Planned trip to the Bluebell Wood - Tues 4th May

The children have really been enjoying their nature walks and have been very interested to learn about the wild flowers.

We have the opportunity to go to the Bluebell Woood (above Beckford) on the tractor and trailer next Tuesday 4th May and would like to invite the parents of children attending on Tuesday to share the experience with us.

There will also be a limited number of spaces for cchildren and their parents who do not usually attend on a Tuesday - first come, first served! Don't miss out! Let us know if you would like to come.

We look forward to sharing this special trip with you.

The cook, St. George, the dragon,and the volcano!!

Last week (19th - 23rd April) the children really enjoyed baking with Ruth. They made cookies and banana muffins and received a special request for their next recipe - so expect some chocolate brownies this week.

We found the story of St. George and the dragon on the internet, then used our cutting, colouring and folding skills to make our own dragons and shields.

Having heard all about the dust cloud and the volcano, we tried to find out more about volcanoes, this time in one of our 'telling' books. We also enjoyed using other non-fiction/reference books in our Forest School session, to look up all of the wild flowers we found.

Out and About - wk. beg. 12th April

Last week all of the children, were able to spend time in the orchard area we plan to use regularly for Forest school activities. They found woodlice and ladybirds, feathers and a molehill and lots of wild flowers. All ages were able to explore for themselves and start to learn Forest School rules.

We also went out for a walk to the 'real forest' where we found white violets growing and noticed all the spring growth, both leaves and blossom on the trees and in the hedgerows.

Meet the new staff!

I would like to introduce you to the new faces in our team: Ruth and Jenny. Both are level 3 qualified nursery nurses.

Ruth has a young family and has had lots of experience, particularly with the younger children, she has been nannying and is enjoying returning to a nursery environment. She will be working 3 days a week.

Jenny has a further qualification - Forest School assistant, which she was not able to put to practical use at her previous setting, she is already enjoying refreshing her skills in this area at Grasshoppers. Jenny will be working 4 days a week.

Ruth and Jenny are additions to our team, none of the existing staff are going anywhere! We feel confident that, with the team back to full strength, we will be able to offer the children in our care more and varied activities and we will be out and about everyday!

Visit to the lambing sheds - 9th April

On Friday morning the excited nursery and holiday club children (joined by friends who attend on different days throughout the week and their parents) were driven by Farmer Jake, in a tractor and trailer, up Bredon Hill to the lambing sheds at Park Farm.

Inside the shed Farmer Jake told us all about how the lambs are marked and tagged and how Todd the shepherd tries to make sure all the ewes look after two lambs each, giving one of triplets born to a sheep with only one lamb.

Then the children were invited to bottle feed the orphaned lambs, which they really enjoyed, but were careful to wash their hands carefully afterwards!

We were really privileged to see a lamb being born - it was a little boy, perhaps we should name him Hopper!




We had such a great visit the children couldn't stop talking about the tractor, trailer and lambs all day. I found it really difficult to choose the photos to post, so many fabulous shots were taken. Many more will be on the digital frame at nursery next week.

We are planning many more such outings, watch this space!!

But if you missed out on Friday, don't dispair, this Sunday, 11th April is Overbury Farm's 7th annual lambing day. The tractor and trailer will be making regular trips to the lambing sheds between 10am and 3pm, leaving from the village hall. (For more details see http://www.overburyfarms.co.uk)

Trip to the lambing sheds.

We have had some lovely walks to see the new lambs in the fields but this Friday (9th April) @ 11am we are going (in the tractor and trailer!!) to the lambing sheds.

The children who usually attend on Friday mornings will be accompanied by all of the staff, if your child does not attend on Fridays but an adult is free to accompany them we have space for extras!! The space is obviously limited so spaces will be allocated on a 'first come , first served' basis so please let nursery staff know if you are interested ASAP.

Tesco and Sainsbury's vouchers

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We are collecting both Tesco and Sainsbury's vouchers again this year, so if you have any we will gladly take them off your hands!

Last year we collected enough to get a Beebot - programmable robot from Tescos and the tools for our digging pit from Sainsburys.

With your help I am sure we can get something which will bring as much pleasure this time round.

Discovering where our food comes from. Wk. beg. 22nd March

This week we have found a new website which you may like to visit with your children; www.school.asda.com/teachers/farmtofork. We have had great fun scaring the crow away from the vegetables we have planted and deciding where to go to - the dairy, the veg-plot, the fields, the hen house to learn where our food comes from.

Healthy Body, Happy Me Week 15th - 19th March

Last week we enjoyed activities to celebrate 'Healthy Body, Happy Me Week'.

We tried lots of exotic fruits including dragon fruit and Sharon fruit, then made them into a yummy smoothie.

• We have done a survey of our favourite fruits, which we are going to plot onto a graph to form the centre-point of a new display.

We became real artists with our 'still life' fruit drawings and paintings.
We talked about what is needed to stay healthy and planted seeds which are already growing

Healthy body, happy me! Week - 15th - 19th March

Next week (15th - 19th March) we will be taking part in the Healthy body, happy me! week being promoted by NDNA (National Day Nurseries Association).

We will be talking about heathy eating throughout the week and will be tasting some exotic fruit for special snacks as an alternative to sweet biscuits (which we occasionally have as a treat!)

We are going to be having different cereals at breakfast time, such as muesli and bran flakes and encouraging the children to have a piece of fruit with their breakfast, the first of their 5 aday.

We will be planting our NDNA sunflower seeds and putting up the special Noddy measuring chart to monitor their growth.

We will be doing music and movement sessions and hope to be outdoors as much as possible and will be talking about exercise.

We would like to involve parents and ask if you can make your child's packed lunch even more healthy than usual and continue the message of healthy body, happy me at home.