Tree Tots Day Nursery

Take a look at a vacancy that’s become available at our wonderful setting 🌳

Please feel free to share 🥰

💛🐻 Children in Need🐻💛

We are celebrating this day by having a range of Pudsey themed activities throughout the setting!

The children and staff were also invited to come in wearing spots or Pudsey themed clothing with a small donation for Children in Need 🥰

📚 Bedtime Stories 📚

Last week we hosted our first bedtime stories event which allowed the children and parents to come into the setting to enjoy activities based around stories the children have shown an interest in.

This was a lovely opportunity for the children and parents to socialise with others as well as being able to talk to all the Educator's in the rooms.

We are now looking forward to our Christmas Party in December! 🎄

Remembrance Day

This week the children have been exploring lots of different activities with the symbolic poppy at the heart of most.

The children have been learning about how on this important day we remember the bravery and courage of those who fought in the World Wars but also those who have served in our armed forces since and those who continue to serve in our armed forces today.

We thank you for your service!

Today in our baby room the staff have set up various filling and emptying activities which are based around the children's current interests.

They have added different sized spoons and a variety of pumpkins which the babies have really enjoyed exploring 🎃

Their interests will continue to be extended as we move on to do a mark marking activity using pumpkins and paint :)

🌳 Meet the team Monday 🌳

Today we’d like to introduce you to one of our wonderful apprentices - Jess!

Jess started with us full time in September and is currently working her way through our pre apprentice training programme 😊

Jess works within our Saplings room and brings lots of fun and energy to her practise, it’s amazing to see how passionate and dedicated she is within her job role - the children love her!

Thank you for all your hard work Jess! 🥰

🐅🐘 World Animal Day 🐘🐅

Yesterday the children in Oaks room celebrated this important day to learn new facts about different animals from around the world!

They explored this activity freely to create their own role play scene using natural resources and pumpkin scented play dough so that the animals had their own homes!

Play dough is great to develop the children’s fine motor skills as they will manipulate it in different ways which will also support hand eye coordination 😊

This weeks Meet the Team Monday is our Deputy Manager Kirsty! 🌳

Kirsty has been working for TNB for the last 7 years and has a Level 5 Leadership for the Children and Young People’s Workforce qualification.

Her passion is helping children and families whatever their needs may be in order to achieve the best possible outcomes, the children really are at the centre of everything Kirsty does!

As a Deputy Manager Kirsty is nothing but supportive to all of the staff. She loves seeing their ideas come to life and is always there to share her knowledge within the room to ensure we are delivering the best early years education for the children within our setting!

We are now very excited to have a baby wearing policy within our setting!

At Tree Tots we love to reflect on our practise to ensure that we offer the best care for all of the children so that we can meet their individual needs. Recently we have found that more of our parents are co-sleeping, breast feeding and baby wearing so this is something we really wanted to introduce as part of our daily practise for those young children that really need it.

We are passionate about offering a home from home environment and believe that by giving children familiarity of a home routine it will help them develop a secure and positive attachment within the setting.

Last week many of our Educator's were trained in baby wearing by the wonderful Kizzy at Babywearing South West who has many years of experience in training early years settings as well as supporting parents.

Since being trained by Kizzy it has allowed our staff to feel really confident in using baby wearing as they fully understand the practise that's required to ensure the children's safety is to the highest of standards whilst also knowing how to take care of themselves as Educator's 🥰

An Autumn themed tuff tray for our pre schoolers to use their imagination to create a home for the hedgehog 🦔

We extended the children’s learning during this activity by finding out facts about hedgehogs such as what they like to eat, the children then thought of other animals that may like to eat similar things! 🍁

This week our Forest School are focusing on Seasons 🍁

The provocation below is based on some of the children’s interests in fairies so they can create their own fairy scene through transient art.

The interest in fairy’s started with a child initiated activity last week where the children made a potion that turns others into a grass fairy, they have also been able to create their own fairy and animal wings 🧚‍♀️

🌳 Meet the Team Monday 🌳

This week we’d love to introduce you to our wonderful manager Shirley!

Shirley has worked within TNB for the last 15 years and has gained many qualifications, two of those being a Level 5 Leadership for the Children and Young People’s Workforce and Level 3 Forest School Lead.

At Tree Tots Shirley is passionate about providing a welcoming, friendly, stimulating and curious environment for every child and parent.

As a manager the Educator’s have described Shirley as very warm and approachable and they love how she supports them within their job role so they can be the best Educator’s they can be! 😊

Every year Tree Tots like to support a valued charity and this year we have chosen Breast Cancer Awareness as it feels especially important to us due to one of our families who is currently going through the struggle themselves.

As well as doing a bake sale we are wondering if there are any local businesses who would be happy to donate a prize towards our raffle?

Anything we can do would be amazing and by involving others we can all make a difference to help spread awareness 💖

Thankyou!

🌳 Home Learning Bags 🌳

At Tree Tots we strive to build and maintain a strong and effective relationship with all of our parents as it’s important to work closely together so we can compliment each other’s approach to childcare whilst offering support and new opportunities to their children within our setting.

Our home learning bags are specifically designed to support children in learning new skills with the support and encouragement of loved ones.

Enabling children to take home these specially prepared resources of interest will further aid the children in learning new skills such as listening and attention, new vocabulary and fine motor.

In every bag we include a sheet which explains what significant impact /positive outcome it may have on your child’s well-being, learning and development 😊

Good afternoon just a reminder that Thursday 1st September and Friday 2nd September are both teacher training days. The first day of term for all children is Monday 5th September.
( open as usual tomorrow) xx
Thank you ☺️

Today we’d like to introduce you to July’s Educator of Month - Amy! 🌳

Amy has been at Tree Tots since we opened in 2020 and she has a Level 3 qualification in Children’s Play, Learning and Development.

Amy is a very dedicated Educator who follows children’s current interests exceptionally well. She has a very warm and caring nature which has enabled her to build lots of lovely attachments with the children which is lovely to see!

There is always lots of thought that goes into the activities that Amy plans and she’s always keen to share the children’s successes with their parents.

Thankyou for all your hard work Amy! 🥰

Today the children made their own pencils.
Our Forest Lead Mel has been teaching the children over the 6 week forest school sessions building up to tool use and today they had the opportunity to use potato peelers to whittle their stick. The children then made a hole in the end using a drill bit to insert graphite and hay presto we have a pencil.
The concentration, listening and attention, and resilience was lovely to see. The children were so proud of their work.

🕯 Staff Wellness Room 🕯

Recently we have been making changes to our staff room by adding elements of Hygge to create a space that enables the staff to feel more comfortable and relaxed.

By adding some twinkly lights and soft furnishings this makes the room feel more tranquil and homely which is so important.

Our educators work incredibly hard, they deserve an environment where they can recharge and take some time for themselves 🥰

🍋 Tree Tots Spa 🍋

For the past couple of days we have been planning activities to encourage the children to stay cool during this heatwave ☀️

The children got to relax with their feet in the foot spa whilst placing cucumber on their eye lids to help them feel nice and chilled out 🥒

They were able to help themselves to the lemon infused water and we spoke about the importance of keeping ourselves hydrated 🍋

The children also enjoyed other activities such as mark making, threading with leaves, bubble making and an insect themed cable drum 🍃

The Smartest Giant in Town is Saplings current book of the week! 📚

They have had lots of activities based around this story for them to explore and today Bel created props for each part of the story to help encourage the children to retell it.

Retelling stories is a great way to encourage children to use their imagination, expand their own ideas whilst using props as a visual aid.

We will then extend this activity to enable the children to create their own story using the same props.

💅🏻 Hair & Beauty Salon 💅🏻

Today a child showed an educator that they didn’t have their nails painted anymore, the educator asked if they wanted to paint them at nursery and they got very excited about this idea!

The children helped the educator make their own nail polish using chalk, water and glitter.

We created our salon outside and one of the children took turns in painting each other’s nails as well as the adults.

This was a really lovely activity to develop their fine motor skills, they showed lots of concentration whilst taking on a role within their play and we spoke about how each other felt, one of the children said this activity was relaxing!

A lovely way to keep them engaged in the shade 🥰

🍓 Fruit Ice Lolly's 🍓

To help the children stay cool and comfortable in this heat we decided to make our own ice lolly’s ☀️

The Sapling’s showed great control and hand eye coordination as they poured the liquid into the ice moulds after selecting which fruit they would like 🍐

This was a great opportunity to talk about the process of freezing and why things start to melt. When the children spoke about the sun being hot we then asked them how we can take care of ourselves in this heat!

🌳 Meet the Team Monday 🌳

This week we’d like to introduce you to Martine who works within our Sapling’s room!

We are very lucky to have worked with Martine ever since she was at college whilst completing her Level 2 and Level 3 qualification in Early Years.

She is a very dedicated member of staff who builds such lovely, strong attachments with her key children and their families.

We are very excited to watch Martine continue to grow within her early years career, she is a credit to not only the children within her care but also the setting 🥰

🏠 Home corner for under 2’s 🏠

Our acorn room senior Charleigh has had a little change around in our baby room!

Here are some pictures of their home corner which is a place that all the babies love to explore, the furniture is a perfect height for both walkers and non walkers to enjoy!

☀️ Weather Station ☀️

This week Mel has added a weather area in the Forest School 🌳

The children will be able to use the resources provided to document the weather in a journal along with using the named sensory bottles to develop their early literacy skills by trying to copy the words down onto a mirror using pens 🖊

This is a wonderful provocation that will initiate lots of discussions between the educators and children for the different types of weather they may experience whilst being outside and what causes things such as rain and snow 🌧

🌻 Friendship Basket 🌻

Our lovely educator Corinne set up a friendship basket in the pre school that the children will have access to throughout the month.

The purpose of this provocation is for children to understand how we can make each other feel happy by doing different acts of kindness.

The children are encouraged to draw or write a letter to an adult or child within the setting, then during circle time those that are going to receive a letter are asked to join the circle so they can open it and talk about how it makes them feel!

One of the children created a really lovely letter and said that he wanted to take all of the adults on a holiday ☀️

Another child said they made a letter for their friend because she feels happy when they give her cuddles 🥰

🌳 Spaces from September 2022 🌳

Please contact our office if you have any enquires 😊

Today we’d like to introduce you to June’s Educator of the Month - Bel! ❤️

Bel works within our Sapling’s room and is currently working towards her Level 3 Early Years Educator qualification.

She really is an amazing educator who goes above and beyond to support all the children within her room.
Bel is always enthusiastic about her activities, knowing the children extremely well to provide and extend amazing learning opportunities.

You are so deserving of this award Bel we appreciate everything you do!! 🥰

🍊 Sensory play for babies 🍊

Our Acorn’s enjoyed this sensory tray that was filled with yogurt, fruit and jelly.

The children were able to use the spoons to develop their fine motor skills and hand eye coordination by transporting the materials into a pot as well as using their hands to explore the different textures.

They were encouraged to develop their language by naming the different items as well as what colour they were, we'd then try and match the colour to the pictures in a book! 📖

🍓 Fruit Kebabs 🍓

Last week the Sapling's enjoyed making their own fruit kebabs with Amy 🍇

The children helped wash the fruit before hand and we spoke about why its important that we do this. They selected which fruit they would like to add to their kebab and they then cut each piece independently 🍊

This was a great activity to talk about various things such as where different fruits come from, their colour and texture, how to cut fruit safely and why fruit is good for us! 🍌

🍪 Baking cookies 🍪

This week Amy has done a baking activity with our preschoolers which they thoroughly enjoyed!

Firstly, Amy got the recipe for how we bake cookies and she asked each child to take part in deciding what order the recipe must go in.

All of the children took turns in weighing each of the ingredients and we spoke about which ones were heavy and which were light.

They mixed all of the ingredients together and then rolled out the dough so they could use a cutter to make the shape of the biscuit.

Some of the children helped the adults take the biscuits to the kitchen so they could be put in the oven and we spoke about how long they needed to be in there for before they are cooked!

🥕 Saplings Field to Fork 🥕

Today Sapling's have continued to promote healthy eating by pretending to be farmers!

The children dug the vegetables out of the soil and then transported them to the tuff tray so they could wash them before taking them to a shop to sell! 🧅

This was a great opportunity for the children to learn about how vegetables grow and the role of a farmer 🥬

🇬🇧 British Values 🇬🇧

In Oaks room the children are able to access lots of resources from other countries as well as books that celebrate different cultures and religions.

As Educator's we naturally embed the British Values within our practise and this is something that is celebrated amongst the children.

Our room lead Georgia is currently creating a book for the children that will hold pictures of how they incorporate the British Values during their time at the setting.
We also have a map of the world within the room and we add pictures of the children to show where they come from, this leads into lots of lovely conversations where we talk about other countries and how they compare to the one we live in.

As a setting there are many ways in which we can encourage these values such as -

🔵 Giving the children an opportunity to to vote for what they would like to do

🔴 Golden rules

🔵 Celebrating diversity

🔴 Encourage children to talk and support others to listen

🔵 Use the children's current interest's towards planning

🌳 Meet the team Monday 🌳

This week we'd like to introduce you to Corinne!

Corinne is an Early Years Educator who spends a lot of her time supporting children with SEN alongside our SENCO.

She is very passionate about her job role and will go above and beyond for each child and their family to ensure that they reach their full potential! ⭐️

🐠 Under the Sea 🐠

Oaks room enjoyed this sea themed tuff tray with the addition of glowsticks which were perfect for under the dark sheet!

🪐 Sapling's Space Station 🪐

To extend the children's learning for their current interest around planets, Bel made a large space for them to create their own solar system using using balloons and paint.

By giving them the opportunity to paint on a larger scale it allows them to develop their fine and gross motor skills as well as their imagination ⭐️

The children recognised the colours they were using to create their planets and with support from their educator they spoke about what colour it would turn into when 2 colours are mixed together.

The children used balloons, sponges and their hands to mark make then they stuck smaller objects onto the paper such as feathers.

This was a lovely activity that interested many children! 🌍

🧚‍♀️ Fairy House 🧚‍♀️

Take a look inside our wonderful fairy house which is based in our Forest School 🌳

This is another area that the child can explore and its normally used for quiet group time where the children can explore the provocations that are set up on the nature table.

The nature table is changed depending on the season and the children will also add objects that they have found within the Forest School such as flowers and stones so they can add them into their play🌺

🍌 Healthy Eating Week 🍌

Today the Saplings have been learning about different types of fruit!

They used the spoons to scoop the seeds out of the kiwi and they compared them with the seeds they found in the apple, oranges and mango 🍏

The children were encouraged to use their senses to explore the fruit and one child said that the mango tasted sour 🥭

The Saplings then moved on to drawing their favourite piece of fruit, one of the children chose to draw a strawberry and spent a long time drawing little seeds which she said would help other strawberries grow 🍓

We used this activity as a great learning opportunity for us to talk about why eating fruit is very important for our health as they contain lots of fibre, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants!

🌳 Meet the team Monday 🌳

This week we’d like to introduce you to Mel who is our Forest School Lead!

Mel is an exceptional senior member of staff and is currently coming to the end of her Level 3 Forest School Leader qualification.

She has over 6 years' experience with managing and running 2-3 and 3-5-year-old rooms. She always puts more than 100% into everything and the children are always at the focus.

Mel strives to achieve every learning opportunity by creating an enriched and stimulating environment.

🌳🐠 Forest School Ocean Day Extension 🐠🌳

Yesterday the children enjoyed creating their own ocean scene in a fish tank and they spoke about the three different zones.

Today our Forest School Lead Mel extended the children's learning by creating the midnight zone, twilight zone and sunlight zone on a stand for all of the children to explore.

They used their senses as they investigated each zone and they looked through the books to find different sea animals that may live there. This helped spark conversation between the children about sea animals that some of them have seen at the beach🏝

There were also children who used this opportunity to draw their own sea animals using the pictures in the book as a provocation.