Riverview

January 2024 at Riverview!

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All About Me

At the start of each term we spend two weeks learning ‘All About Me’; the children are given opportunities to explore their life story and how it may be similar or different to that of others. Pre-School have been learning all about each other’s families, and some of the children have shared photos of their trips over the last few months. We spent time talking about who lived in our houses, what our bedrooms look like, and we even talked about different foods we like to eat with our families. The children then took time to draw pictures of their families.

Rhythm Time

‘Rhythm Time’ is a great opportunity for the children to join in with songs and rhymes. During our session this month, the children in Toddler Room explored animal noises, and how they could move like animals. The children also enjoyed making music with a range of instruments. They explored the different sounds they could make, and explored different ways to use them. They really enjoyed using the scarves when dancing, and popping the bubbles. Their favourite part of the session was the stretchy Lycra. The children all held a part of the parachute and saw how high they could make the items bounce.

Babies and Maths

Babies have chosen to focus on improving the children’s mathematical development this half term. In the Baby Room we focus on numbers 1, 2 and 3, this is to create a foundation for future learning.  The Baby Room have really enjoyed making playdough, exploring quantities and using words like, ‘less’, ‘more’ and ‘lots’. The activities that have been set out to enhance the children’s learning, have promoted filling and emptying containers; this has encouraged the children to using their fine motor skills, and will aid in the development of their hand-eye co-ordination.

Nursery Council

The nursery council gathered towards the end of the month to discuss upcoming events, and how they might be able to celebrate. They decided that they would like to celebrate Shrove Tuesday (pancake day), Valentine’s Day and Kindness Day. Some suggested that they can make cards for their friends and families for Valentine’s, and taste pancakes with a variety of topping (such a strawberries, bananas and, maybe, a small helping of chocolate!) for pancake day. For Kindness Day, we talked about the Pre-School rules, and what more we can do to be kind to others.

The children are also aware that Ramadan and Mother’s Day are to follow in March.

Employee of the Month

Impressively, January was Georgia’s first month at Riverview, and the staff have been really impressed with her enthusiasm and ability to use her initiative; enough to vote her as Employee of the Month! Georgia has made an excellent first impression; we are very excited to see what more she has to offer. Keep up the hard work Georgia, and well done!

National Storytelling Week

The Baby Room have been all about storytelling in the last week of January to celebrate National Storytelling Week! There have been an array of different exciting activities, set up to ignite children imagination and curiosity. The Babies have enjoyed getting messy in the tuff trays, and building in the construction corner. The grown-ups have been telling stories, and narrating their play. They have used books that follow the children’s interests to spark the children love of books. They have chosen to read books containing repetition to encourage the children to join in the familiar phrases.

 

An Active August over at Riverview!

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Check out what our Babies, Toddlers and Pre-School have been up to during this busy month at Riverview!

What has our local community got to offer us?

We had an extremely exciting and busy August here at Riverview! The month started off with our Babies and Toddlers taking a trip on the tram, into the local community, heading to Hillsborough Library. They had a great time exploring, and listening to the stories being read by our staff team who accompanied them. Once we got back, the children also enjoyed colouring pictures based around the books we had read. We love watching the children become more familiar with their local area; we will continue to visit the community and everything it has to offer.

                             

Makaton Awareness Week

August was home to Makaton Awareness Week, so we made sure we made the most of it throughout the nursery! Makaton is a language programme that uses symbols, signs and speech to support language development. All rooms joined in practicing their key signs, and continued to learn all about Makaton at group times. They practiced the Makaton song of the month which was ‘1,2,3,4,5, Once I Caught a Fish Alive!”

                            

Crazy Science!

In Pre-School we’ve been carrying out lots of science experiments; our focus was things that fizz! We explored with bath bombs, vinegar and bicarbonate of soda, and lime/lemon juice. We heard lots of interesting sounds as we tested all the different materials out!

                         

A little bit of sunshine…

Although August was meant to be our last summer month, we didn’t really get our fair share of sunshine. However, on the odd days we did have some sun, our Babies enjoyed splashing about in the water play area to keep cool.

                       

Artists in the making!

Our Babies also spent lots of time this month exploring different textured paint, and different ways of mark-making. Our garden area got a new makeover thanks to our artistic Babies and their impressive painting skills!

                       

Architects of the future?

Toddlers also enjoyed exploring different aspects of the garden this month, and had their own means of contributing to it’s makeover; they used blocks and panels to build new stations and objects in the garden, including our very own car wash! They then used their new creations to help develop their balancing skills and range of movements. They too were also very creative with the painting when decorating these creations.

       

What did August teach us?

The main thing we discovered here at Riverview this month, was that you don’t need sun to have fun!

 

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.

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.

May at Riverview!

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HEY!!!! Over the past few months we have been working hard to achieve the Health Early Years award!

The HEY award is a quality assurance scheme that aims to celebrate and share good practice within Early Years and school settings. We are very pleased to tell you that we passed with flying colours, and a special recognition goes to Ashleigh Casey (Deputy Manager) for being the lead throughout.

Eid-Ul-Fitr

We kicked off the month celebrating Eid-Ul-Fitr; we incorporated it into our Free Fruit Friday initiative that we run on the last Friday of every month, so for the April date we sent children home with little fruit baskets full of dates and other dried fruits to enjoy with their families.

‘Good to Grow’

We have made the most of our greenhouses courtesy of Morrisons’ ‘Good to Grow’ scheme. The children have done lots of planting and have enjoyed learning about the process, and all about where our food comes from.  In the gardens we now have lots of different plants growing, including strawberries, melons, tomatoes, courgettes, beans and peas. Hopefully later in the year we will be able to share with you our experience of tasting the crops we have grown!

Caterpillars!

We have had a delivery of caterpillars, the children have really enjoyed watching them grow and them turn into chrysalis.  They are eagerly awaiting for them to emerge as butterflies over the next couple of days.

‘Cash for Kids’

This month we supported the Hallam FM’s ‘Cash for Kids’ charity by doing a raffle and bake sale! Thank you to all who contributed and a big congratulations to the raffle winners!

The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee

The children have done lots of different craft and sensory activities to mark this wonderful occasion, including making crowns, building castles and exploring coloured sensory bins/baskets! We also had a day celebrating where we all wore red, white and blue!

Pets!

Finally, we have a couple of new additions to the Riverview team! We are very excited to announce the arrival of ‘Yoshi’ & ‘Birdo’ the Axolotl’s.  We are looking forward to watching them grow and to learn all about them!

December 2021 at Riverview!

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Babies’ trip to the park

At the beginning of December, our babies had a little adventure to explore the local area. They found a nature trail that led up to the park. They had lots of fun on the swings, slide, and roundabout.

They enjoyed games of ‘pass the parcel’ at their Christmas party! They created lots of Christmas crafts, and have explored many different sensory opportunities; the favourite ones being snow and ice!

Toddlers’ sensory polar experience

Toddlers have been getting messy this month; their favourite was the polar themed tuff tray. They had lots of fun exploring the ice blocks and finding hidden treasures!  The children noticed the ice was cold and that, as the day went on, the ice blocks were getting smaller.  They talked about all the different animals that live on the snow and ice.

As a group, the Toddlers made a huge gingerbread man and candy cane that you may have seen displayed in our entrance foyer.

Pre-School Christmas dinner and party games

Pre-School loved their Christmas dinner; especially the brussels sprouts! After lunch they played party games and did lots of dancing to Christmas music.

The Pre-School children have been learning lots of Christmas songs this month, the Makaton song of the month is ‘Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer’ and the children have really enjoyed learning the signs!

Junk modelling Christmas tree

Instead of a traditional Christmas tree, this year we have worked together to make our special own junk model Christmas tree! This was a full team effort and the children all really enjoyed painting, sticking and constructing the Christmas tree!

Super Star Sports

Super Star Sports is always a hit with our Pre-School and Toddler children; they love the activities and noticing the effects of exercise on their bodies. The children enjoyed practicing their throwing and catching skills with the rugby balls in our session this month.


The Toddler children have continued, throughout the month, to run their own little exercise sessions, playing football and doing relay races in the garden.

Healthy Early Years Award

The children and staff members have loved discovering new ideas and ways to keep themselves and their families healthy. Ashleigh, our HEY (Healthy Early Years) lead, has been working hard alongside the staff members and HEY champions. The children have explored new activities to make sure they are getting their 180 minutes of exercise a week. The children shared ways in which they like to move and explained how they made them feel. One child said, “I feel lots of energy when I run really fast, like this” and encouraged his friends to run around the garden and copy him.

Staff members have said they have gained a greater understanding of how much they should be exercising, and have begun to try more healthier options when at home. Everyone has loved exploring new foods and celebrating foods from many different countries, some of our families even sent over recipes for us to all try! We are all super excited to continue exploring and developing our healthy early years!

From Riverview and all the EYCED team we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

July 2021 at Riverview!

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What makes us unique

The children in our Pre-School room started the month by discussing what makes them unique. They talked a lot about what they had in common, and also what differences they have. They made faces out of playdough and, at the mark-making table, they drew themselves.

It’s coming home

For the Euros, we had a special football party before the tournament final. The Pre-School children worked together to create a big England flag that we hung up in the garden. In Babies, they experimented with the colour red by playing in red spaghetti, and making lots of marks in the sensory tray with red paint.

Good luck school graduates

July saw us waving goodbye to our first ever Pre-School graduates, and what a lovely bunch they were! We’ll miss them all dearly. To celebrate them finishing at Riverview, we had a ceremony where each of them were presented with a certificate. We then had ice-cream in the garden and some party games to celebrate their achievements.

Sports day fun!

Pre-School also had their very own sports day. Simon from Super Star Sport came in to deliver a session for us and the children had a great time running around, playing with the footballs and participating in the physical challenges. Afterwards, we talked about why exercise is good for us and the effect it has on our bodies.

Tooth Brushing club

As we will soon be starting a tooth brushing club, we have introduced the children to the importance of oral health, and what they can do to look after their teeth.  In an activity to promote good oral health, the children used toothbrushes to clean dirty marks off the teeth model.

We’ve been growing!

As well as brushing teeth twice a day, eating a balanced diet can also help promote good oral health. In the garden, we have had our first harvest of green beans. The children have been enjoying eating these at lunchtimes. The children love watering the plants and learning what makes them grow. Toddlers and Pre-School have both done experiments to see what happened to bean/pea seeds under different conditions. We have found that the seeds that have water and sunlight grow, whereas the seeds without will not.

Our ant world

Toddlers have been looking after their own colony of ants in their ‘ant world’. They enjoy observing the ants in the nest, watching them dig and crawl around.  They watch them walk down the tube of the ant world in the viewing container, where there is food for the ants to eat. We have talked about the types of food ants like; we have found they like sugary fruit and vegetables as this gives them lots of energy.  

We are looking forward to more fun in the sun this summer, and to welcoming our families old and new back in the new term.