During May the children of The Little School House Nursery have had a fun packed month celebrating lots of different occasions. The children have also engaged in lots of fun activities and trips.
To kick start the month, the Baby Room went on an exciting trip to the local farm. First of all they enjoyed a stimulating trip on the bus. The staff promoted Fundamental British Values by allowing the children to use greetings and manners. Once on the bus, the staff encouraged the children to spot lots of different things in the environment from trees and flowers, to shops etc. Once at the farm the children were able to see lots of different farm animals ranging from chickens to deer! The children had the opportunity to pet and feed the animals. The staff engaged with the children on their visit taking the time to discuss animal sounds, colours and textures. There was also a quick stop for a play in the park and some well-deserved snack! The babies on their return from their trip, then had the opportunity to draw their favourite animal they had seen at the farm.
Toddler Room had an enjoyable month with the staff promoting culture and diversity by celebrating the festival of Ramadan. The children engaged in a fun activity to celebrate by designing their own henna hands. The staff supported the children to draw around their own hand and encouraged them to express themselves to create their own unique henna pattern on their hand. The children really enjoyed using their creativity to create their own pattern as well as looking at some real henna patterns for inspiration. The staff during the activity discussed colours and shapes used in the children’s designs.
In our Pre School, the children have been learning all about the lifecycle of a frog. The children were really excited when the staff brought in the frog spawn. They looked at it and described what it looked like, with one child saying “it looks like jelly”. The children kept caring for the frog spawn until they turned into tadpoles. They replenished the water in the tank and fed them cucumber. The staff extended the children’s learning on this by encouraging them to draw their own lifecycle of a frog. We used our close partnership with one of our parents who also brought in some other resources such as books and life cycles of other animals such as butterflies and chickens. The children really enjoyed engaging and learning about different life cycles. Once the tadpoles started to turn into frogs, some of the Pre- School children went for a nature walk to the local park to find some suitable pebbles to create a healthy habitat for the newly formed frogs to thrive in. The children really enjoyed watching the little frogs jumping onto the stones.
Also in our Pre School Room we hosted our very first School Transition Evening, which was a huge success. We invited parents into our setting to complete the transition documents ready for when their child makes the transition into big school! The parents had the opportunity to network with other parents of children going to the same school as well being able to discuss with the Pre School staff the ‘steps to school readiness’ for their child and what they would like to achieve for their child’s development before they start school in September.
Throughout the nursery the children all celebrated the royal wedding- the children in Baby and Toddler Rooms all baked different foods to have as a treat during snack time. In our Pre School Room the children had the opportunity to dress up as princes and princess’s, the children really enjoyed this and engaged in role play whole heartedly!
The Little School House has had lots of fun and learning throughout May and there is still lots to look forward to including in the upcoming months our visit from Zoo Lab and our Pre- School graduation to name a few.