November at Atworth
Winter is coming! What a busy month we have had, and what a busy month we have ahead!
What have we been up to?
We have had a busy month celebrating all things Autumn. We started off the month with bonfire night arts and making poppies for Armistice day, and ended it with our pyjama day, blue day for UNICEF and s’mores around the fire! We have been lucky enough to have Nat, our forest school leader, here with us throughout Autumn which has meant lots of outdoor activities and sneaky trips! We would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to each and every one of you who contribted to any of these recent events and joined us for our wonderful s’mores evening. Our team really enjoy hosting these events for you and putting smiles on the little ones faces! We hope you enjoyed them as much as we did.
Babies
As the colder weather draws in, the babies have been exploring their creative side! They have been painting using different tools and parts of their body to make marks.. including their feet! They made some wonderful collages for Diwalli using glue sticks and coloured paper, sticking each piece down independently to make their own rainbow! They used black card and DIY stampers to create some vibrant firework pictures alongside! The babies also headed out to the garden to collect the fallen leaves and used their new artistic skills to create an Autumn collage.
Toddlers
We just can’t keep the Toddlers inside! They have absoluted loved playing out in the Autumn weather. Like babies, they collected the fallen leaves in all different shades of green, brown, orange and red and turned them in to a beautiful mobile to hang in their room. They have also been exploring our garden games, seeing how many balls they can bounce on the parachute, practicing their aim with a spot of croquet and seeing who can score the most points on the beanbag game!
Pre-School
Pre-School have been reading ‘Whatever Next’ this month! They have taken the theme of space and explored this in any way they can! They have been using large bubble wrap to print some textured moon pictures and mixed their own colours to paint their very own planets. They also constructed their own wooden rockets from different shaped pieces of wood threded on to a dowling, and conducted their own experiment using oil, water and colourings to create their own planet in a jar!
Forest school fun
SO… what have we been up to with Nat!? Our little ones have been working on their balancing skills on their new see-saw in the garden, made from all natural wooden materials! Nat has also helped the children add to our garden games collection, teaching them how to make a ring toss game and an abacus to work on their counting skills. We have had plenty of fires to toast our snacks over, and even tried our hand at making some flat breads for our snack, they were delicious! Pre-School would like to say a huge thank you to Nat for creating all the bits and bobs they needed to create their very own wooden rockets.
Staff updates
We have just a few changes heading our way that we are delighted to share with you. Kathryn, our lovely admin here at Atworth, will be packing up her desk and moving in to head office! The way we register our new families is changing a little bit from the new year, so Kathryn and another member of the Snapdragons team, Stevie, will be starting a new role around all things bookings! You may still be lucky enough to see Kathryn around however we wish her all the best with her new role. We have a new admin lined up to deal with all of your queries in the meantime, so don’t panic!
We would also like to share the news with you all that our Deputy Manager and Head of Babies, Jadea, is expecting her own little one! Jadea has been trying to hide a bit of a bumpy secret over the past few months and is thrilled to be able to announce the news to you all! Jadea will remain with us in her role in to the new year, and we cannot wait to meet her new addition!
Usual dates and reminders
Our Pre-Schoolers have been working extra hard on perfecting their roles for this year’s nativity! The Pre-School nativity will take place on Friday 8th December at 10.30am at St. Michaels church. If your child already attends on this day, please drop them to nursery as normal and we will walk with them up to the church. If your child does not attend on this day please drop them at the church for approximately 10am. As always please note that we unfortunately do not allow pictures or recordings during the nativity due to GDPR, we will be recording the entire performance which can be ordered from us for a small fee of £5. If you have not yet ordered this and would like to, please drop us an e-mail.
We will be hosting our annual Christmas party here at the nursery on Monday 11th December! If your child is attending nursery on this day you are more than welcome to join them between 3.00pm and 5.00pm for some festive fun and a little party treat! If your child does not attend nursery on this day, please feel free to pop along with your child to their base room between 3.00pm ad 5.00pm on the day! We cannot wait to get our party planning underway, and even have some intel that santa could be making a visit….
Term ends for term time only children - Friday 15th December
Nursery closes for Christmas - Friday 22nd December
Children’s Christmas Dinner day - Wednesday 6th December
Pre-School nativity day - Friday 8th December
Whole nursery Christmas party - Monday 11th December
Kit list!
One final reminder of the bits and bobs we require here at nursery now the cold weather is closing in. We do go outside in all weathers and wet weather can sometimes come with lots of changes of clothes, so we kindly ask that if you are able, you provide the following for your child, all of which will need to be named
A winter hat
Gloves/mittens
Wellies or shoes that you do not mind getting muddy/wet
A waterproof suit/trousers
A warm coat
A water bottle
Lots of fresh clothes
Cream if your child is still in nappies
