Little Ones Childcare

At Honiton....this week our book is room on the broom; a lot of our children know this book well and will enjoy shouting out the familiar phrases. When reading our book, we will use props such as the witch, cat and broom which will be passed around the children as we read our book.

Outside in our exploring tray we will be making potions using segments of lemon, orange and lime to make our water scented, the children will be using scissors to cut up flowers and leaves to add to our potion bottles. We will have a selection of jugs with coloured water in where the children can freely fill up the potion bottles to make their own potion.

Inside we will be using a selection of different resources like links, bricks, beads, and Duplo to measure our broom sticks talking about who’s is bigger, counting as we go, and then having ago at drawing our own broom.

Last week our book was were going on a bear hunt, we had lots of fun reading this book as we went on a bear hunt around the garden, we were also talking lots about the weather saying how when it rains and then its sunny, we might be lucky enough to see a rainbow.

In the garden we had a messy tray with gloop, water and sticks when the children added people and animals and pretended, they were squelching through the mud just like in our story.

At Honiton....this week at Honiton in the baby and toddler room we are going to have a creative week. The babies are going to have a creative table where they can use lots of different materials such as paint and stickers to make collages. In our outdoor area the babies are going to have an oats tray and explore mixing and transporting the oats with spoons and bowls. The toddlers are going to be creating their own flowers by using tissue paper, this supports their fine motor skills and can help them to start recognising different colours by using different coloured tissue paper. We are going to have an easel outside which the toddlers can use to paint to explore colour mixing and build on creativity skills.



Last week we have been learning about construction and the children have been role playing being builders! We made our own towers using building blocks and used crazy foam to help stick them together while wearing hard hats and high vis jackets. We also had diggers and dumper trucks in ‘mud playdough’ to build on our malleable skills and used the diggers to make marks in the playdough.

At Bovey....this week, we are going to be reading the story ‘Zog’. Our number of the week is going to be 4. During the week, we are going to be creating some arts and crafts to celebrate Fathers’ Day. We will also have opportunities to roleplay with our friends in the roleplay area with dragons and dinosaurs as well as storytelling and reading stories in our cosy area. During focus time, the children will have a wide range of activities including practising on the bikes, practising their pencil grip and completing puzzles. During music and movement time, the xhildren will be able to access lots of nursery rhymes songs and joining in with the actions of them and moving their bodies around to music.



Last week, we have read the book ‘Dear Zoo’ and our number of the week has been 3. During the week, the children have had lots of messy play activities with zoo animals. They have also been exploring the water trays and water wall, watching how fast the water comes back down the wall. We have had lots of fun exploring the small world area and comparing shapes and sizes of animals and where we might find certain animals

At Whipton....this week, our book of the week will be ‘We Are Family’, our number of the week will be 3, and our Makaton signs will be Mummy and Daddy. We will be exploring different types of families, celebrating what makes each of us unique, special, and wonderfully ourselves.



Our weekly focus will be on developing the children’s fine motor skills. Throughout the week, we will practise scissor skills, threading, and using tweezers to strengthen little hands and build confidence in preparation for early writing.



Our invitation to play will focus on small world role play, where the children can explore houses, furniture, and people. They will use these resources to create their own stories, act out familiar routines, and talk about their families in a safe, nurturing environment.



Last week, we absolutely loved learning about Commotion in the Ocean. The preschoolers were so proud to learn new sea‑themed Makaton signs — why not ask them to show you at home. We had lots of fun exploring the sandy beach tray, filled with shells and sea creatures, which inspired imaginative play, storytelling, and plenty of sensory exploration

At Budlake....this week our story will be Superworm!

With our malleable materials we will making our very own super worms, we will have worm coloured playdough, googly eyes and tools like rolling pins to help with moulding the playdough, which, will help us to practice and develop our fine motor movements as we roll and squash our playdough. We will also be putting our creativity and imagination to work to make each worm unique. In the garden we will be talking about our understanding of the world learning new language as we look through our insect tray. It will have mud, grass, insects, bugs, leaves and magnifying glasses to help us look for wiggly worms! There will be lots of conversations about what we can see, where they come from and what they look like!

Our focus of the week has been fine motor movements and in our continuous provision we have been accessing resources such as tweezers, sticking and glueing and using pipets in the water to help aid our development in this area.

 

Last week our book was Tractor Ted. Weve loved exploring our sensory farm tray and feeling all the different textures with oats, bran flakes, lentils, pasta and farm animals. We used lots describing words to talk about what we could feel. In the water we had so much fun washing our farm animals with bubbles and cloths. This helped us to learn about self-care and handwashing giving us the confidence and independence when it comes to doing it for ourselves. We have also loved taking care of the dolls in the home corner this week, pretending to feed, change and put them to bed. The bugs and small world toys have really taken our interest too!

Budlake nursery had a very important visitor! Helen was celebrating her 80th birthday and her daughter emailed us asking if it would be possible for her to pop in. Helen went to school in Budlake Hall ( quite a long time ago!) and brought along some lovely old photographs to share with us. The children loved meeting her and were very excited to sing happy birthday to her! What a special visitor.... most definitely a VIP !!

At Bovey....Next week, our number of the week is going to be 3 and we are going to be reading the book ‘Dear Zoo’. The children will be creating their own animals as well as lots of opportunities to roleplay and explore animals that they might find in the zoo. We will also be comparing the looks and sizes of animals and the different things each animal might do. Through our music and movement sessions, we will be exploring our garden like different animals. During focus time, we will be working on our fine motor skills and letter formation by copying letters from our names. We are also going to be observing our caterpillars and understanding the cycle of life.



This week, our book of the week has been ‘the very hungry caterpillar’ and our number of the week has been 2. The children have really enjoyed observing the caterpillars through their magnifying glasses and over the week watching how big they are growing. The children are very excited for the next few weeks to watch them become butterflies. We have been understanding the cycle of life of a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. The children have taken part in arts and crafts activities where they have been creating caterpillars and exploring messy play to find insects.

At Honiton....Next week our book of the week is We’re going on a bear hunt and we’re going to be learning about all types of weather.  Our word and sign of week is Sun. During the week we will be using our senses to explore different textures in our sensory tuff tray, this will include grass, leaves, water, gloop to represent mud and ice or cotton wool for the snow which will be in the garden. Inside we will be making our own sunshine’s onto paper plates and using different yellow and orange materials such as paint, tissue paper, pens, pencils and glitter.

During letters and sounds we’re really going to be focusing on using our listening ears. We will be doing activities such as a listening moment, drumming outdoors and describe and find it.

 

Last week our book of the week was ‘The very hungry caterpillar’. The children have really shown lots of interest in having discussions about the foods they eat and what foods are healthy for us during our cube times. Inside the children have been so creative and have created some masterpieces using the paint, they’ve even learnt to mix colours to create new ones. Outside the children have been exploring ice, they have been holding it in their hands to see how quickly it melts and they’ve loved splashing in the water once it’s melted.

More exciting dates for your diary! We would very much like to invite you to our sports day/ pre-school graduation. Come and join in with our traditional sports day games, enjoy a cream tea, and wave a fond farewell to our school leavers. All events will be held between 2.30 and 4. If it is not your child's normal nursery day, they are still very welcome to join us but will need to be accompanied by a grown up.
Bovey Thursday 16th July
Budlake Friday 17th July
Honiton Friday 17th July
Whipton Tuesday 21st July

Dates for your diaries....Our summer parents evening dates are as follows- come and have a chat to your child's key worker and find out a little more about what we do all day (!) All will be 6.30pm till 8pm. Hope to see you there!
Whipton 23rd June
Budlake 24th June
Honiton 30th June
Bovey 1st July