Miller's Minding

15/02/2024

Spreading the love this Valentines ♥️

Giving children the reins to let loose with the crafts and really allowing them the freedom to chose the path their art takes is essential for so many reason!

Having free rein develops their imagination and creativity.

Encourages their self expression and helps support their thinking process.

It also allows children to communicate and share their responses to what they see, hear and experience. Creative expression supports children’s emotional wellbeing and reduces anxiety. It’s how children represent themselves, their thoughts and feelings as they develop their ideas.

This means that every piece of art they present to you really is a piece of themselves. It’s filled with so much thought, skill, meaning and really is perfect just the way they intended it.

So let there be mess & let there be unlimited exploration and creativity! Because what may not seem perfect or ‘right’ to you certainly is to someone else.

Happy Valentines to all 💛🎨

13/02/2024

It’s a girls day today & with Valentines being tomorrow it meant only one thing..

PINK PANCAKES 💕🥞😋

11/02/2024

Here is one of our Mini Millers showing us that her voice matters, and really embracing her self worth. 🥰👏🏻

11/02/2024

CHILDREN’S MENTAL HEALTH WEEK 💚

Place2be is a charity who provide counselling & support for children suffering from mental health.

Each year they choose a theme and this years is ‘My voice Matters’

My Voice Matters is about empowering children and young people by providing them with the tools they need to express themselves. We want Children and young people, whoever they are, and wherever they are in the world, to be able to say – and believe - “My Voice Matters”.

Empowerment and feeling free to express ourselves is something that is already strongly rooted in the heart of Miller’s Minding.

Last week we focused on discussion and building up our self confidence. Surrounding each other with love and support really is the foundations of a successful learning environment.

Our corner of self worth was out for the second year running and filling us with all the Hygge vibes! Creating secureness and a sense of contentment in which children feel safe to explore and develop their self awareness and wellbeing. 💛

It was a wonderful week of feeling empowered and we are very proud of every single Mini Miller! 💪🏼

30/10/2023

THIS IS HALLOWEEN 👻🎃

What a lead up to Halloween we have had!

Our mini chefs got busy in the kitchen making creepy cupcakes, because who doesn’t love to bake! 🧁

Pumpkin hammering, Perfect for developing our hand eye coordination. 🔨

We then continued our learning by using a variation of elastic bands to stretch over our hammered in pegs to make different shapes.
Using different sized elastic bands also aided us in understanding ‘cause and effect’ smaller elastic bands stretched too far would snap, however using bigger ones meant we could make bigger shapes on our pumpkins!

A well loved story here at Millers Minding is ‘There’s a monster in your book’ by Tom Fletcher. The children loved following along to the actions with their own monsters and really using their listening skills. 👹

A paints and crafts session is always on the cards! And what better craft than making your own trick or treat bucket ready for Tuesday 🎨

We had some witchcraft and wizardry happening outside, as lotions and potions were brewed up 🧪lots of fizzing and teamwork!

The trays were a sensory Halloween haven, as the mini millers got stuck in with their explorative play! Scoops, bowls, trays, cups, brushes and more. This type of free play is always a favourite with the children and allows them to freely create, think and problem solve.

And lastly, our spider capture game! The Mini Millers had to home in on their fine motor skills and use their pincers to capture the spiders from the tangled web! 🕷️

It’s been a very busy but superb week! And we’ve all had a blast.

Keep your eyes peeled for the Mini Millers Monster Mash on Tuesday 🪩🧙🏻‍♀️🧟‍♂️🎶

16/10/2023

We went to have tea with the Gruffalo 🌳🌰

A sensory bin of Gruffalo crumble, perfect for practising our pouring and scooping.

Getting crafty with the paints and glue. Creating our very own gruffalos using our hands! ✋🏻

Home made Gruffalo claws for our snack 😋 Whilst enjoying our story time.

A small worlds wood, featuring all of the characters from the book. Our mini Millers loved recreating the story and playing out the scenes. Some went even further, using their imaginations to create their own story with their favourite Gruffalo characters.

We finished our week off with some scrambled snake! Developing our fine motor skills and hand eye coordination, by carefully using the chopsticks to explore the taste of our scrambled snake! 🐍

18/09/2023

A big warm welcome to some of our new Mini Millers!

What better way to find your feet, have some fun and make some friends than at the beach but from the comfort of your home!

The weather was perfect for us to get our swimsuits on and go for a paddle on the splash pad! Connecting with peers and having fun in the sun 💦☀️

We got busy with the play-doh. Using our creative side and imagination to design our very own seasides. using our natural materials to give it that authentic feel. 🐚

What’s a trip to the seaside without an icecream!
However these weren’t just any old ice creams, these were the icecream of dreams! We used the kinetic sand to mould & sculpt then finished off with decorations galore! They looked so good you’d of thought they were real! 🍦😋

And what better way to finished the week than with a birthday beach party of balloons and bubbles! 🫧

Our newly Mini Millers absolutely aced their first weeks with us and we can’t wait to see them thrive! 💛

30/08/2023

Hey all!

How brilliant!

Grab your family day pass for the National trust whilst you can 🤩

Amazing family days out exploring.

Valid until the 15th Dec 2023

2 adults & 3 children or 1 adult & 4 children.

InYourArea has teamed up with the National Trust again to give away 100,000 free family day passes worth up to £50 and, if you're a registered user, you can bag yours now! https://tinyurl.com/57xyy2v3

07/08/2023

BIRD WEEK 🕊️

Last week our focus was birds 🐦‍⬛🪿🦜

We created some bird feeders for the garden by recycling old toilet rolls and covering them in lard and seeds! The perfect snack for our garden visitors 😋

We then continued with the feeding theme by feeding the Millers Minding baby Blue-tit & Great-tit! They were very hungry chirping away in their nest, so the children wasted no in grabbing their peg pincers and feeding them their worms! 🪱

The paints made an appearance as we used our fingers to paint our own birds sitting on the washing line! A few may have slipped off 🤭

And of course we had to read the classic ‘Owl babies’ by Martin Waddle & Patrick Benson. We recreated the story and our Mini Millers loved following along with their props. Especially when we got to Bills line of ‘I want my mummy!’ Which was picked up by everyone very quickly 😂

Our rhyme of the week was Two little dickie birds! The Children made their own finger puppets of Peter & Paul, and by the end of the week we had some very confident and beautiful singers 🎶

The thinking caps were on for our numbers activity. Our Mini Millers had to recognise what the number was as at the side of their empty birds nest and using their play dough make the correct amount of eggs for their nest! We had some brilliant counting and lots of help and team work from one another which was just so lovely to watch! 🥰

& finally the perfect finish to our week was our bird watching afternoon! One of the children brought in some very special binoculars which we used to seek out the birds of our check list 🔎✅ The mini Millers thoroughly enjoyed doing this as a team and were thrilled when they spotted their birds!

A very busy week and a delight as always 💛

30/07/2023

It’s a special one 💛

Our first Miller’s Minding Graduate 🎓

We couldn’t be more proud of you, and are so excited for you and your new adventure at preschool!

We just know that you’ll soar and strive, carrying that big smile along with you 😀

Good luck superstar! ⭐️

Your Miller’s Minding family will miss you!

03/07/2023

MILLERS MINDING PRIDE WEEK 🌈

Sharing, rejoicing, creating, being kind, caring, understanding, celebrating, living, laughing, making friends, creating memories, being passionate and having fun.

All because love is love ❤️🧡💛💚🩵

28/06/2023

BY SPECIAL DELIVERY 👀👑

A very exciting royal letter has been recieved at Miller’s Minding! 💌

Back in May when we celebrated the kings coronation, we sent our soon to be king a letter wishing him a wonderful coronation. We wrote that we’d been reading The King’s pants by Nicholas Allan and had designed him his very own coronation pants! Which we also sent! 🩲

Well … Our Mini Millers were bursting with joy as they opened their letter from our new king & queen thanking them for their lovely letter! 🤩

What a very special moment and keepsake to cherish! 💛