Nursery Rhymes Bollington

***School Readiness Week*** This week our pre-schoolers are preparing for school with a fun 'School Readiness' week. Today the children in the class have practiced getting changed independently into their uniform or spare clothes, and have had a fun P.E. lesson this afternoon. We have also read a book about school, and how it is similar to preschool.

At the weekend, one of our preschool children went to visit a 'helicopter and aeroplane show', he discussed this with his friends at circle time, they then made pictures of aeroplanes, focusing on their pencil grip and making clear marks. Each plane had a 'pilot with buttons to drive the plane'.

Shapes and threading!! We have been focusing on our fine motor skills to thread the pipe cleaners through the different shapes. Our teacher in preschool, then explored the different shapes with the children, discussing their properties.

Preschool have been investigating colour last week with different materials. They used food colouring, milk and washing up liquid. Each child used a pipit to squeeze the food colouring onto the milk, and watched as it made a marble effect. Preschool used great vocabulary to describe what was happening.

Farm animal fun! A preschool child has been interested in our farm animals last week, they enjoyed putting them into their animal groups and sharing them with their friends. With the teachers help, the preschool children then set up their own tuff tray with the farm animals and all engaged in small world play.

Transport morning!! This morning, one of our pre-schoolers asked the teacher ''did you drive a car this morning to nursery?''. They then had a discussion on the different ways we can travel to nursery. From this they then had a circle time on 'how did you travel to nursery this morning?' where they had to mark next to the correct word how they got here. They also explored a car ramp, where they dipped their cars in paint and let them roll down the paper, and then had a very messy car wash!

Shell fun! Our toddlers have been exploring the theme 'Under the sea' this week, and took a particular interest in the 'shells'. They have explored all the different shells yesterday by having a feel of them, and putting them near their ears to see if they could hear any sounds.

Our baby stars have lots of fun this week exploring 'Summer'. They have joined in with making sand pictures, using glue and sand. They have also been exploring sponge painting, water play and even a fantastic tuff tray filled with materials, paper fish, shells and shredded paper!!

Have a look at our outdoor garden!! Today the children have been exploring colours in the water wall, making the cars clean with a car wash, matching bean bags to the correct number and joining in with letter recognition!!

**REMINDER**
We have been forecast sunshine for the next few weeks in Bollington! Please remember to bring your child in suitable clothing to Nursery. We will provide cold water to drink and suncream to apply for the day, so they stay cool and safe!

Following the children’s interest in numbers and clocks we decided to add numbers to our tray of flour with one child saying “we need to make a clock” and helping the teacher to place the numbers around the tray (despite the numbers only going to 9!) We added some animals in and soon everything was hidden within the flour. We then started a number hunt, trying to find the numbers that were hiding in the flour, reinforcing the children’s numeral recognition and sequencing. We then placed the numbers across the tray and counted the number of animals that corresponded to each numeral, taking it in turns and working together before having more fun hiding the animals again.

Making ice-cream! The pre-schoolers got to make their own pretend ice cream! They involved themselves in prepping the tray, colouring the rice themselves using paint in the morning and then when it was dry adding it to the tray alongside the shaving foam and rice crispies. Once the cones were out the children dug in, spooning the foam into their cones and adding their sprinkles. Soon the tray was a huge mess as the children lost interest in the cones and began using their hands and everything become mixed together but there were very happy children throughout!

The day we had bubble wrap! The children were given this huge piece of bubble wrap and really enjoyed being able to spread it across the length of the garden, running over it in their bare feet. Some of the children rode their bikes over it, commenting on the popping noises it created whilst others become engrossed with popping the bubble wrap using their hands. The toddlers and pre-schoolers shared their fascination with this sensory activity, strengthening their fine motor skills as they squeezed the bubble wrap between their fingers to make it pop and developing their concentration as they became fully involved in the activity for a sustained period of time.

Pasta Play! Today the children chose to include tubs, pans and spoons and pretended to make dinner, stirring and transferring the pasta using the utensils. The children really enjoyed this simple activity, using lots of language within their play and enjoying the sound of the pasta as it filled the tubs and pans.

Children enjoying shopping and making butter!

The pre-school children enjoyed a trip to the shops to get ingredients to make butter! This activity came about after a child had asked what butter was, so we walked to the shops and the children bought some double cream, the children took turns using the self checkout which they thought was great. We then took this back to the nursery and the pre-schoolers took turns spooning it into a jar before shaking it really hard. As the jar was passed around the table the children noticed how the consistency of the cream changed and soon we had our own butter which the children spread onto crumpets. All children gave a thumbs up for their butter! 👍😁

The children have been developing their fine motor and concentration skills this week through threading cheerios onto dry spaghetti. They enhanced their skills by adding scissors into the activity and cutting the dry spaghetti into smaller pieces. One child added imagination into the activity by using a truck to deliver the cheerios to his friends, they then built mini towers.

Our baby stars this week have been enjoying music and movement. We had a lovely visit from Jittabugs on Tuesday where we explored new materials and popped lots of bubbles whilst we danced to music. We also visited Bollington Library yesterday too for Rhyme Time, where we joined in with lots of singing!

'Snipping Spaghetti' and 'Spaghetti Splat'. Our children have been enhancing their snipping skills today by using the tweezers and scissors to snip the colourful spaghetti. They then added paint to the activity, wiggled their spaghetti into the paint and splatted it onto the paper to make marks.

Such an amazing nursery!!!!!!!!!!! Couldn’t be happier � my son always comes home happy, well fed and well slept �� definitely would recommend! It’s a lovely small nursery too so so much love and like a home from home x

My daughter Jessica went to the Nursery Rhymes which is based in Cheadle. Which is why we choose the bollington one for our second daughter Sophie. I cannot praise the nursery, staff and both mangers encough. I can already see the bond which Sophie has with the staff it's fantastic xx

Lovey homely nursery. Friendly staff and knowledgable manager.