Activities

Book Corner – Offers a cosy and quieter area of the room for story time and small group activities. This encourages speech, communication and literacy skills.

Roleplay Area – Offers a wide range of resources for fun and learning  such as dressing-up, shops, doctors surgery or hospital, vets,  babies, cooker and play food, hairdressers and barbers, builders, etc to support and develop children’s imagination, knowledge and understanding of the world and their communities as well as their speech and social skills.

Playdough – is a loved and great activity for children’s fine motor skill development and strengthening muscle tone in little hands which encourages prewriting skills and other skills such as cutting with scissors, using tweezers and holding a pencil.

Art and Craft Zone – offers a variety of materials, tools and resources such as box modelling, collage, cutting and sticking and painting to promote children’s creative instincts, develop fine motor skills, self-expression and boost self-esteem as well as to enhance decision making skills, hand-eye coordination and socialising.

Maths – Activities range from puzzles, matching games, weighing scales, counting and shape games as well as in other areas such as water play where we have explored objects that sink or float or in outside play with chalks where we have compared length and height after drawing around our friends!

Literacy – We provide a range of coloured pencils, chalks, tracing materials, stencils and resources to promote children’s interest in mark-making and writing skills. Children enjoy singing phonic songs and joining in with rhyming and letter activities.

Small world – Garages and cars, train track, fairies, action heroes, dolls and many more are provided in line with children’s interests as well as specific interests children may have such as Peppa Pig, PJ Masks and Paw Patrol toys. These resources promote children’s social skills, sharing and turn taking, speech and communication, imagination and role playing.

Construction – A range of construction toys are available such as lego, mega blocks, magnetic shapes, wooden blocks, duplo and many more. These activities promote working together, counting, shapes, length height, positional language, hand-eye coordination and imaginative play.

Messy Area – our messy area offers a range of activities for children to explore such as:

• Soil with natural resources, magnifying glasses and minibeasts
• Sand with dinosaur fossils, spades and sieves
• Water play with sea creatures, shells, containers for filling and emptying, pirate ships and treasure chests
• Slime with frogs and lily pads

Many more opportunities are provided for children to explore, experiment, be curious and imaginative. These activities also promote sensory play which has many benefits including language development, cognitive growth, motor skills, problem soling skills and social interaction.

Music – Children explore a variety of instruments and a range of music from different genres to learn and develop rhythm and movement as well as their understanding of different cultures. Children enjoy singing traditional songs and learning new ones too which promotes their language and communication skills.

Gym – offers a variety of activities such as a climbing frame, slide, trampoline, hula hoops, obstacle courses, music and movement, skittles and hopscotch to promote children’s health and well-being. Children are also able to self-regulate with a snack bar available in the gym where they can choose from a variety of healthy snacks, milk and water. Children learn the importance of healthy eating and exercise and how this supports a healthy body and lifestyle.

Focus Time – As children become a ‘school leaver’ they take part in adult led activities to enable them to develop their school readiness. These activities range from self-care routine to language, literacy and maths games.

Short trips – We have outings to the local park, shops and post office to extend children’s knowledge and understanding of their world. We include opportunities to learn about our local area, road safety, transport,  counting, communication and language and much more.

Light-bulb Classes

Our Lightbulb classes are run by Dave Sawyer. The classes are designed to develop fine and gross motor skills through a large number of fun, exciting drills which are broken down into 7 Levels (150 drills) and the aim is for all children to start their first day at school with confidence not to mention being able to enjoy playtime, PE and school sports.

This new, exciting and fun method of training will help switch on your child’s motor skills early which will enhance their coordination so they are ready to progress in all areas when they start school.

Partnership with Parents

Settling in sessions

We offer a course of settling in sessions prior to your child starting at our nursery. These may vary from child to child depending on a range of factors. During these sessions parents and children meet their key person giving you the opportunity to get to know each other. Your key person will discuss your child’s development, individual needs and next steps in their learning. The key person will also answer any questions you may have and begin building a special bond with your child, creating a secure attachment from home to nursery.

Open door policy

We provide an open door policy whereby a parent/carer can discuss any aspect of their child’s care or development at any time.

Parent/Key person meetings

We offer two open/social evenings in February and July where you will have the opportunity to discuss your child’s progress and the next steps in their development with their key person.

Regular newsletters are e-mailed monthly and updates are also available via our website and Facebook page.

Focus Week

We encourage parental involvement by including you in your child’s learning and development in a way that supports us to build a positive relationship between nursery and home. This is a process where each child is a ‘focus child’ for one week, once per term. These children are given a form to take home for their parents to complete – asking about current interests of the child, any special events in the family and any questions the parents may have.  We also ask for any photos you may wish to share with us which we will add to your child’s personal learning journey.