22 Street Lane Nursery - February 2025 Newsletter

Nursery Newsletter February 2025 Play • Discovery • Growth

February Newsletter

Dear Parents and Carers, Welcome to our February newsletter, and to our new families who have recently joined us. It was so lovely to see everyone after the New Year and hear about everything you had been up to over the Christmas break! We kicked off January with lots of fun activities for Burns Night, including creating the Scottish flag, the children designing their very own tartan patterns and a delicious Scottish-inspired feast. We also celebrated Lunar New Year, and learnt all about China. The children had lots of fun on a trip to the oriental supermarket and made some delicious spring rolls along with lots of other themed activities! We have a very busy month ahead of us starting with National Storytelling Week, followed by Children’s Mental Health Week, Valentine’s Day, Random Acts of Kindness Day and St. David’s Day. To find out more, please read on...

February Newsletter STAFF NEWS

Goodbye, Felix! Sadly, we said goodbye to Felix at the end of January. Felix has left to go travelling around Sri Lanka, South East Asia and Japan! We wish Felix the very best of luck in the future; he will be missed by all the staff and children. Good luck with your adventures!

Welcome to Zarah! A warm welcome to Zarah, who has recently joined our Chicklets Team as an Apprentice Practitioner! “I am delighted to be a part of the community here. I’m invested in encouraging and ensuring that each child can experience child wonder in their own way so they all individually thrive. I hope to grow and learn from this experience by assisting in the children’s progression every single day and fulfilling my role as a responsible nurturer to the best of my abilities!”

New Buggy Park and Cycle Store We are really pleased to inform you that the work has begun for our new buggy/cycle store, which will continue throughout February. We hope to have the project completed as soon as possible! Please Note: Whilst under construction the car park (or parts of the car park) may be closed for periods of time, however, we will provide updates of any closures on Tapestry in due course. We hope this helps many of our families who enjoy walking and cycling to the nursery!

February Newsletter

NEWS

Country of the Month, February 2025: Wales Throughout January the children learnt all about China, as we celebrated Lunar New Year. The children enjoyed a trip to the Oriental Supermarket to collect ingredients to make some delicious traditional Chinese dishes! We also created lots of snake pictures to celebrate the ‘Year of the Snake’, and Oli cooked a delicious Chinese banquet, including sweet and sour sauce with chicken and vermicelli noodles, and roast Peking duck served with pancakes, cucumber, spring onions and hoisin sauce. Throughout February, we will be exploring the country of Wales to tie in with St David’s Day. We will be painting daffodils from observation and making our own leek and potato soup! We will be creating the Welsh flag using red, green and white, and learning how to say some simple words in the Welsh language - if anyone has any resources to support our Country of the Month, we would be most grateful. Did you know? Wales is believed to have more castles per square mile than anywhere else in the world.

February Newsletter NEWS

Burns Night Celebrations The children had lots of fun celebrating ‘Burns Night’. They painted pictures of the Scottish flag, explored Burns Night-inspired tuff trays and enjoyed a traditional Scottish menu consisting of ‘tatty scones’, lamb stew and ‘neeps and tatties’, followed by a scrumptious trifle.

Big Garden Birdwatch At the end of January, the children really enjoyed taking part in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch! The children went on lots of local walks to see what species of birds they could spot, as well as using binoculars in our outdoor garden space to keep an eye on the wildlife too. Some of our children also drew their own interpretations of their favourite birds, as well as making some bird feeders using bird seed, honey and various other materials. We are looking forward to continuing to look for signs of wildlife as we start to head into Spring!

National Storytelling Week: 1st - 9th February At the beginning of February, the children will be celebrating National Storytelling Week. The theme this year is ‘Reimagine your world” - so the children will be participating in various themed activities and tuff trays linked to some of the children’s favourite stories, and our five core books, including: designing our own version of the Gruffalo, making a fruit salad using all the fruits from The Hungry Caterpillar and lots more! We would really appreciate it if you’re able to post on Tapestry letting us know your child’s favourite stories at home so we can plan lots of exciting activities around these!

February Newsletter NEWS Children’s Mental Health Week: 3rd - 9th February We’ll be spending this week taking part in Children’s Mental Health Week, as this is a particularly important topic. The children will spend some time focusing on talking about their feelings and will look at a range of books linked to emotions including: ‘The Colour Monster’ and ‘I Feel Angry’. Some of the children will also spend some time in Roundhay Park, enjoy yoga sessions in the outdoor garden and make some healthy smoothies packed with fruits and vegetables! On Wednesday 5th February, it is “Express Yourself Day”, so the children are invited to come to Nursery dressed in something that makes them feel happy!”

Random Acts of Kindness Day: Monday 17th February In support of Random Acts of Kindness Day, each room will talk to the children about how we can be kind to others, and the importance of this. We will be reading stories and thinking of how we can make others feel happy and will share what we get up to on Tapestry!

Car Park Please can we kindly ask you to only park in the designated parking spaces when dropping off and collecting your child/ren so that other families can get in and out of their spaces safely. We only have limited parking spaces and at peak times it can get really busy so please find street parking if the car park looks full, rather than causing long queues on the main road. Please can we also remind you to be cautious when reversing and parking in spaces, as there have been several incidents recently where items in the car park have been damaged/knocked over.

February Newsletter

Dish of the Month

Crispy Peking Duck

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

Ingredients • 1 whole duck

• 50ml of hoisin sauce • 50ml of plum sauce • 1 bunch of spring onions • 1 carrot • 1 cucumber • 20 Chinese pancakes • 15-25g of 5 spice • 15ml of soy sauce • 15ml of good quality honey

Method 1. Make sure you have your oven pre-heated to 210c. Place the whole duck on a roasting tray and lightly score the skin to ensure we can maximise the flavour with the marinade. 2. On a low heat, add the soy sauce, honey and 5 spice to a pain and reduce to a glaze. Slightly cool the glaze. Meanwhile, completely pat down the duck, making sure it’s bone dry to ensure extra crispiness. Lightly brush the glaze onto the duck making sure you get in all areas. 3. Place the duck on a wire rack then onto a roasting tray, ready for the oven. Roast for 1hr 20 minutes and check the temperature reaches over 75c, if you want it extra crispy cook for a further 10-15 minutes. 4. Rest the whole duck for around 20 minutes to ensure the juices have run out and relaxed. While this is happening, wash all the vegetables and thinly slice the onions, carrots and cucumber into long strips. 5. Once cooled slightly, cut the duck and skin into large pieces and mix the 2 sauces in a bowl together to make the sauce. Arrange on a serving platter.

February Newsletter

Love is most definitely in the air at 22 Street Lane, and we have some lovely Valentine’s Day activities planned for the children! The children will be encouraged to speak about who they love and why, as well as share photos of their special people on Tapestry. The children are also welcome to come to the nursery dressed in red or pink! Valentine’s Day: Friday 14th February

February Newsletter St. David’s Day: Friday 28th February

We will be celebrating St David’s Day at the nursery with lots of activities themed around the colours green and red, as well as looking at their national emblems of daffodils, leeks and red dragons. Oli will be cooking some Welsh dishes for us to try and the children will also be learning some simple Welsh words too!

February Newsletter

We have had a very busy month back after Christmas in the Chicklets Room. We have welcomed some new Chicklets and they have all settled really well. All our existing Chicklets have been very welcoming and calm towards our new friends and we have encouraged gentle and kind hands towards the younger children. We have also welcomed Zarah into our room, our new apprentice and has already been spending time getting to know your Chicklets and is making lovely bonds with them. As a lot of the Chicklets are taking independent steps now, we are all going to be working hard on our physical development throughout February. The children love song time so this will help us to practice big movements like stomps and marches up on our feet and shaking and waving during our Shake Rattle and Boogie sessions. We are also going to spend time challenging ourselves on the climbing frame inside and the steps outside to build our confidence in manoeuvring across different surfaces. Throughout January, we have enjoyed exploring lots of different sensory messy play. We have particularly enjoyed scooping and filling various materials into containers tipping them out again! We are beginning to develop our communication and language skills and we are encouraging this by exploring sensory touchy-feely books and props such as puppets. We are encouraging the children to copy simple words such as animal sounds, ‘Mama’, ‘Dada’, and more. Some children are also singing as part of their communication development. We are going to develop this throughout February and continue to encourage the children to communicate their wants, needs and interests. Chicklets Room News

CHICKLETS ROOM

February Newsletter

Ducklings Room News

We welcomed our Ducklings back after the Christmas break and have had such a busy month! We started off the month by embracing the cold and exploring the snow. They loved going outside to make snowballs and using wooden spoons to mix the snow in bowls, making their own yummy dish. During January, our ducklings have continued their love for baking! They made a lemon loaf, an apple loaf and a banana loaf. The Ducklings did so well at pouring the ingredients in with a little help, mixing it all together and trying some at snack time. Reading books has continued to be a big interest in the room, so we based lots of activities around books to encourage language. The children love looking through the books and getting messy in our tuff trays. The Ducklings have explored tuff trays based on ‘The Gruffalo’, ‘Big Bear, Little Bear’, ‘Dinosaurs’ and ‘Where’s Mr Train?’. They have used their fine motor skills to push the resources around the tray to explore the flour, materials and cereals! The last week of January we celebrated Lunar New Year, the Ducklings embraced the Chinese culture by using chopsticks to explore our red noodle tray. They also used their fingers to mix the red and yellow paint, made their own spring rolls out of playdough and listened to Lunar New Year themed music during group time. As it’s the Year of the Snake, we hid a few prints of snakes under red rice and encouraged the Ducklings to find them - what a fun game!

DUCKLINGS ROOM

February Newsletter

Goslings Room News

We started January off in high spirits welcoming everyone back from their Christmas break, we looked at photos from their celebrations and had lots of activities around New Year and fireworks. An interest in vehicles started in the Goslings Room so we decided to explore it further, by dedicating a whole week to vehicles! We looked at photos that parents sent in from different holidays, transportation and favourite vehicle toys. We then set up lots of activities around different types of transport and explored the rotation scheme. We played different games such as ‘Car Bingo’ and role played train journeys to get the children’s imagination running wild. We ended the month by celebrating Burns Night, we looked at the Scottish flag and listened to traditional music, we looked at photos of our children attending ceilidh and even tried to take part in familiar dances. We also explored and celebrated the Lunar New Year, throughout the week we set up lots of activities, tasted traditional cuisine, listened to music and watched a lion dance. We also sent home lucky coined biscuits in red envelopes for our families to enjoy the tradition as well as spring rolls which the children prepped and helped make! In February we have lots of things to celebrate. We will be taking part in National Storytelling Week where we explore our core books alongside the children’s favourite stories. We will be setting up activities around feelings, getting out into the community and doing yoga for Children’s Mental Health Week and talking about all the things we love ready for Valentine’s Day!

GOSLINGS ROOM

February Newsletter

Cygnets Room News

January has been a busy and exciting month for the Cygnets! We loved welcoming everyone back after the holidays and hearing about their adventures and special gifts. The winter weather brought plenty of snow, which the Cygnets fully embraced. They had a fantastic time building snowmen, digging, scooping, and exploring ice-themed tuff trays. The children loved playing games in the garden this month such as group games of hide and seek and imaginative roleplay games including acting out Jack and the Beanstalk, complete with giant chases! The Cygnets were busy with our extra-curricular activities this month. In Debutots, the children imagined life inside a toy box, cared for a baby bunny, and went on a magical hot air balloon ride. In Dance Lab, they shook out their sillies, danced like characters from The Gruffalo, and explored rhythm and movement. Meanwhile, in Rugby Tots, the Cygnets are growing in confidence with their throwing, catching, and kicking skills, excitedly calling out to Coach James about scoring points. Our Country of the Month was China, which the children loved learning about. The Cygnets built the Great Wall of China with blocks, practised using chopsticks, made beautiful Chinese fans and lanterns, and crafted playdough and paper snakes in honour of the Year of the Snake. They also explored Chinese calligraphy with special paintbrushes. We rounded off our celebrations with a wonderful Lunar New Year feast, where the children gathered around a big table to enjoy traditional foods with their friends.

CYGNETS ROOM

February Newsletter

Swans Room News

Throughout January we have been focusing on our county of the month, China and celebrating Lunar New Year! In the creative area, the children crafted their own Chinese-inspired fans, snake pictures and some lanterns. In the construction area, the children enjoyed creating famous landmarks, such as the Great Wall of China using blocks. In the role-play area, the children loved practising using chopsticks to pick up noodles, rice and loose parts. Some of the children even made their own noodles and dumplings out of playdough. Finally, some children went on a trip to the Chinese supermarket with some of the Cygnets children and Oli, our nursery chef, to buy some ingredients to make some yummy Chinese-style dishes. A big interest within the Swans Room recently has been space. So we have enjoyed learning more about space and planets. Some of the children created beautiful star, moon and planet watercolour paintings. We have also focused on National Bird Watching Week! The children had so much fun joining in lots of exciting activities, such as creating birds in the creative area using a wide range of materials, cutting feathers and making birds using playdough. While in the garden we liked watching the sky and the trees to see if we could spot different types of birds. Some of the children went on a Forest School trip and we learnt all about owls. We learnt some interesting facts, as well as making our own owls out of clay and the natural materials we found in the forest.

SWANS ROOM

February Newsletter

2025 Events Calendar *Dates subject to change - Please check the website for the latest calendar

Friday 14th

Valentine’s Day Celebrations

Monday 17th

Random Acts of Kindness Day

February

Friday 28th / 1st March

St David’s Day

Friday 28th - Sunday 30th March

Ramadan Celebrations

Monday 3rd

World Wildlife Day

Tuesday 4th

Shrove Tuesday

Thursday 6th

World Book Day

Friday 7th

International Women’s Day

Friday 14th

Holi Colour Festival

March

Monday 17th

St. Patrick’s Day

Tuesday 18th

Global Recycling Day

Friday 21st

Red Nose Day

Friday 21st

World Down Syndrome Day

W/C Monday 24th

Mother’s Day Stay and Play

Monday 31st

Eid Al Fitr

February Newsletter

2025 Events Calendar *Dates subject to change - Please check the website for the latest calendar

Monday 14th

Vaisakhi Festival Celebrations

W/C Monday 14th

Passover

Thursday 17th

Easter Bonnet and Egg Hunt

April

Good Friday, Nursery Closed

Friday 18th

Easter Monday, Nursery Closed

Monday 21st

Tuesday 22nd

Earth Day

Wednesday 23rd

St. George's Day

Monday 5th

Early May Bank Holiday, Nursery Closed

W/C Monday 12th

Mental Health Awareness Week

W/C Monday 19th

Grandparents Stay & Play

May

Tuesday 20th

World Bee Day

Spring Bank Holiday, Nursery Closed

Monday 26th

W/C Monday 26th

National Childrens’ Gardening Week

February Newsletter

2025 Events Calendar *Dates subject to change - Please check the website for the latest calendar

Tuesday 3rd

Bicycle Day - Bring your bike to Nursery day!

Wednesday 4th

Team Training Day, Nursery Closed

W/C Monday 9th

Father’s Day Stay & Play

Healthy Eating Week & Great Big Green Week

W/C Monday 9th

Friday 6th

Eid Al Adha

June

Monday 16th

Chicklets, Goslings, Swans Parents Evening

Wednesday 18th National Picnic Week W/C Monday 30th - TBC Beach Party Week Wednesday 25th

Ducklings & Cygnets Parents Evening

Thursday 28th

Thanksgiving

July

Thursday 17th

Swans Graduation

Friday 1st

Yorkshire Day

August

Summer Bank Holiday, Nursery Closed

Monday 25th

W/C Monday 25th

Carnival Week

TBC

Macmillan Bake sale

September

W/C Monday 22nd

Rosh Hashanah

February Newsletter

2025 Events Calendar *Dates subject to change - Please check the website for the latest calendar

Wednesday 1st

Black History Month

W/C Monday 20th

Diwali

W/C Monday 20th & W/C Monday 27th

October

Halloween Stay & Play

Team Training Day, Nursery Closed

Thursday 30th

Friday 31st

Halloween Fancy Dress Day

Wednesday 5th

Bonfire Celebrations

Monday 10th

Chicklets, Goslings, Swans Parents Evening

Tuesday 11th

Remembrance Sunday

Thursday 13th

World Kindness Day

November

TBC

World Nursery Rhymes Week

Friday 21st

Children in Need

Wednesday 19th

Cygnets and Ducklings Parents Evening

Thursday 27th

Thanksgiving

TBC

Christmas Jumper Day

TBC

Swans Christmas Nativity

W/C Monday 15th

Chanukah Celebrations

December

W/C Monday 15th

Christmas Party Week

Wednesday 17th

22SLN Christmas Dinner Day

Christmas Eve, Nursery Closes at 12pm

Wednesday 24th

February Newsletter

*ATTENTION* Important Information - Please Read Notice - Glass Door We would like to remind parents to close the glass door behind them for the safety of the children. Please make sure you don’t let anyone in behind you. 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. Weather Appropriate Clothing With the cooler months upon us, please can you ensure that your child has appropriate clothing for colder and wetter weather, including coats, hats, scarves, gloves and wellies when appropriate. 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 a late fee. Tax-Free Childcare Tax-free childcare accounts are also available and can lead to savings of up to £2000 per child per year. These accounts can also be used alongside funding. For more information, please visit: https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

CONTACT US 0333 043 22 22

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