Dear Parents/Carers,
Welcome to our August Newsletter!
This month many of our children in Bluebells leave for ‘big school’. We wish them all the luck in the World and will miss them so much. Please make sure we have their leave date, and we hope they all enjoyed their Graduation Party last month. It was lovely to see so many of you there with your children.
We also had our first OFSTED inspection last month and are awaiting our report, which we will share with you once we have it. The day went smoothly and was all over very quickly after waiting so long for the visit! Apologies to any parents that didn’t have the opportunity to share their views, and a huge thank you to those that did speak positively about us to the inspector. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the staff team for their continued dedication and effort to make Astwick the best nursery. No matter what the result, I watch them every day and know they genuinely love our little ones and are exceptional at caring and offering amazing opportunities for the children here, and I am so proud of them all. I am blessed to have found such a supportive, outstanding staff team, especially at present with many nurseries struggling to find staff. So, a huge thank you to them all. And of course, to our families, who engage with all our many requests for photos and feedback – it makes a big difference to have your support in your child’s journey with us.
Staff Update;
We have Rianne joining the team in Daisies from mid-August alongside Zoe, Farrah, Gemma, Emily, Kristie, Megan & Tanya. Rianne is Level 2 qualified in childcare and has experience in a variety of settings including day nurseries. Rianne will be working with us full time and looks forward to meeting you when she starts.
Finally with many new little ones joining the nursery, we would like to welcome them all and please do contact us with any questions via Famly, phone or in person. We are always happy to help and understand for some, attending nursery is a new experience, so please ask if your unsure about anything. Please check you have read our policy overview as we have guidelines for medication, Calpol, illness and immunisations, behaviour and the main points regarding our policies here. If any parent would like any in more detail, please let us know and we can send you the full policy you require.
We hope you have an amazing August!
Last month Bluebells enjoyed exploring natural disasters that happen across the world. Throughout the month they created a volcano, different clouds and thunderstorms. The children have also enjoyed exploring the encyclopaedia and learning about volcanos, tsunamis and floods. Bluebells have enjoyed making playdough volcanos and exploring different weather maps, talking about the different types of weather we get in the UK and abroad.
This month we will be exploring the creative world of books. Throughout the month we will be looking at a variety of classic books as well as those that are from across the world. The have been talking lots about the children’s favourite books and will be making our own story sacks/boxes surrounding these. We will be encouraging the children to create their own stories and story sacks of their favourite books at home and then we will create a gallery with the children to display their creations.
The children really enjoyed having their parents coming in and reading their favourite story to their friends, they also enjoyed listening to international stories in different languages such as French and Italia so a huge thank you to all of you who came in. The children then shared the story sacks that they made at home with their friends and practitioners.
Next month we will be exploring transport, we will be doing different activities around this topic, such as comparing the different types of transport, looking at what each mode of transport is used for and so on. We would love it if you have any vehicle at home such as motorbike, vans tractors or if you can take any of your work vehicle in and come and show them to the children.
Last month Lilies have been learning about animals as we have explored all things animals. Discovering where they live, their habitats and each environment you will find animals in. We’ve explored lots of different animal tuff trays this month as we had a jungle tuff tray, farm one, cleaned all the muddy animals and many more. We have had lots of fun discovering the animals we see whilst on our walks, new types of birds and insects.
In August we will be discovering our new topic which will be Summer. Throughout this topic we will be looking at seasonal outfits and what we wear during summer time. As well as lots of water play and sand castle building. Talking about holidays and places we have visited recently. What types of transport we take to get to our holidays and how travelled there, whether it be by car, aeroplane, train. Discovering the food we are more likely to eat at summer time and many more fun activities.
Our book of the month in August was ‘Polar Bear, Polar Bear, what do you hear?’ We have been discovering the animals throughout this story, creating our own versions of the animals, painting and sticking to make our own version of the animals. We also played lots of listening games and more on own walks discovering the sounds we can hear while we were out and about. Lilies new book of the month will be ‘What the ladybird heard?’. We will explore a beach inspired tuff tray to coincide with the story. As well as going on ladybird hunts as well as saving ladybirds trapped within tape. We look forward to sharing all our exciting activities with you.
Our September book of the month has been ‘what the ladybird heard’ and we’ve had lots of fun creating our own ladybirds, going on insect hunts and counting the ladybird spots to improve our maths skills. Due to our topic being ‘stories’ next month we will be focusing on all stories rather than just one for the month and will continue our book of the month in October!
The Daisies have had lots of fun throughout July exploring the environments around them and learning about the different nature and wildlife. The children have really enjoyed being able to get up close with different bugs and insects, discovering their colours and movement. We managed to find an interesting caterpillar which we are still awaiting to come out of its cocoon so the children can see its transformation! After doing some research, it turns out we managed to find a moth caterpillar so hopefully a moth will appear soon.
In August out topic was “places we like to visit”. Lots of you have been or are going on holidays, trips and adventures over the summer whilst the weather is so nice. We would love to incorporate this into this month’s activities by providing experiences based around the places the children have visited. It would be a great opportunity for confidence and communication in our room, where the children will be able to share their adventures with each other. We would really appreciate any photos you can send us of the places you are visiting/visited or holidays you have been on so we can print out some photos for the children to share with each other during circle time and throughout our activities. If you are able to gather any treasures from your adventures eg: shells from the seaside, bits from a forest, postcards etc… we would love to be able to share these with everyone too!
In September our topic will be “stories”. The daisies children love reading stories with us and each one of them has shown us that they have a favourite or two. We will be providing lots of activities around the story’s they love this month as well as reading them a special group story each day. If your child had shown a real interest in a story at home we would love to know what book it is or even borrow the book for the day, to share it with their peers.
This month we will also be introducing more sign language to the children to support their communication within the room.
Tulips (Ages 3 – 15 months)
Last month in Tulips our topic has been Summer. We have enjoyed some great summer themed tuff trays including a sand/beach scene with shells and sand shapes. We loved building sand castles and exploring the texture using our feet and hands and we have been keeping cool with plenty of water play. We have been exploring sea animals and filling and emptying containers. The babies have been busy making marks using flowers in flour and making a variety of marks and strokes in paint. We have also spent lots of time in the garden, exploring natural resources, we even experienced some rain with was fun. We have been talking about holidays we loved and looking at family pictures, sharing memories with one another.
In August we have been learning about colours and different textures. There were lots of different coloured tuff trays to explore including rainbow coloured ice where we explored what it feels like and what happens to it when it gets warm. To support our fine motor skills we created pictures using a variety of resources such as brushes, sponges and rollers. We also brought out both new and old experiences such as rice play, pasta play and gloop for the children to explore the different textures.
In September our topic will be rhymes, books and musical instruments following the children interests who have been loving singing songs and watching all the actions. They will promote their communication and language skills, copying sounds and actions. We will extend this by using musical instruments to explore all the different sounds we can create. In addition we will be exploring different tuff trays linked to songs and books using a variety of resources. We love painting and getting messy so we will definitely be doing plenty of that with sponges, rollers, dabbers and our hands!
Outdoor Clothing
Please can all children be suitable dressed and prepared for outdoor action!
Please can you make sure all clothing items are labelled with your child’s name or initials so we can make sure they are returned to the correct family.
Fund Raising
- Go to journey
- Go to new
- New observation
