Our unexpected start to a new year!Wow, January was a really unexpected month. Not the month itself, but the events. We ended December with plans of building wood planter boxes with the children to put soil and bulbs in, planting bulbs in our hanging baskets and window boxes in determination to welcome spring with bursts of colour and a softer border for our for the outdoor areas. We still have these plans, but January threw us some curve balls delaying things.
For starters there was the snow and frozen ground, so we couldn't plant a thing in the soil and convincing the children that going outside for extended periods to build planter boxes was anything but possible. Even our hardy soldiers who are committed to their outdoor area smiled at us on some days like we were having a laugh by suggesting it was a good idea to go outside and play. So, we scrapped that idea and focused on enjoying and appreciating the snow while it lasted.
The only really cold days that successfully had children wanting to go outside were the snowy ones. We had some fantastic moments with the children throwing snow, making snow castles with sand buckets, dying the snow with food colouring and making snow mounds and shapes.
We thought the snow would lead off into discussions and special interests of snow sports as interests tend to get triggered by these things, but the children never really got into that either. As the snow melted away, the children returned their interest to the indoors and the different activities that we have added into the curriculum there. I guess the inside warmth is welcoming.
January also saw the very unexpected and sad closure of our nursery in East Sheen. This brought even more challenges to us as we had a sharp increase in numbers in the nursery and some new staff join us too. This focused the team intensely on settling in new children and team members and for the children, meant getting to know new faces and showing our new friends new ropes, such as where to clean their plates after dinner and how to stack them, where to help themselves to a drink of water, how to ask to go outside in winter, etc.
Dolphins
The dolphins group have been very busy in the arts and crafts department. This is always a strong area in the nursery and January saw lots of sticking and creating. The children had the opportunity to look at some pictures of mosaics and then create some of their own. Originally, the mosaics were just made as a mosaic making exercise, but then we started to see little mosaics creeping into some of the other art work children were doing and some lovely creative blends of craft started to take place as you can see in the photo of one of the nursery displays here.
We also did a lot of baking as usual for our Tuesday and Friday afternoon teas and making play dough, mixing paints, listening to and participating in our new stories from our story sacks, that include books and props so the children can all have a turn at taking part in the story.
Starfish
Starfish continued the planting idea with the children and since they couldn't get started on the bulbs, they started planting some cress in little egg and biscuit containers. They also made some clay pots to put their plants in, but sadly not all plans work out and they weren't ideal for planting so they became candle light holders instead!
Starfish have been doing a lot of toddler energy burning inside since the weather has not been as enticing outside, so the team brought in a lot of soft climbing equipment to allow the children to burn off some of their boundless energy. This is always really enjoyed and very much needed in the winter months.
Baking recently has included making; scones and jam, pizza, cherry shortbread, banana muffins, tomato and parmesan twists, spicy bread, potato wedges and beans and jam tarts. Most of the children offer to take part and enjoy making it. All of the children enjoy eating it.
Seahorses
The seahorses have had a few new children join them in January and so the focus has really been on settling them in through providing lots of interesting activities for them to explore and for the team to see what sparks their interest and continue to have available for them.
Favourite activities for the new children and established children have been playing with the bangles we have in all shapes and sizes to go over a wooden post. The babies love the bangles and the staff love having a play with them too!
Wooden treasure basket, which is a huge basket full of all sorts of familiar wooden items has also been well used this month by the babies gathering favourite items or searching through for something that grabs their attention.
Even though the weather has been tough, babies have still had some good times in the garden climbing on the slides and see-saw and playing with the balls, especially. The latter part of the month since the new matting has gone down, has made an even better environment to play in. It is not quite finished, but already it has made a big difference in appearance and providing a smooth surface for the children to play on.
