June here at Kingswood!

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Summer time fun!

We kicked off June here at Kingswood with our summer themed Toddler Room parent workshop! We were over the moon with the turnout of all those who attended the event that we held outdoors in the garden. During the workshop, Toddlers enjoyed taking part in lots of arts and crafts activities, such as painting pictures and getting messy! They also enjoyed some cutting and sticking with lots of different texture materials – how exciting!

Father’s Day at Kingswood…

June also consisted of lots of lovely Father’s Day celebrations. We carried out many Father’s Day themed activities, including making personalised cardboard plates!

Healthy eating at it’s finest!

Our Pre-Schoolers took control of Healthy Eating Week, holding their very own ‘Kingswood Council Meeting’ where they talked about what changes they could make to have a healthier diet! Some of the alterations they cleverly came up with included changing their lunch to a healthy stir fry – which went down a tasty treat! They also decided to add fruit to their water – we think this might have been their favourite invention of all, as they then discussed if this was something they’d like to do all the time! Toddlers also tried lots of new and exciting tropical fruits during snack time. To finish off Healthy Eating Week, Pre-School created their own pizzas, using their new wealth of knowledge to add plenty of healthy toppings!

 

Kingswood’s efforts to be more sustainable…

During June, we introduced new recycling bins outside, in an effort to be more sustainable and make a difference to the environment! We talked about why it is important to recycle, and how it can help our planet before our Toddlers helped pick up cardboard and other recyclable materials, and then carefully put them into to correct bins!

To finish off June…

We ended June by celebrating the second and final Eid of this year! We had a super fun day learning all about the festive celebration, as well of doing lots of different Eid related activities, such as dressing up in traditional clothing and designing our own henna tattoos!

Reason to celebrate at The Little School House!

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We were all so very excited, & proud, to hear that The Little School House were being honoured by daynurseries.co.uk.

Their annual Nursery Awards 2023 recognises 20 of the top-rated Nurseries in each region of the UK based on reviews from parents/individuals responsible for a child. In the category for the ‘Top 20 nurseries in Yorkshire & the Humber’ there were a mere 3 settings featured from South Yorkshire, 2 of which are from Sheffield, & 1 of those is our very own Woodseats branch.

We’d like to take the opportunity to thank all the lovely parents for the reviews that they have submitted on this forum for us; it really does mean the world to us to hear how we impact so positively on you & your children.

As a Company, we thank the wonderful staff team based at The Little School House – for the dedication they show each & every day, for the care & education they provide to each & every child, & for the teamwork & fun they bring to our organisation – a highly valued group of fantastic individuals, so beautifully led by Nursery Manager, Beth Softley! We also can’t forget the supporting infrastructure of staff that contribute to the team too – our amazing Quality Practice Manager, Anna Cam, our brilliant Company SENCO, Clare Hough &, overseeing everything our Area Manager, Lisa Mapley.

May Activities at Oak Valley

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At Oak Valley we started off May with the Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla. We enjoyed celebrating to mark this special occasion. The children did lots of themed activities including crown making, decorating biscuits and even had our very own tea party. We listened to the National Anthem and dressed in red, white and blue.

As part of our HEY Award (Healthy Early Years), Pre-School have been promoting the importance of oral hygiene even more than normal. Alongside their daily toothbrushing club, they have been talking about the value of brushing your teeth twice a day, and joining in with different toothbrushing activities.

In Rising 3’s we have been doing some recycling using our recycling bins in the entrance hall, and categorising the items into the correct bin. We talked about the importance of recycling and looking after our planet, as well as talking about the different materials. We then used these materials to take part in junk modelling – we made dinosaurs, princess castles and rockets!

Toddlers have been exploring different sensory play and textures this month. We made some marks with various tools in the clay, and talked about the wonderful efforts we had made. We also used some soapy water and paint brushes to make patterns on the nursery wall.

With the weather getting warmer, and the sun starting to shine, Babies took part in ‘Sun Awareness’ activities. They talked about the importance of putting on our hats and wearing sunscreen. They did various activities to get these messages across – putting sunscreen and hats on dolls, and making a sensory sun out of coloured rice and paper to name a couple! We had so much fun exploring this!

Highgate’s April Antics

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April started off with our Easter celebrations here at Highgate! The children enjoyed taking part in lots of Easter themed crafts & activities. Rising 3’s used potato mashers with the children to paint & print Easter eggs pictures, we did lots of baking activities, including chocolate Easter nests & chick biscuits. We finished off our celebrations with an Easter Egg hunt in the garden for all children to search for some Easter treats.

In Toddlers, we have been looking after some caterpillars! Once they had made their cocoons we put them into their butterfly net. We then waited patiently for them to develop, talking about what we thought they may turn into. We read our story of the week which was ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ & learnt that they will turn into butterflies. We were very excited when our butterflies came out & enjoyed watching them learning to fly. We fed them some apple & nectar water. When they were strong enough, we went on an adventure to the park to set them free! 🦋🐛🍎

The Pre-School children had so much fun at our Eid party! We danced to traditional music, wore our traditional/party clothes & had a big Eid dinner. ⭐🌙♥️

The staff were also treated to a delicious Eid lunch, thanks to Alisha & Uzma who work in the Pre-School room!

March at Riverview

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World Book Day

On Thursday 2nd March the children enjoyed coming to nursery dressed as their favourite character. The Pre-School particularly celebrated Julia Donaldson classics, including ‘Room on a Broom’, with all the staff dressing as a different character. Toddlers took the opportunity to share their favourite book ‘Dear Zoo’, whilst Baby Room had a ‘Wizard of Oz’ theme.

Snow day

There was a little bit of disruption to our usual schedule in March, caused by the weather!  Snow is a wonderful experience for the children and we hope that all of our families that didn’t make it to nursery had a good time exploring at home. For the few children that made it to nursery during the snow days we had a very fun time. We built a snowman outside and then came inside to warm up with some hot chocolate. We took the opportunity to say hello to our guinea pig friends Neddy and Noddy; we got them out of the cage to have a closer look and a cuddle.

Science Week

Pre-School have been exploring non-fiction books, finding out different facts about the world we live in.  Did you know that most of the Earth’s surface is covered in water? Around 71% of it! And the biggest ocean on Earth is called the Pacific Ocean! Or did you know that the Milky Way is the name of the galaxy we live in?

We have also started planting this month and, with this, we have a little ongoing experiment on how seeds grow. The children have placed two bags on the window, each of which contains a bean seed. One is in the bag alone, whereas the children think some soil and water in the other bag will help the seed to grow! The children are excited to see if their hypothesis is correct.

Red Nose Day

On Friday 17th March we celebrated Comic Relief. This year there was a ‘Mr Men and Little Miss’ theme which we made the most of by dressing up as the characters, and setting up messy play opportunities in the tuff trays.

St. Patricks Day

Toddlers hunted for the gold at the end of the rainbow in the sensory tray. Babies experimented making playdough with different lucky charms to hide and seek.

Spring walk to the park

Pre-School had a walk up to the local park. On the way there they looked for signs of Spring around them. The children noticed new plants growing such as daffodils and tulips. We also talked about the sun up in the sky. On the way back we did a listening walk to see what sounds we could hear; we heard birds tweeting and lots of different vehicles on the road. We took this opportunity to talk about safe ways to cross the road.

Ramadan – Free Fruit Friday and wish tree

Ramadan is a time that we reflect on our self, to be thankful and to help others.  We know lots of our families are fasting at the moment so, for Free Fruit Friday, we provided different traditional fruits to break fast with in the evening. We also created a wish tree outside the nursery for our children to reflect on things they are grateful for.

February at LSH

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Valentine’s Day

This month at The Little School House we have had lots of fun creating our own Valentine’s Day crafts to send to the special people in our lives. The children had different ideas about the cards they would like to create in each of our rooms, in Pre-School we loved trying to write our own names. On the different hearts of our cards, we wrote different reasons why we love our special people.

Mark Making in Sensory

The Toddlers and Pre-Schoolers have loved making different marks in the shaving foam this month, we used paint brushes, glue spreaders and our fingers to make the different marks. We also used different cards to try and copy the patterns we could see.

National Apprenticeship Week

In February we celebrated National Apprenticeship Week – an opportunity to raise awareness of such a great scheme & also, more importantly we think, to celebrate the hard work & achievements of all the wonderful staff we have training towards their Early Years qualifications. We hope you agree with our view that they all deserve a treat which we’ve been happy to provide! 👏👏👏

Rhythm Time for Babies & Toddlers

We loved our sessions with Rhythm Time this month, we enjoyed banging the drums that are shaped like lollipops, shaking the ribbon, and feeling the different textures. We met a rabbit this time! He was white and he sang with us.

Pre-School School Readiness

In Pre-School we have done lots of different activities, getting us ready for going to big school in September. We practiced putting on our own coats and zipping them up, washing and drying our own hands – making sure that we used soap to clean off all the germs and continuing to blow our own noses, putting the tissues into the bin and then re-washing our hands.

Babies Winter Walk

Our Babies loved the Winter season so much that they went on one last walk to look at the conkers, crunchy leaves and acorns that were left over before the seasons changed and Spring began.  We also kept our eyes peeled for some squirrels but unfortunately we didn’t see any.

January at Kingswood 2023!

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Happy New Year!

Here are a few things that we have been getting up to at Kingswood this month…

In the run up to the New Year, the children took part in an inspiring firework tuff tray activity. They talked a lot about the New Year and how people may celebrate.

Here are a couple of the children playing in the tuff tray.

People who help us!

Pre-School have had some visitors in this month! Thanks to some wonderful parents that willingly gave up their time to answer our call for their assistance, the children were able to learn about what they do for a living and how they help within their role. Among others we were lucky enough to hear from a barrister and a doctor. The children got to try on different items relevant to the jobs and gain knowledge about the roles.

This then inspired great conversations around what they want to be when they grow up, and fabulous role play!

Chinese New Year!

Here we celebrated by having all the children try some delicious Chinese food! We had vegetable spring rolls, prawn crackers and Quorn and vegetable chow mein noodles. The children used their skills to make lanterns, we spoke about it being the Year of the Rabbit, and what everyone else’s birth years were.

Big Garden Bird Watch and Squirrel Appreciation Day!

As part of the Big Garden Bird Watch, and Squirrel Appreciation Day,  the children went on a walk around the wooded area across from the setting. We also took a trip to the local park. The children all wanted to see what birds they could find and see if they could spot any squirrels. They looked into where the animals natural habitats were, and came back to make their own animals, and houses for them to live in.  

National Storytelling Week!

As part of National Storytelling Week, the Pre-Schoolers took a trip to one of the local libraries. They enjoyed listening to stories and looking at the books while they were there.

Staff have been reminding parents about our own Lending Library, and many children have taken advantage by borrowing a book to take home and enjoy with their parents.

Reading stories at nursery with all the children is very important; afterwards, as a result, they engage in role play, tuff tray activities, and many more, relating to the books that we read. It also contributes greatly to their language development & increasing their vocabulary.

We are now looking forward to World Book Day in March!

December at Oak Valley!

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We started off December cheering on England in the World Cup! We used the children’s interest in this to learn about the countries taking part in the tournament & the different cultures. The children enjoyed designing their own football shirts, making flags & even made their own role play football pitch where they predicted the score!

The Baby & Toddler rooms have been particularly exploring the sensory trays this month. They have enjoyed using shaving foam, cereals, flour & ice to investigate.

We then began our festive activities, stating with our Christmas Jumper Day! We enjoyed wearing our favourite Christmas outfits & taking part of lots of themed activities! We also had a yummy Christmas dinner & pulled crackers with our friends!

Every year, Hallam FM run the ‘Mission: Christmas’ campaign as part of their Cash for Kids charity. Mission: Christmas accepts donations of cash & toys from members of the public so that they can support hundreds of organisations & the children they help. This year we decided to get involved. Instead of doing ‘secret Santa’, the staff decided to buy gifts for the cause instead. With parent donations & bake sales, we really managed to make a difference this Christmas! Well done & thank you to all involved!

Sparkles the Elf returned to Oak Valley this year to see the children! He got into quite a bit of mischief & the children had to remind him of our golden rules! Sparkles then copied the children’s good behaviour & earnt himself lots of stickers. Well done for learning Sparkles!!

Pre-School enjoyed inviting their parents & grandparents into nursery to watch them in their Christmas concert! After enjoying mince pies & the children’s singing, we then took part in a Christmas-themed workshop! We made melted snowman biscuits, wrote letters to Father Christmas & made snowflake decorations. Thank you to everyone who came to support us!

We finished off our Christmas celebrations with our annual party! We danced, played games & had a party lunch with our friends! We enjoyed lots of craft activities & even recieved a special present from Father Christmas! What a fun year we have had. We can’t wait to see what 2023 brings!

Fun at Highgate in November

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We started November with our Parent’s Evenings; thank you to everyone who attended!

Rising 3’s celebrated Bonfire Night with lots of fun and bright crafts.

The children all celebrated Remembrance Day by decorating and painting poppies. The children in Pre-School made a poppy wreath and walked to the church to lay it.
The children really enjoyed taking part in a homelink activity. They were given a bag to collect Autumn ‘treasures’ and went on adventures with their families finding acorns, leaves and conkers. The children then used their ‘treasures’ at nursery to explore and investigate.

October at Riverview

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Space Week

Toddlers started the month in space!! Taking part in lots of different space-themed activities. From ‘space jelly’ to ‘cloud dough’, they had lots of fun exploring the different textures.  During Space Week the Word of the Week was “move”; outside the Toddlers explored how they could move their bodies in different ways, they walked slow on the moon and ran fast like a rocket.

Leanimals

Mid-month we had a lovely visit from Leanimals.

Before their arrival we asked the Pre-School children what animals they might like to see.  We had lots of suggestions, such as snakes, spiders and rabbits. Some of the children were thinking on a much bigger scale and suggested there might be a tiger come visit! Our core book for this week was ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea’ so the children had been taking part in lots of tiger-related activities. Fortunately, there wasn’t a tiger in nursery, but the children were all very happy with the animals that did come to visit!

Babies and Toddlers also got to see and hold the animals, their favourite being the tiny mouse. They were all very brave and excited.

Practitioner Appreciation Day

On the 17th October we celebrated our wonderful staff team! We treated them to graze boxes for lunch and some sweet treats!  We have a fantastic staff team, that is evidently agreed with by our parents going by the lovely comments that were left. Thank you for your continued support!

Halloween

Babies’ Playdough Pumpkins

Babies have enjoyed making playdough, testing out the recipe and getting very messy! When they eventually got the measurements right, and made the dough, they shaped the dough in balls, added eyes and called them pumpkins! They added orange food colouring and pumpkin spice scent for a full sensory experience.

Toddlers Pumpkin Carving

Toddlers have helped carve pumpkins for Halloween. They used a pumpkin carving kit with extra caution.  First they took it in turns to scoop out the inside of the pumpkins, they then each had a turn to draw a shape on the pumpkin and help cut it out.

Pre-School Parent Workshop

Pre-School held a very successful parent workshop. We welcomed many of our families in to stay and play! The children and grown-ups all had the chance to engage in a number of Halloween themed activities, we got messy making playdough and creative decorating cupcakes!

We look forward to welcoming lots of our lovely families at parent’s evening this week. We also have our Baby Room bonfire-themed stay and play to finish a busy month at Riverview.