April 2025
Nursery Information…
A polite reminder that we are closed Monday 5th May and Monday 26th May.
If your child is also term time only their last day at nursery will be Friday 11th July.
A huge congratulations to Katie our nursery chef who has completed her level 3 qualification with distinction.
Staffing update
Emma our Deputy head of babies will be leaving us towards the end of May, she is sadly moving onto another setting to explore her future career path. We thank her for her 7 years of service at Snapdragons, we wish her lots of luck in her new venture.
Lucie our Toddler practitioner will be moving to Preschool 3 to gain experience in a new age group, Frith our preschool staff member will be moving to Toddlers from the beginning of May.
Throughout the month, we have been exploring our local outdoor environments, where we have been visiting our lovely local parks and wide-open fields.
Our curious babies were busy picking an assortment of colourful flowers to use in our flower tuff tray. While the imaginative toddlers collected a variety of flowers to create wonderful live drawings. Pre school then picked flowers to fill up their flower pots which they created before leaving for the walk!
Preschool One have been manipulating play dough into various numbers, matching them to the corresponding number cards. This creative activity has allowed them to develop their fine motor skills while they explore different and exciting ways of rolling, squishing, and stretching the play dough to form the numbers that they recognised and have recently learned.
Preschool 3 we have been exploring colour. We have experimented by choosing colours to mix together to create new colours. We have also found out how to make colours lighter and darker when using paints.
Toddlers have been exploring rainbows and using fine motor skills to guide their play. They painted with shaving foam and used tools to reveal a rainbow. They then used paintbrushes to wipe away different lines in the tuff tray play which strengthen their fine motor skills. They worked together to learn new skills and shared their creations with one another.
March 2025
Nursery News…
We will be holding a Mother’s Day tea party on Friday 28th March, 4:30-5:30pm (this does not need to be your child’s nursery day to attend) We will be providing scones, cream and jam for the Mum’s and will have some books for you to read with your children. Please could you let us know if you are coming to ensure we have enough scones to go around. We look forward to seeing you.
We have welcomed Frith who has joined our Preschool 3 team.
Preschool Graduation is Saturday 19th July, more details to follow closer to the time…
Huge congratulations to Serreah who passed her apprenticeship with distinction.
We are closed on Friday 18th April and Monday 21st April, for the Easter bank holiday, we open on Tuesday 22nd April, we hope you all have a lovely break.
Concept photography will be here on 2nd and 3rd of April…. Please book an appointment at the front desk if this is not your child’s nursery session.
A huge thank you to Matthew, one of our parents who took some time out of his day to come and preform a ukulele concert for all of our children across the nursery. We would also like to thank everyone who donated and bought in recycling, which the children then turned into their own musical instruments and had so much fun during the concert!
Please check out our video which is on our social media pages!
If you have an interesting job or hobby that you would like to share with our children, please let us know.
The children absolutely loved dressing up as their favourite characters from their favourite stories and wearing their cozy pyjamas during our exciting World Book Day week!
During World Book Day week, our Toddlers and Babies ventured on a trip to our local library. They all started off by enthusiastically choosing a variety of different books for themselves, flicking through the pages and pointing to the colourful illustrations while discussing what they could see. After their individual explorations, they all joined together in a circle, and the Toddlers kindly pointed out pictures in the books, helping the Babies to engage with the stories and enjoy the wonderful experience of reading together as a group too.
We have been finding creative ways to explore one of our Pre-School Skills, name writing. The children searched for their name on the chalk board. Once identified,they used paintbrushes to trace the shapes of the letters, washing them away. Fine motor activities like this help our muscles to grow nice and strong ready for holding pencils and writing letters!
Toddlers have also been mark making in different ways this month. They have bought their skills outside into the garden, colouring on either the pavement, chalk board or easel. They then tried an experiment where they taped some paper to the slide, taking it in turns each child would slide down and make different marks as they were on their way down.
Nominate a Star
Is there a staff member that you would like to be acknowledged for all their hard work this year or someone who you would just like to thank? At Snapdragons we run a reward scheme for our employees, nominations from parents mean stars for the staff that can go towards a range of different rewards and prizes which can include sweet treats, hampers, meal vouchers and even a trip to the spa, so if you would like to reward the staff remember to fill in the online form sharing your lovely words.
Snappies Superstar — Snapdragons Nursery.
February 2025
Important dates
Class of 2025- Preschool graduation Saturday 19th July 10:30am- more details to follow
Parents evening 10th and 11th March for all age groups, please book an appointment at the front desk
World book day…… celebrating all week from 3rd March. Children are free to dress up as their favourite book characters. Thursday 6th March is world book day, children are free to wear pjs and bedtime stories.
The nursery will be closed on Friday 18th April and Monday 21st April for the Easter break.
Concept photography will be here 2nd and 3rd April, please book an appointment if it is not your childs nursery session.
Happy Lunar New Years from everyone at Snapdragons, we wish you good luck and health throughout the year of the Snake!
Children got involved with a wide range of exciting activities across the nursery, and the dedicated staff members took the time to show the little ones how to write both numbers and letters in their home language, emphasizing the importance of cultural diversity. We also made wonderful snakes out of salt dough, allowing the children to express their creativity, and we enthusiastically used bright paint to mark make on colored paper, creating vibrant masterpieces that showcased their imaginative talents.
In February, we celebrated Children’s Mental Health Week with great enthusiasm and joy. During this special week, the children participated in a delightful range of activities carefully designed to support and nurture their mental health. We enjoyed soothing foot spas, relaxation times, and daily walks in the fresh air. Additionally, we embraced the power of positive affirmations and indulged in the magic of our beloved love shop, where children could explore feelings of kindness and sharing.
Children across the nursery have also been enjoying a variety of Valentine’s Day activities. Throughout the week, we have been engaging in delightful crafts where the little ones have been sticking, gluing, and cutting with colourful materials to create their Valentine’s masterpieces. In addition to our crafts, we explored an array of sensory trays that sparked curiosity and creativity. The sensory rice provided a wonderful texture for little hands to sift through, while the playdough allowed for imaginative sculpting. The fluffy cloud dough was a favourite, offering a unique experience as children molded and squished it, giggling with delight.
Throughout this month, we have also been exploring a variety of other exciting activities. We have been super busy engaging in building, creating, singing, climbing, and having an absolute blast while bonding with our friends!
Staffing update
A HUGE congratulations to Serreah from Toddlers who passed her apprenticeship this month with Distinction.
January 2025
Happy New Year!
We hope that you all had a delightful Christmas, and a break to recharge and connect with loved ones. From everyone across the nursery, we would like to extend a heartfelt thank you for all the lovely cards, thoughtful gifts, and sweet treats that you generously shared with our amazing team in December. Your kindness and thoughtfulness were so appreciated.
Polite Reminders
Calpol - Please do not bring your child to nursery if you have administered Calpol to them before their session. We please ask that children are 4 hours free from Calpol before attending the setting, please help us to keep our children and team well by not bringing your child to the setting when they are unwell. Please be aware it is advised that children only receive Calpol for 3 days before consulting medical advise.
Parking - We have two car parks at Cribbs, if the drop off bays are taken there is another car park to the left of the nursery building. Please use this to help prevent a build up of traffic! Please be mindful of where you are parking and ensure that families and children can safely exit the nursery.
Teething Gel/Nappy Cream - For our younger children who may be teething, please provide a labelled teething gel if required and let the team know that it is in your child’s bag if needed. Additionally, please can you provide nappy cream which is labelled, which we are able to keep at nursery.
Pre-existing Injury Forms - We would like to emphasise the importance of informing us about any injuries you child may have prior to their arrival at nursery. Please insure you are filling out a form when you drop them off at nursery, even if the injury seems minor. This ensures that we are aware of any injuries and can provide appropriate care and attention as needed.
Appropriate Clothing - Although the weather seems to be getting dryer, please can we remind you to still bring suitable clothing to nursery. This includes a spare set of clothes for indoors and outdoor clothing such as hat, gloves, waterproofs and wellies.
Babies have been happily settling back into nursery by getting active with their beloved key families and cherished friends. Throughout the week, they engaged in a wonderful range of baby yoga sessions, sing and sign activities, reading time, and various small group experiences that fostered connection and learning.
Toddlers have happily settled back into the familiar nursery routine after having a lovely and refreshing Christmas break. They returned with bright smiles, excited to join in with their friends once again, eagerly exploring and engaging through a variety of different activities such as creative mark making, delightful song spoons, fun baking, and interactive small group activities.
In Preschool 3 we have been reading the story of the gingerbread man. The children have taken on the role of a character in their role play using lots of repeated refrains from the story. The children asked “why didn’t the gingerbread man go into the river”. From this question we made and baked our own gingerbread. The children made their own predictions as to what they thought might happen if we put them into water. We then experimented by placing them into water.
This week in Toddlers 2 we have been embracing nature and learning all about the area in which we live. Toddlers took a little trip around the local wooded area and collected some natural resources which we then used for artwork and loose parts trays. The toddlers spotted animals, made animal noises and spoke about road safety as they walked hand in hand with their peers.
This week Preschool have been using the measuring tapes to explore number and measuring. They each decided to make a tower and see who could make the tallest one. Once they had all finished their towers we used the tape measures to measure the height and compare them. We found that the tallest tower that was made was 45cm!
A little update!
We are delighted to welcome back Chloe who is returning after her maternity leave. She will be back in the Baby room as our Advanced practitioner.
We also welcome Katy to our team who will be our SEN lead. Katy has moved over from our Redland site.
Parents evening will be on Monday 10th and Tuesday 11th March, we will let you know when you can sign up for a 1:1 with your child’s keyworker.
December 2024
As we head into 2025, taking some time to reflect what a year 2024 has been and how much fun we have had!
This year we have…
…welcomed 90 new children to the setting and 19 new team members including lunch time assistants, qualified staff and apprentices.
... said goodbye and good luck to our 51 school leavers!
….5 apprentices have qualified in level, 2,3 and 5!
….4 members of staff have been promoted to a senior position within the nursery!
…….the children across the nursery went on a total of 58 trips, these included local walks, trips to the museum and even cattle country!
…. had 3 mezzanine floors built into our preschool rooms and opened a new Preschool and Baby room!
It’s not all trips and fun adventures here at Snapdragons Nursery; we have diligently gone through an incredible total of 408 jumbo packs of nappies and a huge 2,448 packets of wet wipes!
We’ve enjoyed eating our way through an impressive total of 300+ fresh fruit, vegetables and meat deliveries, along with plenty of delightful Sainsbury’s snacks. We have happily drank our way through a staggering total of 6,260 pints of delicious milk! What an impressive milestone!
Here’s a delightful insight into how some of our eventful year has looked, filled with wonderful moments and joyful experiences…
Over the weekend, we joyfully celebrated our annual Snapdragons Christmas Party, a much-anticipated event that brought together our dedicated team and the other Snapdragons nurseries. During this festive gathering, we held our exciting award ceremony, where we proudly competed with the other nine fantastic settings across Bristol, Bath, and Wiltshire.
We want to take this time to congratulate our finalists!
Soraya - Best Newcomer Award
Lucinda - Best Nursery Storyteller
Lily - Outstanding Apprentice
Katie - Healthy Living Champion
Sam - Leadership in Early Years Award
Nursery updates
Please welcome Sophie our apprentice in babies, Charlotte our new housekeeper and Katy who returns from maternity leave from our Redland site, she joins us as our Special educational needs lead.
Sadly, in January 2025 we will be saying goodbye to Emily our Advanced practitioner in Babies, we wish her lots of luck in her new venture and thank her for all of her hard work since she started at Snapdragons 3 years ago.
Emma has enjoyed her time supporting in babies and has decided to remain in there when Emily leaves. Emma and Emily will have detailed handovers of their key children, all families will be emailed individually to inform of keyworker change.
We are very proud to announce that Snapdragons Cribbs Causeway have successfully been awarded ‘Millie’s Mark’, a Quality Mark for nurseries where are employees working directly with children are trained in paediatric first aid. This has been awarded by National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) in association with Department for Education and Millie’s Trust.
November 2024
We are getting ready to say goodbye to 2024, so we only have a couple of events left of the year……
Thursday 6th December - Christmas party- Please join us at 5:30-7pm for food, christmas activities and a visit from Father Christmas himself.
The nursery closes on Tuesday 24th December and opens again on Thursday 2nd January 2025.
There has been a huge change in weather so a polite reminder to bring appropriate clothing for your child to go outside in (e.g hats, scarfs and gloves).
We had so much fun exploring the snow this month! We used our hands to explore the touch and some of us tried to catch some snowflakes in our mouths! Following on from our mini snow day we then made our “homemade” snow inside and looked at the different tracks it left behind.
Check out our tick tok here - https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGdYT8Js7/
We have been exploring arts and crafts this month, each room did activities indoor and outdoor. We explored painting, glue, paper and cutting, using a wide range of tools. We then showed our friends and other rooms the different creations we made!
We have been baking this month also, we carefully used knives, spoons, and whisks to make some delicious pumpkin pie! After we finished baking, we then shared this with our friends in nursery.
A huge thank you to everyone who came to our Spooks and S’more’s event! We had lots of fun toasting marshmellows and joining in with a range of halloween activities.
Here is a video from our event - https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGd21QykU/
We look forward to seeing you at our Christmas party next week!
Preschool have been making their own decorations for the room, they carefully folded paper and then used scissors to cut out different patterns on paper. After opening the paper they looked at the different designs it had made.
Toddlers had their own mini halloween disco, using glow foam sticks and music to dance along to. They then got creative and made arange of halloween decorations ready for our party on the evening!
Staff Updates…
A huge congratulations to Iona who has now moved to Toddlers 2 as Room Head!
We welcome Sophie who has started in our baby room as an apprentice.
Cheriesse has moved to Preschool 3
October 2024
Nursery News…
Spooky smoores is Thursday 31st October- 5:30-7pm. Please join us for smoores around the camp fire and spooky activities. Halloween dress up is welcomed.
Christmas Party - Our Nursery Christmas family party will be on Thursday 5th December, 5:30-7pm. Please join us for Santa’s grotto and festive activities.
Nativity - Our preschool Nativity ( for preschool leavers) is on Monday 25th November at 10 am and 2:30pm. Please return your slip with the number of tickets you require (2 per family) Digital copies of the nativity will be available at the cost of £5.
Christmas hours - We are open on Monday 23rd and Tuesday 24th December. We are then closed from Wednesday 25th December to Wednesday 1st January and are back open on Thursday 2nd January.
Mental Health and Well being Week…
We marked Mental Health Awareness day on 10th October. Both the children and staff got engaged in activities designed to help achieve and maintain our well being. The children enjoyed sensory activities, yoga and spa sessions, art marking and being outdoors for some fresh air and forest school fun. Our artists-in-residence made the rounds with clay sculpting and a lovely hive activity. The children’s art work is displayed on the entrance door.
Although we have been focusing on mental health, we have been busy doing lots of different activities!
Staffing Update!
A huge congratulations to Tineal and Honey who are now qualified practitioners. Both Tineal and Honey have worked so hard to gain their qualification and we are so proud of them.
We also welcome Ellie has joined our Snapdragons team, she has joined the Toddler 2 team.
September 2024
Nursery News…
Concept photography is back! They are here on 9th and 10th October, if this is not your child’s day you are more than welcome to book a slot in, sheets are currently on the front desk.
Parents evening - 9th and 10th October. To book an appointment please come to the front desk or call.
Please join us for our Spooky smoores night on 31st October, from 5:30-7pm. More details to follow.
A polite reminder that if your child is a pre school leaver for September 2025, you will need to apply via your local council. This is due by January 2025.
With a change in the weather can we politely ask you to provide appropriate clothing for your child to wear for all weathers. For example wellington boots and wet suits.
The children have been visiting different places this month, this has included the the museum and the library. The children were able to explore, learn and research about different things. They also looked at some books, read stories together and even bought some books home for our friends to enjoy!
The children also made the most of the sunshine before our wet weather! We had afternoon tea in the garden! Toddlers used mathematical language, asking for ‘more’ from our friends and counting the blocks when adding them onto their tower.
Toddlers 2 have been learning about road signs and safety, they were looking at signs which allow us to stop at traffic lights and allow us to go, and make their own road in the garden to travel along.
Pre school have been looking at animals and exploring them with torches. They used the torches to look at the shadows behind them, moving them closer and further away to make the animals small and big!
Staffing update!
A huge congratulations to Ellouise who got married in August. After having a well deserved honey moon she has come back and taken over our Room Head in Preschool One.
Welcome to Lucie and Soraya who are joining us at Cribbs Causeway, both Lucie and Soraya have joined the Toddler team. Lucie is returning from our Redland site.
Our lovely advanced practitioner in Toddlers is moving to the Baby team, Emily is looking forward to this change in her career. If Emily is your child’s key worker you will be emailed directly to inform you of a key worker change.
Please welcome Ellie to the Toddler 2 team joining us as an apprentice. Charis will leaving us and joining our Horfield nursery, we thank Charis for everything she has done and wish her lots of luck in her venture.
A huge congratulations to Iona from the baby room who has been promoted to Advance practitioner in Babies.
August 2024
A huge congratulations to our school leavers who are now getting ready to head onto their big adventure to big school! We wish them all the best from everyone here at Snapdragons Cribbs Causeway.
Some photos of our recent pre school leavers trip to cattle country!
Some photos of our wonderful graduation!
Nursery news
There will be a little change to how we give handovers, only one staff member will be giving a handover at any one time in the room, this is to ensure the care and safety of all the children. To support this there will now be notice boards on the door of each room to inform you of the meals that. have been served that day and a brief description of the activities the children have taken part in that day.
The children will be bringing their water bottles home each day, please remember to bring a water bottle for your child each day. The team will keep them topped up during the day. We have spare cups for the children to have if water bottles are left at home.
With the weather beginning to get a little colder please ensure your child has a coat and wellies. The teams will still take the children outside for outdoor play. Please label all clothing to avoid items going missing.
Nursery dates
. Concept Photography ……. Wednesday 9th and Thursday 10th October. Please book an appointment at the front desk if this is not your child’s usual day at nursery.
.Parents evening…….Wednesday 9th and Thursday 10th October. Please book an appointment at the front to have the opportunity to meet with your child’s keyworker.
. Christmas closure….. The nursery will close for the Christmas break on Tuesday 24th December 2024 at 6pm and open again on Thursday 2nd January 2025.
July 2024
Nursery News
Sadly Aimee Williams has had her last day with us at Cribbs causeway, she starts her new role as unit co-ordinator at our Redland nursery next week. We wish her lots of luck, she will be missed by everyone.
A huge congratulations to Ellouise who will now be leading the Preschool 1 room, she is looking forward to her new role and we have no doubt she will do a great job. if you have any questions please do not hesitate to come and speak with Sam or Kirsty.
Damian’s last day with us in Friday 9th August, we wish him lots of luck in his new role as a room lead in a new setting. Damian will also be missed, epecailly his creative skills.
Please welome Shayla who has joined the baby team, she is enjoying her new role and getting to know the children and familes. Please also welocme Soreaya to the Toddler team, she will join us next week.
The building work is complete and our new baby room is now open, this room if suited to our younger babies. The babies and team have really enjoyed using this room, and the babies have settled in really well.
Preschool graduation is Saturday 3rd August, 2-4pm. Please refer to my previous email for details.
Throughout July we have been focusing on expressive arts and design, the children have been exploring various ways they can make marks with a variety of resources such as chalk, paint, crayons, pencils and other natural resources including mud, sand, clay and playdough. Expressive arts and design can improve both fine and gross motor skills and coordination, enhance cognitive skills, encourage self-expression, teach self-regulation and boost creative skills!
Some children have been stenciling using pencils, crayons and felt tips, exploring and discussing the different shapes they were able to draw. Other children expressed how they could make marks in the sand, including using their fingers write their name.
We have also been exploring playdough with natural resources. Children used their hands to make marks in the playdough and then to make marks they used pine cones, cutters, sticks to make their own creations.
We have been expressing ourselves through dancing and exploration. Bbaies were able to dance and pop bubbles, they even had a chance to try and blow bubbles themselves!
Some of our children explored painting by using their hands, fingers and paint brushes. They spoke about the various colours and what happened when we mixed them together. They then made some paints by adding food colouring to shaving foam.
June 2024 (Copy)
Dates for the diary…
Pre school graduation trip - Tuesday 9th July (this if for 2024 school leavers only) please arrive at nursery by 8:30am, more information to follow.
It’s not long until we say a sad goodbye to our 2024 school leavers, don’t forget to come along to graduation on Saturday 3rd August (2-4). More details to follow.
Staffing updates
Please welcome Simran to our team, she has joined us as our new kitchen assistant. Holly, Keeley, Megan and Alyssa have joined our team and are working across the nursery.
We also have some very sad news, our lovely Damian from Toddlers 2 will be leaving us in August, he has an exiting new opportunity as a Toddler room head at another setting, we wish him lots of luck and thank him for all that he has done. His creativity and inspiration for exciting activities will be missed.
Sadly Aimee Williams, head of Preschool 1 will also be leaving us in August, Aimee will be moving to our Redland site as a unit co-ordinator. although very sad for us here at Cribbs, this is an amazing opportunity for Aimee in her career. She has been an amazing asset to the team and she really will be missed.
Nursery news
Snapdragons, Cribbs causeway is currently working towards it accreditation towards ‘Millie’s mark’,we are very excitied to be taking part and are working hard to be sucessful, please use the link below to find out all about the accreditation. mm-information-for-parents copy 2.pdf
What a busy month we have had here at Snapdragons Cribbs Causeway, the children have had so much fun joining in with new activities, going out on walks and celebrating different events across June.
Pre school have been focusing on mathematical ativities, looking at nuber recognisition and matching the correct amount of logs to the numbers. We used our hands and fingers to add and subtract numbers also!
Over the past couple of weeks we have been making the most of the sunshine and have been doing daily activities outside in the garden. We have been mark making, climbing, building with blocks and making a variety of different messes such as slime, playdough and cloud dough!
Pre-School have lots of opportunities to look at and begin to recognise their names, such as putting their bags on their own pegs, finding their placemats at meal times and searching and matching games. We have been finding lots of different ways to experiment with mark making and finding a comfortable pencil grip, such as using paintbrushes and water on the chalkboards, whiteboards and dry sand.
We also had a visitor this month from Ralph the Tortoise, babies were very inquisitive and wanted to watch Ralph. The babies were shown what Ralph eats throughout the day and gave him some food, they used gentle hands to try and stroke him also.
If you have any unusual pets at home that you would like to bring in the children would love to see them!
A huge thank you once again to our local residential home who invited our Preschool 3 children in with open arms. The children and the residents had a teddy bears picnic and played a few games in the garden such as basketball, hula hooping and skipping!
June 2024
Dates for the diary…
Pre school graduation trip - Tuesday 9th July (this if for 2024 school leavers only) please arrive at nursery by 8:30am, more information to follow.
It’s not long until we say a sad goodbye to our 2024 school leavers, don’t forget to come along to graduation on Saturday 3rd August (2-4). More details to follow.
Staffing updates
Please welcome Simran to our team, she has joined us as our new kitchen assistant. Holly, Keeley, Megan and Alyssa have joined our team and are working across the nursery.
We also have some very sad news, our lovely Damian from Toddlers 2 will be leaving us in August, he has an exiting new opportunity as a Toddler room head at another setting, we wish him lots of luck and thank him for all that he has done. His creativity and inspiration for exciting activities will be missed.
Sadly Aimee Williams, head of Preschool 1 will also be leaving us in August, Aimee will be moving to our Redland site as a unit co-ordinator. although very sad for us here at Cribbs, this is an amazing opportunity for Aimee in her career. She has been an amazing asset to the team and she really will be missed.
Nursery news
Snapdragons, Cribbs causeway is currently working towards it accreditation towards ‘Millie’s mark’,we are very excitied to be taking part and are working hard to be sucessful, please use the link below to find out all about the accreditation. mm-information-for-parents copy 2.pdf
What a busy month we have had here at Snapdragons Cribbs Causeway, the children have had so much fun joining in with new activities, going out on walks and celebrating different events across June.
Pre school have been focusing on mathematical ativities, looking at nuber recognisition and matching the correct amount of logs to the numbers. We used our hands and fingers to add and subtract numbers also!
Over the past couple of weeks we have been making the most of the sunshine and have been doing daily activities outside in the garden. We have been mark making, climbing, building with blocks and making a variety of different messes such as slime, playdough and cloud dough!
Pre-School have lots of opportunities to look at and begin to recognise their names, such as putting their bags on their own pegs, finding their placemats at meal times and searching and matching games. We have been finding lots of different ways to experiment with mark making and finding a comfortable pencil grip, such as using paintbrushes and water on the chalkboards, whiteboards and dry sand.
We also had a visitor this month from Ralph the Tortoise, babies were very inquisitive and wanted to watch Ralph. The babies were shown what Ralph eats throughout the day and gave him some food, they used gentle hands to try and stroke him also.
If you have any unusual pets at home that you would like to bring in the children would love to see them!
A huge thank you once again to our local residential home who invited our Preschool 3 children in with open arms. The children and the residents had a teddy bears picnic and played a few games in the garden such as basketball, hula hooping and skipping!
May 2024
Information and dates for the diary…
Polite reminder to our Pre School parents, funding will finish on Wednesday 7th August - if you would like more information please contact the office. Your child is automatically booked in up to and including 31st August as this would have been set as thier final day with Snapdragons before they start school. Please can we ask you to confirm if this is the date they will be leaving, or if you would like this to be amended on our system. Please email into the office with an end date for your preschool child.
This month we have raising awarness for Mental Health Week (13-19 May). We have done a range of activities throughout the week we had a spa treatment, mindfullness time, daily walks, baking and ended the week by wearing green!
A huge thank you to one of our Pre School parents who is a radiographer , she visted us and told us all about her exciting job and gave us lots of information about our skeleton. The children looked at x-rays and a skeleton to learn the names of the bones inside our body.
If any parents would like to come in to show your talent, talk with the children or read a story please email the office!
We were also very lucky to have some chickens come to visit us! We learned about what they ate, how they walked and even watched them try to fly.
Look at our latest tik tok for more pictuers and videos.
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGe4srrHG/
April 2024
Nursery news…
School places for September 2024-
Please let the front desk now where your child has been allocated a place for school, if you are happy to share we shall make a list of all of the school places. You will be able to see if your child is going to the same school as their peers.
Pre School Graduation -
3rd August 2024 2-4pm (school leavers only) more information to follow.
Building work-
The preschool 3 room is finished and will be handed back to the nursery today, this means by Monday 6th May all 3 preschool rooms will be in operation and the children can settle back into their rooms. Thank you for your co-operation and support while the building work has ben taking place. More information regarding the rooms will be sent out shortly.
Staffing update-
Please welcome Charis who has joined the Rising 3 team and Laura who has joined our Toddler team.
Please welcome Jenny who has joined us as the Head of babies, and Jaz who has joined us and will lead our new Preschool 3 room.
Ashleigh has sadly left us, she has a new role in a school setting, she will be missed by the nursery, but we wish her lot of luck.
A HUGE congratulations to Emma who achieved her level 5 qualification with distinction, we are immensely proud of her achievement.
Celebrating St George’s Day!
Pre School have been busy this month, they have been using a range of mark making resources to make themselves some flags for St George’s day. They then explored a tuff tray with castles, knights and dragons whilst practitioners spoke about St George’s day with the children.
Spring Sunshine…
The children have been excited to have some sunshine in the garden recently!
Pre School 2 have have been talking about how he garden is looking so much greener, and noticing lots more plants and flowers growing around us. We have found different ways to explore the plants - watering them in the garden and learning about how they grow, we then made lots of beautiful pictures by doing observational of plants and flowers that we had found and explored their textures by creating crayon rubbings.
Preschool 1 have also been making most of the sunshine too! Some of the children have been making music with pots, pans and sticks, they then used their imagination and went off to find different things they could make music with.
Babies have been exploring different tuff trays outside, using cars to push through flour and looking at the different marks it has been leaving. We then used animals to move them through the flour to see if they marks they left were the same or different. We have also been working on our physical development, enouraging walking and learning how to push ourselves on bikes.
Earth Day
This month we celebrated Earth Day by making two different types of play dough. We made cloud dough and traditional play dough to represent the sea and the land to make our own plant earth. We explained to the children what the colours represented and they were then able to explore the different dough by using their hands, fingers and a range of natural playdough resourcres.
A HUGE thank you to one of our preschool Dads who came and showed off his DJ skills, putting on a fantastic set for the whole Nursery, Babies, Toddlers, Rising 3 and the Preschool children danced the afternoon away wearing face paint and glow sticks. So much fun was had by all……..
Check out our dance moves here! - https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGemJDpgj/
March 2024
Staffing update -
Please welcome Charis who has joined the Rising 3 team and Laura who has joined our Toddler team.
Please welcome Jenny who has joined us as the head of babies, and Jaz who has joined us and will lead our new preschool 3 room.
Ashleigh will be sadly leaving us towards the end of April, she has a new role in a school setting, she will be missed by the nursery, but we wish her lot of luck.
A HUGE congratulations to Emma who achieved her level 5 qualification with distinction, we are immensely proud of her achievement.
Dates for the diary -
Wednesday 17th April and Thursday 18th April - Concept photograpy. If your child attends on either of those days there is not need to make an appointment.
Preschool Graduation - Saturday 3rd August (2024 school leavers only) - more details to follow!
A huge thank you to one of our Pre School parents who came in and had a mini DJ session with all of the children!
Check out our dance moves here! - https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGemJDpgj/
February 2024
Dates for your diary…
World Book Day - 7th March - Dress up as your favourite book character and bring your favourite book with you to Nursery
Mother’s Day Afternoon Tea - 11th March Join us with your child to celebrate Mother’s Day 4:30-5:30 with a nice afternoon treat
Parent’s Evening - 10th April- sign up sheet will be available on the front desk
Concept Photography - 17th April sign up sheet will be available on the front desk
Children’s Mental Health Week…
Throughout a week in February, we supported Children’s Mental Health week by engaging in different activities throughout the week, encouraging children to be open, honest and relax here at Cribbs Causeway. Preschool relaxed by making infused water (orange, cucumber, and lime), they then chose to lie down and relax by putting some cucumbers on their eyes and later repeated words of affirmation. Throughout the week we also did some baby yoga where babies and preschool joined together, and babies had quiet time by doing small group key family time. The whole nursery then wore their lounge wear and relaxed by reading stories!
Preschool have been busy this month, engaging in a range of activities. They have been learning about the size of hands and how all our hands are varied sizes. They compared their hands by holding them up against each other and then decided to find some paper and pencils to draw around their hands, cut them out and then discuss the sizes afterwards.
We have been busy baking this month!
Toddler’s and babies had there very own private chef lesson with Tina. They made some yummy mufifn pizza’s, where they chopped up the vegetables, spread the tomato suace and then finished by sprinkling the cheese!
A huge thank you to parents who took home our baking bags this month too! We hope you had fun baking some yummy banana oat cookies.
Staffing update
Chloe will be starting her maternity leave in early March, her last working day will be Thursday 7th March. We wish her lots of luck and can’t wait for the new arrival.
Maddie, Aliya and Eloise have joined our team as our early years apprentices. Aliya is working in the Preschool team and Maddie and Eloise have joined the Baby room team.
Laura will be joining the Toddler team as a practitioner later in the month.
January 2024
Nursery News…
Dates for 2024
Children’s Mental Health Week - 5th/11th February. To celebrate Children’s mental health week we will. be taking part in the following activities…..
Monday- Yoga- throughout the day
Tuesday- Sunshine circles and pamper day
Wednesday- Cooking
Thursday -Pjs and stories
Friday- Nature walks
These activities will take place with the children and their keyworkers throughout the day!
Baby room
The baby room is moving to be a shoe free zone, with young babies that crawl on the floor and pick items up from the floor we want to keep the room as clean and hygienic as possible. Please remove your shoes at the door or you are welcome to stand just infront of the door in the baby room, please do not walk into the room with your shoes on. Thank you in advance for your co-operation with this.
We need your help!
Do you have a special skill like playing a musical instrument, or have a job you would like to share with the children then please let your room head know, the children have so far really enjoyed these experiences.
If a member of staff has gone above and beyond to support your child then please use the button below to nominate them for a star, staff can exchange nominations for gifts and experiences.
Staffing update!
Please welcome our lovely new apprentice Aliya who will be joining our preschool team this February, We have also appointed a new room head Jaz who will be leading our Preschool 3 room once it opens. Jaz has a wealth of preschool experience, we’re very excited for her to join us and be part of our Snapdragons team.
Busy Babies!
Babies have been busy in January joining in with many different activities throughout the month. We started January off by taking part in baby yoga, teaching the older children the names of some yoga poses and encouraging the younger babies to become flexible and guide them to joining in with the poses too. The babies have been busy developing their chef skillls making betroot and chocolate cake, apple upside down cake and some crusty loaves of bread to go alongside lunches!
Terrific Toddlers…
Toddlers have been continuing to celebrate into 2024. They made some silent fireworks where they each poured water, oil, and food colouring into a pot, mixing it themselves using a range of utensils. Overtime the science experiment released small drops of coloured ink creating different ink movements and shapes. Toddlers made some song spoons they painted, and helped to create pictures. The songs spoons are great for encouraging langauge development through singing.
Rising 3’s
Rising 3’s have been busy experimenting throughout January, during the cold weather they conducted various experiments in the garden The children experimeneted with salt, using it to melt ice. The children discussed how salt an melt ice on the roads and keep us safe. The children dyed the salt different colours by adding food colouring and then chose to make some handprints, afterwards we spoke about how cold our hands were! Our other experiment was mixing water, food colouring, baby oil, shaving foam and scented tea. We then explored using our senses by touching and smelling what they had made.
Preschool One
Pre school one have also been busy this month, getting back into the swing of things and becoming busy! They started the month off by learning about their bodies and learning some new yoga poses. They then worked together to make sure that the animals were all clean after an interesting and messy water play activity, the children shared the cloths and made sure between them they were all clean and dry ready for the next activity.
Pre School 2…
Preschool two have been busy doing some observational drawings, they looked at different objects which were presented in front of them or found an item of their choice. After studying the object for a long period of time they concentrated on drawing it afterwards, the children discussed their drawings and spoken in their groups about what each of them had chosen to draw.
December 2023
Nursery News…
Unfortunately we have some sad news to share with you, Cyd our Preschool room head had to leave the nursery and will no longer be returning with us. Aimee W our Toddler room practitioner has now been promoted to Head of Preschool 2, Aimee is very much looking forward to getting to know the children and we know she will be amazing in her new role. An email will go out individually if there has been a change to your child’s keyworker.
We will have to say another sad goodbye to Lucie our deputy of Preschool 2, she has secured a great position in the hospital supporting in the physio therapy department. Amy M our wonderful nursery SENCO has secured a position as a room head in a loaction closer to home. We wish them both lots of luck in their new ventures and thank them for all of their work and dedication to the nursery.
We say a wonderful hello to Jade who joins us a the beginning of January, she will be joining us in the Baby room as Chloe’s maternity cover. Becca has also joined the team and is working in our Rising 3’s room.
There has been a slight delay in the building work, which is currently still underway in Preschool 3, we shall continue to keep you updated with any further developments.
Christmas At The Care Home!
Preschool have been busy building relationships with the local community. Over the past couple of weeks they have been visiting the local care home where the children have joined in with a variety of different activities. To begin with they got to know one another by introducing themselves individually, the residents then spoke about the toys they use to have from their childhood and then encouraged the children to speak about the they have and things they wanted for Christmas. Continuing on Preschool children and the residents sang Christmas songs together, decorated some biscuits and got messy by painting baubles.
We look forward to many more visits in 2024!
Christmas Festivities!
Throughout December the children enjoyed the festive activities. The preschool cildren perfomred their fantastic Nativity which was enjoyed by all, a huge thank you to the preschool team for their amazing effort. Throughout the nursery the children enjoyed taking part in christmas crafts, we hope you all loved them.
The Christmas party was a huge sucess and enjoyed by all, especailly the yorkshire puddings! Thank you to all of our wonderful families who joined us for an evening of christmas fun and food. An even bigger thank you to our wonderful parent who kindly volunteered to be our Father Christmas in his grotto.
Goodbye 2023!
We would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your continued support. We really hope you have enjoyed the year as much as we have - it’s been a busy one!
We will re-open to our term-time only and all year round children on Tuesday 2nd January. We kindly ask that you remember to return with a named water bottle, coat, waterproof, wellies and hat/gloves if you are able.
We need your help!
Do you have a special skill like playing a musical instrument, or have a job you would like to share with the children then please let your room head know, the children have so far really enjoyed these experiences.
If a member of staff has gone above and beyond to support your child then please use the button below to nominate them for a star, staff can exchange nominations for gifts and experiences.
November 2023
Nursery news…
Unfortunately Jodie and Khadeega will both be leaving us at the end of the year, we thank them both for all of their hard work and dedication they have shown to the children and nursery. We wish them the best in their new adventure. Jodie's last day will be Friday 22nd December and Khadeega’s last day will be Thursday 14th December.
Chloe, our lovely Head of Babies will be leaving us in the early new year for maternity leave. We have a new room head Jade eager to join the baby room team. We wish Chloe lots of luck with her pregnancy and adding to her lovely family.
Lucinda our lovely Toddler room practitioner has been promoted to Head of Toddlers, we wish her lots of luck in her new role and know she will do a wonderful job.
The next stage of the building work is now ready to take place, this will start on 27th November, starting in Preschool 3 and then moving onto Preschool 2 towards the end of the week . Building work with begin on Preschool 1 in the new year. Preschool 2 unfortunately will be moved into another room in order for the work to be carried out and we shall send an email out in the next week to give more details. We will try to keep the disruption to the children at a minimum. We are so excited to have this work taking place, the learning opportunities it will provide for the children once completed will be amazing. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Dates for the diary…
Monday 4th December - Preschool nativity, The children have been practicing and are all very excited to share their performance with you. A video will be available at the cost of £5 (cash only please), just let the front desk know if you wish to purchase one. If your child does not attend on a Monday please arrive 30 minutes before your show performance. If you are unsure on which time your child is performing please ask member of the preschool team.
Wednesday 6th December - Please join us for our Christmas party (5:30-7:00pm). All families are welcome to join us for some Christmas activities, Christmas food and a visit to Father Christmas’s grotto.
Friday 22nd December- The nursery closes for the Christmas break, we open again on Tuesday 2nd January 2024.
Throughout December all children are more than welcome to dress in Christmas jumpers/clothing.
Give me s’more!
Thank you for attending our s’mores evening, it was lots of fun! As you can see by these fantastic photos so much fun was had by all, including our lovely staff team. We wanted to say a huge thank you to Nat, the Snapdragons forest school lead and Cyd who supported Nat as she undergoes her forest school training. A huge thank you to Royce who attended and took these fantastic photos. All photos will be shortly be added parent zone.
Staff Superstars
As you may already be aware, we are always looking to reward and praise our staff for the ongoing hard work and care they are constantly providing. We have our written nomination sheets at the front desk, which we upload onto our Superstar portal, however, if you feel a member of staff has been amazing and you want them to be recognised for this, then you can nominate them via this link also;
Snappies Superstar — Snapdragons Nursery
The staff are rewarded via stars which they can then spend towards a variety of different treats, ranging from sweet treats, vouchers and even days out.
October 2023
Dates for the diary…..
Thursday 16th November- Spooky stores night 5:30-7pm, all families welcome to engage in some spooky activities and smores around the fire.
Tuesday 14th and Wednesday 15th November- Preschool parents evening, if you haven’t already please book a slot
Tuesday 28th November - Mini athletics for Rising 3 and Toddler children, a chance for the children to take part in a mini sports events ran by an athletics coach with the support of the team.
Monday 4th December Preschool Nativity- You can order your copy of the nativity for a cost of £5, payable in cash to the front desk.
Wednesday 6th December- Nursery Christmas party- more details to follow
Nursery news
. Stage 2 of the building work across the preschool classes is due to start 14th November, we shall send more details in a separate email.
. Jodie our head of toddlers has decided to concentrate on her role as an Early years teacher and move to Preschool 2, this means that sadly Jodie will no longer be the room head in Toddlers. This is very sad for the toddler team, although the Preschool team are gaining a fantastic teacher. We will have more news for you soon regarding a the room head role in toddlers. Jodie’s key children will be emailed separately to inform you of your child’s new key worker.
Calpol policy- with the winter months drawing in and coughs and colds being more present please can we remind you that children should not be attending the nursery if they have been administered Calpol. Children can not attend for 4 hours after receiving Calpol, thank you for your co-operation.
With the colder weather approaching us please can you ensure your child is dressed for the weather, the children still spends lots of their time outside in the gardens. please label hats, gloves and coats etc.
Spooktacular Senses!
Babies have been exploring pumpkins, they have been helping the practitioners to safely cut them open and scoop out the inside. We then cut the pumpkin up and roasted it, encouraging the babies to give it a try!
Preschool 1 have been doing some observational drawings..They had a range of coloured and different sized pumpkins . The children designed their very own spooky pumpkin faces.
Toddlers have also been painting pictures of their pumpkins. They used different coloured paints and natural resources to create their original pumpkin master pieces.
Preschool 2 have been exploring their pumpkins in a variety of different ways. They painted the pumpkins and added them to the water tray to make potions.
Rising 3’s also explored their pumpkins in a variety of different ways. They measured and compared how big and small their pumpkins were and explored the insides, using a variety of tools.
Special request
Do you have a job/hobby that you would to share with our children? do you play an instrument or celebrate any special events that you would like to share at nursery? If so then please come and speak to Sam or Kirsty, we would love to welcome you in and share your talents with the children.