5. Spring Term 2015 – Dinosaurs

Our Birdwatch

Dinosaurs

This term we welcomed 2 new children to the Nursery, Thomas in January and Mary-Lou in March.  Our project was based on dinosaurs and it was  received with great excitement and enthusiasm by the children and their parents.  We learnt some very interesting facts about the different dinosaurs, such as the Diplodocus, Triceratops, Stegosaurus and Tyrannosaurus.  The children were particularly impressed by the size of these dinosaurs which we were able to demonstrate by comparing their length measured by the children lying on the floor, head to toe.

We also  talked about how fossils are formed and  excavated our own dinosaur nest.  We made pictures of different dinosaurs using finger paints, sponges and stencils, hand printing and collage.  Annaliese based her music sessions on a dinosaur theme too and the children enjoyed making dinosaur sounds and moving like dinosaurs

The old Wendy House

Snow

In early February the only significant snowfall for us this year prevented some children from getting into nursery but for the rest of us it was an opportunity for some free entertainment making snowballs and snow angels!  The following week, we participated in the RSPB annual Birdwatch and the children became experts in identifying the birds that visited our feeders.  We were particularly pleased to see some long tailed tits and goldfinches for the first time this year.

At the beginning of March we held a Montessori Evening for adults which was very well attended by many of our current parents and some prospective ones.  The evaluations of the evening were extremely positive.  Everyone seemed to have enjoyed themselves and most importantly to have learned more about Montessori methods and philosophy.

World Book day

We celebrated World book day on 6th March by inviting children to dress as favourite book characters and parents to come and read their favourite stories.  We supported Comic Relief on Friday 13th and Pamela generously gave up her time to come and paint the children’s faces in exchange for donations.  We and  many of our parents sponsored Sarah to have her face “made up” by her children and to carry out her normal daily routine of shopping etc!  We think she was incredibly brave although we do also think that Joyce and Jacob did a great job!

Mill Cottage Farm

On 18th March, just before the start of spring, Mill Cottage Farm brought some of their animals, including turkeys, a donkey, rabbits, guinea-pigs, goats and pigs, to the Nursery for the morning.  It was a wonderful opportunity for the children to get up close to some animals and overcome any fears or anxieties they had.  We opened the Nursery for the morning and invited current parents to bring friends to see us.  We were delighted by how much the children and parents enjoyed the morning and also by the huge number of visitors who came.

Making dinosaurs

We invited parents to come and help their children make dinosaur models for the Froxfield and Privett Horticultural show and were very impressed by their creativity and the variety of natural materials they used to make the models.

For Mother’s Day, our children produced some beautiful water paintings of daffodils and made dinosaur biscuits.  I’m not entirely sure that many mothers actually had a chance to eat their biscuits but the children definitely enjoyed them.

We like raisins too!

We are very grateful to all our parents who have come into Nursery this term, to read, bring us their rabbits or dogs to meet, make Easter baskets and dinosaur models and face paint.  It is always lovely to have their help and support.

We have now installed a beautiful new Wendy House (photo to follow) and need to find a suitable name for it!  Suggestions from parents and children would be most welcome.  Perhaps we could vote for the most popular name?  We also have a new table sandpit which we think will provide a lot more fun than our previous one which was rather small and meant that the children got very wet and muddy when they knelt down to play.

During the term Kate and Maggie both achieved level 4 in Safeguarding and we would like to encourage all parents to read our Safeguarding Policies and Procedures.  These are available here on our website and also in our Policy booklets which are in Nursery.  Kate has updated her First Aid and Health and Safety training. Christina has achieved level 2 in Food Safety and Annaliese attended a music course.

Planting potatoes

This Summer we are looking forward to welcoming some new children and their parents, a new project based on our Solar System and some fine weather to get our garden planted and our willow den rejuvenated!  We would love to have some regular help with the garden if there is a parent who would like to volunteer?