💚 A Busy Day at The Old Forge!
There’s been a little bit of everything happening at The Old Forge. Cooking, building, climbing and plenty of ideas from the children themselves!
🍕 Big Bears and Pre-School Bears took on the challenge of making their own tea. Pizza was the verdict, with lots of real-life skills along the way — chopping pineapple, grating cheese, spreading tomato paste and carefully sprinkling on their toppings.
🌧️ When Pre-School Bears spotted the rain rolling in, they had another idea… build a tent! They chose the perfect spot, worked together to hang the tarp and got to grips with the mallet to make sure everything stayed secure.
⛺ Meanwhile, our Bear Cubs were busy discovering their new garden tent and tunnel. There was lots of climbing, crawling, exploring and, best of all, plenty of laughter shared with friends and practitioners.
From making their own tea to building their own shelter, it was a day full of “we can do this!” moments. Independence, teamwork and confidence growing through the things children genuinely love to do. 💚
The Old Forge Day Nursery, Findern, Derby
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We have a team of hugely enthusiastic, highly trained, and experienced Nursery Practitioners who ensure all children receive the best care and attention.
The Old Forge Day Nursery is a homely, friendly nursery set inside an attractive nineteenth century half-timbered building which has been specially modernised to provide a safe and secure environment for children between the ages of 3 months to 4 years old. Set in beautiful grounds and surrounded by trees with an impressive on-site Forest School, it provides a truly idyllic setting for your child
🧪 Big Questions, Brilliant Discoveries! 🔬
Our Big Bears rounded off Science Week with plenty of experimenting, problem-solving and curious thinking! 💭
We tested our engineering skills by balancing teddies and dinosaurs on wobbly lollipop-stick bridges, then put our breath control to work guiding pompoms through a maze using straws. We even explored sound and vibrations, watching glitter dance across cling film when we used our voices. ✨
There was more science to discover as we mixed baking soda and vinegar and watched our colourful experiment bubble and fizz. 🫧
Then we turned our attention to biology and life cycles. From puzzles and bug matching to creating a chicken life cycle and exploring crocodile playdough mats, we discovered how different animals grow and change. 🦋🐊
Building, balancing, blowing, fizzing, matching and wondering. What a brilliant end to a week where “What happens if…?” was always worth exploring. 💚
19/08/2026
🌅 Painting the Colours of the Sky
Our Pre-School Bears have been exploring what happens when colours meet and how we can use them carefully to create something beautiful. 🎨
Inspired by a sunset, we looked at the different colours we might see in an evening sky and thought about where one colour ends and another begins. Using red, orange and yellow, we carefully added each colour to create our own sunset pictures.
Along the way, we discovered more about colour, control and making choices — slowing down, looking closely and thinking about what our artwork needed next.
A lovely example of how a simple sunset can inspire so much creativity, concentration and curiosity. 💚
19/08/2026
🎨 Painting, But Not as You Know It! 🌿
Our Pre-School Bears have been discovering that you don’t always need a paintbrush to create something wonderful.
In Forest School, we experimented with sticks, feathers and leaves as our painting tools, before making our own paint by grinding charcoal using a pestle and mortar. There was plenty of careful crushing, grinding and mixing — giving those little hands a good workout too!
As we explored, we introduced new words including pestle, mortar, charcoal and grind, connecting language with something the children could actually see, touch and do.
Natural materials, muddy hands and a little experimentation — curiosity and creativity working beautifully together. 💚
18/08/2026
🫧 Scrub, Splash, Sparkle!
Sometimes the best play begins with an idea from the children themselves. 💚
Yesterday, our little ones decided some of their toys needed a good wash! With bubbly water and blue cloths at the ready, they got busy dipping, squeezing, scrubbing and splashing until everything was lovely and clean. 🧽
A wonderfully simple moment of child-led play, with busy little hands and a very important job to do!
🥼🧪 Little Scientists, Big Discoveries!
It’s National Science Week, and our Big Bears have been busy experimenting, predicting and discovering! 🔬
We explored sink or float, choosing objects from around the room and making predictions before testing them in water. Along the way, we talked about heavy, light, sink and float and compared what happened to different objects. 💦
Next came a colourful oil experiment, watching what happened as drops of food colouring travelled through the oil and created little bubbles. 🫧
And finally, we investigated germs! 🦠 With water, glitter and a little soap, we watched our pretend germs quickly move away — a brilliantly visual way to discover why washing our hands properly with soap and water is so important. 🤚
Three experiments. Lots of questions. And plenty of “What happens if…?” moments. 💚
🦎 Getting Muddy for Lizard Day!
Our Big Bears took Lizard Day into Forest School, swapping paintbrushes and bright colours for something much more exciting… mud! 🌿
Using nature as our art supplies, we created our own muddy lizard pictures and enjoyed discovering the different marks, patterns and textures we could make.
Messy fingers, creative thinking and plenty of curiosity. Art is much more fun when it comes with a little mud! 💚
# BigBears
🪲 From Bug Hunts to Swamp Adventures! 🐊
It was a day of getting closer to nature for our Big Bears. 🌿
We headed into Forest School with magnifying glasses at the ready, searching high and low for some of the tiny creatures that share our outdoor space. Every discovery gave us something new to look at, talk about and wonder about. 🔎
Then things got a little messier as we explored our very own swamp, squishing, scooping and discovering different textures while the animals became part of all sorts of imaginary adventures.
From looking closely at the real world to creating one of our own. A day full of curiosity, discovery and wonderfully messy play. 💚
🐘 A Wildly Wonderful World Elephant Day!
Our Big Bears went a little elephant-crazy for World Elephant Day! 🐘
Forest School got wonderfully muddy as we discovered why elephants love a good mud bath – and, naturally, we thought we’d better investigate for ourselves! 🌳
Back inside, we created spaghetti elephant trunks and carefully threaded patterns along them, before a very colourful visitor joined the fun… Elmer! 🌈 We filled his famous patchwork with blocks and Stickle Bricks, choosing colours and creating patterns as we went.
Mud, colour, stories, creativity and curious little minds – just the way we like it. 💚
☀️🌕 When the Sun Met the Moon…
With the solar eclipse capturing our curiosity, our Big Bears spent some time discovering what happens when the Sun, Moon and Earth line up. 🪐
We made our own interactive eclipses to explore how it happens, splashed our way through some space-themed water play and then took on a very important mission… saving the planets from asteroids! 🌎
A real event in the world around us became the starting point for questions, discovery and plenty of imaginary space adventures.
Because curious little minds are always looking for their next “why?” ✨
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The Old Forge, The Green, Findern
Derby
DE656AA
Opening Hours
| Monday | 7:30am - 6pm |
| Tuesday | 7:30am - 6pm |
| Wednesday | 7:30am - 6pm |
| Thursday | 7:30am - 6pm |
| Friday | 7:30am - 6pm |