March at Atworth

Another busy month here at Atworth! Take a look at everything we have been up to…

We started off the month with St. Davids's day!

St David’s day is a Welsh celebration on 1st March in memory of St David. Typical celebrations include parades with bright yellow daffodils and a focus on culture. Here at Snapdragons we celebrated by making daffodil sun catchers using tissue paper and sticky back plastic. You may have spotted these on our windows! We also got stuck in making Welsh Cakes, the Pre-Schoolers used their hands to mix and knead all of the ingredients together before giving them to Mel to cook in the pan on the hob.

If you would like to have a go at making Welsh Cakes at home, take a look at the recipe we used!

We have been very keen bakers throughout the month of March! Lots of our little ones enjoyed cooking up some yummy treats for Mothers Day. they worked really hard to carefully measure out all of the ingredients, mix it all together, roll out the dough and stamp out the shapes. We hope all of our mums enjoyed their little treat (if they made it home!)

Science week

The 8th-17th March was science week! This year was the 30th anniversary making it extra special. The babies experimented with magnets, they had a table with different objects such as spoons, forks, pots from the role play and a few non magnetic items. The babies enjoyed seeing which objects were magnetic, saying ‘stick stick’ as they successfully picked up objects. They also experimented with salad spinner pictures, squeezing paint in to the spinner and turning it around to make abstract art.
Pre-school explored sinking and floating. They filled their water tray and collected different objects from around the room to pop in and see if they sink or float. They found that sponges float and collect all of the water with a big squeeze! They also found that pots will float on the top of the water if they are empty, but they sink if they are full!

If you wanted to have a look at things to do at home, click the link below!

World book day!

World book day was another fun one this year! We saw some really great outfits from all of your favourite stories and we all enjoyed dressing up with you to celebrate. We explored lots of activities around our favourite books such as cutting and sticking to make our own ‘room on the broom’ magic wands. We explored both fiction and non-fiction books. The Toddlers enjoyed looking at books on butterflies and creating their own symmetrical pictures by painting on one side of their paper and folding it over.
The Babies enjoyed listening to stories read by authors on the sonos and had their very own the tiger who came to tea picnic! They also made their story time interactive by using our story sacks.
Pre-School shared their favourite stories from home and acted out their favourite characters in their role play.

We hope you all spent your book token wisely!

Persian new year

The Pre-Schoolers took a deep dive in to Persian new year. Persian new year, otherwise known as ‘Nowruz’ is a celebration that marks the beginning of spring. One of our pre-schoolers brought in their ‘haft sin’ box from home with items that symbolise this celebration. In the box they had "sib" (apple), "senjed" (oleaster or Russian olive), "sumak" (a spice from a flower) "sir" (garlic), "sabzeh" (greenery) and "serkeh" (vinegar). There would also usually be a "sonbol" which is a hyacinth. After they had a little look at these items, the Pre-Schoolers painted their own hyacinth flowers and baked some barbari bread. Barbari bread is a type of flat bread that is a traditional part of persian cuisine, the Pre-Schoolers enjoyed sampling this alongside their tea!

Upcoming dates!

April is national pet month! If you have pets at home we’d love to hear about them and see some pictures. We may also organise some visits from some special guests!
April 22nd is ‘Earth day’ when we will be placing a focus on our planet and how we look after our environment
We have Babies and Toddlers parents evening coming up on Monday 8th April so please contact the rooms if you would like to book a slot!
Pre-School parents evening will be on Thursday 25th April, again if you have not booked your slot please chat to the team!
Our next concept photo shoot will be on Wednesday 8th May. If you child attends on this day, please bring them with an outfit you’d like them to have their photo taken in. If your child does not attend on this day and you’d like them to have their picture taken, please let the office know

Just a quick reminder also that the nursery will be closed this Friday 29th March and Monday 1st April due to the Easter bank holidays.

Staffing updates

As most of you know Jadea is expecting a little boy in May! Her last day with us before her maternity leave will be Thursday 18th April. We cannot wait to meet her new arrival and wish her all the best!

Holly is also moving on to a new adventure. She will be moving on to become a year one teacher at a local primary school. We are so excited for her to embark on this journey and have loved having her as a part of our Atworth team. Holly’s last day with us will be Tuesday 9th April. Some of you may be seeing her again as your little ones take their steps in to school!

Helena will be stepping up from deputy Head of Toddlers to Head of Toddlers and taking over from Holly. Helena has a wealth of experience in the Toddler room and is really excited for this next chapter. If you are a Toddler parent and Holly is your key worker, please bear with us as we assign these ahead of our staffing changes. Keep an eye on your iConnect for these updates!


The last thing to say from us is that we hope you all have a wonderful Easter - and as always, if you have any queries please get in touch!