January 2025 at Highgate

“May this year bring you success and happiness”

At the start of a new term we always take the opportunity to allow children the first two weeks to learn about themselves. We talked about our similarities, our differences, and the things that make us unique. The Pre-School children made their own playdough, and created self-portraits using it. Some children really enjoyed creating “spaghetti princess hair”, whilst others took more time creating their unique face shape.

As part of National Storytelling Week, our Pre-School children made their own story. They enjoyed looking at other stories for inspiration, writing words, and drawing their pictures. The children were really creative decorating the front cover; they liked using scissors and other tools to create their own unique design. The Toddler children enjoyed learning about the life cycle of a butterfly, using the story “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”. They then experimented with the paint colours, creating new colours to make their very own butterfly printing picture.

On the 13^th of January we celebrated “Make Your Dreams Come True Day”. This allowed the opportunity for children to share their “dreams & aspirations for life”. Some children talked about their dreams of becoming a vet, helping to care for animals when they grow up, and others talked about the things they wish for, for example a new toy or going on holiday. The children created dream catchers to hang in their bedrooms to catch any “bad” dreams and take away their worries.

As part of our Chinese New Year celebrations all of the children took part in tasting some Chinese foods. They also enjoyed painting a large Chinese dragon, making lanterns, and engaged in a messy “Chinese New Year” sensory tray. The Pre-School children created their own vegetable fried rice using role play resources and rice, using their fine motor skills they used chopsticks and pincer grip tongs to add in all of their ingredients.

Congratulations to Karrissa who was our January employee of the month. Karrissa has helped the new children in Baby Room settle in and established great relationships with them and their carers. Karrissa also recently passed her Level 3 qualification with flying colours. Well done Karrissa – we are so proud of you!