We have had very busy week with two lovely events. On Wednesday we celebrated our annual Harvest Festival, and on Friday we welcomed all the grannies and grandpas into the Nursery for a morning of fun to celebrate Grandparents Day. This week's Topic Story book was related to this celebration and this brand new story of the ‘Gruffalo Granny’ by Julia Donaldson was our guide to chat about our grandparents. We spoke about the impact they have on our lives, activities we enjoy do

This week our Topic Story was ‘Little Goose’s Autumn’ by Elli Woollard. The intentions behind choosing the book were to continue to develop the children’s understanding of changes in the seasons, to extend their interest in animals and build their perseverance when things are difficult, all of which were addressed in the book. We finished and sent our Grandparents invitations and greetings cards this week and walked to the post box to post them. This provided us with opportu

The Fledglings Topic Story for this week was The Squirrels Who Squabbled by Rachel Wright, which continues focusing on building friendships, as well as promoting some of our Classroom Principles such as sharing, taking turns and using our kind hearts. These were the intention behind choosing the story as it offers a great example of how the two squirrels end up learning how to share by the end of the story. During the week our Free Play activities supported the key themes of

The Fledglings Topic Story for this week was Fish Don’t Sneeze by Kirstie Watson, which focuses on building friendships, as well as accepting and celebrating the attributes which make us unique. Our intention behind the story was to focus on developing our unity in our new groups, welcoming new members to the Fledglings and celebrating ourselves. For our Art Project the children used stencils to create their own unique fish, building their fine motor skills and hand eye coor

The Chicks have had a fantastic week full of learning, exploration, creativity and preparation for Sports Day! Our story this week was ‘Pete the Cat: Rocking Field Day’ by Kimberly and James Dean. The story explored the importance of trying your best, working together and celebrating each other's achievements. Throughout the week, the children took part in a wide range of activities designed to develop their fine motor skills, including mark-making with flour, chalk, paintbru

This week the children have been getting ready for 'Bring Daddy to School Day' and help them, we explored a variety of stories about Dads. The Pink, Green, and Purple Chicks listened to I Love You Daddy by Paw Patrol. The Orange Chicks listened to Me and My Dad! by Alison Ritchie, and the Yellow Chicks listened to What Does Daddy Do? by Rachel Bright. The children enjoyed listening to the different stories and talking about their own Dads and the special things they do togeth

This week was sponsorship week in the Chicks and the children have done a wonderful job at raising money for "Brake" through their road safety activities. All of the Chicks have been learning about red lights and green lights, zebra crossings and using our eyes and ears to help us safely cross the road. We were even so fortunate as to have a lollypop lady come into visit us and demonstrate to the children how she can help them to cross the road. The children used a variety of

The Fledglings have been enjoying storytelling and this week’s Topic Story ‘You Choose’ has continued to inspire their imagination and creativity. The children love the bright pictures and taking turns to select different options from the pictures to build their story. We incorporated this into our Art Project as they cut and stuck their favourite pictures from the book to create their own story. Provided with pens, pencils and stickers they added further details to their sto

This week the Fledglings were very excited for our visit to the Polka Theatre. We travelled by bus and loved watching an adapted version of ‘The Tortoise and the Hare’. We loved how inclusive the show was with all of the actors using sign language. The children had a fantastic time and the journey back to Nursery was filled with the children sharing their favourite moments. Our Topic Story was ‘Rain Before Rainbows’, a heartwarming story of how friendships and courage can he

This week the Chicks had a wonderful time learning through play, exploration, creativity, and teamwork. Our focus story was ‘The Nose, Toes and Tummy Book' by Sally Nicholls which inspired lots of activities about body parts and self-awareness. Throughout the week, the children enjoyed a wide range of sensory and fine motor activities. They explored shaving foam, sand, water, playdough, paint sticks, and mark-making materials, helping to strengthen their hand muscles, coordin

This week the Fledglings learning was focused around the Topic Story ‘Frida the Rock and Roll Moth’, which was all about being your unique self. The children discovered this book during our visit to the Northcote Road Library, the children loved seeing the book again recalling where we had first seen it. We created beautiful, uniques moths for our Topic Art and the children were great at explaining what the different details in their pictures were and naming their moths. We

This week in the Chicks classroom, we welcomed some new friends. They have all settled well into the routine and are becoming familiar with the environment. We explored a variety of topic stories throughout the week. The Pink and Green Chicks enjoyed You’re Not a Proper Pirate, Sidney Green by Ruth Quayle, while the Purple and Orange Chicks listened to Bigger and Bigger Animals by Moira Butterfield. The Yellow Chicks explored Sharing Time and Listening Time by Elizabeth Verdi

The Chicks had a great week back at the nursery after the Easter break. We are especially proud of our new starters who have settled into the nursery extremely well. The Green and the Pink Chicks showed great interest in their new Topic Story “You are not a proper Pirate, Sindney Green!” and all children had great fun painting the background, the pirate ship and the rocket for the display board related to the story. The highlight of the week for the Pink Chicks was definitely

The Fledglings were in high spirits as they arrived back after their Easter Holidays and loved sharing their adventures with their peers. Our Holiday News Focus Time facilitated great conversations as the children were able to show photographs of their adventures. We loved listening to each other and the Fledglings enjoyed drawing and tracing in their books. Our Topic Story for the week was a lovely book called Paper Chase by Julia Donaldson. The ideas in the book led to lot

This week, the Chicks had a wonderful time learning through play, exploration, and creativity, inspired by our focus story I’m the Fire Engine Driver by David Semple. The children explored colour mixing in a variety of exciting ways, using paint, shaving foam, and toy cars. They discovered how red and yellow make orange, and red and blue make purple, showing great curiosity and excitement. These activities also supported their physical development by strengthening their arm

This week we have been learning about the celebration of Ramadan and Eid. One of our families celebrates Eid and they were kind enough to come into nursery and share more about the different traditions that are associated with the celebration. We learnt that people don’t eat during the daylight hours and break their fast with a date. We also learnt more about prayer beads and mats and the children were fascinated, taking turns to sit on the mat and ‘make a wish’ using the bea

This week our Topic Book was My Mum Is Fantastic by Nick Butterworth; a warm and cheerful children’s story about how amazing mums can be. The child describes all the wonderful things their mum does, from helping and caring to making everyday moments fun. The story shows that mums are strong, kind and full of love. With simple words and bright illustrations, the book celebrates how special mums are. This week the children have been celebrating their Mummies and talking about

This week we have been eagerly anticipating and preparing for Bring Mummy to School Day. The children designed and independently created their own Mothers’ Day cards using techniques that we have previously learnt and used that the children have been keen to revisit. We have been so pleased to see how well the children have been able to recall the steps needed for designing the flowers on the cards. We also enjoyed a lovely visit to the library on Northcote Road. The childre

This week the Fledglings have enjoyed a wonderful week celebrating World Book Day. The children brought in their favourite books to share with their friends throughout the week and we loved reading them together. For our Art Project we designed our own books. The children discussed different ways stories can start and end and collectively we decided on ‘Once Upon a Time’ as our beginning and ‘They Lived Happily Ever After’ as our ending. The children designed the front cover,

The Chicks had a wonderful first week back at 345 Nursery after the holidays and the Green and the Pink Chicks loved their topic story, The Goodnight Garage . All the children showed great interest in the various vehicles such as the fire engine, the road sweeper and the marking lorry. The children enjoyed lots of fun activities related to the vehicles and extended their vocabulary. We were so impressed with how cleverly the children created their favourite vehicles out of pa

The Fledglings were in bright spirits after arriving back after half term and enjoyed sharing their Half Term Holiday News during our Focus Time activity. It was great to hear about all the exciting adventures they had. This was also a great way to contniue strengthening their working memory and recall skills as they shared pictures, discussed their activities and answered questions. Sharing our activities in this way creates a wonderful link between what the children do at h

Our learning this week focused around the Lunar New Year celebrations and the children were fascinated by the images and utensils in our Asian themed restaurant. They enjoyed sharing their experiences with trying different foods and many of loved sharing how much they enjoyed eating sushi! Our Year of the Horse art activity was a big success as the children created marbling printed horses which they decorated with looped paper manes and bridles. We also introduced and explor

This week’s Topic Book was Elmer and Wilbur by David McKee for the Pink and Green Chicks. The children thoroughly enjoyed listening to the story of Elmer and Wilbur helping Rose find her herd. In the story, Grandpa Eldo asks Elmer and Wilbur to help a young elephant find her way home. They are very surprised to discover that she is pink – no wonder she is called Rose! However, an even bigger surprise awaits them when they reach her herd, as every single elephant is pink too.

This week the Fledglings have been exploring the work of Salvador Dali and have created their own versions of the clocks from his famous work ‘The Persistence of Memory’. We used clay for our clocks, rolling and pressing the numbers into the clay. Once it was dry we added colours using watercolours. We can’t wait to show our work in our upcoming Art Exhibition. During our Outdoor Learning Day we ventured a little further afield as we explored the common for our Fauvism photo