Merry-go-round

This week we have enjoyed lots of outdoor adventures in our sandpit. We have spun lots and lots in our cones and dug holes bigger than the nursery. We have loved having the sunshine back.

Have a lovely weekend.

*PARENT NOTICE - SICKNESS*

Good evening everyone. A huge thank you to everyone for participating in our dress up days this week. You all looked amazing!

Just a reminder of our sickness policy. We know that bugs are inevitable but if your child has either sickness or diarrhoea, they MUST stay home for at least 48 hours after their last bout of sickness and diarrhoea. We do currently have a bug going round and we want to eliminate it as soon as possible. Could I also kindly remind parents to inform us of their children's absence before 8:30am each morning. Thank you ❤

Have a lovely weekend
Jess x

Some photos from our red spaghetti tray!

RED NOSE DAY!

Today we have also been wearing red to celebrate red nose day, we have seen so many children join us in doing so! We have explored lots of red opportunities today such as a red curiosity station full of a variety of red materials, a red paint station where we have been painting our own red noses and other creative mark making as well as a gooey sensory playdough tray and a wiggly red spaghetti tray in the garden! Lots of messy exploration today! We have a wonderful day, have a safe weekend and we will see you all bright and early Monday for ODD SOCK DAY for down syndrome awareness!

This afternoon we have been playing, reading and painting. We have built train tracks, painted flags for tomorrow, read lots of books and turned some of our carers into blanket monsters. The fun has been non stop, we are now having a little boogie to some of our favourite songs before home time.

😁 ORAL HEALTH DAY! 😁

Today the children are learning about oral health and have continued this on to good hygiene practices such as how important it is to wash the germs off their hands. The children have been discussing healthy and unhealthy food and how this can affect their teeth, they have been using a model set of teeth to show how they brush their teeth and we have spoke about the importance of keeping our teeth and gums healthy.

We are exploring books such as "Tooth" "How to brush your teeth with snappy croc" and "Tasting" to further our knowledge on keeping good oral health. The children have been telling us that it's important to brush their teeth when they wake up and before they go to bed and discussing all the different colours of toothbrushes and flavours of toothpaste they have!

COMIC RELIEF - TOMORROW!

Don't forget your RED clothes tomorrow. We are raising money for Comic Relief. We have lots of activities planned.

Donations gratefully accepted but NOT necessary.

In honour of St. Patrick's Day tomorrow, we decided to paint some Irish flags and lucky clovers for us to decorate the nursery tomorrow. The children used sponges rather than paintbrushes to give the paint a different affect. Don't forget to wear orange, white or green tomorrow.

What an amazing morning we have had. We have explored so many different things and joined in many different play opportunities that we didn't know where to go to first. Inside we read lots of books, sorted flowers to designed our very own stickers and outside we played in the sand and watch Brad doing some funny singing and dancing. We have some fun things planned for this afternoon.

Yesterday afternoon, some of the children were talking about stickers and asked if they could have one. After having a look, I could not find any so Chelsea helped us make our very own stickers.
The children really enjoyed designing their stickers the way they wanted. Some of the children drew rainbows, some draw hearts and one child even drew an octopus.
I then used sellotape to stick the stickers on us.
All the children are all proud, walking around showing everyone their amazing stickers.

Thursday 17th March - St Patrick's Day. Children are welcome to come to the nursery dressed in Green or Orange clothing. We will be exploring the cultural meaning behind St Patrick's Day and participating in lots of different activities.

Friday 18th March - COMIC RELIEF! Lets see your best RED clothes! It is also World Oral Health Day so children will be taught about the importance of keeping our mouths healthy through discussions on teeth brushing and healthy eating.

Today we have been exploring some of the different countries Around the World. On Katie's and Julie's table we have been looking at Africa. We have been talking about the wild animals you might see, this morning we have made Lions and Zebras with paper plates and wool and googly eyes.
This afternoon we are talking about other African animals and looking at African nations flags.

Sam,Brad and Chelsea - North America

The children have had an amazing morning exploring all around the world. We have had lots of fun discovering different cultures and finding out new things.
For our activity we created Dream catchers and learnt what they were used for.

The children used there creative skills to create their own Dream catcher. We used glitter, sequins , ribbons and pens to make lots of exciting patterns.

JESS AND ELLA - INDIA

What a fantastic morning we have had celebrating India. We have explored a variety of different foods such as poppadums, naan bread and mango chutney. It was all so yummy 😋

We also engaged in Rangoli design. We have made so many beautiful patterns using stencils and coloured sand. We supported each other and worked together to create bigger patterns.

Jess and Ella dressed up in beautiful week's and had henna on their hands. It was a great conversation starter. One of the children brought in some Sara's from home and some of us dressed up in them. She also have everybody a Bindi and we talked about the meaning behind the amazing Indian traditions.

What a FANTASTIC day we had yesterday celebrating all of our favourite story books.

Our next theme day is approaching and on Monday 14th March, we will be going 'AROUND THE WORLD.' On our last theme day, we explored Poland. Zuzanna talked to us all about her home country and what made it so special. We were able to taste some yummy Polish foods too. This time, we are visiting 4 famous places and these are:

INDIA! Jess and Ella will be going to India. The children will have the opportunity to taste a variety of Indian foods and participate in making some rangoli designs.

AFRICA! Katie and Julie will be visiting Africa and looking at some exciting sensory trays based around the deserts and animals!

ASIA! Zuzanna, Laura and Beth will be hopping on a plane to Asia and have plans to convert the home corner into a rainforest!

NORTH AMERICA! Sam, Chelsea and Brad are visiting North America and taking a look at all of their famous buildings.

Moving forward, we plan to hold these theme based days fortnightly on different days so as all children have the opportunity to engage in these special events. Each theme will be dependent on what the current interest is within the nursery. I wonder what will be next! If any parents would like to participate with any of our themes, whether that be through knowledge, stories or recipes, please speak to one of the staff! We would love to know if any of you have visited any of these places or celebrate any of them at home.

The Snail And The Whale 🐌🐳

The second book of the day was The Snail and the whale. This book is about a tiny little snail who wanted a lift around the world. A kind whale decided to take the snack on an adventure, along the way they encounter so many incredible creatures. The rise stated too go out leaving the whale stranded on the sand with no water. So the clever snail slithered on a chalk-board the words 'save the whale' so that's just what they did.

Chelsea and Sam filled the tray with different scenes from the book using many resources. They both also dressed up as some of the creatures from three book. Be sure to check us out at the door.

30 hours free childcare

SUMMER TERM SPACES!

We still have a few afternoon spaces available for after the Easter holidays. If your child turns 2 before 31st March 2022, you may be entitled to 15 free hours under the Terrific 4 Two's scheme. You can check your eligibility here https://early-help-support-parents.wolverhampton.gov.uk/apply/tft

A reminder to all of our existing parents. If your child is in receipt of the 30 hour funding, please make sure you are renewing your codes every 3 months in order for us to claim your child's funding for their place. If anyone is applying under a new application for after Easter, please make sure you have applied before 31st March, otherwise your extended funding will not start until September 2022. Please note, the extended funding is for 3+ years only and your child must turn 3 before 31st March. You can check your eligibility here https://www.gov.uk/30-hours-free-childcare

Any questions, please contact Jess.

30 hours free childcare Who is eligible for 30 hours free childcare and how you can get it.

🍊🍎 HANDA'S SURPRISE 🦓 🍍🍌

The first of our celebratory books today is HANDA'S SURPRISE! This story is about a little girl who went to take a basket of fruit to her best friend. On the way, the cheeky animals took the fruit. Before she reached her friend, a tree full of tangerines refilled her basket. When she reached her friend, they we're both very SURPRISED.

This morning, Jess and Ella have made us our very own fruit basket. We looked at the taste and texture of different fruits and enjoyed trying a wide variety of foods. We tried Avocado, Banana, Orange, Mango, Pear, Pineapple and Plum.

Yummy!!

Jess and Ella have also dressed up as Zebra's too from the story 🦓

Can you guess what some of the books are that we are celebrating today? 📚

DYDD GWYL DEWI HAPUS - That says "Happy At David's Day" in Welsh.

Today, the children are learning about some super special world events. We are learning about St David's Day and Shrove Tuesday. The children have come to nursery dressed in yellow and have learnt about the Patron Saint of Wales. We went around the nursery and hunted for lots of other items that were yellow too. Some of us discussed why daffodils we're worn on St David's Day too.

Then, we all worked together to make some playdoh pancakes. We used saucepans to practice our flipping which was so much fun. It really helped us work those big muscles in our arms and supported our hand eye co ordination development too. Some of the children have spoken about what toppings they are going to have on their pancakes tonight. They sound so yummy already!

Take a look at Tapestry for some more photos.

Good afternoon everyone, I hope you have all had a lovely half term break!

Just a few reminders below for the upcoming week 👇🏼

What a fun-filled day it has been. We have finished off the half term with such a wonderful day. This morning we had lots of fun playing, painting, and doing row row row your boat. This afternoon we were pretending to be doctors and nurses by wrapping Jess' foot in a bandage. We also enjoyed a little bit of yogo with Jess, Ella and Chelsea, we did so many stretches including trying to touch our toes. We are just enjoying a little sing song and story telling before home time. We hope you all have a fantastic week off, see you all Monday 28th February.

30 hours free childcare

NOTICE TO PARENTS: Just a quick reminder that if you are in receipt of the NEF Extended Entitlement, you must be renewing your codes every 3 months in order for us to claim the 30 hours funding for your child.

30 hour funding begins the term AFTER your child's 3rd birthday. The next cut off date is March 31st. Therefore, if your child has turned 3 between 01st January and 31st March, you may be entitled to additional funding. To check your eligibility for 30 hours, please visit https://www.gov.uk/30-hours-free-childcare for more information. If you do not apply by 31st March, you will not receive the funding for the Summer term.

Please speak to Jess if you have any queries on this funding x

30 hours free childcare Who is eligible for 30 hours free childcare and how you can get it.

⚠ RECALL ALERT: 14 baby sleeping bags are being recalled due to a choking risk from detachable poppers https://whi.ch/sleeping-bag-recall

If you own one of these products stop using it immediately and return it to Dunelm for a full refund.

These are the barcodes of the affected products:

Dunelm:
• Doodle Dino Sleep Bag – barcodes: 5057722733063/ 5057722733070

• Ditsy Bunny Sleep Bag – barcodes: 5057722733148/ 5057722733155

• Jersey Cloud Sleep Bag Pink – barcodes: 5057722733186/ 5057722733193

• Jersey Cloud Sleep Bag Grey – barcodes: 5057722733162/ 5057722733179

Cosatto:
• Dragon Kingdom Baby Sleep Bag – barcodes: 5055161664481/5055161664498/ 5055161664504

• Mister Fox Baby Sleeping Bag – barcodes: 5055161664818/ 5055161664825/5055161664832

• Happy Stars Baby Sleeping Bag – barcodes: 5055161664702/5055161664719/ 5055161664726

• Fairy Clouds Baby Sleeping Bag – barcodes: 5055161664610/5055161664603/ 5055161664597

• Monster Mob Baby Sleeping Bag – barcodes: 5055161664931/5055161664924

• Unicorn land Baby Sleeping Bag – barcodes: 5055161665051/5055161665044/ 5055161665037

• Sea Monster Baby Sleeping Bag – barcodes: 5056387720111/5056387720128/ 5056387720135

• Fairy Garden Baby Sleeping Bag – barcodes: 5056387719993/5056387720005/ 5056387720012

• Crocodile Baby Sleeping Bag – barcodes: 5056387720050/ 5056387720067/5056387720074

• Big Cats Baby Sleeping Bag – barcodes: 5056387719931/ 5056387719948/5056387719955

The children have been talking about different types of transport this week, today we have made tyre tracks by rolling the wooden cars in different coloured paint and rolling them over paper. The children have enjoyed experimenting with different colours, talking about different modes of transport and mark making.

It has been a very cold and rainy morning so we've spent most of it inside in the warm. We've done some painting with Chelsea and Brad, playing with the construction toys with Katie and role playing in the home corner with Laura. Some of us have also been rolling some toys to each other on the floor with Jess. Some of us have braved the cold and gone to play outside to wait for our afternoon friends to come and play.