Play Days Childrens Day Nursery

Over the past few weeks, we have loved exploring our topics of minibeasts and farm animals through lots of exciting activities and experiences.
One of our highlights was watching our very own caterpillars grow and transform, which sparked so much curiosity and excitement amongst the children. This even inspired a wonderful show and tell session, where one of our children proudly brought in some ladybirds from home for us to observe and learn about together! 🐞
We have enjoyed plenty of outdoor adventures, trips to the park, and lots of fun Hungry Caterpillar-themed activities and teas. The children had a wonderful time dressing up as butterflies, spreading their wings, and using their imaginations as they learned all about life cycles and the world around them. 🦋
It has been a term full of exploration, discovery, creativity, and laughter, and we are so proud of everything the children have achieved.
We can't wait to see what exciting adventures and learning opportunities next term will bring! 🌟

Last week at nursery we had so much fun continuing our learning about The Hungry Caterpillar! 🐛🍎
The children enjoyed caterpillar counting activities and lots of creative mark making, helping to build those important early maths and writing skills in a fun and engaging way.
With the warmer weather on its way, we were very excited to introduce our brand new water wall! 💦 The children loved exploring how the water moves and working together to experiment and problem solve.
We also celebrated Earth Day 🌍 by learning all about recycling and how we can help to look after our world. The children took part in activities where they removed rubbish from the “world” and enjoyed painting their own beautiful pictures of the Earth.
For St George’s Day 🏰🐉 we got creative making our very own flags and had lots of fun building castles and using our imaginations with knights and dragons.
It has been a wonderful week full of learning, creativity and smiles! 😊

🐛🌿 What a Fantastic Start to Our New Theme! 🌿🐛
Last week at nursery we were so excited to begin our new theme for the term — The Hungry Caterpillar! The children have already had so much fun exploring, discovering and learning together.
Our new exploration area was a huge hit, especially with our brand new mini beast microscope 🔍. The children loved taking a closer look at different bugs and investigating the tiny details they could see.
The coloured blocks on the light table sparked lots of creativity and curiosity, while the green sand and bug stones encouraged the children to design and draw their very own bugs — we saw some wonderful patterns and imaginative ideas!
Story time has been extra special as we’ve been reading The Hungry Caterpillar together, talking about the life cycle of a butterfly and all the different foods the caterpillar eats.
To build our motor skills, we’ve been busy completing caterpillar puzzles, and we had lots of giggles playing sound games to identify different animal and bug noises 🐞🐝.
It’s been such a fun and engaging start to the term, and we can’t wait to continue learning all about mini beasts and life cycles in the weeks ahead!
Stay tuned for more of our adventures! 🌸🦋

We are absolutely blown away by the amazing creations in our Easter Bonnet Competition this year! 🌸🐣🎩
Every single hat was filled with creativity, colour, and so much effort — we couldn’t be prouder of all the children who took part. You truly made it a very special celebration! 💛
As you can imagine, it’s incredibly difficult for us to choose just THREE main winners… so we’d love your help!
Please take a moment to LIKE or COMMENT on your favourite THREE bonnets — your support will help us decide our winners! 🏆
And of course, every child who entered will be taking home a certificate and a chocolate treat as a big well done for their fantastic effort 🍫👏
Thank you all for making this such a fun and memorable event!
Special note to parents - Don’t forget our Easter stay and play is on Wednesday at 1:30pm - 3pm 🐣

🐣 Easter Bonnet Fun at Playdays!🐰
Most of our Easter Bonnet Kits have now been sent home, and we can’t wait to see all your wonderful creations! 🎀 We’ve already received our first bonnet back — it looks amazing, and we’re so excited to see many more arriving soon!
✨ A little reminder:
There’s a small competition taking place, and every child will receive a special Easter prize for taking part and creating their bonnet. Please make sure all bonnets are returned by Monday 23rd March so we can get them ready for judging! 🏅
🐇 And don’t forget!
Our Stay and Play session will take place on Wednesday, where we’ll be holding our Easter Bonnet Parade! Please confirm your place for Stay and Play as soon as possible so we can plan for everyone joining.
We’re so looking forward to a fun and festive week full of creativity, colour, and Easter cheer! 🌸💛

Last week we had so much fun celebrating World Book Day at nursery! 📚✨
We spent the week exploring the wonderful stories of Julia Donaldson, enjoying lots of exciting activities, story times and creative play inspired by her books. It was lovely to see so many of the children arrive in their fantastic and creative costumes – thank you to everyone who joined in!
Our staff also got into the spirit by dressing up as characters from What the Ladybird Heard, which the children loved! 🐞🚜
Throughout the week we enjoyed a variety of themed activities including:
• Playing in our Gruffalo crumble sensory tray with oats, play dough and Gruffalo figures 🌳
• Matching letters and numbers with acorns
• Hosting our very own Gruffalo themed tea party ☕
• Matching numbers to the ladybird spots
• Exploring farm animals alongside characters from Julia Donaldson stories
The children had a wonderful time discovering stories through play, imagination and hands-on activities. Reading together is such an important part of learning and it was fantastic to celebrate our love of books with you all!
Thank you for helping make World Book Day so special! 📖💛

Last week at nursery we had a wonderful time celebrating Chinese New Year! 🐉🎊

The children had lots of fun learning about different cultures and traditions. We enjoyed watching exciting dragon dances before having a go at creating our very own using colourful scarves and dancing ribbons. The children loved moving to the music and bringing the dragon to life!

Throughout the week we got creative by making our own pictures and beautiful crowns inspired by Chinese New Year. We also explored new flavours by trying some delicious Chinese cuisine.

To support our early writing skills, the children practised their mark making by copying Chinese numbers, showing fantastic focus and curiosity. In our home corner, the children used their imaginations to role play in a Chinese restaurant, taking orders, serving food and working together.

It was a fantastic week full of creativity, culture and fun. We are so proud of how engaged and enthusiastic the children were while learning about celebrations from around the world! 🌏✨

🌟 What an amazing Half Term we’ve had at Playdays ! 🌟
We’ve packed the week full of fun, laughter, and exciting new adventures!
🥞 We started the week with Pancake Day, where the children loved choosing their own tasty toppings — from sweet strawberries to syrup drizzle, everyone got creative in the kitchen!
🌿 Midweek brought our big trip to Jungle World, and what a day it was! The children had the best time exploring, climbing, and giggling their way through the soft play — so much excitement and joy all around!
🐍 To finish off our fantastic week, we had an incredible Animal Show! The children (and staff!) were amazed to meet all kinds of animals — from tarantulas, skunks, and lizards to scorpions and snakes, and so many more fascinating creatures.
💚 We’ve loved every moment of this half term — learning through exploration, building confidence, and having endless fun together!

💖 Valentine’s Stay & Play Fun! 💖
We had such a lovely afternoon last week at our Valentine’s Stay & Play, and we’d like to say a huge thank you to all the parents and grandparents who joined us — it was wonderful to spend the time together 💕
The children and their families enjoyed a variety of Valentine-themed activities, including:
Biscuit making 🍪
Creating beautiful flower bouquets 🌷
Valentine card making 💌
Pattern making using red glitter sand ✨
Water play while mixing up magical “love potions” ❤️
We ended the afternoon with a small buffet, giving everyone the chance to relax, chat, and enjoy time together 😊
We are so grateful for all of our nursery families and love sharing these special moments with you. We can’t wait for the next one — keep an eye out for our upcoming Stay & Play sessions for more fun! 💖

💖 Valentine’s Week Fun at the Nursery! 💖
We had a lovely time last week celebrating Valentine’s Day at the nursery, filled with fun, creativity, and lots of messy play! The children enjoyed taking part in a range of Valentine-themed activities that encouraged imagination, learning, and kindness 🌸✨
Throughout the week we explored:
❤️Messy play with Valentine colours ❤️
❤️Creating thoughtful Valentine cards 💌
❤️Playing with pink play dough
❤️Making real flower bouquets 🌷
❤️Counting and matching with hearts to support early maths skills 🔢
Our pre-school children focused on The Colour Monster, using the story to talk about different feelings and emotions. We then created our own love monsters, which the children proudly added to their Valentine cards 💖
One of the highlights was setting up our very own spa and beauty salon! The children had great fun pretending to give themselves, their friends, and even the staff makeovers using our new resources 💅🪞
It was wonderful to see so much confidence, creativity, and emotional understanding throughout the celebrations. Thank you for helping us make Valentine’s Week so special 💕