January-February Newsletter 2017
Dear All,
Welcome to the new year! We hope you all have a fabulous one.
We have kick-started the new year with lots of exciting activities in both the Toddler and the Baby Room. Coming back after the Christmas break the children were excited to see each other.
Toddler Room- January
The Toddlers were telling us a lot about what they did during their Christmas holidays, who they saw and most importantly- what presents they got from Santa. The children continued singing Christmas songs throughout January and the Santa outfits in the role play were still very popular.
The weather in January was very cold which gave the children in the Toddler room the chance to explore and experiment with ice. They found pieces in the garden- which they then brought inside to watch melt as the day went on. The children got creative with it, using it as a drawing tool on the chalkboards in the garden. Some even attempted to taste it and noted that “it didn’t taste of anything!
The Toddlers enjoyed a variety of messy play activities during the month-play which included painting, flour, oats, cloud dough, mud! pasta and rice. And as always, our toddlers were very imaginative creating their own play by dressing up, creating tents, cooking, looking after dollies and answering a few phone calls.
During dance with Jodie this month the Toddlers were singing and learning about jungle animals. They especially loved singing with the rather realistic crocodile puppet.
January saw the toddlers take a closer look at the book ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’. The children then created their very own ‘bear hunt’ using various materials. You can look at these currently displayed in the Toddler Room.
The Toddlers also started learning French this month, with a great help from some of our parents. Thank you! The toddlers are enjoying learning new words and have already started using them outside of the lessons. We started with some colours and saying Hello- Bonjour! They are all eager to learn.
Toddler Room- February
In February, the Toddler room’s topic was Valentine’s Day and Friendships. We did lots of creative activities including decorating hearts for friends and family, paint stamping and lots of painting.
The Toddlers took part in helping to create our beautiful Valentine’s Day display by talking about who they love and who is their best friend. The children then had pictures taken with their best friends.
During circle time, we talked about friendships and who our friends are and what we liked about them, at which point we begun to have a few red faces. We also looked at our family photos and talked about the members of our family- some of whom are very new and tiny.
Messy play continued in February as the toddlers played with lots of bubbles, ice mountains, shaving foam, mouldable soap, pasta and rice.
February also started to bring about some reasonable nice weather (when it was not too windy) and so we had a trip to the playground. The toddlers had lots of fun on the slides, swings and the new ‘big red bus’. The children were also excited to have snack time outside. While walking to and from the playground the children were looking out for the first signs of spring.
French lessons continued this month and the children continue to greatly enjoy it learning a new song, we started to look at animals and do some counting!
The favourite dance lessons with Jodie this month included lots of pirates as the Toddlers went sailing across the seven seas to look for the buried treasure. When children also had a look at some underwater animals some of which were very strange. The toddlers enjoyed learning new songs and singing the old ones.
Next month’s topic for the Toddler Room includes Spring and Mother’s Day.
Baby Room- January
In January, the Baby room welcomed back the babies with lots of messy activities. They created some beautiful sunrise paintings using sponges and spoke about the different textures and colours used.
As the weather was still cold and seemed to be getting colder the babies made some snowmen – introducing to our little ones the different weather seasons.
This activity was aimed at enhancing the babies fine motor skills and hand-eye co-ordination.
The babies also participated in snowflake sticking and painting as they enjoyed the brief amount of snow we received this year. They then went on to add lots of glitter to their fabulous paintings. They also had a look at some simple shapes as they did some shape stamping to create their unique pictures.
Due to the very cold weather it was often difficult to give the baby room time to play in the garden. But they did not lack for activities inside. The babies did some sensory activities such as coloured soapy foam play, shaving foam and corn flour. They worked on their physical development with brush painting-using the tools to make different marks. Play dough also came out so the babies could explore the different textures and use different play dough tools to print marks and shapes.
Another unique activity the baby room participated in was ‘photo frame sticking’. They used a mix of lentils, rice and some brush painting to make their own frame. The babies also started preparing for Valentine’s Day and made some special tissue paper pictures using lots of glue for their special mummies and daddies.
Baby Room -February
In February, the baby room’s theme was ‘Transport’. They continued with their own messy play and creative activities as they did some giant chalk drawing- they enjoyed creating lots of marks and liked doing it together.
They then started to get messier with lots of painting activities including wheel printing and boat stamping to create a boating lake. This activity helped to encourage hand/eye co-ordination. They also did some stamping creating dots and different modes of transport.
The babies got sticky with train sticking activities and hot air balloon sticking creating many colourful ‘means of transport’ whilst working on their motor skills. Messy play then continued with lots of water play as they ‘played in a carwash’ which involved lots of bubbles and cars. Then they got dry and participated in some sand play, making different trek marks with cars as they drove them through the sand. The babies also did some oat play- a sensory activity that the children greatly enjoyed, they continuously filled and emptied the containers.
Next month’s topic for the Baby room includes Spring and Baby Animals.
We would like to say Happy Birthday to Rafael, Evelyn, Freddie, Matilda, who all turned 1.
And a Happy Birthday to Lauren who turned 3 and Imogen G who turned 2,
The baby room would like to welcome! Freddie, Theo and Phoenix
The Toddler room would like to welcome! Katia, Felix.B and Finlay who made their transition from the ‘babies’.
Some final notes:
We would like to give a huge Welcome to all the new additions to our families!
Red nose Day is on Friday the 24th of March and we will be holding a small event to raise some money for the good cause. Please join us on the day at 4pm-6pm. We will have activities and crafts for the children to take part in, face painting and some wonderful baking.
We also invite the children to dress up/ wear red on the day and would greatly appreciate any contribution to the good cause.
- We recently had a food hygiene inspector drop in and we are pleased to say we scored a 5/5. You can see the new sticker stuck on our window.
- We have recently implemented some new planning which involves the use of topics and themes. Parents will be updated monthly of what the topic will be.
- Activities will mostly revolve around the chosen topic and will be linked in with the 7 learning areas.
- The new menu has been reviewed and is currently being implemented.
- The parent’s forum took place on February 2nd.
- Electrical appliance testing has taken place in February.
- We have implemented a new system of the gate. This is a safety precaution to ensure that the children are unable to open the gate.