Blog January 22nd 2021:
Happy New Year, we hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year! We also hope you enjoyed the children’s wonderful nativities and the winter singalong; we are so pleased we were able to find a safe way to share such magical moments with you in what had been a challenging year for all. Thank you to everyone’s kind comments and appreciation.
Welcome back after the Christmas break which seems so long ago now! The government have instructed all nurseries and Early Years setting to stay open. We think it is important that young children have routines and stability in these worrying and ever changing times. As always we are continuing to follow the guidelines to make the environment as safe as possible. We appreciate our families help by also following guidelines which reassures us all that everyone is working together to keep us safe and open.
We have some new families joining us and some families coming back with siblings and we look forward to getting to know them all this term.
We are also going to be looking at winter this half term and the changes this brings. We will be looking at birds and how to help them find food. We will also be making our own bird hide so we can watch the birds in our garden and use a list to mark which ones we have seen, we will also use ICT and books to help identify them. The icy cold weather has prompted us starting our winter frieze and the children have been drawing some impressive birds to sit in the tree as well as decorate it with paint and snipping doilies to look like snow. We have also been working on our cutting skills and cutting out pictures of clothes that keep us warm during winter.
Some of the children went on a dinosaur hunt and we followed this up in the afternoon by making dinosaur foot prints using black paint on the paper.
We are continuing with Sticky Kids in the playroom which the children enjoy joining in with as well as ring games and yoga. In our small groups we are continuing with Kid Talk, dough gym and music groups plus lots of stories and games which encourage turn taking.
One thing that has struck us, more so since returning from the Christmas break that the children are so very happy to be here, they obviously feel safe and secure and the relationships they have built with not only their peers but staff is heart-warming. The Christmas tree star awards that were introduced in December were a success and the staff were touched by your wonderful, kind words. We decided there was no one clear winner and we were all together at the top of the tree J