arts and design. Furthermore, the children develop their understanding of the world and different cultures as we communicate about the different celebrations that take place to celebrate Diwali.

Today the Buds explored our outdoor environment, collecting the leaves and other natural materials from the garden. The children have enjoyed mixing, squishing and crunching the leaves together. This activity impacts their understanding of the world, their communication and language as well as their physical development through moving and handling as they explore the autumn changes 🍂

As part of our sensory, technological and expressive art development, our Buds use the torches to experiment with light, pattern, and shadows around the room, displaying high levels of curiosity and cooperative exploration. Our Buds show capability when pressing the buttons to turn the torches on and off, discovering their independence as they venture around the room.

This morning we focused on the children’s understanding of technology and expressive arts. Blossom’s operate the light board, exploring the different colours and how colours can be changed for different effects. They demonstrate strong foundations for future learning, and critical thinking, as they learn and observe how one colour can become another.

Today in Blossoms we have been working together to create a colourful environment for the cars. The children have shown high levels of enjoyment rolling the cars through the “slippery” surfaces that we have coloured blue, to which the children referred to as ice. This impacts their personal, social and emotional development through making relationships with peers as they work together to build their cars a road.🖍🚗

To celebrate India as our country of the the week, this morning we made play dough Rangoli Mandalas. We use lentils and rice to create patterns in the play dough, as the children display their developing fine motor skills using different grasps to pick up the rice and lentils with their fingers; as well as demonstrating their expressive art and design capabilities.

Autumn pictures 🍁
This morning, our Blossoms ventured out around our car park and garden to gather leaves that had fallen from the trees. As we explore the changes of the season, the children find many different leaves of different colour, shape and size. We identify which trees we think the leaves have fallen from, observing the distance away from the tree they had fallen and comparing the fallen leaves to the ones still on the trees. This afternoon, we get creative, making our own leaf pictures as we observe the qualities of the leaves more closely, feeling the textures and listening to the different sounds they make 🍃

Zoom Rocket Zoom 🚀
To celebrate World Space Week, we have turned our home corner into our very own space station! The children participate in meaningful engagement as they create their own dialogue, developing their imaginative skills throughout play.
The area sparks curiosity and encourages the children to ask plenty of questions, further developing their understanding of the world.

We would like to say a huge thank you to our lovely families for their wonderful contributions towards our local food bank donation!
What an amazing turn out for the harvest festival.

Our caterpillars have turned into beautiful butterflies!🦋
Over the past two weeks we have got to observe the life cycle of a butterfly. The children have shown a special interest in the insects and have been independently going to check up on them through out the day. Today out in the garden, we release them into their natural habitat and watch as they fly off into the sky. The children develop their understanding of the world and living things while being given the opportunity to demonstrate their care and concern.

SUMMER FETE ✨

Thank you to everyone who attended our summer fete, we really enjoyed having you all join us. The children showed high levels of enthusiasm, and parents too!, exploring the activities and engaging in games. We really appreciate the donations and contributes made. We have raised a fantastic £654 for Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital and for Baby Jayden!!

Our caterpillars 🐛 have arrived! We are all eager to explore the life cycle of the caterpillar and observe them as they grow into beautiful butterflies, caring for them along the way, before releasing them into our garden 🦋

Platinum Jubilee 👑
We celebrate the milestone in reign of The Queen by exploring a range of provision, impacting all areas of development, as we learn about Her Majesty and all things royal, from designing our own unique crowns to small-world play with cars and horses, as well as learning new songs and dressing up in different costumes 🇬🇧

Our country of focus this week has been England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
We have been making our own fruit tea in the messy tray, developing our pouring skills as we explore capacity and measuring whilst engaging in role-play.
We made our own scones with our wonderful life skills ambassador Ingrid, following the instruction of the recipe and further developing our mathematical skills before showing lots of enjoyment in sharing an afternoon cream tea on our Friday afternoon.

St Patrick’s Day 🍀
We have been exploring all the different green sensory activities and making towers independently with the green bricks. This was providing the children with rich learning opportunities to promote feeling different textures, balancing and building and creating using the bricks. This is promoting our maths skills, physical development and personal, social and emotional development.

World Book Day & Communication Week 📚
Reading stories with our little ones and providing them with rich learning opportunities to promote literacy and communication and language skills is something we do everyday at Buds that Blossom.
The children and staff team looked fantastic in their costumes today as we celebrate and share our favourite stories 😀

Our role play corner all set up for Monday🌱
We have transformed the area into a garden centre for next week, with the intent of the activity focusing on mathematics.
We will be exploring differences in size, length, weight and capacity. By encouraging language such as “smaller” and “bigger” and filling and emptying with measuring cylinders and water. We will also be encouraging counting using the play money and recognising numerals.

The Costa Rican rainforest 🍃
As Costa Rica is our country of focus this week we have designed our own Blossom rainforest. We have been exploring different animals and their habitats as we play with our small word reconstruction, asking questions and talking about aspects of the rainforest and develop an understanding of similarities and differences in different environments.