reflection

Well, August started off with our full steam planning and preparation for our Working Mums Summer barbecue held at our nursery for both of our nurseries.

The children love getting ready for our barbecues and feeling the excitement build as they decorate and create props for the theme. This year was a Hawaiian Beach Party and the children made so many beautiful interpretations of palms, leis, pineapple faces, flowers and so on.

And thanks in the largest part to the families who came; we think our Hawaiian beach party atmosphere was the best yet and it looked and tasted great too. Memories of our dads doing their best at the limbo, children bowling coconuts at the shy and trying to loop pineapples for little prizes are great, but always the most fun and biggest draw is the bouncy castle (the biggest we could get this year) and the beach that we made with sand dumped on tarpaulins, is just such summery fun.

And after the event had passed us by, we settled back in to enjoy the last of the summer sunshine (and rain realistically ..more and more of it).

Sea turtles have really settled into their new space and are having a great time with loads of activities. They have been exploring Sea life over the last month and so have had loads of activities going on around that.

Megan organised a trip next door to the Tropical Fish Shop. They went in two at a time to keep under the radar and not disturb the shop, but loved it! It is like visiting a little tropical aquarium in there. They have amazing fish of all colours and lots of ‘Nemos’.

Beata has been doing loads of drawing with the children and using the outside blackboard with them by showing them what to do and giving them chalk to draw with. She has also been making little mini pictures like post cards using paints and lots of crayon drawings on the painting easel inside with them.

Sarah-Louise showed the children how to make some great little crabs. She gave them crabs shapes to cover with glue, orange and yellow sand, then some little googly eyes to put on. She also set up some lovely underwater play using seashells and sea creatures in blue water.

Emily had some fun with the children painting shells. Great for their fine motor skills to paint small items and different shaped surfaces and textures.

Manjit made some fish mobiles with the children. The children selected their fish and punched holes in them with the hole punch. Manjit helped them to thread the string through the fish to hang up for mobiles. She also made little ‘fish tanks’ with the children by laminating goldfish pictures and getting the children to post them into bottles, fill them with water and glitter and secure the lid. They then had loads of fun playing with their little goldfish tanks.

Sarah G worked solidly with children over the month to create her sea display. The children had loads of fun making collage octopi, starfish and painting a whale and then helping her to display all their work. It does look pretty cool.

One big addition to the environment this month has been the new sand pit. The children love it and there are often times we need to weed children out of it because they all want to get in and can’t all fit and leave room to play! As the month has worn on and the nove

lty died down, it remains in constant use, but without the whole group wanting to be in there all at once.

And over in Dolphins, the hardest part of the month has been waiting for our tomatoes to ripen. So slow that some of the children gave up and presented us with a collection of green tomatoes and said look they are ready! But after that, we waited and one by one they slowly ripened and those who like tomatoes enjoyed eating them. But still, we wait and wait for the rest to ripen and wonder if they ever will. And as for the pumpkins, they produced those beautiful yellow flowers and that is all, but for the first time ever, we have been successful in growing all of our sunflowers and they were beautiful.

This month, we had a big focus on music and sounds. Christine H helped the children to make some fabulous shakers using cups and filling them with rice, then decorating them. Laura Z helped the children make some groovy guitars with the boxes, rubber bands, paint and glitter. Cristina helped the children make some drums with the children using two paper bowls, stapling them together and decorating them and Laura W helped children to make shakers using bottles. The children all had a very big music session using their instruments to accompany their singing and having a fantastic time. And, at the end of the session there was not much decorative glitter left on their instruments, but left the nursery looking much like one of those snow globes!

Activities tend to spiral off in all directions like singing Humpty Dumpty, that went into making Humpty Dumpties’ one raining day with Christine H and Laura W and then all sorts of discussions about what was inside humpty Dumpty. So, the only way to find out was to boil and egg, open it and investigate what is inside an egg. So Laura and Christine got out the camp stove and showed the children the process of boiling an egg. The children loved this and guessed how long it would take, what the egg would look like, how hot the water had to get, how to keep safe and so on. They especially loved the steam coming out of the pot!

Laura J did some work with the children on the types of noises animals make as this has been a feature of many of our songs. So, to jazz up our circle times, she helped the children to make animal masks and then they came to circle time with their masks in front of their faces to do some animal music.

Jenny, had a wonderful day with the children teaching them how to do Egyptian dancing with hip belts that jangle and dazzle. The children (boys and girls) shimmied, learned hip drops, figure of eights, snakey arms and danced their way through the afternoon taking turns and loving it!

Laura Z has made a game for the children where she has collected sounds of birds for them to listen to and pictures of the birds that make the sound. The children listen intently and then point to the birds that they think made the sound. Very hard at first, but after a few rounds the children got very good at identifying the sounds and matching them with the bird pictures. She has also made a rhyming game for the children where the children have to match up pictures that rhyme- a little bit like dominoes. This has really piqued the children’s interest in rhyming and some of the older children are finding rhymes in everything they do!

And the noisiest part of the month was of course the pots and pans bands. Children just love that din and clatter of wooden spoons and spatulas of pots and pans! It is loud, we hate the noise, the children love it and so space needs to be made for it…sorry neighbours!

Then finally of course the saddest part of the end of summer is saying good bye to our school leavers. When they go, it leaves a little hole in our hearts, helped by many of them returning for after school care, but always really sad ending an era of children, many of whom we have loved each day since they were babies.

August to September

What are we doing in Dolphins this month?
From August to September we will be having an enhanced focus on sounds and music.
This has really kicked off because with the introduction of the iPod touch to manage the children’s music, we have been able to quickly access a wide variety of music that we always had but just couldn’t find when you wanted it! The children are able to use the iPod to select what they want to listen to and the motivation and energy behind joining in and choosing different music and favourites has been inspiring and something we want to enhance.
The iPad has also introduced new ways to think about sounds and music, including birds and animal sounds, volume, beats, etc.
The activities this month will be based around the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) areas of learning:
KUW-music from other cultures PSED- confidence in singing, dancing and making sounds MD- variation in sounds, counting songs, tapping out rhythm. CLL- learning new words to songs. Repeating language PD- movement to music CD- exploring new ways to express themselves with music.
Some of the activities we will be doing this month to support this will be:
• Laura Williams will be setting up instrument making workshops with the children and then using the instruments children have made in music sessions.
• Laura Z is planning on using some recorded sounds of birds to work with the children on sound and image matching.
• Laura Z will be working with some children to make a guitar.
• Laura J will be incorporating animal sounds into new songs and old favourites like Old MacDonald.
• Rachel G will be introducing some old nursery rhymes and focussing on rhyming words and the sounds they make.
• Christine H will be running music sessions conducting fast, slow, loud, soft sounds and tapping out beats.
• Jenny will be introducing some Egyptian music and teaching children some simple dances.
• Cristina will be making loud noises with pots and pans bands.
• Carole will be teaching the children some new songs from around the world.
What you could do to support your children at home:
• Break out in the lounge and do some fun dancing to different types of music.
• Talk about the types of music you like and why you like it.
• Ask them what their favourite music is and take some time out to enjoy it together.
• Go to the library and get out a book on music instruments. Talk about the different types and noise they make.
• Take time to listen to their environment and see if you can spot bird calls and talk about what they sound like.

What are we doing in Sea Turtles for June?
With the last month of all things Hawaiian, we went to the beach and the sea and probably with our new name as Sea turtles, we have started to discuss and show an interest in sea creatures. So we will explore this further this month.
The activities this month will be based around the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) areas of learning:
KUW-discovery of different sea life PSED- finding a sense of curiosity and satisfaction in learning new things. MD- size, shape, pattern, colour. CLL naming new discoveries and expanding vocabulary PD-using bodies in new actions songs or exploring new activities CD- arts and crafts.
Some of the activities we will be doing this month will involve: • Manjit will be supporting the children in making some ‘bottom of the ocean’ art works using paint, coloured sand and collage. She will also be setting up sea turtle making with card, tissue and paint. • Sarah G will be helping the children make whale pictures, starfish and jelly fish pictures.
• Megan will be leading a small group excursion to the tropical fish shop to look at the fish and making sea life collages.
• Sarah-Louise will be making sea creature pictures of crabs and setting up water play experiences with sea creatures, sand, pebbles, shells, etc.
• Emily will be making some fin dress ups for the children to pretend they are
• Beata will support the team in different activities when she returns from her holiday.
• Su will bring in a real fish for them to touch and feel and make prints from.
Some ideas to support your children at home:
• Take your child to the library to take out some books on sea creatures.
• Go to a pet shop and look at the fish with them.
• Take them into a fish shop and show them all the fish, then buy one, cook it and try it together.
• Teach them a few fishy songs like….”One, two, three, four, five, onvce I caught a fish alive….

July reflection

Dolphins as usual have had a really busy and active month with loads of time spent outside. Gardening has been a favourite and since all of our work has been done in our pots, we are just doing lots of watering and to keep the fingers busy and the love of gardening going, we have been doing plenty of gardening role play too.

Carole has been doing lots of poetry and stories from around the world with the children, particularly the older children during rest time. The children have loved this and it has prompted loads of discussions about where the children have family around the world. So far in poems and stories she has taken us to the Philippines, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, France and Czech Republic.

Laura J has been doing wooly collages with the children. She has been helping them to cut wool of different colours shapes and sizes that they want and then collage it to make their pictures. Laura has also been making grass skirts with the children in readiness for our Hawaiian Beach Party BBQ.
Laura Z has been doing some cute little collages with the children, making palm trees and lady pineapples. Some of them are really cute and the children have concentrated really hard to get all the pieces in the places they want them.

Lan has been making leis with the children out of little flowers she has taught some of them to cut, paint and card strips to stick them on..

Laura W has also been making leis and talking with the children about how leis are used as a welcome in Hawaii. It’s been great for their fine motor skills as they push the little tissue flowers onto bodkins and down onto the string.

She has also spent a lot of time with the children looking at flashcards of images of different cultures and countries, talking about the different customs of the countries.

Christine H made a fish tank with some of the younger the children. They painted card fish that she had made and then strung them up in a box painted by the children. She helped children make telescopes from tubes by encouraing them to choose tubes, paint and decorate them. Then they were able to use them in play.
Rachel has been helping the children to paint big palms trees together to decorate our barbecue. There is something the children find really satisfying about applying loads of paint up and down to a big surface.

And Jenny has seen her pre-schoolers year end with their final excursion to the Tropical Zoo. They had an amazing time feeding tortoises, snakes, creepy crawlies and loads more. If you have not been there it is a zoo worth visiting if you are brave and if you are not, you might need to pretend you are for the sake of your child. http://www.tropicalzoo.org/.

It was a big month for Seaturtles. We went from Seahorses and Starfish to Sea Turtles this month, joining the two rooms together to create one group with more freedom and more options for play depending on their mood. So we now have a quiet room, where sleeping, sensory play, books, puzzles, heuristic play goes on with quiet music always playing in the back ground. It’s been great for children who just need a bit of space and for babies sleeping throughout the day too. And, for the teachers to have some time with a bit of peaceful quiet play too is a breather.

We also have an ‘active room’ for louder play, exploring equipment at different heights, encouragement to pull themselves up, climb, interact, play with water, the home corner, musical instruments, arts and crafts, blocks and a range of different equipment.

But most of the time, the children who want to be ‘busy’ have been outside. We’ve had a great month for weather and have been able to take the arts and crafts outside, loads of cooling water play, sand play, gardening and climbing about the equipment. It has also been wonderful to be able to eat our snacks and some of our teas outside too. We’ve even been able to fit in a trip to the park.

A lot of the activities this month have been around our focus on Hawaii. We have our big summer barbecue at the start of August and so these are some of the activities that we have been doing to get into the spirit…
Manjit has been supporting the children in making Hawaiian flowers, tropical fish and Tiki Gods. She also helped a group of children to bake pineapple cake and muffins. These were delicious, the children devoured them and so did the teachers!
Sarah supported the children in making some Hawaiian skirts, necklaces, palm trees and pineapples. These are really groovy and look great!
Beata helped the children to make little flowers with circles of tissue paper all stuck together.

And, Megan helped the children make some Hawaiian pizzas with a small group which were enjoyed by everyone.

June reflection

Dolphins, Seahorses and Starfish had a great month of insects and creepy crawlies exploration.

These are some of the activities they have done…
Laura Z in the Dolphins made some little puzzles for the children out of images of different types of insects and then cut them up to make puzzles out of them. The children pieced them all together to rebuild the images and guess the names of the insects. The children learned some new insects in the process such as a lady bird spider. And if you didn’t know what one was, here it is- they’re kind of cute don’t you think?

Laura Z. also made some bumble bees with the children. She made a model one and the children had all the pieces together to choose where they go and they made some fantastic attempts at some bees that really do look like bees!

Christine H. introduced some new insects stampers that the Dolphins children drew around to make insects outlines. They then cut them out with scissors and decorated them. Generally, the children’s ability with scissors is very competent and they are regularly looking for things to cut around in magazines and tracing other items such as their hands to then cut out.

Laura W supported the Dolphins children to make some really gorgeous little spiders out of foam eggs, pipe cleaners, paint and buggy eyes. They are adorable and the children loved making them. Actually, as soon as the beady eyes come out of the collage cupboard they are pretty excited!

She also set up a great insect collage table with foam pieces cutting up some pieces for the children to use, but also getting the children to use off cuts and their own cut up pieces to build their insect collages. This was great for all abilities and some children made amazingly advanced pictures like the caterpillar here and others made pieces that were a bit more rough around the edges and just as brilliant.

Rachel set up an insect stencil activity that all of the Dolphin children took part in. Some of the children drew around stencils, cut them out carefully and created patterns in them. Others drew around them and left them as a collection of images on paper and coloured them and some just did lots of stencil prints with no colour. This was a lovely quiet activity with children coming and going as they did their but with lots of support to the especially young Dolphins to encourage them into the world of arts and crafts. The butterfly was by far the most popular stencil.

Laura J did some dramatic play with the children outside by setting up dens for insects. She draped fabric about to made the dens and then got inside the dens with the children to pretend to be insects coming and going from their den to collect food and bring it back to their insect friends!
Throughout the month in Dolphins, while we were exploring all sorts of insects, pirates took over our nursery.

Lan made a collection of head scarfs with different themes on them and the pirates were by far the most popular….so Lan had to make a few more last minute to keep all our pirates happy. Every morning after breakfast our pirates grabbed their head scarfs and so the day began and soon we were making pirate ships, printing of treasure maps and hiding gold coins around the nursery to be found, reading stories about pirates and making all sorts of impromptu piratey type things!

Carole read the favourite story for the month, The Troll, which involved pirates, treasure chests, maps and walking the plank!

Seahorses and Starfish planned together this month and also followed an insect topic after all the bug collecting in our plants of the month before.

Sarah helped the starfish make some really groovy spider pictures by painting card spider bodies and gluing on straws for legs. The lovely thing about the children doing it and sticking the straws in all sorts of random positions is that somehow the spiders look even cuter!

Sarah also set up red and green ant making activities, caterpillar collages and water play filled with all sorts of insects in the water. The lovely thing about the Starfish is that they love getting really sticky with glue and slippery with the paint and just wallow in the joy of exploring the different sensations.

Manjit set up for the children a really neat little ‘bugs in the night’ small world activity. She used dark coloured sand, twigs, leaves and set the children to work moving and playing the little plastic bugs through the mini wilderness. So many different tectures to feel in this and some of the chldre really got into moving the bugs about and others really focussed on feeling the( different quality of this sand to our sand tray) sand in their fingers, the leaves and twigs.

She also set up a great little activity of making ‘snail trails’ on paper using string and silver paint. They trailed the strings around the paper leaving behind trails of silver paint like snail trails.

Manjit also helped the children make spiders using different materials to Sarah. She made them with black and brown fur, glued onto egg boxes with googly eyes.

For the smaller children Emily set up a butterfly making activity using glitter of different colours, lots of glue and mess on paper. It was fantastic and the children loved the flicking about of glitter, sticky hands on paper and everything getting caught on their hands including the glitter, the paper and them selves! The process was such fun and the end result was pretty gorgeous too.

With a lady bird colour concept, Emily also set up some fun sponge painting with red and black colours to dip round sponges into and onto paper. Of course it was a mess and the images to the uninformed eye and probably to the babies as well, were nothing like lady birds, but the point was an activity that was fantastic exploratory fun.

Beata made some lovely summery pictures with the babies of shapes of birds, butterflies, etc using sponges to absorb and stamp water colours onto yellow and blue paper. Lots of the babies really preferred to use their fingers- dipping them into the paint and smearing them about the paper, the table, their aprons and them!

She also made some fun giant flies with the babies. They were able to stamp black paint onto cut out fly shapes and then stick tissue paper about to make a kind of winged effect.

But other great spontaneous fun was the wonderful summery weather that meant we got out the giant submarine paddling pool for the children to splash about in for the day. It was so much fun and really made us all feel we were on holiday at nursery! We’ve also been able to do excursions to Mortlake park to search for bugs, more gardening and may we add that the gardens in both the under two’s and over two’s play grounds are looking amazing with flowers! And we have even had some fantastic water play with flowers and glitter- how pretty is that!?

Dolphins edible garden is also looking just incredible. Our tomato plants are the biggest and most flowery and green tomato bud bursting that we have ever seen them. Our pumpkins are going strong and we are not quite sure how we are going to manage them because there is a long way to go till pumpkin harvest! And our strawberries, while not enough to feed us all, but mixed with a few bought in ones was a really special and satisfying event.

July plans

What are we doing throughout the nursery this month?
August the 5th is our Summer Barbecue and this year’s theme is Hawaiian Beach Party.
So dust off your grass skirts, leis, Hawaii

Five-0 shirts and we will have a party!

And for us at the nursery, children and teachers will be getting prepared with lots of activities to get the party decorated, bright and an event to be getting excited about!
The activities this month will be based around the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) areas of learning:

KUW-learning about another culture, its traditions and uniqueness PSED- confidence in their abilities to make things. MD- size, shape, pattern, quantities and qualities of all the new things we will be making and exploring. CLL naming, discussing, learning words from another language. PD music and movement to Hawaiian music. Fine motor skills in threading leis CD- loads of different types of arts and crafts, dancing, music and movement.

Some of the activities we will be doing in Dolphins this month to support this will be:
• Rachel will be talking about the barbecue what we are doing and why while making some palm trees with the children to get the set started.
• Laura J will be helping children to make some grass skirts from newspaper and taking about grass skirts, looking at images, etc.
• Laura J is also going to be doing some collage with the children of Hawaiian images.
• Lan is planning on making some Hawaiian images, laminating and letting children explore and talk about a range of Hawaiian images.
• Christine has already started her tropical fish tank with the children and will be taking a small group of children with Su on an excursion to the Tropical Fish shop.
• Laura Williams will be making Leis with the children.
• Jenny and Laura Z will be taking a group of children on an excursion to the library to collect some information about Hawaii.
• Jenny will be making some palm trees with the older children out of wood and painting them.

Some of the activities we will be doing in Sea turtles this month to support this will be:
• Manjit will be working with the children to make some tropical fish and also a tropical garland display.
• Beata will be making some tropical landscapes pictures and tropical flowers.
• Megan will be making helping the children to decorate Hawaiian flags with the children.
• Megan will be hanging some tropical mobiles from the arch for children to explore.
• Sarah-Louise will be working with the children to make some cardboard coconuts through painting and sticking.
• Sarah G will be making some flower leis with the children.
• Emily will be doing some music and movement with the children to Hawaiian music.
• Manjit will be making pineapple cake with the children.
• Sarah G will be making pineapple and palm trees with the children.
• Sarah Louise will be making Hawaiian pizzas with the children for tea.

What you could do to support your children at home:
• Start planning your barbecue outfit with your child! Parents are welcome to dress up too and the more colourful we are the more cheerful the occasion!
• Go to the library and take out a book about Hawaii or buy one.
• Download the odd Hawaiian piece of music for the children to listen to.
• Make a tropical smoothie with your child and talk about the fruits you have used.
• Make them a lei at home- children love dressing up in leis!
• And on a summer theme- take them to Southbank- they have a great beach set up, really neat beach huts, lots of performances and an amazing atmosphere. It’s not Hawaiian at all- totally Indo-British, but it is well worth a trip for some summer festivities and fun.

June plans

What are we doing in Dolphins this month?

From April to May we will be having an enhanced focus on insects and creepy crawlies.
The children have been out in the garden hunting around, finding and delighting in insects and so we are planning on a big month of insects investigation and exploration.

The activities this month will be based around the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) areas of learning:
KUW-discovery, growing, observation PSED- confidence in exploring creepy crawlies MD- size, shape, pattern. CLL naming, discussing, PD music and movement as insects CD- arts and crafts.

Some of the activities we will be doing this month to support this will be:
• Model insects will be inhabiting our sand, water, playground and environment. Waiting for children to find them.
• Rachel and the children will be making some insect pictures.
• Lan and the children will be making some insect head gear.
• Jenny, Rachel and the children will be leading some creative dancing like insects.
• Carole and the children will be reading insects stories and poetry and doing some supporting artwork.
• Laura J and the children will be making some insects dens.
• Christine H and the children will be making egg carton bugs.
• Laura J and the children will be making a wormery.
• Jenny and the children will be raising stick insects.
• Christina and the children will be doing some junk modelling insects.
• Laura Z and the children will be making insects puzzles.

What you could do to support your children at home:
• Take them on a bug hunt, talk about the bugs you saw, then draw pictures of them.
• Let your child use a digital camera to take photos of bugs the find. Do some research and find out what different bugs you find are called.
• Go to the library and get some books out about insects.
• Look for tadpoles and different insects around ponds
• Make a wormery, it’s easy- ask the nursery for some instructions.

What are we doing in Starfish and Seahorses for June?
Insects, bugs, creepy crawlies and frogs.
Children have been fascinated in spotting bugs, including spiders, lady birds and bugs. We have also had some tadpoles that they have loved watching swimming around the water. So, we plan to extend this interest.

The activities this month will be based around the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) areas of learning:
KUW-discovery, learning about new bugs PSED- confidence in exploring creepy crawlies, MD- size, shape, pattern, colour. CLL naming, discussing, PD-experimenting in different ways to move bodies through acting out the insects , CD- arts and crafts.

Some of the activities we will be doing this month will involve:
• Sarah will be making some spiders with the children using googly eyes, straws for legs, circles for bodies and piecing them all together.
• The sand play will have a month of plastic creepy crawlies hidden in it.
• Manjit will be making some furry creepy crawlies using egg trays, furry bits, eyes.
• Lily will be doing some bug printing using paint and sponges.
• The children will be taking bug expeditions to the playground and local grassy areas to find bugs.
• Sarah will make some bug collages with little pictures of insects for the children to choose from.
• Emily and the children will be creating all sorts of things to create a new wall display.
• Beata will be making ‘flies’ with the children out of black painted tissue paper.

Some ideas to support your children at home:
• Take out a blanket and sit on a grassy patch. Look through the grass at all the bugs that are there. Count them, let them crawl on you, get a magnifying glass out and look at them.
• Go to the library and take out a book about bugs. Look at them and talk about them.
• If you have an iphone/pad or equivalent look for some bug apps, there are loads and some good basic children’s flash cards that name the creatures. Let us know of any good one you find.
• Sing lots of insect songs you know with them. Incy Wincy spider, I know an old lady…

April and May in Dolphins

Really, we had 'free plans' over May and April. There were so many bank holidays and children's holidays coming up over the two months, that we let our planning for lifecycles run for two months and were pretty loose in the interpretation of it, allowing children who were coming and going from holidays talk about what they had been doing and what they had been seeing.

Lots of discussions as expected and planned for were about all the flowers, plants, insects, etc. But the children also became really fascinated in weddings due to the royal wedding- of which we did no activities based around it at the nursery, but the environment saw to it that we were not going to miss out on thinking about weddings. Children found tiny pictures of William and Kate in magazines and papers and cut them out on the collage table like they had found treasure! There must have been a lot of wedding album sharing going on at home too, because the children loved telling teachers about their parents wedding photos and photos of them when they were small.

This led on to an interest in adults when they were younger. Laura Z asked all the teachers to bring in photos of them when they were young, which they did. The children have had so much fun and amusement trying to guess which pictures are of which teacher. The teachers had fun with this as well, mostly from a generation guessing perspective as we laughed at the clothes and quality of the photos!!

In April mostly, we did a lot of collage and work around flowers. Probably the most interesting and fun activity was dissecting a bunch of real flowers. We looked at and talked about the differences in their petals, leaves, stamens, anthers, etc. Then after they had all been taken apart, we collaged them onto some big pieces of paper.
In late April some of the older Dolphins children took a trip to Homebase to buy some plants, soil, hanging baskets and seeds to their garden. They chose some plants that they could eat and some plants that they could admire. This year, we have experimented with plants that grow up (peas and beans) and plants that grow upside down (we have some tomatoes growing upside down from hanging baskets) and then there are our flowers in the flower baskets that the children are watering (when they are not watering the teachers) and our strawberries that are a raging success this year, but for the constant hungry attacks from children’s wandering fingers and insects.

Children loved the gardening so much that once the plants were planted and we needed to end the digging, they just wanted to go back for more and this is not helpful for the plants survival! So we have set up a free gardening tray in the outdoor sand tray. Children have been digging, scraping, burying, hiding and discovering in the tray. We have plastic insects, and other natural materials in it to play with and the children have had a blast.

Football is a real success. The children who do it love it so much that we have had to add in another class to reduce the number sizes and ensure the children are having lots of opportunity to kick those balls. The other great thing about it is that it has really encouraged children's interest in lots of different physical activities and we have been kicking and throwing all sorts of objects about! Kicking- only balls, but throwing has seen Frisbees, bean bags, balls, tennis balls and scoops and quoits.

Sensory play has been a relaxing part of our days. We have a sensory tent that reflects light and we play with glowing balls, torches, funny feeling objects that have weird names we always forget, things to squeeze, pull, twist and things that slip through your hands and are really hard to hold on to! Also different textures, temperatures and sizes.

We can’t forget the bike and scoot days. They are so much fun and it is amazing how good the less confident children have become on their bikes or scooters. They just watch each other and want to hang out like big children together and just do it. It is brilliant to watch as they dish out instructions to each other and direct each other. They love the whole experience. Even the rolling down of the tyres to set up the space provides as much fun in the anticipation of the ride than the ride.

Oh and the Spring Tea Party at the start of April was massive. That is really the best way to describe it. We expected half the numbers of families and children, planned for a civilised bonnet parade but unseasonably hot weather brought out everyone at the eleventh hour and we were pretty unprepared for it and amazed. Still, we had a great time, children loved their bonnets, Peppa Pig (well, most children- not all), tea, prizes and of course the bouncy castle. It was hot and fun and we raised £621.80 for Wellchild which was great!

And, back to the garden, we have also been looking at insects through magnifying glasses. We have found lady birds, snails, ants and little odd bugs that we are unfamiliar with around the playground sparking off a major insect interest that is running through the nursery at present.