Humpties At St Michaels

🌿 Happy Staffordshire Day! 🌿

Today, 1st May, we proudly celebrate everything that makes Staffordshire so special. This date was chosen to mark a hugely important moment in our county’s history – the founding of Josiah Wedgwood’s pottery company in 1759, an event that helped put Staffordshire on the world stage and shaped generations of craftsmanship, innovation and pride.

As a Staffordshire nursery, rooted firmly in our local community, we are incredibly proud to care for and support children and families right here in this historic and welcoming county. From our rich industrial and cultural heritage to our strong communities and beautiful landscapes, Staffordshire is a wonderful place for children to grow, learn and thrive.

Today we’re celebrating our Staffordshire pride, our families, our staff, and the little ones who are the future of this amazing county 💛❤️

🌼 Welcome back! 🌼

We hope all of our families had a lovely Easter break 🐣💛

We’re so excited to welcome all of our children back and can’t wait to hear all about their holidays and adventures!

Over the break, we’ve been busy giving our room and garden a little refresh and reorganisation 🌿✨ creating new spaces and opportunities for the children to explore, learn and play.

We’re looking forward to a new term filled with fun and discovery! 🌱

🌸 Spring Has Sprung at Humpties🍀

We’ve been making the most of the brighter days and enjoying lots of time outdoors 🌞

The children have loved exploring our sand and water play, using their imagination, developing their coordination and engaging in lots of sensory learning 💦🏖️

Today, we also celebrated St Patrick’s Day with some lovely themed indoor activities 🍀✨ The children took part in creative play, exploring colours and patterns through threading, learning about the celebration in a fun and age-appropriate way.

It’s been a perfect balance of outdoor exploration and indoor creativity! Full of learning, laughter and springtime joy 🌱💛

📚✨ World Book Day at Humpties ✨📚

We had a wonderful time celebrating World Book Day today! The children arrived dressed as some fantastic storybook characters, from Minions to the much-loved Percy the Park Keeper 🌳💛

The day was filled with stories, imagination and lots of excitement as the children shared their favourite books and characters with their friends. Dressing up helps to bring stories to life and encourages a love of reading, creativity and storytelling 📖✨

Throughout the day we enjoyed sharing books together, talking about our favourite characters and exploring the magic that stories can bring.

It was lovely to see so many fantastic costumes and such enthusiasm for books! 📚💫

🦁 New Role Play Area... Safari Adventure! 🌿

Our children were very excited to explore our new safari-themed role play area this week! 🦒🐘🐅

The space has been transformed into a little safari adventure where the children can use their imagination, go on animal hunts, explore the “jungle” and create their own exciting stories.

Role play is such an important part of early learning as it helps children to:
🌿 Develop imagination and creativity
🗣️ Build communication and language skills
🤝 Practise social interaction and teamwork
🧠 Explore new ideas and experiences through play

We have already seen some wonderful storytelling, teamwork and lots of adventurous explorers heading off on safari!

We can’t wait to see what adventures the children go on next 🦒✨

🌿 Outdoor Play 🌿

There’s nothing quite like learning in the fresh air ☀️

This week, our children have been busy exploring the outdoors -building confidence, coordination and having lots of fun along the way!

🪨 Balancing on the balance rocks, developing core strength and stability
🚲 Riding bikes, practising control, awareness and teamwork
💦 Enjoying water play, sparking curiosity, creativity and sensory exploration

Outdoor play provides endless opportunities for children to take safe risks, develop physical skills, and explore the world around them 🌱✨

Lots of active learning, laughter and happy faces 💛

'French Session Fun' at Humpties@StMichaels✨

This week in our French session, the children explored feelings and emotions and have taken it in turns to choose the appropriate flash card 😊😢😄. This helped support emotional awareness and confidence in a fun and accessible way.

We also enjoyed sharing the story Dear Zoo, using repetition, actions and discussion to bring the story to life. The children were fully engaged, joining in with familiar phrases, expressing their thoughts, and making links between the animals in the story and different feelings 🦁🐒📦

These sessions support children’s communication, listening skills and understanding of the world, while introducing them to a new language in a playful and meaningful way 🌍💬

A lovely session full of curiosity, learning and smiles. Thankyou Kidslingo 🇫🇷💙

This week we have been celebrating National Storytelling Week, and the children have been thoroughly enjoying exploring some much-loved stories. So far, we have shared Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Monkey Puzzle, and Five Little Ducks 🐻🐒🦆

The children have taken part in a range of lovely activities inspired by these stories, helping to bring each book to life through play, creativity, and discussion. It has been wonderful to see their imaginations grow as they retell stories, join in with familiar phrases, and make links between the stories and their own experiences.

📖 Did you know? Reading to children from a young age supports language development, listening skills, and concentration. It also helps children build strong emotional connections, develop empathy, and fosters a lifelong love of books and learning.

While our social media has been quiet for a little while, preschool life has been as busy as ever!
Thank you for your patience and support... we’re excited to reconnect and continue sharing our journey with you 💙

As we reach the end of the term, here is a sneak peak of our Humpties Graduation Party! We had the best afternoon celebrating the children and their achievements this academic year. It has been a pleasure to support the children on their journey to ‘big school’… we will miss you all! 💙💛❤️