tea party

May Activities at Oak Valley

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At Oak Valley we started off May with the Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla. We enjoyed celebrating to mark this special occasion. The children did lots of themed activities including crown making, decorating biscuits and even had our very own tea party. We listened to the National Anthem and dressed in red, white and blue.

As part of our HEY Award (Healthy Early Years), Pre-School have been promoting the importance of oral hygiene even more than normal. Alongside their daily toothbrushing club, they have been talking about the value of brushing your teeth twice a day, and joining in with different toothbrushing activities.

In Rising 3’s we have been doing some recycling using our recycling bins in the entrance hall, and categorising the items into the correct bin. We talked about the importance of recycling and looking after our planet, as well as talking about the different materials. We then used these materials to take part in junk modelling – we made dinosaurs, princess castles and rockets!

Toddlers have been exploring different sensory play and textures this month. We made some marks with various tools in the clay, and talked about the wonderful efforts we had made. We also used some soapy water and paint brushes to make patterns on the nursery wall.

With the weather getting warmer, and the sun starting to shine, Babies took part in ‘Sun Awareness’ activities. They talked about the importance of putting on our hats and wearing sunscreen. They did various activities to get these messages across – putting sunscreen and hats on dolls, and making a sensory sun out of coloured rice and paper to name a couple! We had so much fun exploring this!

August at Highgate

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Here at Highgate we’ve had a busy August!  We celebrated Yorkshire Day by creating Yorkshire Rose flags, decorating pictures of a Yorkshire Rose & the children hosted their own mini tea party, enjoying scones with jam & cream.

 

We have revelled in lots of different sensory activities, exploring different textures, smells & tastes.  The babies loved getting messy in the beans & Pre-School relished tasting & exploring different hot & cold foods.

We held our first introductory session of ‘Rhythm Time’ with our Babies & Toddlers.  The children explored sound with a range of instruments & sang into a microphone, which helped with confidence building & self-esteem.

We made the most of the beautiful summer weather with the children partaking in many trips out to the park & surrounding areas.  They enjoyed playing on the swings & slides, & played group games on the grass. We also made frozen yogurt pops to enjoy.

 

We are now looking forward to the start of a new term & lots more exciting experiences during the Autumn & Winter!

April at Highgate

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During the month of April Highgate has been blessed with a multitude of visitors! We started with Donald and his community engagement ambulance. He talked to the toddlers and Pre-School children about his role and what it entails. They learnt about what an ambulance is for, what it does and how it helps people. The children got to actually sit inside the ambulance and even try out the siren! Possibly their favourite part of the visit was the opportunity to try on the uniform that Donald brought. We ended the session by colouring in some pictures that he’d also supplied.

Zoolab came to bring their exotic wildlife for the children to see. The children were able to handle creatures such as a snake, a giant snail, rats, mice and even a gecko. The Zoolab representative explained to the children where the animals come from, where they live and what they eat. We found the session really encouraged the children to ‘have a go’, even when they weren’t very keen at the beginning!

Last but not least we had our monthly enrichment of ‘Mini Movez’. One of the lovely ladies came to Highgate to lead a fun and expressive session themed around what the children were learning. The sessions are always lively and energetic and the Toddler and Pre-School groups take full advantage of this opportunity for active learning which really gets their hearts pumping!

Aside from visitors, there’s been plenty more exciting things happening within nursery. Our Pre-School children have been learning about life cycles this month and have focussed on frogs. We introduced a tank of real tadpoles & the children explored them using magnifying glasses to examine them. At each stage of development, they’ve made efforts to draw observational portraits.  They are very excited that the tadpoles are now developing legs and are eager to see when they will turn into a frog.

Monday 23rd April saw us celebrating St George’s Day. This date marks the anniversary of the English patron saint’s death. According to legend, he was a soldier in the Roman army who killed a dragon and saved a princess. Rather than re-enacting the legend (!) we decided to mark the day by holding an afternoon tea party. The children made flags using a variety of different art and craft methods such as colouring, sticking and painting. We then used the flags to decorate the table where they ate scones with clotted cream and jam – yummy!

Throughout April our babies have been experimenting with different sensory experiences. We took advantage of the warm weather, stripped the babies down to their nappies and let them explore ‘gloop’, shaving foam, water, cereals, sand and even ice! We focussed on several of the ‘characteristics of effective learning’ with each of these – ‘playing and exploring’, ‘active learning’ and ‘creating and thinking critically’. It was great to observe the different ways they investigated the different mediums and their textures.