Emeralds Little Gems Daycare - Crook

03/10/2026

🐰 A Hoppy Week in Blue Room! 🐰

This week in Blue Room, we have had lots of fun exploring all things bunny rabbits! 🐰💙

We joined in with singing “Sleeping Bunnies”, practising our jumping skills and making big movements with our bodies. This was a lovely way for the children to develop their physical skills while having lots of fun! 🐇

Following on from the children’s enjoyment of emptying and filling, we provided an opportunity for them to post carrots 🥕 to feed the rabbits 🐰. This activity supported the children’s hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.

The children also really enjoyed getting creative and making their own bunny masks using white tissue paper and glue. 🎨🐰

They have loved cuddling the soft bunnies and exploring our sensory tray filled with cotton wool and carrots. 🥕🤍

We have also enjoyed sharing some lovely stories together, including “Poppy and Sam and the Bunny Rabbits” and “There, There Little Bunny.” 📚🐰

What a wonderful week of jumping, creating, exploring and lots of bunny cuddles! 💙🐰🥕

27/09/2026

What a lovely week in Pink & Orange Room! 🩷🧡

This week, the children enjoyed exploring a Daisy’s Dragons story-themed tuff tray. 🐉📚 We read the story together and talked about different feelings, discussing how everyone’s emotions can be different. The children were encouraged to recall the story and identify what happened at the beginning, middle, and end, helping to develop their communication and language skills, emotional understanding, and confidence in sequencing events from a familiar story.

Following on from the children’s interest in making pretend phone calls during play, they had the opportunity to explore a variety of old telephones and use a special “phone book” filled with well-known characters. 📞☎️📱 The children followed number sequences to “call” their favourite characters and had a wonderful time role-playing conversations with their friends, family members, and each other.

It’s been a fantastic week full of storytelling, imaginative play, and lots of chatting! 🩷🧡

26/09/2026

What a fun-filled week in Blue Room this week! 💙

This week, the children had an amazing time meeting our turtle from one of our favourite nursery rhymes! 🐢🫧 They loved making marks in the soap, popping bubbles, and singing “I Had a Little Turtle.” The children also enjoyed rescuing turtles that were stuck in the gloop! 🫧🧴

Following on from the children’s interest in mixing last week, we provided lots of autumn materials for them to create their very own Autumn soup. 🍂🥣 The children loved exploring and mixing different natural materials, including pasta, leaves, pine cones, and wood, using all their senses as they played and investigated together.

What a wonderful week full of singing, sensory play, and autumn exploration! 💙🍁

23/09/2026

Last Week in our baby room 💙

Last week, the children had a wonderful time playing and splashing in our 5 Little Ducks themed water tray! 💦🦆 They loved exploring the duck habitat, using the toy ducks and feathers, and singing along to the 5 Little Ducks song while acting it out with the ducks. It was lovely to see their imaginations and language skills come to life! 🪶🎶

Following the children’s interest in our new fidget toys, we also enjoyed a fun fine motor activity using pipe cleaners and colanders. 🤏🌈 The children concentrated hard as they threaded and pulled the pipe cleaners through the holes, developing their fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and perseverance. They all did such a fantastic job! 😊👏🏻

What a fun-filled week of learning and exploring in Blue Room! 💙

20/09/2026

Pink & Orange Group 🌸🧡

This week, the children had lots of fun using their imaginations to create stories and communicate with one another during their play. They developed their language and communication skills by sharing ideas, creating characters, and building imaginative storylines together. 📚✨

Through small world play, the children strengthened their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination as they manipulated and moved different resources, bringing their stories to life. 🏠👦🏻🌍

Following the children’s interests, we explored the story Oliver’s Fruit Salad. This helped the children develop their understanding of healthy eating and the importance of regular daily routines in maintaining good health. 🍎🍌🍊🥗

Together, we talked about different types of fruit, shared our own experiences of eating fruit, and discussed why fruit is an important part of a healthy, balanced diet. It was wonderful to hear the children’s ideas and favourite fruits! 💚😊

11/09/2026

This week the children in preschool were observed and encouraged to join in with the repeated refrains and anticipate key events and phrases while listening to The Very Hungry Caterpillar. During the story the children showed enjoyment and engagement by joining in with actions, sounds, and words throughout the story 🐛📚

Following on from the children’s interest in the vegetables we had grown from our greenhouse, the children enjoyed engaging in our cucumber water play. They were able to chop a cucumber with support and take a good look at the cucumber’s rough outer skin , wet inside, tiny seeds and crunchy texture. They also investigated its smell and cold temperature, sharing their observations and describing what they could see, feel and hear.🥒

What a lovely week we have had! 🥒💚

07/09/2026

💙 Last Week in Blue Room 💙

We are so happy to welcome all of our Blue Room children back after the summer holidays! We’ve loved seeing everyone settle back in and have lots of fun together. 💙

This week, the children have had a fantastic time rolling, throwing, and kicking balls. They even enjoyed an adventure to the park, where they played together, practising their ball skills. Their favourite activity was rolling the balls down the slide and kicking them to each other! ⚽️

Back at nursery, the children became little explorers as they searched for our hidden safari animals. They were so excited to discover each animal, name the ones they found, and do an amazing job of copying the different animal noises! 🦓🦁🐘

What a wonderful first week back—we can’t wait for more fun and learning this week! 💙

06/09/2026

This week in pink and orange room The children explored a range of musical instruments, using them to create their own music and experiment with different sounds. They investigated how they could change the sound by playing the instruments in different ways, such as tapping, shaking, banging and playing softly or loudly. The children showed creativity as they made their own rhythms and responded to the sounds they heard. They developed their confidence in expressing themselves through music while listening, experimenting and making choices about the sounds they wanted to make. 🥁🔔🎶🎸🎤

The children enjoyed exploring cameras and using them to take selfies and photographs of their friends. They showed curiosity and excitement as they learned how to hold and operate the camera, developing their understanding of technology and how it can be used to capture special moments. 📸🤳

01/09/2026

❗️Parent Information ❗️

Does your child turn 5 between 1st September 2027 and 31st August 2028

Applications for Reception opened on Tuesday 1st September and will close at midnight on 15th January 2027.

To apply online, please visit:
www.durham.gov.uk/primaryschoolplaces

Thank you

Information about applying for a primary school place.

29/08/2026

🌍 This week in Blue Room 🌍

This week in Blue Room, the children have enjoyed travelling around the world with our sensory tray! They explored a variety of different textures and had lots of fun playing peek-a-boo with the colourful material squares. 🌎✨

Our older children used magnifying glasses to investigate the tray, looking closely at everything they could find. They especially loved discovering the different animals and making all of their wonderful animal sounds. 🧐🐯🐶🐵🐷

Following on from the children’s interest in posting objects through the cardboard train funnel, we introduced coloured tubes into the room. The children had the opportunity to roll balls and small cars down the tubes, exploring cause and effect through play. They confidently copied familiar phrases such as “Ready, steady, go!” and enjoyed counting the cars and balls as they raced down. 🎾🚗

What a fun-filled week of sensory exploration, language development, and learning through play! 💙