Mulberries and Willows Nursery and Preschool

What an absolute F U N, M E S S Y, and C O L LA B O R A T I V E experience! We are gradually building our Eco-blueprint. Today, we designed our very own tote shopping bags.

Research shows that, children who play with natural resources, such as sticks, rocks, and leaves, often experience enhanced creativity, problem-solving skills, and a deeper connection to the environment. Such unstructured play fosters imagination and allows children to explore the world around them in a hands-on way. It was very evident while observing this learning experience.
The children used their creativity and imagination to create floral lollies, pizzas and birthday cakes with candles. The experience transported them to a world full of rich language and a culture of deep friendships.

Are you an enthusiastic Nursery Practitioner looking for a new opportunity to grow, learn and thrive? We would love to welcome you to our growing family. Send us a direct message or send your CV to [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you.

We are so proud to share that, we been awarded a 5 star rating on our recent EHO inspection!!! This was definitely a team effort. 👏🏾

Meet Elena, a vibrant dance teacher deeply passionate about education. With a commitment to fostering creativity and inspiring young mind, she is thrilled to launch Dance and Drama lessons to the wonderful children of Mulberries and Willows Nursery and Preschool.

Meet Elena, a vibrant dance teacher deeply passionate about education. With a commitment to fostering creativity and inspiring young mind. She is thrilled to launch Dance and Drama lessons to the wonderful children of Mulberries and Willows Nursery and Preschool.

This week, we set off to explore with pumpkins; however, our final destination was at a ‘magical Autumn tea party.

Our curious little minds quickly elevated the bar from one to ten in a blink of an eye. The team had to do what they do best (scaffolding learning) to extend the learning experience.

During this learning experience, we observed beautiful modeling of language, creativity, critical thinking and playing collaboratively.

Collaborative play in early childhood is not just about having fun; it’s a vital component of a child’s holistic development. It equips them with the social, emotional, cognitive, and interpersonal skills necessary for success in school and life. Encouraging and facilitating such play experiences is an investment in a child’s future well-being and growth.

Sustained shared thinking is a powerful tool in early childhood education, as it supports cognitive, social, and emotional development, enhances language skills, and builds a strong foundation for lifelong learning. It creates an interactive, supportive, and engaging learning environment that benefits children both academically and personally.

This post validates the importance of individual learning experiences. Our little person in this post, began to explore a book by looking at the pictures and asking questions. Her key person, scaffolded the learning beautiful, by looking explaining how stories are structured. Together they explore pictures illustrations, simple words and authors.

The learning experience lasted nearly two weeks as the child kept going back to and to her work. This Outstanding key person, knew how to inject the required dose of provocation to sustain the child’s interest.

A little while ago, our preschool children were given random resources and objects to explore with, and this unleashed several skills while creating their bespoke structures and models.
Creativity: The team encouraged the children to think outside the box and come up with imaginative ideas for their structures.
Problem-Solving: The children were able to identify challenges and find solutions, like balancing objects or connecting them securely.
Fine Motor Skills: Precise control over their hands was essential for placing and manipulating objects.
Patience: Building the structures was a trial-and-error process, so the children had to practice being patience, as it was crucial to learn from previous attempts and improve. (We are still work on this skill)🙂
The children were encouraged to critically think about what they could do with these everyday objects, fostering resourcefulness and problem-solving.

Edible Paint has been a new feature for the team and the children at Mulberries and Willows Nursery. This is by far the most exciting painting experience for our babies. Educational research has shown that hand-to-mouth movement is the most popular with babies, and quite often babies are discouraged from touching their mouth and faces when using paint. This week we decided to rewrite the narratives by creating edible paints from beetroots, spinach, carrots and yogurt. This experiential learning was simply magical. Our babies were in total control of creating their master pieces, whilst exciting their senses by tasting, smelling and touching them.

Providing an enabling environment that allows children to foster the love of learning has been our biggest goal. Our children decided to build a small town, with their own bespoke design. Here is this post, you can see our children using their architectural skills to design and build. We captured, the use of numbers, precision, calculations and accuracy.

Simple Cause and Effect!!!
This learning experience has been a distinct favourite for our children this week.
Making and blowing bubbles! Who thought such a simple learning experience can have a profound impact.
Research has revealed that blowing bubbles develops the small muscles in children’s mouth as they pucker their lips and blow bubbles. Strengthening these muscles is important for developing their ability to form clear sounds when speaking.

The team made it a safe learning by encouraging the children to practice blowing through a straw many times before the experience commenced.

The most effective learning experiences, are the ones children enjoy the process and the product.