COVID-19 UPDATE
As you are aware, we remain in a national lockdown, and will remain so until 8th March at the very earliest when hopefully restrictions will start to ease. Please can we ask that you continue to closely follow Government guidelines and keep your child at home if they develop a temperature or new cough whilst also taking them for a test – we will require evidence of a negative test result before your child is allowed to continue nursery.
Can I please also ask parents to remain extra vigilant for any signs of your child being unwell and keep them at home if they are not themselves. All children should be clear of a temperature/Calpol for 48 hours before coming into nursery.
Please keep an eye on the Famly App, where we will continue to upload changes to our Covid policies.
Please also remember to sanitise your hands on arrival at the nursery and wear masks for drop off and collection. We will continue to provide feedback via the app or telephone, to limit contact between adults.
If you have any questions or specific concerns, please do not hesitate to discuss these with a member of the team (socially distanced of course!) or message us through the app.
Bluebells (Ages 3 – 5 years)
The Bluebells have had lots of fun, taking part in lots of activities linked to our two topics ‘Winter’ and ‘All about me’. We were very lucky to get the dusting of snow to go alongside our winter topic and learnt a lot about different winter animals. For our ‘All about me’ topic we made our own self portraits, spoke about our likes/dislikes, similarities/differences, learnt about the human body and also where we live. Whilst talking about where we live, lots of the Bluebells showed a key interest in space and learning about the planets. We have decided we would carry on with the children’s interests on space and make it our topic for February. Bluebells will be exploring space, the different planets we have, stars, rockets and much more!
We will also be focusing even more than usual on the importance of stories at the beginning of February, celebrating story week! The books we will be focusing on our some of the children’s favourites, The Gruffalo, We’re going on a bear hunt, Tiger who came for tea, Stickman and whatever next, to link with our space topic! We will be planning fun activities based around these stories and discussing with the children their favourite stories too!
Lilies (Ages 2 – 3 years)
Our new topic this month in Lilies is animals. This is an interest that each and every one of the Lilies children share! We will be exploring many different animals, looking particularly at groups such as land animals, water animals and farm animals that the children love to explore. We will also be discussing any animals you can have as pets and so we would love to receive some pictures and facts about any pets you have at home!
The children will be learning all about the different sounds animals make, their habitat and the different foods they want. We are also going to be exploring the way animals move through movement and yoga sessions to practice our physical skills along with our listening and attention skills.
We look forward to sharing with you what we have learnt over the coming month!
Daisies (Ages 15 – 24 months)
During out last focus topic the children showed a huge interest and great enjoyment of messy play! They love to get their hands dirty and get involved in all things sensory, so we have decided to focus on this topic for February. We will be carrying out both child and adult led sensory activities throughout the month, encouraging them to use all their senses to explore different textures including taste, touch, smell, sight, and sound. The children will be exploring textures such as rice, pasta, foam, sand, paste and much more, giving the children opportunities both indoor and outdoors to do this and encourage all areas of development.
In our learning this month we will also be intertwining celebrations including pancake day, Chinese New Year and Valentine’s day.
Tulips (Ages 3 – 15 months)
This month in Tulips we will be continuing with our story and nursery rhyme adventures! So far, we have been enjoying a range of new story books and the babies are becoming little experts at gathering round for story times and developing their listening and attention skills. They smile and giggle with their carers, make animal sounds, wriggle, and bop along to singing with musical instruments. They have also been independently exploring books and pictures, some managing to turn the pages and press buttons!! We have delved into some hungry caterpillar themed messy activities with green and red coloured rice and sensory paint bags.
The best is yet to come… over the next few weeks we will be focusing on some old-time favourites and have chosen to explore through all areas of development; We’re going on a bear hunt, The Hungry Caterpillar, Humpty Dumpty and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star! The babies will be provided with an extensive range of activities for sensory, creating and messy to role play, and small world ultimately bringing the stories to life.
Keep up to date with our regular posts to see us in action and working towards yet another amazing display to show our discoveries.
Bags & Clothing
As most of you are aware, children’s bags are to remain at nursery due to COVID-19 restrictions, so please can you make sure all are labelled clearly with your child’s name or initials so that we can keep track of belongings .
Drawstring bags – We are no longer able to accept drawstring bags at nursery due to health and safety risks; if your child has one of these at nursery we will ask you to take this home and provide an alternative.
Essential clothing – Please can you make sure your child has appropriate clothing at nursery so that we can still take them outside and on the farm outings they love. Younger children need puddle suits, and all the children need wellies and hats. You are welcome to also bring in gloves, however these should not be connected with a string.
Home Observations / Home Learning
Thank you to everyone who has been uploading home observations regularly over the last month in the Famly App! Please continue to upload photos of what you and your family have been doing at home. We love to see what you have been up to and it allows the children to share these experiences with their friends.
We are currently sending out home learning activities to those children not currently at nursery – please help your key worker out by completing their activities and letting us know what you have been doing at home so that we can add these to their learning journal and continue to assess their development.
In addition to this, from February are going to be sending out monthly home activities to ALL children in the room. This is so that you can share these experiences with your children at home as well as at nursery. Please keep an eye out for these each month as we would love to see what you have been creating at home!
It’s really easy to do through the App, however if you are unsure, please send us a message or give us a call and we’ll be happy to help.
Community / Fundraising
Thank you all for your efforts in supporting us to raise money for The Need Project.
From our Christmas Raffle we were able to raise an amazing £216.50!
Monkey Puzzle Astwick
