Wellingborough September News: Outdoor Play, Potato People and Creativity

A huge welcome to all of the new parents and children that have joined us across the nursery this month. September is always a back to basics month; we spend lots of time settling new children and finding out all of their interests so we can plan exciting and meaningful activities for them. We also remind all of the children of the nursery rules and routines. Everyone has settled into our nursery family so well, it’s great to see so many happy faces around the nursery!

September news

This month, the babies have been thoroughly enjoying painting! They were particularly interested in the clingfilmed tuff tray legs which provided a different prospective when painting. We most definitely have some budding artists in the baby room; all of the children expressed their creativity beautifully. Some of the older babies have also been looking at shapes this month, with the shape and inset puzzles.

Throughout September, the toddlers have been outside making the most of the nice weather. The children have been working together to build walkways and strengthening their muscles while they ride the bikes. They have been finding new and creative ways to climb the cube to go down the slide. The toddlers have also been mark making in various ways, the coloured sand is always popular!

This month in the preschool, the children had great fun making potato people. They talked about how they were feeling before they drew on the faces. The younger preschool children also worked together whilst exploring dinosaur land to decide how many spoonfuls of sand were needed to shape the landscape.

What’s coming up next month

We have a lot to look forward to in the coming month! October brings us many exciting events which we look forward to celebrating with the children. They will be exploring and learning about events including: Grandparents Day, World Space Week, World Smile Day, National Poetry Day, World Singing Say and, of course, Halloween!

Other important information

Please can you ensure any medication for your child is signed into nursery and not left in bags.

Please also write your child’s name on clothes labels.

If your child has come home in nursery clothes, please could you wash and return them.

Thank you for your understanding.

Home activity

If you are looking for something to do at home this weekend or over the coming months, why not give our activity at home a go! Be aware that some activities or ideas may need to be adapted to suit your child’s age and development.

Threading cards

Activity:

• What you will need: card, hole punch, string/shoelaces.
• Find an image of a popular character, from either the internet or an old book that can be recycled, perhaps pictures from wrapping paper.
• Cut around it with your child and glue it on to card.
• When the image has dried, cut it out from the card leaving a 1cm border around the image and then make holes using the hole punch leaving a half cm gap between holes.
• Then tie one end of the string/shoelace to a hole and then thread the string across the image until it is covered up.
• Your child will then use their fine motor skills to unpick the string from each hole, describing what they see and guessing which character they will be unwrapping.
• When finished the child can then try and re thread the image themselves counting each hole in sequence as they thread it.

What will your child be learning?

• Independence, creativity and choice
• Mark making
• Colours
• Shapes and size
• Developing fine motor skills
• New vocabulary, e.g. big, small, character name, thread, lace, scissors, numbers, etc
• Sense of pride, achievement and self esteem
• Use of tools for a purpose
• How to use scissors safely
• Recognise familiar characters and recalling what they can remember about the character
• Counting numbers in sequence
• Hand to eye coordination
• Building attention skills and patience

Jackie Berrie, Nursery Manager