Greenglade Day Nursery & Forest School

We hope all our families have had a wonderful time over the festive period. Wishing you all a very Happy New Year from everyone at Greenglade!

Last week, the children enjoyed a trip on the Polar Express in their pyjamas! 🚅

They queued patiently to have their golden tickets stamped 🎫 and took part in lots of different train themed activities! The children also loved reading the Polar Express book. 📖

The children decorated some biscuits to eat and then made some hot chocolate to go with them☕

They then enjoyed playing lots of different party games!

We hope all the children have a lovely Christmas. 🎄

https://ow.ly/Gugl50Xl5mE

🪴Preschool had the best time at the garden centre! 🪴

The children were so excited when they set off in the cars and pulled up outside. 🚘

They looked at all the different Halloween decorations🎃 (and even some Christmas ones!)

The children had a voucher to spend and chose a planter, which they can't wait to use. They also bought some pea seeds and a variety of herbs. 🌱

Lots of Autumn and Halloween fun in our Toddler rooms over the last few weeks! Matching colours when posting the spider eggs, staying focused and demonstrating some excellent turn taking skills 🕷️🕸️

They have also been exploring the seasonal changes of Autumn. Scented playdough with Autumn leaves which soon turned into making spiky hedgehogs. The children have enjoyed lots of different themed sensory trays, focusing on fine motor skills. 🍂

This morning some of the children from Forest School had such a lovely trip to the garden centre! The children loved exploring all the beautiful plants, flowers, and garden decorations. 🌼🌻

We picked out some colourful new plant pots, hanging baskets, and lots of lovely plants to fill them. The children were fantastic helpers — choosing their favourite coloured flowers and helping to carry everything . 🌱💪

We can’t wait to start planting and share our photos once everything is finished! 🌸🌿✨

Today Forest School was filled with colour and creativity as the children learned all about Diwali – the Festival of Lights! 💫

We talked about how families celebrate Diwali and explored the beautiful patterns and decorations that are part of the tradition. Inspired by this, the children created their very own natural rangoli patterns using leaves, petals, and other treasures found

On the 14th of August, Forest School had our very first Ofsted inspection, and we’re delighted to be able to share the report with you.

This is a special milestone for us, and we’re so proud of everything our children, families, and staff team have helped us build.
https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/16/2741261

This week we’ve been exploring the straw bales and sharing ideas about all the different ways we could use them. The children first thought about making a “straw man” but quickly discovered that straw doesn’t quite stick together like snow ❄️.

That led to a brilliant new idea… a scarecrow! 👕👖 Together, the children worked as a team to fill items of clothing with straw, carefully discussing how to tie up the ends so it wouldn’t all fall out.

Now, our Forest school has its very own mascot – proudly standing tall – meet Steve the Scarecrow!

🌿Forest School are proud to be featured in Olive Magazine in an article about the benefits of spending time in nature.

As a forest school, we see every day how the outdoors helps children grow in confidence, creativity, and wellbeing.

Read the full piece here: https://www.olivemagazine.com/wellbeing/why-spending-time-in-nature-is-good-for-you/?redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.olivemagazine.com%2Fwellbeing%2Fwhy-spending-time-in-nature-is-good-for-you%2F

This week, Pre-School have been reading the story 'The Koala Who Could' which is all about facing our fears and being resilient.

We have discussed some of things that we might be scared of such as going to the dentist 🦷, the dark 🌃 and tasting foods 🥭🍍. We had a go tasting different fruits and vegetables that we might not eat every day. The pineapple was very popular but we found the lemon to be very sour! 😖

Over the past couple of weeks at 🌳 Forest School, the children have been talking about their holidays — past and present. They shared the activities they enjoyed 🏖️ and discussed how they travelled there ✈️🚌⛵.

We set up our own “airport” in the forest, where the children made passports to board the plane. They also created a bus and took turns as the driver on trips to places like Greece, and even built a boat ready to head to the beach.