Last week we learnt how to care for our pets, the children gently stroked and fed carrots and hay to our ACE Guinea Pigs. We had to be very quiet and very careful with our fury little friends.

Happy New Year to you all and what an exciting couple of weeks it has been for our 2 year olds. They have enjoyed the snow and ice and getting to know their new friends.

Also, welcome to our new children who are being very brave leaving their families and getting involved with lots of the activities.

This week was the start of our Christmas activities and we had a lovely time decorating the Christmas Tree. It was a team effort and I hope you agree, that the tree looks amazing.

The children had a lovely time exploring our school woods. We took buckets to collect leaves and sticks for our indoor activities and also enjoyed listening to the Gruffalo book before heading back inside.

It was wonderful to see so many parents at our story session in the school library. We walked through the wardrobe to our magical library where Mrs Bah read ‘Who Lives Here? by Julia Donaldson to the parents and children. They all then enjoyed exploring the rest of the library together. Once back in the nursery the parents continued to enjoy sharing books with their children.

This week we had our very first visit to our school library. We listened to one of our favourite books ‘Dear Zoo’ then had a little bit more time to explore our wonderful library.

Instilling a love of reading early gives a child a head start on expanding their vocabulary, building independence and self-confidence. It helps children learn to make sense not only of the world around them but also people, building social-emotional skills and of course, imagination.

We look forward to inviting parents very soon to our lovely library session to share this wonderful experience together. Enjoy the photos.

Last week we created wonderful art with our very own hands. Some of us liked to make handprints with open fingers, with one hand or both hands and others weren’t quite so sure about the gloopy paint on their hands. Well done 2 year olds, it was so much fun!

We have been on mini beast hunts in the year 1 outdoor wildlife area and the school woods. We had a wonderful time exploring the pond, mini beast hotel, searching high and low for as many insects and creepy crawlies that we could find. we found ladybugs, woodlice, wriggly worms, ants and tiny beetles. The children also enjoyed listening to The Very Hungry Caterpillar story while on our little bug hunt adventures.

We made our very own lady bugs too, first we painted our paper plates red then we added the black spots.

The children enjoyed dressing up as doctors, firefighters, police officers as well as builders.

There were lots of activities to develop fine motor skills too, such as solving puzzles and colouring in.

Our topic last week was farm animals and playdough proved to be a popular activity with our 2 year old nursery children. Playdough has many benefits, it develops children’s fine motor skills, it encourages creativity, social interaction and sharing. It also enhances hand eye co-ordination, language skills, as well as having a calming effect.