Sunflowers at St. Annes Nursery

To all of our children & their families - we have enjoyed working in partnership with you during 2022 & can’t wait to continue our journey with you to see what 2023 brings 😊

To the Sunflowers staff - thank you for your continued hard work & dedication to our children & their families 🦸‍♀️ 🦸‍♂️ You truly are amazing & make everyday different 😊

Finally, to you all - Thank you, as always, for your continued support ❤️

Merry Christmas & see you all in 2023 🎉

Love The Sunflowers at St Annes Office Team 🥰

Today it was “Christmas Dinner 2022” for all of the children & staff 🎄
Everyone enjoyed getting into the Christmas spirit & it was lovely to see & hear all of the children get excited about Santa visiting at the weekend 🎅🎁

🎊 Pre School Christmas Party 2022 🎊

⭐️ Toddler Room Christmas Party 2022 ⭐️

🎄Baby Room Christmas Party 2022 🎄

Thank you to our Pre School Parents for your support with our Nativity ⭐️ 👼
We are super proud of the children & hope you enjoyed watching the performance 🥰

So tonight is our Christmas Party 🎉

We are missing a couple of members of staff but I’m sure you agree, every staff member deserves some time out to let their hair down & enjoy their night 🎉

Merry Christmas to our Sunflowers staff 🥰

Today, Pre School made Playdough from scratch (aren’t they clever?) 😊

Did you know that play dough:
1️⃣ develops our fine motor skills by using our fingers & tools to make our creations
2️⃣ it can support mathematical development by recognising different sizes & quantities
3️⃣ helps our social skills by practicing turn taking, as well as talking about what we are making

⭐️ WE LOVE PLAYDOUGH ⭐️

It’s been an exploration morning in Pre-School this morning 🕵️
The children had great fun making enclosed spaces by using different shapes & enhancing the experience with coloured light blocks💡
It was agreed the toy cars were the perfect fit for the space created 🚗

Even though we haven’t done any fundraising for Children in Need 2022, we have completed some Pudsey based activities 😊

In the baby room, we are looking at Nursery Rhymes & this week we are focusing on “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” ⭐️… so today, we have been busy making Star Biscuits 😋

It’s been a busy but learning Wednesday morning in Pre School 😊
Based on their Focus Book of the Week which is “Pete the Cat, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” ⭐️, the children have been making, decorating & using their own telescopes to see what they could find outside 👀
We have also been demonstrating our understanding of British Values by turn taking & asking politely to use resources & toys - the children discovered it is more fun to share 🥰

Today, at 11.00am, instead of observing a two minute silence, we showed the children a short two minute story about a bunny & fireworks, which helped to explain the importance of today 🐇🎆

Whilst some are getting ready to enjoy some (very wet) firework displays, we thought we would just share some safety tips for those of you who are having a “D.I.Y display” tonight from your back garden 😊

We hope you all enjoy yourselves but most importantly, stay safe 🎇🔥

We’ve had lots of messy & spooky Halloween fun today throughout the setting 💕

We also had some of the cutest pumpkins, skeletons, witches & spiders you’ve ever seen 🥰

🛑 Stay safe if you are going Trick or Treating 🍬🍭

🙃 Don’t Forget 🙃
It is Halloween Dress Up Day today 🧙‍♀️ 🐈‍⬛ 🧙‍♂️ 🎃
Also, our Term Time Only sessions resume today (even though it’s an Inset Day at St Anne’s) 😃

There have been some “spooky” and messy activities this week in our baby room 🎃 🕷 🦇

Just a little reminder to the parents of our ”bigger” (but still little to us) Pre School children 👧 👦

Please apply for your child’s Reception place before 15th January 2023 📚

It a “Special Menu” day today 😋

This week, our Pre Schoolers have collected the tomatoes from our Growing Area, that we have been growing over the summer 🍅

We have practised our weighing & counting skills, as well as talking about their colour, their texture, their shape & even wondered if the green ones weighed more than the red ones 😊

Who knew tomatoes could be so versatile & interesting 🧐

Over the last few days, Pre School have been practising their number & quantity recognition, by using conkers collected for our Discovery Tray 🌳

🎄 DON’T FORGET 🎄
Any Christmas Fundraiser forms & money to be returned to the setting by Friday 14th October 😊

Our Baby room has been working on our Autumn displays today, they've been painting leaves and counting pumpkins.

It’s been a morning of practising our early counting skills in the Toddler Room 😊

We have been using the ducks & nursery rhymes to support our ever improving counting skills - our favourite rhyme this morning was “5 little ducks” 🦆🎵🦆

In the baby room today, our focus is recognising colours 😊
And what better way to recognise our colours by building tall & colourful towers using our big pegs 😉

Did you know that there are 7 stages of Block Play?

Over the last few days, our Pre School children have been exploring Stacking Blocks & Making Bridges, as part of the earlier stages of Block Play.

Not only have they had great fun constructing their structures, it has also helped them to develop their “team work” skills 😊 💪

❤️ HAPPY GRANDPARENTS DAY ❤️
To all of our amazing Sunflowers grandparents ☺️
We appreciate you too 🥰

This morning in Preschool we have been mark making using conkers! 🎨

This has helped to support our fine motor skills, whilst tipping & moving the conkers in our tray 🖐

The activity also promoted good listening & speaking skills, as we needed to wait for our turn 👂 🗣

We also spoke about the different colours we had made, along with the textures & shapes of the conkers themselves.

Most of all - we had lots of fun 🤩

Pre School have been getting ready to welcome your kind donations for our Harvest Festival collection ☺️
All items collected will be donated to Nantwich Food Bank to assist with their stock levels 😊

🌻 Baby Room - Chocolate, biscuits & sweet treats 😋

🌻 Toddler Room - Shampoo, Conditioner, Bubble Bath & Shower Gel 🧼

🌻 Pre School - Tinned fruit, Rice Pudding, Custard 😋

Thank you 😊

Can we introduce Georgia to all of our families 😊

Georgia has been apart of the Sunflowers team for the last few weeks, working in the rooms to get to know the staff & your amazing children 😃

Over the next few days & weeks, our parents will become familiar with Georgia too when she greets you at the door to do a handover with you & your child & so she can continue to enhance the links we have with you all 😊

Welcome Georgia to our little “Sunflowers Family” 🌻

Just a reminder that we will be closed on Monday 19th September to be able to pay our respects to the Queen 👸

We will reopen, as usual, for more fun & learning on Tuesday 20th September from 7.30am 😊

Today in our Pre School Room Phase One phonics lesson, we went outside onto the front garden, where we took part in our environmental sounds lesson.
We closed our eyes & opened our ears to the sounds & noise around us. Some of the exciting sounds we could hear, amongst other things were "Cars" "The wind in the trees" "The mixer" and “Children playing"

This week, our Pre School children have been excited to use their new reading area 😊

This new space gives them the opportunity to look at our books in a more quieter, relaxing & cosier area 📚

To pay tribute to yesterdays news, our children (or kings and queens as they have been called) have been busy making crown’s 👸 🤴

A very sad evening 👑

“Every story has an end, but in life every ending is a new beginning….”

📣 PRE SCHOOL PARENTS 📣
Did you know.. you can now apply for your child’s Reception place for September 2023 via the Cheshire East Website 😊

Welcome Back to our Term Time Only families, Out of School Club Families AND our new families 😊

We hope all of our parents & staff have a lovely Bank Holiday Weekend 😊
Here’s hoping the sun keeps shining for us 😃 ☀️ 😃

🏅 APPRECIATION POST 🏅
A little different to what we normally share but we wanted to share some news about the team 😊

Over the last few months, behind the scenes, we have had some members of staff who have been working hard on their own Professional Development 👩‍🎓 👨‍🎓

Congratulations to you all ⭐️
All of your hard work has paid off & everyone is very proud of you 👏