Kate's Day Nursery

01/09/2026

Making a "stained glass window" using cellophane to build creative, physical, and cognitive skills.

The children used and explored a variety of materials, tools, and techniques experimenting with color, design, and texture by overlapping the translucent paper and using their own ideas to choose colors and shapes. They created original patterns and saw how their designs changed when light shone through. Placing small pieces onto sticky contact paper builds precision and strengthens the small muscles in the fingers and hands used for writing.
We talked about, shapes (like squares, triangles, or circles) and the children were able to practice spatial awareness by fitting shapes inside the designated frame.

We also talked about light, dark, transparency, and opacity. They observed how light passed through the middle but not the frame. The activity introduced descriptive words such as transparent, translucent, sticky, overlap, and frame. The Children were able to practice conversational skills as they explained their creative choices.

They will look beautiful in the window and we can continue our discussions as the light passes through and changes daily.

30/08/2026

27/08/2026

Two trays today.! We set to work on building 2 tray’s tailored to the children’s interests but with a similar learning goal in mind.

An ocean-themed tuff tray to continue our sensory exploration, fine motor control, and communication.
We worked on our hand eye coordination by manoeuvring small toy boats and sea creatures across the tray and our communication by using lots of descriptive words like wet, dry, rough, smooth, floating, sinking, deep and transparent. We also worked on maths / problem solving by testing which things floated or sank.

Exploring textures in the farmyard tuff tray helps young children develop sensory awareness, fine motor control, and early communication skills through interactive play.
We worked on our sensory development by investigating contrasting tactile sensations such as smooth or bumpy plastic, or wooden animals, crunchy cereals, and smooth lentils. By scooping, pinching, and arranging the toy animals we strengthen our hand muscles and improve hand-eye coordination. Using words to describe what we feel (crunchy, soft, rough, sticky) alongside animal names and noises improves communication.

21/08/2026

Dinosaur footprints (and our own).
The Children explored different paint textures, cool and wet sensations, and paper types with their hands and with the dinosaurs.
Grasping, dipping, and pressing the dinosaurs onto the paper strengthens hand muscles and improves hand-eye coordination. The children discovered that pressing the feet down left a mark, and pressing harder or softer changed the look of the footprint.
We compared dinosaur footprints with our own handprints discussing size (big and small) and colours and numbers.

20/08/2026

Ice cream tough tray
What better way to spend a warm afternoon last week than getting messy!
Squeezing, swirling, poking, and scooping foam builds hand strength, dexterity, and hand-eye coordination.
The foam in the tray helps us process sensory inputs and exploring different textures whilst encouraging sharing, communication, and collaborative play.

12/08/2026

Today we have made eclipse viewers and practiced using them in the garden. This led to great conversations about light & dark and the moon and sun. Unfortunately due to some exuberance in practicing not all viewers will make it home tonight. 😂😂😂

11/08/2026

More vertical painting but this time we added colour mixing and turn taking to make these beautiful flowers! Da iawn blant!

07/08/2026

Flying start roll out across Flintshire!!!

Kate’s Day Nursery has been a Flying start provider since we opened in 2017. From Monday 2 November 2026, funded childcare for ALL 2-year-olds will be available across all areas of Flintshire using the Flying Start Scheme.

Eligible children will be entitled to 12.5 hours of funded childcare per week, delivered as 2.5-hour sessions per day for up to five days a week, over 39 weeks of the year (term time only).

We know that choosing the right place for your child is a big decision so come and take a look around our provision and meet our wonderful Early Years Educators who have many years experience in providing Flying Start Education.

To make an appointment please call 01352 751195 or email: [email protected]

06/08/2026

Vertical painting is a great activity to improve wrist stability, a very important building block for early writing skills. Other benefits include the building of core strength, and hand eye coordination whilst teaching concepts such as up, down, high, and low through active movement.
Mostly it’s just huge amounts of fun!!

05/08/2026

Yesterday the children had great fun making their own pizzas.

What did we learn?
Math and Science skills by Counting scoops, weighing ingredients, and observing how mixtures change texture or react to heat. Physical Skills by spreading the tomato sauce and safely cutting the ham with a plastic knife. Social Growth by Taking turns, sharing tools, communicating, and gaining a sense of pride.

Most of all we learned how delicious pizzas are!