Bug Hotel Repairs

We really made the most of the lovely weather last week!!

On Monday we noticed that our bug hotel was in need of a Spring overhaul.

We roped off the bottom of the car park to make it save to explore.

Then we collected up the planks, slates, bricks, cones and sheep's wool which were no longer in position and worked together to make the hotel somewhere all the minibeasts will be happy to make home once more.

We will be making regular visits to see what has come to stay!!

Red Nose Fun!!!

We had a whole week's worth of Red Nose fun to make sure that everyone had a chance to take part.Thank you to everyone who bought cakes and biscuits, made donations and 'got rid of'' all their loose change, we raised a total of £96.85

We baked and decorated special cup cakes and rice krispie cakes and made bright red shortbread, which tasted much better than it looked!!

Our art and craft activities included lots of red painting, but not just with brushes!!!

and careful drawing and sticking to make faces with red noses on paper plates.

Our red theme was carried on through snack time on Monday as the children had a special treat - jam on their toast, but only if they could do the spreading themselves!

Outside the older children had fun searching for red noses, then identifying the numbers, sorting them and putting them into the correct order.

Pancake Day

On your marks..............get set............... go!!!!!!!!!!!!

The children had fun running pancake races.......... but possibly enjoyed the flipping even more!

Later that day both the nursery children and the After school club enjoyed pancakes for tea......

Luckily we did have enough ingredients to make a second batch!!!

Introducing Carolyn

A new member of staff joined the Overbury Grasshoppers' team last week. Carolyn Davies is an experienced, qualified nursery nurse with three children of her own. Last year she ran the London Marathon for charity and we hope that she will make physical activities at Grasshoppers her speciality.

Clearly starting as she means to go on, she led a physical, soft ball activity. In our warm up we did stretches and running on the spot.

Then the children's gross motor skills were tested -they had great fun throwing and catching the ball, rolling, passing and kicking it.

They really enjoyed the activity and the warm down testing their balancing skills before more stretches.

The children have been interested in sea creatures recently so some of our creative activities are reflecting this fascination.Carolyn quickly got stuck in, quite literally, making papier mache fish and colour mixing to create an aquarium in which to display some of our underwater art.

Another of her skills is Maketon and the children are already learning the signs to a song we use at the snack table to promote good manners.

Circus Show - Fri 11th Feb

On Friday the eight oldest children joined the reception and year 1 children from Overbury School to walk to the village hall to see a circus performer.

A few of them were a little wary at first, but they were soon really entering into the spirit of things.

They were engrossed as he rode his tiny bike and juggled with clubs and balls.

They loved all his characters - an elephant, a raccoon and magic wands with their own personalities. They clapped and waved, stamped their feet and, at times jumped out of their seats.

For the finale, the school children were asked which of their teachers should take part in the show. So Sharron, Miss Davies and Miss Holland had to dress as clowns to balance feathers on their hands and noses, which the children obviously found hilarious!!

Chinese New Year Activities 31st Jan - 11th Feb

We have had 2 busy weeks of activities exploring the traditions and concepts to do with Chinese New Year celebration!!

2011 is the year of the rabbit so the older children carefully cut out rabbit ears and all ages were able to decorate them with red paint and gold glitter.

More precision and perseverance to create Chinese Lanterns. The activity may have been planned for the older children but the younger ones were keen to try for themselves and with adult support they practised their cutting too.

We learned that red and gold are the colours used to celebrate Chinese New Year. So we have done lots of free painting and collage making in those two colours.

Tanya brought in her Willow pattern plate and after hearing the story behind it, the children carefully painted their own paper plates, telling their own very imaginative stories.

We finished our celebrations by joining Tower class at Overbury school, sharing prawn crackers at snack time, taking part in their activities and running around in their playground.

Some of our Chinese New Year art is now displayed at nursery, make sure you take a look when you are next in the main playroom!!

Where there's a will, there's a way!!

The Chinese New Year began on Thursday February 3rd, at Grasshoppers we are doing two week's worth of activities to celebrate and learn more.

For snack on Thursday we had some prawn crackers, but the older children were only able to try them if they picked them up using the chopsticks!

As the photos illustrate , they all used their problem solving and fine motor skills and lots of

perseverance to secure the prize.

At tea time the After School club were issued with a similar test.They also rose to the challenge and soon got stuck in and really enjoyed their sweet and sour chicken, noodles and rice.

Kung Hei Fat Choi

From one and all!!!