22 Street Lane Nursery - April 2021 Newsletter

Newsletter April

Play • Discovery • Growth

April Newsletter

Dear Parents and Carers, We hope you are all well and continuing to stay safe as we slowly find our way out of lockdown. I would just like to take this opportunity to thank you all for being so vigilant and supportive regarding the symptoms and testing of children. We have managed to avoid too many bubble closures, and for the ones we have had, we thank you for understanding and getting involved with the home learning challenges and activities. We know it hasn't been easy for parents, but we really enjoyed seeing the wonderful activities you were doing at home. Hopefully, we will not have to do this for too much longer. Things are definitely looking brighter with the warmer days, the beautiful spring flowers and some sunshine. We look forward to longer days now that the clocks changed last weekend. The children at 22 Street Lane have had a very busy month with lots more to look forward to in April. To find out more, please read on…

April Newsletter STAFF NEWS Rebecca and Xenia Departures Sadly, we have had to say goodbye to Rebecca Owers and Xenia Towers this month. Rebecca has decided to take a different career path and Xenia will be leaving on April 16th to work in a hospital nursery with the intentions of following a career in Physiotherapy. We wish them both the best of luck in their new ventures. Their enthusiasm and smiles will be greatly missed.

We would like to welcome Isobel Singleton as our newest apprentice at 22 Street Lane as part of the Swans team. Izzy has also been with us a couple of weeks and has settled quickly and easily into her new role. Hafsah Ahmed and Georgina Lonsdale as our newest members of our bank team. They have been with us a couple of weeks already and we look forward to working with them and sharing their new ideas during their time at 22 Street Lane Nursery.

Isobel Singleton I am looking forward to joining the Swans Room at 22 Street Lane Nursery and starting my career with this apprenticeship, which allows me to gain valuable work experience while studying got my Level 3 Qualification. I can’t wait to get to know everyone and get involved with the Swans Room! Hafsah Ahmed I hold a Level 3 qualification in Childcare, and I have gained experience previously working with young children in a private day nursery and primary school. I have always been passionate about working with children and love that I can help them learn and grow. I am so thankful for this opportunity to not only teach children new things, but to learn new things myself in the nursery environment. Georgina Lonsdale I have been working with children for 6 years in schools, nurseries and one specialist provision. I am currently studying Childhood Development and Playwork (BA Hons) at university and chose this area of study because I know play is such an important aspect of children’s lives and is necessary for their development. I'm passionate about ensuring children’s environments are set up in ways that promote their play needs and therefore allow them to develop in the ways they need.

April Newsletter NEWS

Country of the Month – Zimbabwe (19 th – 24 th April) This month we are going to learn about the small, landlocked African country of Zimbabwe. (Which is also shaped like a teapot!) Zimbabwe has borders with South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Mozambique. Rudyard Kipling wrote about the ‘Great, grey-green, greasy Limpopo River in his ‘Just-So’ stories, which forms the border with South Africa. The two largest traditional tribes in Zimbabwe are the Shona to the North and Ndebele to the South. Hopefully, the children can learn the traditional greetings and signs of respect by clapping hands. They also get the chance to listen to some traditional Zimbabwean music, which involves instruments like drums and marimbas. We're sure the children will love to learn about all the animals that can be found in Zimbabwe too, including all of the ‘Big 5’. Did you know? Zimbabwe is home to one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World, the Mighty Victoria Falls - known by the local people as Mosi-oa-Tunya (The smoke that thunders). The largest man- made lake in the world is in Zimbabwe and called Lake Kariba. This supplied hydro-electric power to the country. The huge dam wall was opened by Queen Elizabeth I in 1960.

Employee Recognition Award, March 2021

Please visit our website to place for vote for next month: https://www.22streetlanenursery.co.uk/employee-recognition-award-vote/ Thank you to all the parents who took the time to vote for the staff member they feel deserves the ‘Employee Recognition Award’. We believe our staff should be recognised for delivering outstanding care and education each and their continued hard work. We are delighted to announce that March’s award goes to… Laura Grinlaw, Goslings Room

April Newsletter NEWS

World Book Day Celebrations The children (and the staff too) had a lot of fun dressing up for World Book Day and reading their favourite stories throughout the day. We hope everyone managed to get a book with their voucher! 'Going on a Bear Hunt' was a firm favourite with the children, who enjoyed the story and then went on their own sensory journey in the garden to explore the different materials and textures they found. Some rooms even made stumble-trip biscuits and ate Gruffalo Crumble too. Our littlest people enjoyed turning the pages in the sensory books and the children loved feeding the 'Very Hungry Caterpillar'.

St. David’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations The children all enjoyed lots of creative and sensory activities on both these days, with a special thank you to everyone who supported the latter holiday by dressing up in green clothes! The children were able to create their own perfect bakes in the sensory trays, as well as making traditional Irish soda bread. Our very own budding artists painted their own Van Gogh style daffodil paintings too, which were all fantastic.

April Newsletter NEWS An egg-citing special delivery from the Happy Chick Company! To aid with our Spring-time learning, we will be having a special delivery of a dozen eggs from the Happy Chick Company. The Happy Chick Company offers ethical chick hatching experiences for Nurseries and schools. Specialists’ chick hatching equipment is provided and set up in advance. The children will have the opportunity to watch the eggs hatch and then care for the chicks during their stay with us at the nursery.

Red Nose Day Fun! Thank you for sending your lovely photos in for our bunting., we really loved the happy pictures and the children have enjoyed looking for their own photos too, so much so that we decided to leave it up for a bit longer for everyone to enjoy. We especially enjoyed seeing all the lovely costumes the children wore. The children had a great time during the day playing different games, making their own red noses, and especially learning about Elida from Malawi and how Comic Relief has helped her and her family. Thank you for your generous donations and for taking part in our ‘Guess the Baby’ game; we were able to raise over £300 for Comic Relief! A special 'well done' to Charlotte Baker in the Cygnets, who managed to correctly guess 19 of the 21 babies and take home a love hamper as her grand prize!

April Newsletter NEWS

The Tipi Renovations The Chicklet, Duckling and Gosling teams have been busy working on revamping the tipi we have in the garden. They have recently collected a variety of resources to create warm, cosy spaces for the children to play and learn in. Heuristic and natural resources provide exciting invitations to play, and children from all the rooms have enjoyed exploring these areas in the tipi and playing with the different resources on offer. This is still a work in progress, and we will be developing the garden area shortly.

Vaisakhi Celebrations: Tuesday 13th April This festival marks the Sikh New Year and Harvest Festival and is celebrated by Hindus and Sikhs alike. The colourful and energetic celebrations involve singing and dancing, chanting hymns and processions through the town. The traditional Bhangra folk dance is becoming more and more popular. The children will be listening to traditional folk music and may also give some traditional dancing a go. If any families have any clothing, decorations, traditional meals or photographs they would like to share with us, we would love to see them as it would help support the celebrations.

St. George’s Day: Friday 23rd April St. George’s Day is England’s national day and celebrates St. George as the patron saint of England. The story goes that he rode into Silene (a town in modern-day Libya) to kill a dragon that was eating the citizens. The children will have the chance to learn about the George Cross, which is the highest award given out for gallantry. They will also learn about traditional medieval armour and gear worn by knights in the middle ages.

April Newsletter NEWS

Sun Cream and Hats With the warmer months ahead, please can you ensure you pack appropriate clothing for you child, such as hats, as well as sun cream for those extra hot days. We would recommend that you provide a sun cream which is ‘Factor 50’ and at least a 4-Star UVA Rating. The sun cream can also be kept at the nursery during the Spring/Summer months.

Our Summer 2021 Menu With Summer approaching, we’ve started to work on updating our menu. We change this every six months to fit the warmer/colder weather, and we’ll be unveiling our finalised menu in next month’s newsletter. If you’d like to suggest any dishes or food that we should include, then please let us know on Tapestry. Here’s a link to the 2020 Summer Menu if you would like a reminder of what we offered previously: https://user-oywfmsr.cld.bz/22SLN-Summer-Menu

April Newsletter The Curiosity Approach at 22 Street Lane We've been working to adapt our rooms at the nursery as we work towards our Curiosity Approach Accreditation, focusing on the development of the whole child with extra care on their heart and mind. Through the love of learning and a sense of belonging, where children are respected and nurtured as unique individuals, we're aiming to create an environment for curious minds, with pockets of magic, awe and wonder at every turn. With the use of authentic resources and recycled materials, we'll respect the children’s play and allow them to handle ceramics and breakables, which shows the children that we value them as capable and confident learners, which will help to inspire the "thinkers and doers of the future". ”A child is not a vase to be filled, but a candle to be lit" ~ Francois Rabelais

As we begin to implement this approach into our environment, we'll be sure to share the changes as we work through our modules. We are so proud to showcase what we've done already in the Cygnets and Swans Rooms so far! As redecorating our home corners and roleplay areas have been a focus this month, please see the linked PDF regarding items we are looking to fill these areas with. We would be extremely gracious if you have any of these items spare and would be willing to donate them for the rooms. https://www.22streetlanenursery.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/The-Curiosity-Approach-Home-Corner.pdf

We will also be sharing the A-Z of the Curiosity Approach, starting with A and B this month:

Authentic Resources The real thing! Beautiful authentic resources rescued from car boots up & down the land, turning trash into treasure!! Bright shiny beautiful items, eclectic random treasure that captures children & educators imagination. Resources that offer value to play, bringing a mix of textures and stimulus that no plastic cartoon embossed tea set can offer. Beauty is a deep human need Beauty is innate within us all. Young children are very aware of this and are drawn to it! Our environment and presentation that we offer within our settings should reflect beauty; from the delicate authentic resources to the wonderous natural objects - all declaring, all showing their beauty!

April Newsletter

Dish of the Month

Irish Lamb Stew

See our past selections on: 22streetlanenursery.co.uk/dish-of-the-month/

• 50g butter • 900g of diced lamb • 3 onions • 2 carrots • 2 large potatoes • 6 sprigs of fresh thyme • 3 fresh bay leaves • 150g pearl barley • 500ml of water Ingredients

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/Gas 4. 2. Heat the butter in a large frying pan over medium heat and brown the diced lamb, then remove to a plate. 3. Peel and finely slice the onions and carrots, then add to the pan and soften for 5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl. 4. Peel and slice the potato, then spread half in a layer in a large casserole dish and season well. 5. Add a layer of onion and carrot, the diced lamb, thyme and bay leaves, then season again. 6. Add the remaining onion and carrot and sprinkle the pearl barley on top. Layer over the remaining potato and add 500ml of water. 7. Cover and bake for 1 hour and 30 minutes, or until the meat is tender and the potato starts to crisp up, then serve.

April Newsletter Easter Bonnet Competition & Parade: Tuesday 6th April Please remember that the nursery will be closed on Friday 2nd April (Good Friday) and Monday 5th April (Easter Monday). We hope that everyone has a lovely four- day weekend with their families! When we reopen on Tuesday 6th April, we will be holding our annual Easter Bonnet Competition and Parade. We hope you will get creative with your children over the Easter Weekend to produce some masterpieces. We’re looking forward to the children showing us their works of art.

April Newsletter Chicklets Room News

The Chicklets started March by making their special cards and presents for Mother’s Day. The children took part in a baking activity to make special fruit scones to take home. They all enjoyed helping the staff mix the ingredients together in the bowl. We have also been celebrating World Book Day this month which involved the Chicklets staff dressing up as characters from the nursery rhyme ‘Old MacDonald had a Farm'. The children all looked lovely in their fancy dress outfits and they loved exploring the different book-themed messy play activities and sitting down to read stories with adults in the room. On 17th March, we celebrated St. Patrick's Day. The babies enjoyed listening to different types of Irish music and having a dance in the room during the music session. They also had fun exploring the different types of green-centric messy play materials, such as paint and shaving foam. As the weather has been getting warmer, the Chicklets have been accessing the outdoor environment a lot more throughout the month. We have also taken the children for a walk to the park in the buggies to see the swans. The babies have also enjoyed playing outside in the tipi after its recent revamp and exploring the new and different areas inside!

CHICKLETS ROOM

April Newsletter

Ducklings Room News

The Ducklings started the month by celebrating World Book Day. There were some fantastic costumes on show, so a huge well done to everyone for making such a great effort. The children all enjoyed dressing up as their favourite characters and reading their favourite stories. Later on in the month, the Ducklings celebrated St. Patrick’s Day. Everyone came dressed in green and loved all the different activities we set up. We enjoyed exploring the Irish flag colours through messy play, painting the tough tray orange, green and white and even made our own Irish flag using coloured rice. We also enjoyed listening to Irish music and even giving some traditional Irish dancing a go. We have also celebrated Red Nose Day too! The children dressed up in their favourite Disney costumes and enjoyed different red nose day activities. The Ducklings enjoyed having a disco, we turned off the lights and played our favourite boogie songs. They loved it so much that the children kept listening to Disney music throughout the whole day. Our messy play was themed around the colour red, and the children all enjoyed experiencing the different textures on the tough tray. We have all enjoyed getting in the mood for Spring by using our creative skills to paint our own daffodils; we used old tissue paper holders, cut the bottom off them and enjoyed printing them on to paper to create our own flowers. The Ducklings have also been taking advantage of the sunshine outside and have been excited about exploring our newly renovated tipi.

DUCKLINGS ROOM

April Newsletter Goslings Room News

The Goslings have spent so much time venturing in the outdoors this month, many of our children are very physically active, so spending time outside is beneficial in developing their gross motor skills and co- ordination. We have loved having access to the big garden where we can use the bigger space to move around. The Goslings have been using many different skills to climb up the hills and run or roll down them! One of our favourite things is getting messy and what better way to do this than getting creative at the mud kitchen, where we have used a range of natural materials to cook up some special dishes. This month we started doing some planting and sent our pots home for Mother’s Day. We loved filling up the pots with the soil using a variety of tools with good hand-eye control and then helping to pour in the seeds and give them some water. We will be continuing planting over the coming weeks and look forward to seeing how our plants grow! World Book Day was a lot of fun with some fantastic costumes and reading all of our favourite stories. We enjoyed going into the garden to go on a ‘bear hunt’ after reading the book. We really made the story come to life and the children did a brilliant job at acting out the story using actions and sounds. Our current interests are planting and gardening, which we are looking forward to doing more of, as well as hunting for minibeasts. We loved reading ‘The Minibeast Bop’ and really enjoy finding bugs and insects in the garden. In the upcoming weeks, we will be introducing some caterpillars to the Goslings Room. It will be an exciting learning experience to see how they transform and grow.

GOSLINGS ROOM

April Newsletter Cygnets Room News

At the start of the month, we celebrated World Book Day, which is a firm favourite during the year. All of the children enjoyed coming to Nursery dressed up as their favourite book characters, and we had a whole week based on some of our favourite stories including: ‘The Tiger Who Came to Tea', 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' and 'Room on the Broom'. The children enjoyed exploring some of our themed story baskets too. The Cygnets then began to make lots of lovely cards and treats in preparation for Mother’s Day. All of the children also enjoyed making some scones to take home as a special treat for their loved ones too. They especially liked choosing a filling for inside (plain, raisins or mixed berries) and wrapping them up into special gift boxes to give to their mummies! As we have also finally entered Spring this month, the Cygnets have been working alongside the Swans children to begin planting in the garden. The children have enjoyed planting their own sunflower seeds, cress and some summer bulbs in the allotments and look forward to watching them grow. This month the children also celebrated Iranian New Year. We shared pictures with the Cygnets showing them how this holiday is celebrated. Some of the traditions include leaping over fires on the last Wednesday of the year, doing spring cleaning at home, setting the table with Nowruz Haft-Seen, exchanging gifts and cooking traditional dishes. One family in the Cygnets Room sent in lots of pictures and videos for us to share with the children, they also brought each of the children a gift and we watched as they jumped over the fire on the eve of the New Year.

CYGNETS ROOM

April Newsletter

Swans Room News

The Swans have been very busy throughout March and have enjoyed learning about lots of exciting things. At the start of the month, we celebrated World Book Day, which is a firm favourite during the year. All of the children enjoyed coming to Nursery dressed up as their favourite book character, and we had a whole week based on some of our favourite stories including 'Germs are not for Sharing', 'The Colour Monster' and 'The Three Little Pigs'. There were lots of activities linked to each story each day for the children to access, along with making their own bookmarks to take home too. As always, the children have also continued taking part in lots of other fun and exciting activities, with a particular emphasis this month on phonics and maths, as the Swans have been showing lots of interest in these areas. The children have been practising writing CVC words, beginning to blend simple words when reading books, doing some Lego Painting, tracing shapes, and identifying their properties, practising their 1:1 correspondence, focusing on patterns using many natural resources and lots more! As you may have seen on Tapestry from some recent posts, The Swans Team are also continuing to focus on Kindness and have recently introduced a new ‘Bee Kind’ board. This is to encourage the children to show acts of kindness to one another, thinking about how they can make others happy, take turns, share resources and so on. The children are really enjoying it so far and are all very excited to get their bee onto the beehive for a special sticker!

SWANS ROOM

April Newsletter

*ATTENTION* Important Information - Please Read

Car Park As you are aware, there are double yellow lines outside the nursery which have been put there for the safety of the children. Please can we ask that parents do not park on them, and also be mindful when parking on Park Lane that you do not park over the driveways of the residents there. Many of them are Key Workers who need immediate access from their homes when called out. There have been a few vehicles obstructing their driveways recently. Drop Off and Collection Can we kindly remind you that we open at 7.30 am and close at 6.00 pm and any parents who pick up after this time will be charged. We would just like to also remind you that the side gate to the Goslings, Cygnets and Swans areas will be locked between 9.00 am and 4.00 pm and should you drop off or collect outside of these times, it will be necessary to contact reception to arrange for someone to unlock the gate. High Temperatures and Fevers Please can we kindly remind parents that children cannot attend nursery if they have a high temperature (37.6 ° C). If a child develops a temperature whilst at nursery, parents will be called to collect them, as supported by our policies and procedures. Due to the guidance from National Health England, children who have a high temperature and a cough will be asked to have a Covid-19 test with a negative result required before returning to the setting.

April Newsletter

*ATTENTION* Important Information - Please Read

HMRC Additional Funding Code (3- & 4-year-olds - 30 hours) If you are eligible and in receipt of additional 3- & 4-year-old funding, look out for a prompt every three months from HMRC to reconfirm your details so that your eligibility can be re-assessed. If you do not do this, please note that we are unable to claim the funding on your behalf. Absence Please note that we are unable to swap days or offer an alternative day if your child is absent from nursery. We are now extremely busy, and it is impossible for us to do this for all children. This is stated in our terms and conditions. Thank you for your co- operation. Labels in Clothing To avoid items being lost, please can you ensure that your child’s uniform is clearly labelled including their coats, hats, scarves and wellies. If your child brings gloves to nursery, we strongly advise for these to be attached and threaded through their coat to avoid any gloves going missing.

April Newsletter Upcoming Events

Friday 2 nd & Monday 5 th April Good Friday & Easter Monday - Nursery CLOSED

Tuesday 6 th April Easter Bonnet Parade Tuesday 13 th April Vaisakhi Celebrations Friday 23 rd April

St. George’s Day Friday 3 rd May May Day Bank Holiday - Nursery CLOSED Thursday 13 th May Eid Celebrations Monday 31 st May Spring Bank Holiday - Nursery CLOSED

CONTACT US 0333 043 22 22

www.22streetlanenursery.co.uk info@22streetlanenursery.co.uk