February 2024 at Atworth!
What a busy month! We have had lots to celebrate in February including the British Heart Foundation, Pancake day and Valentines day, and we have plenty more coming up in March!
Children’s mental health week
From 5th to 9th February we promoted children’s mental health week here at Atworth! The aim this year was to give every child a voice and an opportunity to express themselves. We encouraged children and staff to come to nursery in clothes that make them feel like them! We spoke about what makes us unique and expressed ourselves in new ways such as through art, dance, and being out in the community.
Place2Be say ‘When we feel empowered, there’s a positive impact on our wellbeing. Children who feel that their voices are heard and can make a difference have a greater sense of community and self-esteem. This year, we want children of all ages, backgrounds and abilities to be empowered to work together to create a positive change for their mental health and wellbeing.’
We really enjoyed watching your little ones get stuck in throughout the week and empower them. If you wanted to explore this at home, please find some useful links below.
Babies
The babies have been enjoying their sunshine circles sessions this month, they particularly like rubbing lotion in to their hands! Sunshine circles is a type of theraplay that we incorporate in to the children’s day here at Snapdragons! By taking turns, exploring different senses and textures, singing and playing games, children are able to build confidence and self esteem and form positive attachments. The babies took time to massage the lotion in to their hands, and played a game of peekaboo with the coloured scarves before a little song and dance! Our ‘rub lotion’ song is a firm favourite, so keep your ears peeled for this at home.. and keep your lotion out of reach!
The babies have also been exploring sound and light using the musical instruments and the colour changing pebbles. Some of our little ones have mastered the skill of the maracas this month! They created a little den in their room and took turns to sit inside, watching how the colours changed around them as they pressed the buttons on the pebbles.
The babies loved making their little valentines treat to bring home too - carefully stamping hearts on to their cards to bring home.
Toddlers
The toddlers really went all in on pancake day! They had their own little pancake making station with playdough pancakes, scented leaves for toppings, frying pans and some scales to make sure they got all of their ingredients right! The toddlers cooked up enough playdough pancakes for the whole nursery before enjoying their own at snack time made by Mel in the kitchen. Although they decided to top their pancakes with fruit instead of leaves!
The toddlers have also been exploring Handa’s surprise - a story of Handa delivering delicious fruits to her friend, but meets some hungry animals along the way! We had some very hungry toddlers when Handa’s fruit basket ended up at nursery! They sampled orange, avocado, mango and even lemon! They spoke about the different smells and textures and chose their favourites!
Pre-School
To start the month the pre-schoolers learned a little bit about Chinese new year. They looked at some pictures of the celebrations in China and decided to make some spring rolls for their snack to mark the occasion! They enjoyed their spring rolls alongside a sneaky prawn cracker which went down a treat! Yummy!
Pre-school’s story of the month was Goldilocks and the Three Bears. They started the month by making their own bears out of loose parts, thinking about what shapes would be good for each body part. They then enjoyed a bowl of yummy porridge for their breakfast - it was just right! Some of the pre-schoolers got stuck in making bread to have with their tea - but they made sure this was bear shaped to fit in with their theme!
Pre-school have also been exploring lots of new textures, they took some paper and crayons out into the garden to create some rubbings. They rubbed the crayons over wood, stone, and astroturf to see what patterns they could create! Whilst making their beautiful pictures they realised that it is nearly time to plant our seeds in our vegetable patch! They remembered that when we planted our raspberries last year the birds had a little nibble before we managed to pick them, so they drew some scarecrow designs to keep them away from the fruit this year!
What’s coming up?
Hopefully you have all received your book tokens ready for world book day! If not, please let us know as we have plenty of spares we can give you. We will be celebrating world book day on Thursday 7th March. Please come to nursery dressed as your favouite book character! If you’re looking for something to do to mark the occasion, head along to Broughton Gifford and join their world book day trail!
Dates for your dairies..
Thursday 28th March - last day at nursery for term time only children before the Easter break
Friday 29th March - Nursery closed to all children (bank holiday)
Monday 1st April - Nursery closed to all children (bank holiday)
Monday 15th April - first day back for term time only children after the Easter break
Is it a bird.. is it a plane?
Throughout the month we have been talking to all of the children about the birds in our environment and seeing which birds we can spot around the nursery using the big garden bird watch! The little ones have had their listening ears and their beady binoculars out to see which birds they can find hiding in our apple trees! Please find below a link to our article from last year on how to make bird feeders. We love this activity at nursery, and it is super simple for you to do at home for the garden, or the local park and sit to see who visits!
