Smarties Day Nursery Mansfield

02/10/2026

❤️ This week in Preschool, we have been learning all about the human body, with a special focus on our heart to celebrate National Heart Day! The children enjoyed discovering where our heart is, what it does and why it is so important for keeping our bodies healthy. 🫀

🩺 We have also loved getting involved in lots of imaginative doctor role play! The children enjoyed pretending to be doctors and nurses, looking after their friends, checking their hearts and making sure everyone was feeling better. It was lovely to see the children showing such care and kindness towards one another. 👩‍⚕️👨‍⚕️

Our mud kitchen has also been a big hit this week! The children have enjoyed getting messy, mixing, scooping, pouring and creating their own mud kitchen recipes. It has been a fantastic opportunity to encourage their imagination, creativity and teamwork while having lots of fun outdoors! 🪣🪵

Whilst outside, the children really loved finding lots of helicopter seeds! We watched together as we threw them into the air and observed them spinning all the way down to the ground. It was a lovely opportunity for the children to explore the natural world, make observations and enjoy discovering something new together. 🌳🍂

02/10/2026

02/10/2026

🎃October Update🍁

02/10/2026

🐻🎶🍪 A Week in Toddlers 🍪🎶🐻

We’ve had such a fun and busy week in the Toddler Room!

🍪 We put on our little chef hats and enjoyed baking our very own bear cookies. The children loved mixing, rolling and decorating their cookies while developing their fine motor skills and having lots of fun along the way!

🎶 We’ve also been exploring our new musical instruments! The children enjoyed making different sounds, experimenting with rhythms and having a little boogie together. It was lovely to see their confidence grow as they explored music and sound.

🌳🐻 To finish off our week, we went on a very exciting bear hunt in the garden! We explored the outdoor space, searched high and low for bears and enjoyed using our imaginations as we went on our adventure.

What a wonderful week of learning, exploring and having fun together! 💛

Well done, Toddlers! 🌟

27/09/2026

This week in Preschool, we have been exploring world peace and talking about how we can all be kind, caring and respectful towards one another. The children enjoyed creating their own little worlds, using their imaginations to think about what makes our world a happy and peaceful place. 🌎

We have also been exploring different emotions, using colourful cups and pom poms to sort and match emotions. This was a great way to develop our understanding of feelings while also strengthening our fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, colour recognition as we carefully picked up and moved the pom poms. 💭

Our playdough was out for some transient art where the children created their own emotion faces. They experimented making different facial expressions using our emotion fans. 😢😊

🪥✨ We have also re-introduced teeth brushing into our daily routine, helping the children to understand the importance of looking after their teeth🦷

Our early writing skills have been getting lots of practice too! The children have been developing their pencil control, making marks and exploring different movements as they build the skills they need for future writing. 🖍️✍️

🧩😊 Finally, we have been putting our problem-solving skills to the test by matching different faces together with people displaying the same emotions.

21/09/2026

❤️🩷🧡💛💚💙💜

18/09/2026

💕 What a wonderful week we have had in Preschool exploring all things FAMILY! 🏡👨‍👩‍👧‍👦✨
This week, we have been learning all about our families, the people who are special to us, our homes and how we can care for one another. 🌈

We started the week by painting our very own family trees 🎨🌳 and adding our photographs to them. The children enjoyed looking at their pictures and talking about the special people in their families. It was lovely to hear the children sharing stories about who is important to them and recognising that every family is unique and special. 💕

We enjoyed reading a lovely family book all about how different we all are. This gave us the opportunity to talk about the different people who make up our families and how families can look different from one another.🥰

We then got creative and created our own houses, thinking carefully about what we would like our homes to look like. 🏡✨ The children explored lots of different textures and materials, using their imaginations to design and create their own special homes. We loved seeing all the different ideas and designs come to life! 🎨🖌️

The children also created pictures of their special people, carefully colouring them in and practising their early writing skills by labelling who they had drawn. ❤️

To finish off our fantastic week, the Preschool children enjoyed lots of imaginative doctors' role play! 🩹🩺 The children took on the roles of doctors, nurses and patients, using their imaginations to care for one another. There were lots of important check-ups, caring conversations and, of course, plenty of very busy doctors! 👩‍⚕️💉😊

18/09/2026

🌈 Rainbow Week in the Baby Room! 🌈

Our babies have had a colourful and sensory-filled week exploring all things rainbows! 🌈✨

🎨 We’ve been getting creative with colourful activities, exploring different colours and making our own rainbow-inspired artwork.

🌾 Sensory red rice has been a big hit! The babies enjoyed exploring the texture, sound and feel of the rice, using their hands to scoop, grasp and investigate. ❤️

👀🌈 Through our rainbow-themed activities, the children have been developing their sensory awareness, fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, communication and curiosity, all while having lots of fun!

It’s been wonderful watching our little ones explore at their own pace and discover something new through play, touch, colour and sensory experiences. 💕🌈

What a lovely, colourful week in our Baby Room! 🥰

18/09/2026

🐾 The Gruffalo has been causing lots of excitement in Toddlers this week! 🌲🐾

Our little learners have been enjoying lots of Gruffalo-themed learning and play, bringing the much-loved story to life through a range of fun activities! 📚✨

🎨 Painting – creating our very own Gruffalo pictures and exploring colours and textures.

✂️ Sticking & Creating – using different materials to make Gruffalo-inspired artwork while developing those important fine motor skills.

🐾 The Gruffalo Hunt! – our toddlers have been busy searching high and low around the nursery to see if they could find the Gruffalo hiding! 👀🍂

Alongside all the fun, the children have been developing their communication and language, imagination, problem-solving, mark making, physical skills and social development.

We’ve loved seeing the children retell parts of the story, talk about the characters and use their imaginations as they explored the deep dark wood! 🌳🦊🐭

What a fantastic week of learning through stories, play and lots of Gruffalo fun! 💚🐾

14/09/2026

❤️🩷🧡💛💚💙