Little Green Rascals Minster Yard

At Minster yard 💚💚 we have amazing 🤩 , playful practitioners. These fabulous people know who important play is to enhancing the learning opportunities for our little ones during their time with us. Whether it’s a simple game of tag in the garden or being a dinosaur 🦕 we adults will always get stuck in with the rascals to fuel their fun.

During these times we take the opportunity to develop language, enriching vocabulary, shape and model learning and ideas, problem solving and extending the learning our rascals initiate!

This has to be by far the best job in the world 🫶🏻💚

The literacy trust has a play day on the 5th August and provides 10 reasons why play is important! It’s a fab read giving some brilliant reasons if you needed any to see how super important play is.

https://literacytrust.org.uk/resources/10-reasons-why-play-important/

Early learning: 10 reasons why play is important | Early Words Matter | National Literacy Trust Play is crucial for developing children’s communication and language skills, as well as supporting their learning and wellbeing. Explore 10 key benefits of play alongside helpful tools and insights.

To book a showround, head to the website at theoldstationnursery.co.uk and select Minster Yard 💚
We look forward to seeing you!

Staff meeting - getting our team together to brainstorm ideas and solutions 💚

Our focus was around professional curiosity and ensuring healthy boundaries, having some really strong group discussions around these subjects.
A great meeting with a lot of ideas and a development of understanding around some terminologies, expanding the knowledge of our team 💚

Team work makes the dream work and knowledge is power!

Starting school can be a really exciting time for some of our rascals and the thought of growing up or having new adventures is a lovely feeling for them.
Some of our rascals can feel anxious or worried about new places or people, even the most confident child can have a wobble!
In our preschool room at Minster Yard we have a worry monster on stand by to support the little people who feel worried about these new event! He sits in our self regulation area and the children can tell him their worries and watch him munch them away!

Our caring and kind staff are close by to support these anxious moments with careful questioning, a kind smile and some wise words!

If your little one is finding the thought of changes challenging try these helpful hints.

😃Be open and calm
😃Always listen
😃Acknowledge the feelings and name them
😃Share your own worries and concerns ( obviously the same ones)
😃Model emotional reactions in an honest and appropriate way
😃share books about feelings
Below is the CBeebies website link for great ideas and advice

https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/parenting

Our little ones have been fascinated with space 💫🪐and we have been exploring this in our continuous provision over the last few months! What perfect timing that on Wednesday 12th April an exciting astronomical event is happening with the solar eclipse of the sun. This is the first one since 1999. ☀️

Below is information from CBBC who have some safety tips and activities you can explore with your rascals.

The UK Solar Eclipse 2026: How to watch safely Get ready to look up! On Wednesday 12 August 2026, the UK will experience the best solar eclipse since 1999. Find out how you can watch the eclipse safely and pick up a few ideas on how to create a pinhole projector.

Just some of the amazing activities for our littlest people to explore while they are at nursery.

We continue to support their early literacy and communication skills through music, nursery rhymes and stories.

Supporting the babies understanding of the world around them and making links to their own experiences through our home corner and sensory play.

Internet safety for your family 💚

With so much access via many formats, we need to keep our little people as safe as possible online. Here are some great tips to help!

Early years Early Years resources for online safety | Internet Matters. Find information and resources to share with parents of children in Early Years.

💚 building confidence 💚

Throughout early years, but especially on a move to school this is so important and consistency is key. We are here to support as much as we can throughout your little one’s nursery journey.

‘Believe in them today, so they can believe in themselves tomorrow’ 💚

Reading with your little person 💚

It is so important for your little one to grow a love for books and reading, at Minster Yard we try to encourage this by having books on offer at all times in our areas. This includes adding books relevant to our invitations to play and in our core provision, these can generate conversations from our baby rooms between staff and children, growing their vocabulary and understanding. This allows it to be natural and learning will happen in a very organic way.

Here is a blog from the national literacy trust on why it is so important to spend time with your little one, and the importance of reading.

If you would like some advice or to borrow any books, please do ask 💚

https://literacytrust.org.uk/blog/reading-children-so-powerful-so-simple-and-yet-so-misunderstood/

Reading to children is so powerful, so simple and yet so misunderstood | National Literacy Trust We explore some of the challenges and opportunities around supporting parents to read daily to their infants.