Hello everyone!

The sun is shining, the sun cream is on and the flowers are blooming beautifully on the Roof Garden.

Summer is lovely at Working Mums' as the children are able to enjoy the sun in our beautiful open Roof Garden space, as well as enjoying the cool inside room if it gets too warm. We have got a lot to talk about this month as the children have been involving in a lot of fun filled activities from their monthly topics and a lot more excursions have been happening due to the lovely weather, as well as fitting in with our topics.

Also, a massive thanks to all the parents who attended parents evening, we really hope you enjoyed it and it was insightful. We know that expectations and the education system we follow (EYFS) might be a little confusing, so we use this opportunity to answer any questions you may have on your child's development as well as their general well being and happiness at the  nursery. Not only is parents evening good for getting a more in depth view of your childs day of  learning and play, it is also good to get to know other parents and colleagues whom you may not have had the chance to talk to before.

So, what's been happening?!

Singing with Gerti (Angels and Cherubs)

Singing with Gerti sessions

We have had a lovely opportunity to introduce Gerti from floor two who sings and plays the Guitar. She has joined our day to day rouine on Wednesdays and Thursdays. As Gerti is from Germany, she also has introduced some lovely German songs to our children as well as English songs such as ' I Like The Daffodils' and ' Twinkle Twinkle'. Gerti has also recently sung 'Let it Go' from the classic 'Frozen' film, and as you can imagine, the children really enjoyed it! We have also been introducing the musical instruments to the children during the sessions for the children to explore, express their musical skills, and some of the older children enjoy strumming Gerti's guitar.

Cherubs

Throughout May and June the Cherubs have been focusing on 'Pond Life' due to the high interest from our little ducklings that came to stay. The Cherubs have been enjoying some new songs that Margaret has been singing such as 'Five Little Speckle Frogs', ' Little White Duck', and  'Galoop Went The Little Green Frog'. Margaret has also introduced little singing booklets and laminated images that are on the wall for the children to look at and for the staff to learn. The children have also been enjoying the  little frog and duck puppets, they make the songs more fun and it brings them to life.

Pond life pictures

Lovely water play activities with pond life, such as ducks and fish have been a big part of the Cherubs play (plastic of course) and the children love exploring them. On several occasions we have changed the colour of the water such as bright blue to create a pond/ river effect. As well as splashing around, the children have thoroughly enjoyed getting creative by creating lovely little frog pictures using a variety of coloured paint.

Pictures of pond life and treasure baskets have also been available for the cherubs to explore. Babies really enjoy natural materials such as pine cones, rough materials and wooden spoons. finding old baskets in the home and filling them with random kitchen utensils will encourage your baby to explore a variety of textures which can promote sensory development.


 

Angels

Car painting

You may have heard you child say a lot of vehicle names such as 'Boat' ' Car' and 'Train'. That's because the Angels have been exploring transportation throughout  May and June. The children have thoroughly enjoyed this monthly topic, and therefore we have decided to extend it again in June, but focus on service vehicles such as Fire Engines and Police cars. The children have been involved in lots of creative art work to do with transport, such as car painting and decorating train and car templates. However, the definite highlight in supporting the childrens learning and development with transport was by far the excursions. Some of the children  had the opportunity to watch the boats pass  by the River, catch a bus to Richmond Park, and go to the Train Station. The children really enjoyed these excursions and we plan to go on many more in the future.

The children have also developed an interest on playing with the train set and the small world garage and cars. We borrowed the big wooden garage from floor two and the children loved pushing the cars down it.

The Boats by the river

We are also very lucky to have aeroplanes fly by every few minutes on the Roof Garden. This has been a great opportunity to get more excited about planes with children and to encourage transportation words,nouns and phrases such as Airport, Aeroplane, Plane, Loud and  'Up high!' . The children also like looking out of the windows in the classroom and on the Roof Garden to spot the buses and cars in the street and in the car parks.

Stars and Shooting Stars

Its been a creepy crawly month for floor two during May and early June and the Monthly topic has been 'Mini Beasts'. The children have been involved in learning about a variety of mini beasts such as caterpillars, spiders, ants and butterflies.

Hatching Butterflies

Floor one's Butterfly Pavilion

As well as seeing some bugs naturally on the Roof garden, i.e Bees flying around and the odd ant and spider, the children on floor two and floor one  have had the exciting opportunity to  help hatch butterflies from baby caterpillars. Avalon arranged for caterpillars to be sent to the nursery and  they were kept in little containers attached to some tissue with some food. Over time the caterpillars grew bigger and eventually formed their cacooon. Once the caterpillars were big enough, they were then transferred to the butterfly pavilion, which is where they are then placed gently inside, still attached to the tissue. It was really lovely to watch the butterflies hatch and it was a great way for the children to learn about life cycles and how some bugs are born right in front of their eyes. Unfortunately most of the butterflies hatched over night  so the children did not get to see them hatch. However it was still a lovely experience for the children.  The butterflies stayed in their pavilion for around a week until they were set free in to the wild. The children really enjoyed watching the butterflies fly away, and one of the butterflies from the floor one pavilion decided to return within 30 minutes of being released to say hello!

Snail Trails Art-work

Also on floor two you have probably noticed the beautiful colourful paintings all around the room of butterflies and mini beasts. The children have had lovely creative opportunities to create some fantastic art work to do with mini beasts and small animals such as Snail Trail paintings, Spider pictures and butterfly painting.

Mini beast Art-work

Small world play has also been set up for the children involving big bugs, moss and magnifying glasses for the children to expand their knowledge and understanding of mini beasts colours, names and how many legs they have.

Preschool

Avalon has introduced a lot of mini beast themes into her pre school sessions to enhance learning of creepy crawleys and life cycles. Avalon has been focusing on a number of stories to do with mini beasts such as ' The Hungry Caterpillar',  'The Very Busy Spider', ' The Bad Tempered Ladybird' and 'What the Lady Bird Heard'. The children thoroughly enjoyed these stories, and used the stories as an adaptation to create pictures, expressing feelings for when they feel grumpy and also to learn the life about how different the bugs are in comparison to colour, size and how they grow. The children also enjoyed talking about their favourite bugs and wrote their own name in a column with which bug the like the most. The children are certainly showing significant development and skill in their writing skills.

The Hungry Caterpillar painting

In addition to learning about the hatching of butterflies, pre school have also had the opportunity to look at a butterfly that sadly did not make it under a microscope. Also, whilst waiting for the butterflies to hatch in their cocoon's, the children also had a butterfly calendar, and they ticked off each day that went by until the butterflies hatched. This was a great way for the children to enhance their learning on the days of a week, mathematics development and also a sense of time. The children have also been involved in bug hunts in the park. Avalon has been taking the children out to explore mini beasts in their natural environment, such as bees, spiders, ants and woodlice.

Preschool's Bug pictures

So what are we going to get up to in the summer months?

As the Summer is in full swing, the paddling pool will be returning to the Roof Garden on warm days. Floor two will need to have swimming gear on really hot days, and floor one usually paddle in a fresh nappy, and if you can supply a swimming nappy, tit would be really helpful.We will let you know when we are going to plan for a paddling pool day!

Also during the summer months sometimes we get the hose out, and sprinkle the children lightly with the water. The children love this, and its a great way to cool down and cool down the soft fall matting!

Summer ideas, treats and activities!


That's it for now!

Keep enjoying the rays!

Katie McGraffin