Little Learners Northampton

We hope you have a lovely evening and have as much fun as R and Beth are here playing peek-a-boo in Reflections with their new tee-pee🧡

This afternoon in Discovery, the children were listening to Steel drum music. R got some wooden logs and started banging on them like drums. He showed so much excitement and this encouraged the other children to join in too. They all took it in turns to have a go on them. Jo then went and got some musical instruments, and the children began dancing and moving to the steel pan music with them!

‘Little moments of play produce big moments of Discovery’
In Discovery we have been exploring different ways of moving and this has come from the children taking an interest in transport. At group time today we talked about how we get to nursery? R “a train”, L “walking”, M “car”, A “bus”. So combining the two we are exploring more about movement and how children can learn from this. This kind of experimental learning in which children acquire knowledge by doing and via reflection on their experiences, is full of movement, imagination and self directed play.
‘Children need the freedom to appreciate the infinite resources of their HANDS, their FEET, their EYES and their EARS, the resources of forms, materials, sounds and colours’- Loris Malaguzzi.

Sometimes all you need is sun, some flowers and a little bit of happiness!
M very gently takes flowers from Jades hands and pulls off each individual petal. He carefully looks at the petals and places them into his pocket, M takes the petals out to show Emma what he had..
"A tiny flower." he whispers and holds it up.... "Wow, you're being very gentle arn't you?"
M nodds his head and carries on with what he is doing, showing lots of focus through facial expressions! 💐🌼🌸🌺
See More

Today in the garden we kept on seeing lots of labybirds!
Reflections children first of all found one in the main garden. Beth used a leaf to pick it up so the children could see it closer. R looked very closely right until the ladybird flew away. We watched him fly off and and wondered where we went...
Later on, Emma went into the top garden where pre-school were and found T with the bug hotel they made. T was also holding a ladybird being very gentle with it and letting it c...rawl all over her hands and fingers.
T kept on referring to the ladybird as 'her'
Emma: "How do you know if its a girl or a boy?" T: "Because look, she's just beautiful."
Could this be the same ladybird that Reflections had seen earlier?
See More

Reflections have added a tee-pee to their room to further enhance their interests in dens and cosy area's.
The room itself has been moved around to welcome the tee-pee and also introducing some new magnetic building blocks to continue interests in sounds such as banging and tapping and of course stacking.
☺️

Spring weather, sibling interaction and splashing!
We looked at leafs and wood and what would sink or float in the water. The leaf floated and so did the small piece of wood. We then got the containers and carried on some interests from Inspirations/Expressions of filling and emptying.
Here we have a lovely example of sibling team work, helping to fill up one pot and then once it is full, pour it all away and start over again!
... Happy Monday💐☺️
See More

I have magpied a lovely idea from Reflections Day Nursery in Worthing. They have a running competition for their team to take beautiful photos and if their photo ends up as the Facebook cover photo, it is credited to them and they win a little prize! So here’s our first one, from yesterday - our two year olds celebrating the festival of colours by throwing powder paint in the air - with thanks to Kirsty Adams, pictured (arms! Lol) and Emma Clayson, photographer! ❤️

Thank you to everyone who took part in our odd socks day in support of World Down Syndrome Day. We strongly believe everyone should have equal rights and that our differences should be celebrated ❤️

As part of world down syndrome day, we have all worn our odd socks to nursery and have a cake sale just outside the office to raise money for this cause! All cakes have been made by pre-school and we have a lovely selection ☺️

Inspirations is all ready for the children tomorrow morning!
They have been looking into mixing with water alot recently so we have added clay to the lightbox to then add water too, what will this turn out like?
We have also added some problem solving to the table with wire, feathers and flowers. Can they get the feathers and flowers out the wire? Even better, can they create a problem solving activity themselves?

Today, we celebrated the Indian festival of Holi, sometimes known as the festival of Love!
We used powder paint to throw up into the air to celebrate in a joyful and colourful way as the colours are suppose to bring positivity into our lives.
The children in Discovery showed lots of excitement being able to do this, recognising colours, being physical and celebrating together!☺️💐

#lotsofsocks World Down Syndrome Day is on 21st March. This date – the 21st day of the 3rd month – represents the 3 copies of chromosome 21, which is unique to people with Down syndrome. This year marks the 12th anniversary of World Down Syndrome Day, which is officially recognized by the United Nations. This years theme is “Leave no one behind” All people with Down syndrome must have opportunities to live fulfilling lives, included on a full and equal basis with others, in all aspects of society. Join us as we take part and wear our odd socks tomorrow!

We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who donated towards Comic relief last week. We raised an amazing £261.75 in total throughout the whole nursery☺️
The rooms all had a little competition to see who could raise the most money. The top 5 are...
... 1st- Explorations with £55.20. They did this by collecting 20p's in a bottle to try and fill it. This came inside with their current interest of measuring and filling!
2nd- Discovery £54.45
3rd- Expressions £43.70
4th- Office £41
5th- Reflections £28.10
Well done everyone ☺️
See More

Are these job opportunities for you...

🤩 EXCITING OPPORTUNITIES 🤩
PLEASE READ THE WHOLE ADVERT BEFORE APPLYING!!!
FULL TIME Apprentice Early Year’s Educator (40 hours to include off the job training and study time - above minimum apprenticeship rate - £9152)
... PART TIME level 3 or above Early Years Educator (27 hours a week between Tues - Thurs 7am-6:30pm - salary £12,200-£13,200 depending on qualifications and experience)
At Little Learners we believe in the best possibilities and opportunities for the children and team members we work with! We are currently going through a very exciting period of redevelopment and enhancements to the unique approach we are already known for! Therefore it is an excellent time to join our dedicated and inspirational team and become involved and committed in a fun, challenging and rewarding experience of self reflection, professional development and adaptations!
We are looking for dynamic Educators who are eager to develop in their career within a leading early years approach, alongside expert pedagogical leaders and artists!
We want the right people with the right attitude - people who want to work within a provision of extremely high standards, hence requiring hard work from their team members - in return for above sector average pay, benefits and rewards!
We want happy, smiling faces who ooze passion and determination and naturally a love for children and their achievements!
We offer a creative education where we foster the magic of childhood, embracing children’s imagination and fascinations as important starting points of our emerging curriculum!
We use natural and reclaimed resources to promote open ended and child directed learning opportunities, which are developed through a research/project based approach! Alongside natural and reclaimed resources, selected manufactured toys and technical equipment such as cameras, laptops, light boxes and projectors are used to enhance the experiences and provide new dimensions to the children’s play and explorations! The variety and use of technology in creative, research and investigative purposes only is something we are concentrating on developing further, allowing children more responsibility and understanding of our ever evolving world!
If this is something that excites you - please get in touch!
📧Email us at Northampton@little-learners-childcar e.co.uk attaching your CV and covering letter explaining what excites you about this opportunity and why, as well as telling us what we would be missing out on if we did not consider you for the job! Your initial contact with us will be very important! #firstimpressionscount
See More

💓It takes 5 minutes...what will you do with the other 55?💓
With thanks to one of our parents who gave us the idea, we are looking into offering FREE one hour sessions to enable women to attend a smear test without their child! It will be of course subject to availability and we will provide more information, once we have finalised how we will offer this! Don’t miss your smear!