What are we doing in Seahorses this month?
The seahorses are going to be having a focus on winter clothing with lots of images displayed to reinforce the clothes they are wearing and allowing them to make links between the clothes they wear, the images they see and the words we use to label them.

What are we doing at the nursery to support this:
Providing lots of hats and scarves for the children to try on.
Painting images of winter clothes- hats, scarves, jumpers, jackets, etc.
Wrapping the children up and getting them outside.
Providing laminated pictures of winter clothing for the children to look at.
Reading books about the season and the clothes we wear.
Displaying photos of the babies in the outdoor area in their winter clothes.
Use lots of language to reinforce the names of the garments and the weather. E.g. cold, wet, windy, hat, scarf, jacket, mittens, boots, etc.

What could you do to support the children and reinforce what they have experienced at the nursery?
Have a play with scarves, hats and jackets at home any try each others on.
Get wrapped up and go on plenty of walks in the outdoors to let the experience play in the colder weather.
Take them shopping to buy a new hat, mittens, etc.
Get some books out of the library about winter and winter clothes.
Use language regular consistent language to reinforce the words for the garments. ‘my hat, your hat’, ‘my jacket, your jacket’, ‘Shall we get your hat on?’

What are we doing in Starfish this month?
This month we will be having a bigger focus on the wider world. The children have become very interested in the outside environment and are linking in animals, trains, cars, pets, to their play. They are really noticing birds, squirrels, airplanes, trees, etc.
We will be focussing on talking about things in our community that we are all familiar with; the roads, trains tracks, parks and activities taking place there. We will also focus on the role play that the toddlers have started to become very involved in; dressing up, washing dishes, making tea and food for each other.

Some of the activities we will be doing this month will involve:
Inside
Painting shapes from the environment they are familiar with- trains, cars, squirrels, cats, dogs, bugs, etc.
Set up train tracks, car mats, people, animals, etc and provide extra opportunities for small world play.
Continue role play of washing up, tidying up, cleaning, making food, drinks, etc.
Introduce more books on the community and environment.
Outside
Continue the exploration of our garden, searching for bugs, snails, insects, etc.
Going for an excursion to watch the goings on outside the nursery- people walking dogs, getting on trains, driving their cars, flying in airplanes.
Setting up the small world resources in the garden.

Some ideas to support your children at home:
Outside
Go insect collecting with your child.
Take a trip to the natural history museum to look at things that interest you and them from the environment.
Take a road side seat and count or just point to cars that go by, airplanes, buses, trucks, trains, etc.
Name colours of trees, cars, birds, animals.
Stand under a tree and catch the leaves.
Go to the library and get out some books on the community.
Inside
Set your child up at home with a tea set and some soapy water and let them wash the dishes.
Let them help you clean with the broom, dustpan and brush.
Give them a damp cloth to clean as you do.

What are we doing in Dolphins this month?
This month in Dolphins, we will be continuing our focus on the supermarket that started to emerge in October. We have transformed our home corner into a supermarket and will extend and refresh following children’s interests and ideas.
Also this month, we will be talking about Bonfire Night and making some colourful decorations for this and talking about safety for the children and our pets.

Some of the activities we will be doing this month to support this concept will be:
Continuing to keep the supermarket refreshed and interesting.
Taking a trip to Waitrose
Playing and making games based around shopping and the supermarket: snap, memory, etc.
Buying ingredients from the supermarket and cooking with the children.
Talking about the different roles of the staff in the supermarket.
Talking about where the food in the supermarket comes from.
Making real food to sell in our supermarket for our tea time.
Making colourful fireworks art.
Talking about how to keep ourselves safe on Bonfire night.

What you could do to support your children at home:
Set up a little supermarket in your child’s room with old food boxes, etc.
Give your child some money to take to the supermarket and buy some goods with.
Talk about where the item they brought came from. What is it made of? Where was it made? Is it the finished product or do you need to combine it with others to make something else?
Talk about the local supermarkets and what you buy at each of them. Do you go to one for veges and another for nappies, or do you buy everything at the one place?
Make some cupcakes, biscuits, etc, make a supermarket and then invite your friends round to buy their food.

Seahorses reflection on the month of September

October saw lots of interest in autumn and a lot of joy at finding leaves all over the playground to pick up, crunch, scrunch and throw.

We painted leaves, used autumn colours in paintings and also did some conker paintings. For some of the babies rolling the conkers around in paint was a real joy, the sensory experience of slippery paint and conkers that clonk was great. The paint started off different colours, but all ended up brown as they stayed rolling for such a long time. Painting the leaves was also great fun for many of them, especially those relaxed with getting messy.

We also had a big focus on some of the babies physical development which brought us new walkers and babies really confident in crawling and rolling over too. Pulling pull-along toys outside has been an enjoyed activity for those new to their feet too.

Lots of playing musical instruments has happened too with the babies and making big noises. Lots of our older babies are really into the cause and effect of playing the instruments and getting them to play as loud as they can.

The babies always love the junk play. We collect loads of old containers, boxes, pots, crinkly biscuit trays, etc and let them just explore it and enjoy it. Strange how the cheapest resources for the children often get the best use!

And there has also been lots of puzzle and shape sorting going on for our bigger babies too, as well as plenty of time out and relaxation.

Starfish reflection on October
The weather has been great for October and so the Starfish have been really busy outside doing all sorts of things.

Sand play is always a favourite, but this month we have added a lot of water to it to stop it blowing away and this has given the children lots of sludge and grit to fiddle with, make moulds, build piles, etc. We added animals and leaves to it to give it a small world feel and extend the outdoor world concept we have all been spending so much time in.

We have been doing loads of leaf collection in our play ground and every day there is more to collect and feed the fun. Some of the children get quite fastidious about the thorough job they need to do and others just love to have the experience.
Lady bird hunts have been a favourite too as we have found so many of them this year. The children love finding ladybirds and showing everyone their success in finding one.

There have also been lots of throwing games going in with tossing balls to one another and throwing basketballs into the tyres to hold them. On one of the wet days, we put dye in the puddles to colour them and looked at all the different colours and our reflections in the puddles too.

Inside, we have been painting with conkers, making mobiles made out of baked salty dough and decorating them with paint and glitter- they look great! We have also been doing lots of group drawings with the children; their favourite topics to draw being balloons, flowers, bubbles and circles.

We had some fun playing with Hamlin of course too as we regularly do. We like to watch his antics climbing inside and out of his cage and coming out to see us when we go up to his cage.

And, something we do every week, but families might not be aware of is ‘jobs’. We collect water from the water filter for the room, we take out the rubbish, we load the washing into the washing machine, we sort the dried washing, we hand out cups to our friends and lots of other little tasks that keep us involved in the running of our room.

Dolphin’s reflection on the month of October
Plenty of interest has been paid to autumn with the leaves falling and the children collecting them and tidying up the outdoor area. We have also set up a nature table where the children could bring in autumnal items like conkers, sticks, leaves, acorns, etc, and share them with each other. They have thoroughly enjoyed the fascination found in the change of colour of the environment. We’ve talked a lot about the golden leaves and some of the children have been able to tell us about the ‘red’ leaves that they have seen on some trees too.

Thinking about the environment always brings lots of discovery. After talking about all the things the children have been finding, we decided to go on a nature trail in our nursery play ground. In addition to all the autumn fall, we found, snails, lady birds, spiders and all sorts of bugs. We are going to need to do some more research to find out their names!

Thanks to the wonderfully mild weather, we have spent loads of time outside talking and thinking about the environment. We have talked about all sorts of things and jobs that happen outside and the children have taken on some of those things and been ‘builders’ using the large construction, ‘street sweepers’ with their plastic bags collecting leaves, etc.

The supermarket took off towards the end of October and we set up the home corner as a supermarket to support this interest. The children love it and our cook, Christine has been keeping us well stocked with boxes and jars to stock the shelves. The children have enjoyed taking on the roles of shoppers, cashiers, stockists and...dogs in the supermarket.

And our cooking this month has included:
Banana loaf, bread rolls, cereal bars, carrot cake, making assorted sandwiches.
Here is one of our little boys grating some carrot for the cake.

What are we doing in Dolphins this month?

During October we will be having a focus on change, particularly seasonal changes and changes with ourselves.
The children are commenting a lot on being big and growing up as well as noticing all the changes outside with autumn coming.

Some of the activities we will be doing this month to support this concept will be:
Going on a nature walk to collect natural materials
Setting up an autumnal nature table to look at the various things falling from the trees.
Art- printing with natural materials. E.g. leaves, conkers, etc.
Cooking- making soup out of seasonal vegetables.
Making story boards of our lives.
Drawing self portraits using mirrors.
Making a photo board of people pictures from young and old.
We are hoping to be able to organise a trip to a ‘pick- your- own’ farm.

What you could do to support your children at home:
Go on a nature walk and collect conkers, acorns, leaves and any other autumnal items- use them at home or bring them into nursery.
Go to the library and get some books out on the weather.
Sort out their clothes with them and exchange their summer clothes for winter clothes and talk about why.
Talk about the year cycle of trees, how they lose their leaves and then regain them in spring.
Talk about the people in your family- their ages, what they do, whether they are big or small, etc.
Show your child photos of you in a sequence from being a baby until now and talk about how you have changed.
Talk about animals through the year and how they change. Maybe they hibernate, gain thicker fur, shed, etc.

What are we doing in Seahorses this month?
During the month of October we will be exploring some of the natural materials that come about from autumnal changes. Conkers, leaves, twigs. We will be looking at warm clothes, boots, hats, gloves, etc.

Some of the activities wall the babies will be involved with this month are:
Exploring clothes for dressing up: hats, bags, scarves.
Doing some leaf printing.
Painting in autumnal colours.
Making up a treasure basket with autumn things.
Singing songs about getting ready for colder weather. E.g. Here We Go Round the Mulberry bush on a cold and frost morning. It’s raining, it’s pouring.
Going for a walk to the park to scrunch some leaves.

What could you do to support the children and reinforce what they have experienced at the nursery?
Take your child on a walk to a point out all the fallen leaves.

Sit amongst some dried leaves and scrunch them together.
Go to Richmond park and look at all the chestnuts, conkers, acorns, leaves falling. Watch the squirrels running about.
Go to the library and get out some books on weather and clothes.
Talk about what you are wearing: scarf, gloves, coat, boots.
Talk about what they are wearing too.

What are we doing in Starfish this month?

During September, we will be continuing our focus on fruit and vegetables as the children are still really motivated by talking about and investigating fruit and veg.

Some of the activities we will be doing this month will involve:
Art- printing with fruit and vegetables- cutting them on different angles to get different shapes.
Sampling some different fruits that we don’t normally eat like dragon fruit, papaya, passion fruit and lychees.

Displaying photos of fruit and vegetables in the home corner. E.g. fruit stands, supermarket displays.
Take the children on an excursion to the supermarket to buy some fruit to sample.
Making vegetable soup using the vegetables prepared with the children.
Making freshly squeezed orange juice with the children to drink.
Sampling some juices like carrot juice, tomato juice.

Some ideas to support your children at home:
Make vegetable soup with them.
Take them to buy a fresh juice, let them choose their own fruit and watch the staff put the fruit in the juicers.
Make a fruit salad together and talk about the types of fruit.
Talk about the colours of fruits and vegetables.
Go to the library and get out some books on growing fruit and vegetables.
Take your child to an orchard and pick some apples.
Make fruit juice ice lollies at home to taste.

September in Starfish saw a fascination with fruit and vegetables that hasn’t stopped...



Fruit and vegetables were the biggest interest in September and it hasn’t stopped either. The children have really enjoyed the naming of the fruits and vegetables that they have been eating and also identifying cooked in their food. Vegetables at meals times are such a big discussion as the children eagerly call out contributions of what is what on their plate. They smile and wiggle in their seats with such satisfaction when they get it right and then all babble comment on the right word when they are corrected. It is really quite sweet to witness.
They are very confident in apples, pears and bananas which seem to come up a lot. We eat them regularly as snacks and they are the ones most depicted in books as well. The play food has been thoroughly used and enjoyed. Our Starfish have incorporated it in their play as they spend time in the home corner role playing cooking and caring.

As well as fruit and veg’, we have been talking about the weather getting colder. Lots of discussion about the wind and no longer needing our sun block, but instead we need coats and soon we will need to put on our winter hats too. The children have been commenting on the leaves in the playground and so we took them on an excursion to the local park to collect leaves and sticks for our autumn display. We had lots of discussions about the goings on in the park. –Leaves, trees, squirrels and the way the different textures feel when we touch them. We never did get to touch a squirrel though- way too quick!

One of the children brought in hundreds of conkers that they had collected in the weekend. We piled them into the water trough and we all loved running our hands through their cool, smooth, round, roly-poly-ness.

We have also been really getting into painting in the outdoors and displaying our artwork on the shed during our play time outside. It can be a bit messy, but it is such a relaxing, fun and creative activity to do.

Another fun and messy activity has been playing in wet sand. The children loved the way the sand stuck together and stuck to them. It was very gritty and lovely- and how soft (already soft) hands are after some wet sandy manicures!

Seahorses reflection on the month of September



It has been a very vocal month in Seahorses with lots of songs, rhymes and stories during time spent together as a group. The babies have become more familiar with each other and started to respond to their fellow babies as friends and companions with interactions that show care and familiarity with each other. It is quite special to see babies form friendships and start to value each other.

To add some challenges this month to painting, we supported the babies in painting tubes. They had fun rolling the tubes in the paint and looking at the paint clinging to the roll. We have also being doing chalk drawings on dark paper, crayon and pencil drawings too.

Seahorses have all been mucking in with our favourite corn flour slime play, water play in trays and play dough. Babies who have been pulling themselves up for a while now and cruising around furniture have been surprised by the discovery of sand in the sand tray outside. They have become regular sand players and are really appreciating the world at standing level.

Inside, lots of time has been spent with walkers, rocking on the pony ride-on toy. Outside, the more physical babies have been enjoying the ride-on toys and moving themselves around the garden in them, even though some aren’t quite walking, they have been firmly committed to getting around the space efficiently with the ride on toys!

Toy cars, push a long toys and running cars around the garage have also been a big feature of September, as well as counting and placing bangles on the paper towel holder. Yes, the bangles on the paper towel holder- everyone loves this one- staff included, and everyone has a favourite bangle!

Dolphin’s reflection on the month of September
So much happens in Dolphins it is hard to know where to start and where to end without writing a novel that would take a month to read. Everything feels important and everyday something special happens within so many little everyday things going on, but here is a little snap shot of September.

We started off the month looking at ‘ourselves’ and this has continued throughout the month with children sharing stories with groups of their peers, talking about what they have done in their time outside of nursery in the weekend or on holiday , talking about who their friends are and who their family members are beyond the nursery. We have made faces out of play dough, taken digital photos of each other and then compared elements of our features we have in common or that are different.

Dolphins’ has a new self registration board that we use each morning during our Welcome Circle Time. This happens at around 9am where the children get together as a group, welcome everyone and talk about any new people in the room for the day. The children are encouraged to find their own name card and stick it on the board to show that they are here. It helps them to recognise their name or picture and feel that they are a valued part of the room. Some of the older children will help the younger ones to find their name and put it on the board too.

The preschool children have been talking a lot about keeping themselves safe by crossing the road safely, keeping close to their friends or family when they are out and about, what to do if they get lost, why we wear special visible vests when we go on nursery outings, etc.
We have also had the community support officers come in to talk to all of the dolphins about keeping safe and stranger danger and Jenny has been teaching the preschoolers a phrase to shout if someone they don’t know tries to get them to go with them. Parents can help with this one too.
SHOUT: No! Stranger!

And, some children in Dolphins have tried their hand at wood work by sanding and gluing wood to make houses and boats. Some quite elaborate designs have started to be built.

And our cooking this month has included:
Lemon and poppy seed muffins Toasted pizza bread Wholemeal bread
Fruit loaf blueberry scones filled pita pockets and sandwiches
(In case you didn’t know, the children cook their own tea on Tuesdays and Fridays).