The children at St Marys have been interested in a book about the human body, particularly looking at skeletons. We decided to create our own skeletons by drawing around our friends and then painting them to look like our skeletons. We also looked at real X-ray pictures of hands, arms and feet. The children were thoroughly intrigued and pointed at the parts of their own bodies.

At Imperial, we are teaching the children about oral hygiene. The children have their own toothbrushes at nursery and can take turns brushing their teeth. The children have been really enjoying brushing their teeth independently and have learnt how much tooth paste they need to use, what is good and what is bad for their teeth and how they need to do it- side to side, up and down and all around!

The children have even enjoyed their teachers singing them teeth brushing songs, whilst they have been brushing their teeth!

At St Marys, we enjoyed a lovely stroll in our local area. We heard the church bells ringing and the sun was shining! Then suddenly it started to rain… the children began discussing that we could spot a rainbow as it was sunny and rainy. As if by magic a beautiful rainbow appeared! We talked about all the different colours that we could see and sang the rainbow nursery rhyme all the way back to Preschool!

Our Blossoming 1 room at Winlaton spoke about animals today. The children discussed what animals were their favourites, which ended in a conclusion that snakes are the best animal. We decided that we were going to make our own playdough so we could make our own snakes! The children helped to mix all of the ingredients together, using their fine motor skills and chose to use green food colouring. The children thoroughly enjoyed helping and taking turns, whilst also working together to make their snakes.

On Christmas Jumper Day at Imperial, we invited our children and staff to wear their best Christmas jumpers to raise money for ‘Save the Children’. We also spent the day baking lots of Christmas themed yummy treats to raise money for charity. The children had lots of fun and the parents bought many cakes and biscuits to take home with them!

At Winlaton we have taken part in celebrating World Science Day! The children got to take part in different messy experiments and even had fun dressing up as little scientists. Throughout the day, the children did  some measuring and pouring, they did mark making and practised their turn taking skills.

Recently our local police officers came to see us at Nightingale, they talked about their uniforms and let us try on their hats and jackets! They told us about all of their vehicles and animals that they use to help them in their job. After we had our fingerprints taken, we got given special stickers. We also took part in role play, pretending to be the people who help us in our community.

A massive thank you to our local police officers who took time out of their day to visit our Nightingale setting.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Everyone at St Marys is very excited in the countdown to Christmas! The children decorated the Preschool Christmas tree and worked well together, placing the baubles on the tree and taking turns. The children mentioned that there was no presents under the tree, so we turned into Santa’s workshop!

We also have a special visitor who is going to be spending time with us throughout the Christmas period. We have named our elf Sparkle!

To celebrate Diwali, Imperial had some special visitors. Three of our parents came in to teach the children all about Diwali. The toddlers made lanterns using lots of sparkly paper and different patterns. The parents that visited the Preschool children read them a story about Diwali and gave the children traditional Diwali sweets, which were delicious!  To end our amazing afternoon, the children made their own lamps, painting them and making them colourful!

Thank you to our amazing parents for spending time with the children and teaching them about Diwali!

On Remembrance Day, Valeswood made large poppies to display outside. The children also made their own poppy to wear, using paint and sponges. The children spoke about what Remembrance Day is and why it is important.

‘Lest we forget’

Last week, our Imperial setting celebrated Halloween over the week! The children took part in lots of different crafts, played party games, explored spooky sensory play, did some baking and dressed up in their best costumes!

The children couldn’t wait to see what their teachers were going to dress up as!

At Winlaton we have been celebrating Black History Month. Everyone discussed their differences, why it makes us special and why it’s important that we are kind to each other. The children painted their hands and made a beautiful display!

“Never be limited by other people’s limited imaginations.” – Dr. Mae Jemison- First African-American Female Astronaut