Giant Steps Nursery and Preschool-Downton

🌟 Role-Play Donations Wanted! 🌟

We’re trying to create a more real-life role-play area for the children and are looking for any old items that could help bring it to life!

📚 Old books – especially cookbooks, recipe books and home-related books
👗 Small adult clothes for dressing up – dresses, shirts, skirts, jackets, waistcoats etc.
🧣 Scarves, hats & accessories
👜 Handbags & purses
💇‍♀️ Hairbrushes, rollers & combs
💄 Clean, empty make-up/pretend make-up

If you have anything you no longer need that is clean, safe and suitable for little hands, we’d love to give it a new lease of life in our preschool! 💕

💚📸NURSERY SPOTLIGHT📸💚

Our staff carefully plan fun, hands-on learning experiences based on what the children are interested in and the skills they are developing.

🎨 Mark making & creative play
From painting to exploring colours and textures, our creative activities encourage children to experiment, make choices and express their ideas — while strengthening those little hands ready for future writing.

✂️ Practising practical skills; lemonade style! 🍋
Our tuff tray experiences have been designed to encourage children to cut, scoop, pour, mix and manipulate different materials. These simple activities help develop fine motor control, hand-eye coordination, concentration and independence.
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🛝✨ Exploring something new ✨
Our younger children have been enjoying visits to the local park, but not before stopping in to say hello the preschool children, giving them the opportunity to explore a new environment, build confidence and become familiar with the next stage of their Giant Steps journey. 👣✨

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Because at Giant Steps, play isn’t “just play” — every experience is carefully created to help little learners take their next giant step. 💚👣

📚✨ A Heartfelt Thank You! ✨📚

We would like to say a huge thank you to one of our wonderful Giant Steps families for their incredibly thoughtful gift to our preschool. 💚

They have kindly gifted us this beautiful cosy chair set, bookcase and a fantastic selection of new books for our entrance area as a thank you to the team. Alongside this, their wonderful children presented us some beautiful and heartfelt poems which truly melted our hearts. These are proudly displayed in our entrance for everyone to enjoy. These lovely keepsakes always bring a smile to our faces and remind us why we love what we do. 🥰

Thank you once again for your kindness, generosity and support. Your thoughtful gifts have created a special space that will be enjoyed by so many children and families for years to come. ❤️

💐A little peak into life outside Giant Steps!🎉

This weekend, the Giant Steps team traded story time for celebration time as we headed out to celebrate our beautiful bride-to-be at her hen party! 🥂💕

From plenty of laughs to making memories together, we believe strong friendships make strong teams, and we can't wait to cheer her on as she says "I do!" 💍🤍

Wishing our beautiful bride-to-be all the happiness in the world – we're all so excited for you! ❤️

Our Critter Cuddles visit 🐢🐇🐁🦔🦎

Our preschoolers were very lucky to meet Anna and her wonderful therapy animals today! We met a vast array of different animals;

Sheldon the tortoise.🐢

Bramble: the African pigmy hedgehog 🦔

Dobby and Hippo: the skinny and hairless guinea pigs. 🥰

Maggie and Pikachu; Peruvian Guinea pigs

One of their fabulous Chinchillas named Bubble.

Bluey; a mini lop rabbit and Foxy; a rex rabbit.

Gary the Gecko 🦎

And finally...

Brie and Cheese, the two freindly mice 🐭
The children loved watching their friend show his talent of balancing them on his head.

Here are some interesting facts we learned:
1) Chinchillas originate from the Andes mountains, and their fur is very soft, fine and dense which feels like silk.
2) A Geckos tail can fall off if they become scared
3) A tortoise is deceiving my fast 😂

A very big thankyou to Anna and her wonderful assistant for a fantastic morning ☀️

Animal encounters can help children build confidence, develop kindness and empathy, spark curiosity, learn new words, and discover how to care for the world around them. 🌍

🌟 June Moments in Preschool 🌟

🏗️ Building & Creating
We’ve been busy constructing chocolate factories using drain pipes and foam blocks, with the children working together to share ideas, communicate, problem-solve, and work through disagreements as they built and adapted their creations. We also used LEGO to build bridges for our cars and tracks, exploring how to make them strong and stable. These activities help develop teamwork, resilience, imagination, and fine motor skills. 🍫🌉🚗

🔷 Maths & Shape Play
Our magnetic shape matching has been a great way to explore shapes, patterns, and early problem-solving skills, helping to build confidence with maths through play. 🧲

☀️💦 Water Play & Science Fun
The heatwave gave us the perfect chance to explore melting with ice, chocolate, and ice lollies, as well as enjoy a calming spa day. These activities encouraged curiosity, sensory exploration, and helped the children understand changes in the world around them. 🧊🍭

🌟 Busy Bees in Gnomes Room! 🌈✨

We’ve been having lots of fun in Gnomes this month! The children have loved exploring colours, getting creative with mark making, and enjoying plenty of water play in the warm weather. 🎨💦

We’ve also been busy building our fine motor skills through play, helping to strengthen little hands and encourage independence along the way. It’s been another lovely month full of fun, learning, and lots of smiles! 💛

💦 Splish, Splash, Summer Fun! ☀️✨

The Munchkins have enjoyed sooo much water play this month, helping us all stay cool during the heatwave — and they handled it better than the grown-ups! Thank goodness for fans and plenty of water! 💙

Alongside all the splashing fun, we’ve been getting creative, enjoying lots of new stories, circle times, and singing together. We’ve also introduced new tools during play to support pincher and palm grips, helping to strengthen the skills needed for using cutlery and encouraging independence at mealtimes — a big win! 🍴👏

Another fun-filled month of learning, laughter, and growing together! 🌈

👩‍🍳 Tiny Chefs, Tasty Treats! 🍯✨

In our Elves room, they had a wonderful time making flapjacks together, carefully measuring, mixing, and pouring the ingredients. As they worked, they developed their early maths skills through counting and measuring, strengthened their fine motor skills through stirring and pressing, and built their confidence by following instructions and taking turns.

It was lovely to see everyone so engaged and proud of what they had created. The room smelled delicious, and we hope the flapjacks tasted just as yummy! 😋