Busy Gardeners

Over the Spring and into Summer the nursery children have been very enthusiastic with their planting of fruit and veg - some grown from seed.

We have:

peas, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, spinach, runner beans and strawberries.

They are being well looked after and all look healthy and we have already been able to pick and try spinach, peas and strawberries.

It looks like tomatoes, lettuce and beans will be next - but the carrots and cucumber won't be long either.

Royal Wedding Celebrations

Throughout the week before the Royal Wedding we really got into the spirit of the event.

The older nursery children practised their fine motor skills to cut triangles for bunting, then their maths skills to create the red white and blue pattern sequence.

With their patriotic collages they made a lovely

display around the main playroom door.

At the end of the week we made wedding bouquets and the children became Princes and Princesses with crowns they decorated. and the role

play games were very imaginative and informed following our group time discussions.

The crowns stayed on all day, but even Princes and Princesses deserve a bit of play time!!

'Lessons in Loaf' holiday club activity - A 'taste' of things to come!

During the Easter school break the holiday club children enjoyed a day celebrating rural pursuits.

Joined at the village hall by some of the oldest nursery children (our keenest bakers!), they made bread.

They had the time to explore all the processes involved, mixing, kneading, allowing the dough to rise and finally baking their own very individual loaves.

They looked at raw materials and, learning about the milling of cereals, tried various means of grinding for themselves.

In the afternoon the tractor and trailer made one stop to collect more of the older nursery children, before picking up the bakers from the village hall.

Then Farmer Jake drove us to the lambing sheds at Park Farm. He showed us their ear tags and how the infra-red lamps keep struggling lambs warm.

We were lucky enough to see a baby lamb being born and the children really seemed to appreciate this opportunity to get up close to the animals and see what goes on behind the scenes on the farm!

The day was a great success and we hope to be able to offer similar unique rural activities during future holidays, watch this space for details!!

Digging pit - 4th - 15th April

With all the time we have been able to spend outside in the last two weeks, the digging pit is again a firm favourite .

There have been times when all of the children have been in the 2 - 3 square metres of the garden that is just dirt!

We have done lots of digging for worms and while they are still our most treasured finds, we have also found other bugs, including woodlice, spiders, ladybirds and white larvae of some kind!, and shells and fossils.

Some of the children have obviously been gardening at home or watching parents and handle the tools very professionally, with great skill!

All that digging can be hot and tiring work so we do need to take a breather and admire our work. We couldn't ask for more appropriate seats - one of Martyn's logs, like the ones we saw being moved on our last walk, and one of the tractor tyres Farmer Jake gave us,

knowing that tractors are lots of the children's favourite things!!

Spring walks

We went out walking twice last week, making the most of the lovely weather.

All of the animals were keeping their distance from us though! We admired the horses at the bottom of the field next to nursery, the first day we counted 6 through the fence, later in the week there were 9!! There were sheep and lambs in another field and we leaned on the gate to try and get a better look.

The inhabitants of this hole were nowhere to be seen, but lots of the children knew it was a rabbit they were looking for!

We stopped to look at lots of wild flowers too and the bugs on and around them ladybirds are our current favourites. One of the flowers we found is called Jack-by-the-hedge, so I couldn't resist

snapping this picture of one of our Jacks by a hedge!

On our way back on Thursday we thought we were being chased by Martyn, the forester in his tractor. But really he was just manoeuvring into position to move some very big logs. We moved to a safe distance , the children were so enthralled that they sat down to make themselves comfortable to watch - farming, the new spectator sport!!.

Experimenting!!

Last week one of the older children came in with a cork and a £1 coin wanting to see which would float and which would sink.

Lots of the other children were really interested, so we got a clear bowl, collected lots of toys from throughout the nursery and started experimenting!!

We passed the different things around the group, each child guessing if it would float or sink, then taking it in turns to put it into the water to see what actually happened. By the end of the game some of the children had really grasped the concept of weight, realising that it wasn't just the biggest things which sunk or the smallest which floated!

We repeated the experiments later in the week, when those who had really got to grips with activity were able to instruct their friends. Spontaneous activities are often the best, and there was so much sociable cooperation and learning.