22 Street Lane Nursery - February 2020 Newsletter

Newsletter February

Play • Discovery • Growth

February Newsletter

Dear Parents and Carers, Welcome to our February Newsletter, and as always, greetings to our new families that have recently joined us. We have a busy month ahead for the children, recently kicking off with Chinese New Year Celebrations, followed by Pancake Day and Valentine’s Day! The children have had lots of fun taking part in our winter wonderland activities such as learning about Arctic animals and investigating ice. We will be celebrating the country of love 'France' as our country of the month and exploring different parts of France such as Paris and the French Alps! Oo la la! To find out more please read on!

February Newsletter STAFF NEWS

Jessica Bilton - Ducklings Deputy Room Leader Congratulations to Jess Bilton in our Ducklings Room who has been promoted to Deputy Room Leader. Jess is a great asset to the Ducklings team, she is caring, professional, and most importantly dedicated to the children. Good luck in your new role Jess!

Chloe Bradshaw and Xenia Towers – Completion of their Level 3 Apprenticeships Congratulations to Chloe Bradshaw and Xenia Towers who are now Qualified Level 3 Practitioners! Both Chloe and Xenia have been working hard for the past year juggling both full-time work and their coursework. Congratulations to you both!

Employee Recognition Award, Winter 2019

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 the Winter 2019 award goes to… Jessica Bilton Ducklings Room Jess is always working really hard in the room and her confidence has come out so much since starting. She is always setting up lovely activities and is always so nice with the children and parents.

February Newsletter STAFF NEWS

Country of the Month - France With February being the ‘month of love’ we will be celebrating France as our Country of the Month! We will be visiting different parts of the country such as the capital Paris, beach resorts such as La Rochelle and the French Alps. We will be constructing our version of the Eiffel Tower and sampling some traditional French cuisines such as croissants and crepes! If you have any resources that will support our exploration of France, we would be most grateful.

Parent Feedback Your feedback is vital so that we can hear your thoughts on areas that you feel that the nursery could improve so that we can continue to deliver outstanding care and education. If you haven’t already done so, please could you take a few minutes to fill out a Parent Feedback form, all feedback forms will be evaluated by the management team and acted upon where possible to improve our practice. https://www.22streetlanenursery.co.uk/parent-feedback-form-2020/

Team Training Days - Dates for your Diary The Nursery will be closed on the following dates in 2020 for staff training days:

Wednesday 3rd June Friday 30th October Thank you for your support

February Newsletter

Fire Marshal Training The leadership team at 22 Street Lane are now fully trained ‘Fire Marshals’, after a successful training course on Saturday! The course focused on providing an all-round knowledge of what to do in the event of a fire, giving clear understanding to the responsibilities and duties of a fire marshal alongside practical, hands-on experience of tackling a controlled fire with a fire extinguisher! Well done to all involved!

Parent First Aid Class We still have a few places on our Mini First Aid class for parents which will cover the following: • Child and baby CPR • Child and baby choking

• High temperatures • Burns and poisoning

We are looking to hold the course here at the nursery on Saturday 22 nd February from 9am - 11am, the cost of the course is £20, and this must be paid in cash to the office ASAP. Please note that this is non-refundable.

There are 15 places available, but we will look to offer a second day if we have enough interest, family and friends are welcome. To reserve your place, please contact Alex at: alexandra@22streetlanenursery.co.uk

Music and Water Wall We love our new music and water wall to make sounds and watch water flow using heuristic materials!

February Newsletter January ‘Country of the Month’ Celebrations - Antarctica Throughout January, we have been exploring the country Antarctica. We have been exploring the ice in the messy trays and helping arctic animals free from the ice blocks! We even explored the small world area with arctic scenes, understanding the chilly weather and magnificent arctic creatures. The children got creative and made their own snow angels with a teddy bear and created our own mixed material winter owls!

Australia Day On Thursday 23rd of January, we celebrated ‘Australia Day’! We learned about the different animals that live in Australia such as the koala, kangaroo, spiders, snakes and crocodiles! We used this opportunity to discuss the tragic bushfires which are taking place and discussed ways in which we could help. We explored sensory beach tuff trays and created our own Australian flags!

Burns Night Celebrations We celebrated Burns Night with a Traditional Scottish dish of ‘Neeps and Tatties’ and Scottish inspired activities.

February Newsletter

Chinese New Year Celebrations The children had lots of fun celebrating Chinese New Year, this year we learned that it is the Year of the Rat! The children enjoyed taking part in dragon dancing and moving to the Chinese music, they also made their own Chinese lanterns. Whist our Swans practiced using their chopsticks the smaller children enjoyed exploring the Chinese inspired tuff trays of rice and noodles! We ended by enjoying a traditional Chinese lunch which our Head Chef Chris made, it was delicious!

Visit from Sabourn Care Home The residents from Sabourn Court came to Nursery to visit us! The children have been celebrating Chinese New Year and enjoyed creating their very own Chinese Dragon pictures using a range of colours, media and materials. They also helped the residents to make their dragon pictures as well, suggesting lots of colours and textures they could add and helping them to use the tools provided, such as: crayons, glue sticks and pencils. All the children made the residents feel so welcome and really enjoyed the activity, chatting to the residents about their families and favourite things at the same time!

February Newsletter

Swans Mini First Aid Classes The Swans children took part in a very special first aid session with ‘Mini First Aid’! First we were introduced to Barney the Bear who helped us learn what to do if someone has hurt themselves or is poorly. We used bandages which stop too much blood from leaving our bodies and practised gently applying pressure to one another. The session was very interactive throughout, with the children being invited to answer questions and have a go at applying cold compresses and plasters to Barney the Bear. We also learnt about the special number ‘999’ which we use to call for an ambulance if someone is very poorly. The children helped to put Barney the Bear into the correct position on the floor (on his side) and then used pretend telephones to practice calling for help, remembering to say their name and address. To finish the session, we read a story called ‘The Mini Adventures of Freddie’ together. The story helped us to recap everything we had learnt in the session and provided opportunities for the children to share their ideas about what to do in an emergency.

February Newsletter

Makaton Sign Language

As part of our team training day, we learned the basic signs of Makaton and how these can support the children in our setting. What is Makaton? Makaton is a language programme using signs and symbols to help people to communicate. It is designed to support spoken language and the signs and symbols are used with speech, in spoken word order. Who is Makaton for? Makaton is the UK's leading language programme for adults and children with learning or communication difficulties. It is also used by everyone who shares their lives, for example, parents and other family members, friends and carers, and education and health professionals. Makaton is used for teaching communication, language and literacy skills with children and adults who are at an early stage of communication and language development. This structured approach can also help people who are learning English as an additional language, helping them to communicate straightaway, whilst also supporting their learning. We will be teaching Makaton to the children at nursery and would like to share a sign with you every month!

Sign of the Month: Sad Place one hand perpendicular to your face, in front of your nose, and move it downwards while saying "Sad"

February Newsletter

Dish of the Month

Lamb Stew

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

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil • 500g cubed stewing lamb • 1 onion, thickly sliced • 4 carrots, thickly sliced • 2 sweet potatoes, thickly sliced • 1 swede, thickly sliced • 100g of garden peas • 1 spring cabbage • 400ml hot vegetable or chicken stock

• 1 tsp dried rosemary and 1 fresh sprig of thyme • Crusty bread or boiled potatoes to serve (optional)

Method 1. Heat the oil in a large casserole. Tip in the lamb and cook for 10 mins until any liquid has

disappeared, then add the onion, carrots, sweet potatoes and swede 2. Cook for 5 mins more, stirring often, until the veg is starting to soften

3. Pour over the stock, add the rosemary & thyme, cover with a lid and cook over low heat for 1 hour 4. Stir in the peas and cabbage and cook for 30 mins more, topping up with water if necessary, until the lamb is tender and cooked through 5. Serve with some crusty bread or potatoes, if you like

February Newsletter Chicklets Room News The Chicklets have had a very busy January!

The babies have shown a keen interest in books this month. They like to crawl to the bookshelf to find books of their choice to read with a member of staff. To support this interest, we have been setting up different book sensory activities for the children to explore. Messy play has been a huge hit this month. The children have enjoyed exploring a variety of messy play activities such as shaving foam, cornflour gloop and shredded paper. The Chicklets also enjoyed making their own berry playdough this month. They helped squash the berries into the play dough and enjoyed using their senses and different mark making tools to explore this. The babies have been enjoying Tiny Dancers this month, growing in confidence every session and have begun to join in on the actions to some of their favourite songs. The babies enjoy exploring the resources June brings such as the drums and the sensory shakers. As the children have shown an increased interest in the heuristic area, we are looking for donations to expand our treasure baskets and would love for you to bring in any items you aren’t using at home.

CHICKLETS ROOM

February Newsletter

Ducklings Room News

The Ducklings have been enjoying making their own smoothies and other healthy treats. We used our fine motor skills to carefully cut up the fruit using a knife independently. We chose our favourite fruits of apple, banana and pear! We placed all the fruit into the blender and pressed ‘go’, we watched it as it made our fruit turn into a green healthy smoothie! We then all had a taste of our yummy smoothie we made and some of us even drank from open top cups being very careful and sensible with them, it was delicious! A number of the Ducklings children are showing a huge interest in dinosaurs, to support this, we created a gloopy dinosaur world! The Ducklings enjoyed using their senses to feel the textures, smell the bubbles in the water and to splat the dinosaurs up and down in the gloop, they also enjoyed using heuristic items such as sticks and rocks to make marks in the gloop and watch it mould into shape. The Ducklings have also been celebrating Australia Day! To celebrate, we made some Australian exotic fruit ice pops. The Ducklings used their fine motor skills to help cut all the fruit up and put it in the blender. We when put the mixer into our ice pop makers and waited for our lollies to freeze so we can enjoy them at snack time. The Duckling also enjoyed exploring the bugs, sticking and gluing with colourful tissue paper to make their own boomerangs and looking at the different colours of the Australian flag through sensory play. In the afternoon, the Ducklings used crayons to mark make on paper to make their own kangaroo ears.

DUCKLINGS ROOM

February Newsletter

Goslings Room News

Throughout January we have been embracing the colder weather by celebrating our country of the month Antarctica! To do this we have had lots of snow play (flour) introducing different Arctic animals. The Goslings have also created some beautiful arctic paintings using cotton wool and white paint. The children also enjoyed rolling, squeezing and stretching some arctic themed play dough. The Goslings currently have a big interest in the story of The Gruffalo, to support this, we have been enhancing our provision to that follow the interest. Our Gruffalo themed activities have included making some yummy owl ice cream using play dough and creating scrambled snake by gluing and sticking using tissue paper. The Goslings favourite activity was pretending to make Gruffalo crumble by using oats and flour, we loved it so much we decided to make some real Gruffalo crumble! Our ‘five current buns’ each have different colours on them so the children have been encouraged to identify and choose which colour bun they would like. Lastly, our five monkeys have the numbers 1-5 on them so that we can support the children with their mathematics. These have been a huge success and we have found that the Goslings have started to carry out this activity in their own play! As they have loved them so much, we created some wooden spoons which each have different nursery rhymes on them. The children like to pick out one of the spoons and say what they see, we then support them by singing the nursery rhyme that the wooden spoon links to.

GOSLINGS ROOM

February Newsletter

Cygnets Room News

It has been an exciting month in the Cygnets room, we have had lots of changes in the Cygnets including a new leadership team and a change of our environment which the children are enjoying exploring. We have enhanced our curiosity case even further by giving the children the chance to go out on a trip to St Gemma’s hospice charity shop to find authentic items to add to this. We found a beautiful mirror which we have enjoyed looking in and handled carefully. We have now started visiting the Sabourn Court care home each week, all the children will have the opportunity to go on this outing. It is a great opportunity for the Cygnets to give back to the community and also aid in the development of the children with interaction and communication skills, whilst helping the elderly have a new perspective on life. 'The Tiger Who Came To Tea' and 'Shark in the Park' gave the children lots of fun and excitement with our 'New’ story baskets that we have introduced in January. Our story basket consists of the book which we read to the children in each of the baskets, we have corresponding props that are handed out to the children to participate in the story as we are reading to enhance the learning and promote group involvement. The story baskets will change each month to a new story, feel free to put forward any suggestions and provide any props to support with the story baskets.

CYGNETS ROOM

February Newsletter

Swans Room News

The Swans have been very busy throughout January and have enjoyed learning about lots of exciting things! We started the month by learning about the Arctic which has been our Country of the Month. The children have really enjoyed using the world map to find the different places that certain species live, creating their own arctic animals’ images and exploring a tuff tray, sorting animals into the correct categories of ‘cold climate’ or ‘hot climate’. We also transformed the home corner into an Igloo, as the children expressed lots of interest in learning about how igloos are made and how people live in different ways in the Arctic. We also celebrated Australia Day with the children learning all about where Australia is on the World Map, how far away it is and how long it would take to travel from the UK to Australia. The children have been looking at the recent bush fires in Australia, discussing what has happened and how. We have also been talking about how people have been affected and how so many people are helping in a variety of ways. Finally, as always, we have been participating in lots of other phonics and maths activities, including threading, practising writing names, matching objects to numeral cards and much more. We have also enjoyed playing a new phonics flashcard game where the children are challenged to choose a card and find the letters that make the word on their flashcard before the two-minute timer runs out! The Swans have had a fantastic and very busy month and are looking forward to lots more fun next month!

SWANS ROOM

February 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 of parking over more than one space in the car park. As you can appreciate, we have very limited parking, and so the car park can become very busy. Drop Off and Collection Can we kindly remind you that we open at 7:30am and cannot accept children into the nursery before this time. We close at 6:00pm and any parents that pick up after this time will be charged. Thank you for your cooperation. High Temperatures & Fevers Please can we remind parents that children cannot attend nursery if they have a high temperature (over 38 ° C). If a child develops a temperature whilst at nursery, parents will be called to collect them, as supported by our policies and procedures. We can administer non- prescribed Calpol for a temperature, although we must first receive permission in writing. HMRC Additional Funding Code (3 & 4 year old - 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. Winter Clothing With the bitter months ahead, please can you make sure that your child has appropriate clothing for outdoor play. Ideally, they need a waterproof coat/ all In one with a hood, warm clothing, wellies, scarves, hats and gloves (preferably threaded through their coat). Please can you ensure that your child’s clothing is labelled. Severe Weather It is highly likely that we will have some snow throughout the winter, if this is the case, please call the nursery to see if we are open before setting off. We will always do our best to open, however in extreme cases we may need to close due to staffing etc. We will always communicate this to you via Tapestry as early as we can.

February Newsletter

*ATTENTION* Important Information - Please Read

Parents Suggestions We continue to welcome all feedback from parents. If you would like to make a suggestion, then please post this in our ‘Parents Suggestion Box’ which is based on reception. Alternatively, you can speak to a member of staff. 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. Contacting the Nursery Please can we kindly ask parents to try and only call the nursery rooms if necessary. It can be very difficult for the staff to keep coming to the phones when they are trying to look after the children and take appropriate breaks. Please note if ever we have a concern, we would always call so please be assured that they are having a good day unless we call you. Thank you for your understanding. Wipes Please note that although we provide nappies as part of our offering, wipes are not included in this. It has been noted that lots of children are coming to nursery without nappy wipes. Can we kindly remind parents to ensure that there is always a supply available for your child. Your child’s key person will remind you when they are running low. Moving forwards, we will be charging £15.00 per month to any parents that fails to bring wipes. 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 cooperation. Birthday Cakes/Treats We are kindly asking parents not to bring in birthday cake or sweet treats. Instead, we will have a pretend cake in each room where we will still sing happy birthday to the children and they can blow out the candles, we will also have a little disco. This way, the children are not taking cake home all the time and the children who cannot have due to allergies etc are not feeling left out. If parents do want to bring something in, they can bring in stickers.

February Newsletter

Upcoming Events Make A Diary Note Friday 14th February Valentine’s Day Celebrations Tuesday 25th February Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day!) Friday 2nd March St. David’s Day Thursday 5th March World Book Day Monday 9th March Holi Colour Festival W/C Monday 16th March Mothering Sunday Tea Party Tuesday 17th March St. Patrick’s Day

CONTACT US 0333 043 22 22

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