Hanna's Childminding

Hello! I am closing the setting from October 2023. Please do not contact me about spaces. Thank you.

This week the theme was The Hungry Caterpillar. This is such a classic and a favourite. Lots of opportunity for counting, games, stage 1 phonics, crafts and healthy eating discussion. I'll return to this again in a few weeks. Our living caterpillars arrived too and my gosh have they grown fast in a week!

Happy Coronation Weekend!!
We've had lots of fun getting into the spirit. Crafts and reading at the setting, and a special coronation party at Tiddlers & Toddlers where we dressed up, enjoyed a party lunch, and other festivities.

It was great to welcome back the gang after the Easter break. And the weather has been wonderful allowing us to get out more, picnic lunches, playgroups, and Finkley Down Farm.

Last week's topic was oral care. To help make this fun the children had a go at brushing clean large teeth and smiles on the tuff tray. Themed books were: Open Wide What's Inside by Alex & Helen Rushworth, and Usbourne's Why do we brush our teeth? We also had opportunity to mix with others at Tiddlers & Toddlers playgroup, manage a trip to the playpark between rain showers, and started Easter crafts! Our runner bean had grown a root too!

last week, w/c 13th March, we embarked on spring themed activities such as exploring the village looking for the early signs of spring and checking against a list. We also learned about what plants need to grow, sowed seeds, one of which was a runner bean in a glass jar so we can watch it sprout and grow. Oh and it was Mothers Day at the weekend so we had fun crafting for that too. And the cat decided to go for a drive in the toy car 😆

Over the past few weeks we have been playing in the frost at the first forest toddler group of the year, made bird feeders for the winter birds, decorated snowmen biscuits, played with dinosaur tuff trays, spotted catkins and the first snow drops on our walks.

We started the year with winter themed activities such as designing mittens, visiting playgroups, playing with small world snow scenes, and exploring ice (gosh has there been A LOT of ice out there!)
We also did baking for Chinese New Year (Year of the Rabbit) and made masks.
Themed book is Tractor Ted A Winter's Day.

When you see kids playing, they are also learning. 👀🤓

And we could’ve went on & on with the skills and benefits of PLAY!

They are processing emotions.
They are self-regulating.
Play is so important for kids 💜

For Christmas we read Christmas stories, sang Christmas action songs, and made lots of Christmas crafts including:
* Wooden snowmen and tree decorations at Forest Toddler Group, we also enjoyed a Christmas trial searching for wooden trees and counting the colours baubles.
* Painted baubles/decorations for our parents at The Ugly Duckling.
* We made hot chocolate cones, decorated crowns, made reindeer food at setting.
* And at the Tiddlers & Toddlers playgroup we had a mini crib service in the church and Santa visited!

Just wanted to say a big thank you to the wonderful ladies who run the Tiddlers & Toddlers playgroup and Growing2gether who host the monthly forest toddler group. They are always so helpful and welcoming. Also thank you to the team at The Ugly Duckling for helping with the finishing touches on our creations.

I’m very grateful to have such wonderful families and care for such lovely kids. We have a smashing time together and I'm looking forward to more fun and adventures in 2023.

Have a great Christmas everyone! Eat lots of festive food, drink, and have fun!

Towards the end of term we finished off our autumn topics such as how animals cope with winter: hibernation, adaption, or migration. We baked hedgehog bread rolls, made bird feeders, and finger painted hedgehogs too.