22 Street Lane Nursery - April 2022 Newsletter

Newsletter April

Play • Discovery • Growth

April Newsletter

Dear Parents and Carers, Welcome to our April Newsletter, and as always, a warm welcome to our families who have recently joined us. Things are definitely looking brighter with the warmer days ahead, the beautiful spring flowers and some sunshine these past few weeks. We're also looking forward to longer days now that the clocks have changed! The children at 22 Street Lane have lots to look forward to throughout April, including our annual Easter Bonnet Parade & Egg Competition, a visit from the mobile farm, Vaisakhi celebrations and St. George's Day activities! To find out more, please read on...

April Newsletter STAFF NEWS

Congratulations to Laura & Halle We would like to say a huge congratulations to Laura and her husband Liam on the birth of their daughter Halle Gemma Whiteman. Halle was born on Saturday 26th February, weighing 7lb 13oz, and both Laura and Halle have been doing really well this past month!

Welcoming our new Practitioner: Tehmeena Tahira We would like to introduce Tehmeena who has recently joined 22SLN, Tehmeena will be working in all of the rooms until the end of April, she will then move to the Swans Room and will be working Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesday mornings. Tehmeena has a wide range of experience working with children and she is looking forward to getting to know all of the children. “I am very excited to be joining the 22 Street Lane team! As a Qualified Level 2 Childcare Practitioner and Level 3 Teaching Assistant, I have enjoyed working with a range of nursery and primary school children across Leeds for over 6 years. I love how engaging and creative the environment is here at 22 Street Lane and I’m particularly grateful for the opportunity to contribute my artistic skills and facilitate fun and exploratory learning activities with the children.”

A message from the Child Accident Prevention Trust As Easter approaches, many families will be buying different treats and gifts for their children, but we need to remember to be cautious about the different kinds of mini eggs on offer. They look like the perfect small treat for your little one, but their size means they can block a small child’s airway and cause them to choke. Please stay safe and choose another, larger treat that's safer for your little one.

April Newsletter NEWS

World Book Day Fun! The children have loved coming to nursery as characters from their favourite books for World Book Day. We spent lots of time reading through their most treasured stories which they brought in from home, and loved looking through all the pictures and illustrations together. To celebrate at nursery we had been decorating our own bookmarks to use at home. The children utilised their fine motor skills and lots of different coloured materials, such as feathers, tissue paper and coloured card in this activity!

Happy Chick Company Visit The children had the wonderful opportunity to watch ten baby chicks hatch from their eggs last month. We explained to the children that the eggs needed to be kept warm in an incubator so that the chicks could hatch. Every day the children watched the eggs hatch, once they had all hatched, the chicks were brought out so that the children could hold them. The children helped to care for the chicks by giving them clean bedding and fresh water.

April Newsletter NEWS

Mother’s Day Tea Party We would like to say a huge thank you to all of our lovely mummies who came to our Mother’s Day Tea Party at the nursery! The children were able to join their mummies for lots of fun activities and yummy snacks. It was lovely to be able to have you in the setting and we hope that you enjoyed it as much as we did!

Around the World in 30 Days: Plants Throughout April, we will be exploring plants around the world such as the Lotus of India, the American Cactus and the English Rose. If you see any plants from around the world when you are out and about, please share them on Tapestry!

April Newsletter NEWS

Mobile Petting Farm: Tuesday 12th April On Tuesday 12th April, some very special guests will be arriving at 22 Street Lane from a mobile petting farm! The children will have the opportunity to pet and see various animals such as rabbits, lambs and goats. We look forward to sharing the pictures with you!

Nursery Closure Dates The nursery will be closed on the following dates over the next few month for various Bank Holidays and one of our two annual training days: Friday 15th April Good Friday Monday 18th April Easter Monday Monday 2nd May May Day Bank Holiday Thursday 2nd June Spring Bank Holiday Friday 3rd June Platinum Jubilee Wednesday 8th June Team Training Day Monday 29th August Summer Bank Holiday

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

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 throughout 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 to help support the celebrations.

Swans Graduation - Save The Date The Swans Graduation will be held on Friday 8th July at 3pm, followed by a BBQ and garden party. The Ceremony is one of the highlights of the year, so make sure you don’t miss it if this summer!

April Newsletter Ukraine Relief Bake Sale: Wednesday 13th April

22 Street Lane Nursery will host a bake sale on Wednesday 6th April from 4pm-6pm to help raise money for the British Red Cross, and their Ukraine Appeal. Children are invited to bake their own tasty treats at home with their parents to bring in and sell at the bake sale. We'll also be baking some extra treats with the children in each of the rooms at the Nursery to contribute as well! The bake sale will take place in the nursery reception. All donations are welcome, with all money received going to British Red Cross.

April Newsletter Easter Bonnet Parade & Egg Hunt: Wednesday 13th April On Wednesday 13th of April, we will be holding our annual Easter Bonnet Competition and Egg Hunt. The children are welcome to bring their decorated bonnets from Monday 11th April to Wednesday 13th April. We hope you will get creative with your children to produce some masterpieces and we’re looking forward to the children showing us their works of art. (Please note that the competition is just for fun!)

April Newsletter

Dish of the Month

Classic Scones with Clotted Cream & Jam

• 350g self-raising flour, plus more for dusting • 1 tsp baking powder • 85g butter, cut into cubes • 3 tbsp caster sugar • 175ml milk • 1 tsp vanilla extract • Squeezed lemon juice (see tips below) • Beaten egg, to glaze • Jam and clotted cream, to serve See our past selections on: 22streetlanenursery.co.uk/dish-of-the-month/ Ingredients

Method

1. Heat the oven to 220C/200C Fan/Gas 7. Tip the self-raising flour into a large bowl with ¼ tsp salt and the baking powder, then mix. 2. Add the butter, rub it in with your fingers until it looks like fine crumbs. Stir in the caster sugar. 3. Put the milk into a jug and heat in the microwave for about 30 seconds until warm, but not hot. Add the vanilla extract and a squeeze of lemon juice, then set aside for a moment. 4. Put a baking tray in the oven. Make a well in the dry mix, then add the liquid and combine it quickly with a cutlery knife - it will seem pretty wet at first. 5. Scatter some flour onto the work surface and tip the dough out. Dredge the dough and your hands with a little more flour, then fold the dough over 2-3 times until it’s a little smoother. Pat into a roundabout 4cm deep. 6. Take a 5cm cutter (smooth-edged cutters tend to cut more cleanly, giving a better rise) and dip it into some flour. Plunge into the dough, then repeat until you have four scones. You may need to press what’s left of the dough back into a round to cut out another four. 7. Brush the tops with a beaten egg, then carefully arrange on the hot baking tray. Bake for 10 minutes until risen and golden on the top. 8. Eat just warm or cold on the day of baking, generously topped with jam and clotted cream. If freezing, freeze once cool. Defrost, then put in a low oven (about 160C/140C fan/gas 3) for a few minutes to refresh.

April Newsletter Chicklets Room News

The children love the outdoor baby garden and have been enjoying making marks in the sand and accessing the busy board. We have been enjoying the Spring sunshine and some lovely walks to Roundhay Park where the children had the chance to feed the ducks. We have introduced barefoot play into the Chicklets Room during the day and throughout our messy play activities. Barefoot play has many benefits for children and supports the development of the brain and nervous system. It is also good for a child’s sensory development and can help them understand spatial awareness. Throughout March, we celebrated many different events such as World Book Day, Comic Relief and Mother's Day. The children explored different types of messy play in relation to these events such as red pasta play and scented playdough. It was lovely to see all the mummies at the tea party and we hope to do more events in the future. We have noticed progression within the children’s physical development with more of our children taking their first steps! They have been gaining their confidence with taking steps in the room and always enjoy accessing the climbing frame where they can begin to walk up and down the steps. We have also been focusing on communication and language, we have many children who are beginning to say a few words and are really starting to understand the routines at nursery. We introduced a family book into the Chicklets Room and the children have all loved looking at each other’s family pictures and even pointing and saying "mamma" or "dadda".

CHICKLETS ROOM

April Newsletter Ducklings Room News

The Ducklings have had a very fun month, doing lots of fun messy play activities, gardening and so much music and dancing. We started the month off with messy play sunflower pictures to celebrate St. David’s Day and made some lovely pictures to hang up in the reception area. The Ducklings have shown a strong interest in the musical instruments and making music to our favourite songs. We’ve also been dancing to a wake up shake up song to stretch and move our bodies to start the day nice and warmed up. We had a great time celebrating World Book Day, the Ducklings wore their favourite costumes to celebrate and brought in a special book to share with their friends. We made our very own book shop with all the books that were brought in with props to match each book in order to bring the stories alive. Everyone had a turn at operating the till and sharing the toy money to buy lots of books to read at the cosy log table. St. Patrick’s Day was filled with green outfits and lots of green, orange and white messy play activities. They also enjoyed Irish music and Irish cuisine too! We have been getting really creative with marble painting and sticking petals on card to make some lovely Mother’s Day cards. The mummies loved their cards and their Mother’s Day flowers to take home after joining us for a lovely tea. Next month we look forward to warmer days, lots of gardening and planting some herbs and vegetables to take to Chris and Kim to cook with, in the kitchen.

DUCKLINGS ROOM

April Newsletter Goslings Room News

What a fun-filled March the Goslings have had! We started off by developing our fine motor skills by taking part In a large scale messy activity using different colours of paint, oats and rice. They thoroughly enjoyed the sensory feel of the cold paint and the oats under their toe finishing off with a bath in the tuff tray, which was a lot of fun. The Goslings have also been using their fine culinary skills by chopping up bananas and strawberries to have with their pancakes for Pancake Day! As our theme for 'Around The World In 30 Days' this month was learning about music, the Goslings have enjoyed creating their own instruments using toilet roll tubes with rice to make shakers! To celebrate St. Patrick's Day, the Goslings enjoyed decorating some shamrocks which were used to hang up in the reception. We used green coloured rice and oats with some glue which was great fun! For World Book Day, all the Goslings came up dressed as their favourite book characters. As our current favourite book is ‘Handa’s Surprise’, we decided to dedicate this to World Book Day! We did some fruit tasting, by trying the fruits Handa had in her baskets, such as Guava, Mango, Banana, Avocado and Oranges! Our little Goslings even tried to walk with the basket on their heads like Handa. Lastly, our March Home Learning Challenge was a great success as lots of parents posted pictures of their children doing their favourite fine motor skills activity. For our April Home Learning, we have decided to set you a challenge to make your very own Easter Basket! Keep a close eye on Tapestry with more details.

GOSLINGS ROOM

April Newsletter Cygnets Room News

The Cygnets have had great fun during March, taking part in lots of exciting activities. To start with, we focused on activities based around the children’s treasured books to celebrate World Book Day, such as a current favourite ‘Kitchen Disco’. The Cygnets loved creating pictures of their favourite fruit using lots of different materials from the creative area such as paint and tissue paper. The Cygnets have loved going on the bus to the library along with the Swans. When getting to the library, the Cygnets picked a book they would like to take back to the nursery to share with their friends. We have also enjoyed reading these in groups at storytime. The Artist of the Month in March has been Van Gough. The Cygnets have taken part in lots of activities around the famous paintings. As a group, we have created a beautiful display of sunflowers to represent one of his pieces. As the weather has been lovely, the Cygnets have been spending lots of time outside. While outside the Cygnets have shown a great interest in planting. They have helped to plant some beautiful flowers, as well as taking great care of our other flowers and vegetables. To celebrate Mother’s Day, the Cygnets were busy making cards and a yummy treat for their mummies. Everyone took turns to roll the dough out before using the cutter to make a lovely heart shape biscuit.

CYGNETS ROOM

Swans Room News April Newsletter

The Swans have been very busy throughout March and have enjoyed learning about lots of exciting new things. This month we enjoyed celebrating Red Nose Day. The children took part in our ‘Crazy Hair Day’ to raise money for the charity. The children enjoyed wearing their favourite red clothes and exploring lots of fun activities set up for the day too. After that, we celebrated St. Patrick's Day, where the children were able to wear the colour green to nursery and enjoy lots of fun activities for the day, such as making shamrocks, learning some Irish dancing and trying some traditional Irish stew and soda bread. The Swans will be continuing their extra-curricular activities such as Forest School, French Classes, Rugby Tots, Ruby Dance, Science Tots and Yoga. Yoga is our new class and the children have really enjoyed taking part and getting to know lots of the new stretches and yoga poses. The children have been learning lots of fun facts and have been very excited to take part in all of our fun activities. The Swans have been so excited as this month we have been very lucky to have ten little chicks hatch in the Swans Room! The children have watched them hatch from the incubator and have been able to hold the little chicks. They’ve been doing a great job looking after them and making sure they are fed and cleaned. The Swans have also been practising their fine motor skills this month when threading their own pasta bracelets, practising their cutting skills in the playdough, and learning pencil control in the salt trays. The Swans have enjoyed making lots of fun, creative pictures with a range of materials and colours!

SWANS ROOM

April Newsletter

Upcoming Events

Wednesday 13 th April Bake Sale (Supporting Ukraine Relief) Wednesday 13 th April Easter Bonnet Parade & Egg Hunt Thursday 14 th April Vaisakhi Celebrations Friday 15 th April Good Friday, Nursery CLOSED Monday 18 th April Easter Monday, Nursery CLOSED Friday 22 nd April St. George’s Day Monday 2 nd May May Bank Holiday, Nursery CLOSED

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. 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. 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.

CONTACT US 0333 043 22 22

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