At St Mary’s, we have had lots of fun taking part in potion making and expressing ourselves! The children practised using their fine motor skills to pour, mix and spoon their potions into various pots, pans and bowls. Good language was used throughout, a child stating “it’s a sticky potion!” and another stated “we have to do lots of mixing!”. The children had so much fun using their imaginations and getting messy!

It was that time of year again for Imperial– Children in Need week!

On Monday we had a ‘Yellow Day’ where we invited the children to come to nursery dressed in yellow or Pudsey Bear wear and we took part in lots of craft activities, which the children got to take home.

On Tuesday the children came to nursery in fancy dress to raise money for the amazing charity. The children loved showing each other their outfits and enjoyed taking part in a dance party!

On Wednesday we held our own bake sale at pick up time, which included lots of yummy treats which the children and staff had been making all day. The babies enjoyed icing biscuits, the toddlers made rocky-roads and the preschoolers made biscuits and cupcakes!

On Thursday we had a ‘Messy Day’ where the children spent the day exploring various messy materials, including shaving foam, water, slime, mud and paint!

On Friday we held a tea and coffee morning for the parents to come in and spend time with their children at nursery and play! It was lovely for the parents to interact with the staff and see what great activities their children take part in.

Alongside daily donations from parents all week, we also held a ‘Guess the name of the bear’ competition, where the parents gave £1 to guess the name of the bear.

It was a fantastic week raising money for Children in Need- we raised £425!

One of our lovely parents at Imperial came into the nursery and spent time with the Toddlers and Preschoolers and taught them all about Diwali! She read them a story all about the celebration and what happens around the exciting time. She also showed the children how to make lanterns, which they then did all by themselves. The children decorated their lanterns using glitter, sequins, stickers and gems- making them the most colourful and beautiful lanterns we have ever seen!

Thank you to our amazing parent who kindly took time out of her day to come and celebrate Diwali with us!

The Preschoolers and Toddlers at Imperial had a music and movement day! The children are currently interested in singing and musical instruments, so one of the teachers brought in their electric guitar so that the children could explore and experiment with it. The children took turns using the pick to play the guitar. They also put on noise cancelling headphones, which most of the children were totally taken with. It was amazing seeing their faces when they put the headphones on and played the guitar. We also made our own musical instruments using recycling that we had saved up over the week! To end our day full of music, we had a dance party!

At Imperial, all of the rooms took part in firework crafts to celebrate Guy Fawkes Night! The babies and toddlers created colourful collages using cupcake cases and stars. They used their physical development to place the materials to the glue. They were able to identify some of the colours that they saw on their paper!

The Preschoolers used PVA glue, dripping it on the paper and then used glitter to make a beautiful firework affect! They also stuck star stickers to their pictures, using their fine motor skills to hold the glue sticks and to shake the glitter pots. The Preschoolers also made rockets, using various craft materials and decorated them!

To celebrate Halloween at Imperial, the children took part in a spooky Forest School session! The children were provided with soil, cauldrons, spoons, pinecones and other natural materials. They decided they wanted to make potions as it was Halloween! The children practised sharing, turn taking, communicating, using their imaginations and used their motor skills. Some children stated that they were witches and wanted to turn their teachers into frogs, whilst others were making potions to make ghosts disappear!

Our Preschoolers at Imperial go out to Forest School no matter what the weather! The children love getting into their wetsuits and their welly boots, and heading outside to get muddy! In this Forest School session, the children’s focus was on the puddles! The children jumped in and out of the muddy puddles, splashing each other and singing songs at the top of their voices!

Wet weather is great for a child’s development! Moving about on wet surfaces takes more concentration, strength and agility, meaning that as the children play in the rain, they grow more confident in their movements and bodies!

Our Preschoolers at Imperial are loving spending Autumn days in Forest School and getting to explore the environment around them! Recently, the children have been interested in animals, so we gave them playdough and set them off to find lots of sticks! When they had their collection of sticks, they used them and the playdough to create their own hedgehogs! The children used language, such as ‘big’, ‘small’, ‘long’, and ‘short’ in relation to the sticks, comparing sizes and putting them in the playdough.

As Forest School learning is child led, the children started to use the playdough to create nests! They used the owl conkers from a previous activity and placed them in their playdough nests!

Last week, our lovely parents at Nightingale joined us for a Macmillan coffee morning to raise money for charity. It was great spending time together and getting to eat some yummy treats. We raised £36, thank you to everyone who came!

In Forest School, the children have been discussing the change of season and what happens in autumn. We have been looking at the leaves in particular, the children observing that the ‘new’ leaves are orange, yellow and brown. We decided to use the last of the green leaves and sticks to create our own natural wands! The children used their fine motor skills to break up the leaves, cover the star in glue and stick on the natural materials. The children had lots of fun and then incorporated them within their play, turning each other into dinosaurs and monsters using their natural wand!

Our Imperial setting decided to celebrate Harvest Festival by collecting food to take to the local church. Some of the Toddlers and Preschool joined their teachers on the trip to drop off the food donations, which the church have taken to the local food bank. The very kind Vicar spent time with the children, explaining what Harvest Festival is and things that we do around the time. He told them where the food would be going and why we donate to others. The children were fantastic in the church and on our walk, pointing out different things they could see on the way!

Thank you to all of our parents at Imperial for the generous food donations and thank you to ‘R.L.W’ for helping us to take the food to the church.

Our Imperial setting wanted to hold an event to commemorate memories of summer 2023. We invited the children to wear a white shirt and have a fun afternoon full of mess, colour and excitement.

Every room gathered together in the garden to boost their imagination and creativity by exploring different forms of paint and mark making. The children used their senses to explore self confidence and decision making by using their whole body movements to celebrate colour and getting messy! We provided a new experience and opportunity, which they may not have access to at home.

Everyone had lots of fun and we received excellent feedback from parents.

“This is happiness! Thank you to the amazing team”- H.B