Updates and what we have been up to this month

Staffing update:

Hayley from the baby team has now moved down to the toddler floor. She is very happy to see some familiar faces in the babies that have just moved down and I’m sure they are very happy to have her down there with them.

Our chef Terri has now left and will be moving on to her next adventure, we wish her the best of luck in her new job. However, we welcome our newest member of the team, Owen. Owen has joined us from our Redland nursery and has many years of experience as a chef, we look forward to seeing what he can cook up in the kitchen.

You may notice some more new faces around the nursery as we welcome a few new staff members to the nursery, they will get a special welcome in the next newsletter.

Millie’s mark:

We have signed up to Millie's Mark which is a special endorsement for childcare providers that go above and beyond minimum requirements by having 100% of staff trained in paediatric first aid, and also ensuring that everything learned during the course is kept in the forefront of practitioners’ minds so that they are confident, ready and capable.

Millie’s Mark is named after Millie Thompson, who died after choking on food at nursery in 2012 when she was just nine months old. Read more about Millie’s legacy at www.milliesmark.com/about-us.

Babies

This month the babies have been on a bear hunt as part of national storytelling week. They went through the long wavy grass, a deep cold river, thick oozy mud, a big dark forest and a swirling whirling snowstorm, exploring the different textures along the walk. They then ended up in a narrow gloomy cave and read the story.

They also had a lovely trip to the park and enjoyed the slide and the swings, the staff had just as much fun as the babies.

For pancake day, babies made some lovely pancakes from scratch and topped them off with some lovely fresh fruit, it was very messy but a lot of fun.

Toddlers

For national storytelling week the toddlers took their books outside to enjoy their stories in the fresh air. Everyone sat patiently waiting to see what would happen next.

The toddlers also enjoyed a trip to the park and got some fresh air while they ran off lots of energy.

For Valentine’s Day toddlers made some hearts and decorated them by hand (literally). They really enjoyed dipping their fingers in the paint to create their designs.

Toddlers also enjoyed making their own pancakes and added some lovely toppings.

Pre-School

For children’s mental health week, pre-school learnt about emotions. They learnt the Makaton signs for ‘happy’, ‘sad’ and ‘cross’. They also practiced drawing the different emotions using some cards to help. Pre-school then talked about being kind to each other and made some friendship potions and ‘kind hands’ pictures. Pre-schools favourite part of the week seemed to be reading the books ‘my shadow is pink’ and ‘my shadow is purple’, everyone enjoyed the books and then discussed and drew their shadow colour.

As part of Thinking Day, pre-school learnt about girl guides and scouts around the world. They looked at different cultures around the world and made Swedish alpine hats and hot air balloons from Europe. They also sang “Alice the camel” from Africa, decorated their own paper dolls from Africa, took part in some Bollywood dancing for Asia, and played a game called “llama, llama, pyjama” from South America. Charlie was also kind enough to bring in her girl guide blanket and show the children all the badges.

Pre-school completed a shape hunt and found lots of different shapes around the environment and categorised them using the shapes on the floor. This got everyone thinking about the different shapes and sizes of the objects in their room.

Pancake day was a success in the pre-school room as well. Everyone tucked into some yummy pancakes.