Little Jem's ChildCare

27/09/2026

This week we have been learning all about the people who help us in our everyday lives and the important jobs they do to keep us safe and help our communities 🚑🚒🚓

We enjoyed lots of role play and dressing up, using our doctor, police officer and firefighter clothes, hats and accessories. This encouraged the children to use their imaginations, develop their communication skills and explore different roles within our community ⛑️🩺🥼📢

We read books about the real-life superheroes who help us every day, including postmen, delivery drivers, supermarket workers, teachers and bin collectors. We talked about what they do and why their jobs are important👨‍🌾👩‍🏫👨‍🍳👨‍✈️

The children made their own police badges using their photographs, created lollipop crossing signs and decorated firefighter hats. These creative activities supported fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination and encouraged the children to talk about the different people and services that help us🚸🚨

In the garden, we became builders, using foam bricks to build walls. We practised balancing and carefully placing the bricks, measured our walls and worked together to build and problem-solve. This supported physical development, early mathematical skills, teamwork and cooperation👷‍♂️🧱🦺

We also talked about emergency services and learnt that 999 is the number to call in an emergency. We discussed who might come to help us, including the police, firefighters and ambulance service, while learning about staying safe and knowing when to ask for help☎️📱

🌟 This week has supported the children’s communication and language, personal and social development, physical development, literacy, mathematics and understanding of the world, while giving them opportunities to develop confidence, independence, imagination and teamwork.

21/09/2026

Last week we have been exploring the exciting world of space! 🌎🚀 The children have enjoyed a variety of creative, sensory and imaginative activities while learning about rockets, planets, stars and astronauts.

🎨 We made space wreaths using paper plates, black paint and sticky stars and planets. This encouraged creativity while developing our fine motor skills through painting, peeling and sticking.

🚀 We used building bricks to design and build our own rockets, encouraging problem-solving, imagination and construction skills. We also made rockets using paper shapes, glue and collage materials, helping to develop hand-eye coordination and control.

🌌 Our space station sensory tray was a big hit! The children enjoyed imaginative role play with planets, stars and astronauts hidden amongst the black rice. This supported sensory exploration, language development and imaginative play.

⭐ We practised our early maths skills by sorting rockets and stars from biggest to smallest, developing our understanding of size, comparison and ordering.

✏️ We also used our fine motor skills to carefully trace lines between rockets and planets, helping to develop pencil control and coordination.

🌙 The children created their own moons using paint and sponges, exploring different textures and patterns while developing their creativity.

📚 We enjoyed reading Goodnight Spaceman together and finished our space adventures with lots of singing, including 5 Little Men in a Flying Saucer. These activities supported listening, communication, language development and confidence in joining in with songs and stories.

It has been a fantastic week of exploring, creating, building, counting, imagining and learning about space! 🚀🌙⭐

13/09/2026

Transport Week 🚂
We have had a fantastic week exploring our transport topic, with lots of fun, hands-on activities to help develop the children’s learning and skills.
We enjoyed exploring an oats sensory tray, matching different transport pictures while using scoops and pots. This encouraged sensory exploration as well as developing our fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination and language as we talked about the different types of transport.

We made car roads in different shapes, including circles, squares, triangles and rectangles. The children used their cars to trace around the shapes, helping to develop shape recognition, early mathematical understanding and fine motor control.

We also sorted all of our toy cars by colour and counted how many we had of each colour. We talked about which colour we had the most and the least of, supporting counting, sorting, comparing quantities and mathematical language.

Our wooden train tracks provided lots of opportunities for teamwork and problem-solving. The children worked together to find the pieces they needed and joined them together to create their own tracks, developing cooperation, communication and critical thinking skills.

We got creative making our own cars using glue, tissue paper and paper shapes. We also used transport-shaped cutters to make prints in paint, enjoyed finger painting onto paper planes, and created pictures using transport shapes. These activities supported creativity, imagination, mark making and fine motor development.

There was also plenty of time for imaginative play, with lots of dressing up and adventures in our sensory tent using lights and torches. We enjoyed singing, dancing and listening to lots of stories together, supporting communication and language, confidence, imagination and physical development.

It has been a busy and exciting week of exploring all things transport, with lots of opportunities to learn through play, creativity and working together! 🚗🚂✈️🚌

24/07/2026

20/07/2026

Last week was the last week of term so we said goodbye to our school leavers, and term time only children for the summer ⛱️☀️

We had our Hawaiian theme leavers party on Tuesday, this included a bouncy castle, making fruit kebabs, dancing to Hawaiian music with balloons, pass the parcel, and Hawaiian theme sensory play 🌺

We all had such an amazing time and the children loved showing off their Hawaiian clothes and accessories 🌋⛱️🌊🌺

13/07/2026

Last week was another very warm one, so we have enjoyed lots of fun water-based activities to help us stay cool while learning through play 🥵

Our water play included a beach-themed tuff tray with small world people, boats, shells, and sea animals, encouraging imaginative play, storytelling, and language development. We also enjoyed fishing with our fishing rods, exploring foam blocks in the water tray, and using water sprayers to cool ourselves down, helping to develop our gross motor skills and coordination 💦🐙🎣🧱

The children were very creative during our summer craft activities. They made their own beach pictures using glue, sand, and shells, exploring different textures and materials while developing their fine motor skills. We also created colourful ice lollies using paint sticks and lolly sticks, giving the children opportunities to express their creativity 🏖🍭

Throughout the week, we shared lots of stories together, supporting the children's communication, language, and early literacy skills. We also enjoyed daily singing sessions, helping to build confidence, rhythm, listening skills, and language development 🎶📚

05/07/2026

This week we have made the most of the lovely weather by spending lots of time exploring and learning in the garden ☀️😎

The children enjoyed building and creating with the trains and tracks outdoors, as well as exploring a variety of sea animals during our water play activities 🚄🛤 🦀🐬

We also encouraged early writing skills through mark making with chalks on the patio and by using sand in the tuff tray, allowing the children to develop their creativity and fine motor skills✍️

To celebrate and support the England football team, the children had great fun making England flags, having their faces painted, and choosing football-themed tattoos 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿⚽️

It has been a fantastic week full of outdoor play, creativity, and lots of excitement!

29/06/2026

Last week we got back to see that our caterpillars had hatched from their chrysalis's and we had 5 beautiful butterflies 🦋. We loved watching them drink from the flowers, and we didn't really want to say goodbye but we had to let them go.

We have really spent most of the week trying to stay cool 😎 we had lots of water play, including sea animals, paint brushes and cups, saucepans scoops and bowls, and lots of rubber ducks 🐠🖌🥣🦆

Luckily we had a big gazebo that we put up in the garden so we could still be outside when it wasn't too warm without the sun 🥵