22 Street Lane Nursery - January 2020 Newsletter

Newsletter January

Play • Discovery • Growth

January Newsletter

Dear Parents and Carers, We hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and we would like to wish you all a Happy New Year. On behalf of all of the staff, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all of the lovely cards, gifts and kind words that we received before the Christmas holidays, we were all very touched by the generosity of our children and families. We would love to see what the children got up to over the festive period and I am sure that they would enjoy sharing their photos and their Christmas adventures at circle time. Please can we ask parents to upload these to Tapestry along with their current interests. As always, a warm welcome to the families that are joining us throughout January.

January Newsletter STAFF NEWS

Daisy Weekes joins the Ducklings Room We would like to welcome Daisy Weekes to our Ducklings Room, Daisey is joining the team as an Apprentice Practitioner and will be studying towards a Level 3 qualification. “I am very passionate about caring and looking after young children, and am extremely excited to start studying towards my Level 3 qualification in childcare while working alongside the Ducklings Team.” “I am looking forward to teaching the children new things along with learning knowledge and skills from the team. In my spare time, I love to spend time with my family and friends!”

Christmas Jumper Day - Save The Children The children had lots of fun dressing up in their Christmas jumpers to support Save the Children! We raised a total of £35! Thank you for your support

January Newsletter STAFF NEWS

Country of the Month - The Arctic Throughout January, we will be visiting the continent ‘Antarctica’, we will be exploring Arctic animals and their habitats such as Penguins, Polar Bears, Walruses, Puffins, the Arctic Fox and Snowshoe Hare! We will be creating our own Arctic small worlds using water, ice and other natural materials. We will be investigating ice through melting and freezing and adding colours. We would be most grateful for any resources to support this topic such as story books.

Chinese New Year Celebrations From 24th – 30th January we will be celebrating Chinese New Year, this year it is the Year of the Rat! We will be taking part in Chinese New Year traditions such as Dragon Dancing and making Chinese Lanterns. We will be sampling Chinese cuisine such as dim sums, chow mein and spring rolls…yum!

Fire Marshall Training On Saturday 11th January, the management team, room leaders and deputies will be refreshing their Fire Marshal training. We will learn about the role of the Fire Marshal, learn how to prevent fires, learn about different fire extinguishers and how to use them correctly.

January Newsletter

Santa Visit 22 Street Lane We had a very special visit on Tuesday 17th December from Santa Claus! The children were overjoyed to have the big man himself visit us and he has heard from the elves all about how good the boys and girls have been this year, so gave everyone a special gift! We were super excited to tell him our wishes and ask about his reindeer and the North Pole! Thank you Santa for coming to visit us, it was a magical morning and hope that he comes back next year to visit us!

Festive Reindeer Visit On Wednesday 18th December, we had some very excited, magical visitors at 22 Street Lane… Santa’s Reindeers were flying by and stopped by to say hello to the children! We loved saying hello to them, some of the children even gave them a little stroke and felt their soft fur and gave them some special reindeer food as a treat to keep them on their way around the globe!

January Newsletter

Our Annual Christmas Dinner We had our delicious annual 22 Street Lane Christmas Dinner! Chris and Kim cooked up a festive feast for us, as we enjoyed roast turkey, roast potatoes, stuffing and some glorious veg including carrots, peas, parsnips and all topped off with gravy! Thank you to Chris and Kim for cooking it for us, what a delicious meal we had and we loved celebrating with our friends at nursery!

Time For Our Christmas Party! It was time to finish 2019 in style at 22 Street Lane Nursery with our fabulous Christmas Party! We dressed in our festive frocks and had a boogie to some of our favourite Christmas songs with our friends, we had so much fun and can’t wait to celebrate next year!

January Newsletter

Swans Nativity Play Our most senior bunch swanned into St Andrew’s Church on Thursday 19th December, garbed in a delightful array of fabulous fabrics as it was time to perform this year’s wonderful Nativity Play. Parents and children alike got to sit back and learn all about why we celebrate Christmas, accompanied by some tear-jerking renditions of nursery rhymes with lyrics that told the Christmas story. All the children took their dramatic roles very seriously: Mary, Joseph, the Wise Men, Shepherds, Angels, Stars and various barn animals all mesmerised their audience with adorable smiles and sweet dance moves.

All of us at 22 Street Lane Nursery are very proud of our Swans for their hard work. Here are some of the great pictures from the Nativity, can you spot your little one?

January 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: Happy Both hands open. Palm of dominant hand taps palm of non-dominant hand twice.

January Newsletter

Dish of the Month

Chinese Vegetable Noodles

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

Ingredients

• 150g pack medium egg noodle • 1 tbsp vegetable oil • 2½ cm piece fresh ginger, finely chopped • 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped • 1 large carrot, cut into matchsticks • 1 yellow pepper, deseeded and thinly sliced • 100g mangetout, sugar snaps or frozen peas • 2 spring onions, finely chopped • 85g beansprout (optional) • 2 tbsp soy sauce • 1 tsp white wine vinegar

Method 1. Fill a pan of water and bring to the boil, cook the noodles for 4-5 minutes . 2. Heat the oil in a wok or large frying pan, then stir-fry the ginger, garlic, carrot, pepper and mangetout, sugar snap or frozen peas over a high heat for 2-3 mins. 3. Drain the noodles thoroughly, add to the pan with the onions and beansprouts, if using, then stir- fry for 2 mins. 4. Mix together the soy sauce and vinegar, stir into the pan, then cook for 1-2 mins. Divide between individual plates or bowls and serve immediately.

January Newsletter Chicklets Room News The Chicklets had a very festive December exploring things Christmassy!

The Chicklets enjoyed exploring the Christmas messy play on offer during December. The babies have been busy exploring the oaty ‘reindeer food’ sensory tray where they enjoyed filling the containers up with oats, developing their early maths skills. Another messy play favourite was the cornflour gloop, the babies enjoyed feeling the texture of the gloop and watching it drip from staff member’s hands which they then copied. The Chicklets have been very creative throughout December and were very busy creating all their different Christmas crafts for their loved ones. They have been painting bags with baubles and using their hands on the festive 2020 calendars, we hope that you liked them! The Chicklets have been showing an interest in books this month, the babies will crawl up to the bookshelf and pick out books that are of interest to them, their favourites are the books which include animals. The babies also enjoy having a cuddle from staff members and looking at the books together. The Chicklets have been enjoying tiny dancers which has been Christmas themed, the children have loved jingling the bells! We have enjoyed listening to Christmas music and showing off our dance moves! We look forward to welcoming our Chicklets back on Thursday 2nd January.

CHICKLETS ROOM

January Newsletter

Ducklings Room News

The Ducklings have been very busy doing lots of creative/mark making festive activities. They have enjoyed a large-scale painting activity where they explored freely with different coloured paints and used different mark- making tools to create marks as they painted on paper and even on themselves! All the children got really involved in this activity and absolutely loved painting and creating such lovely pictures filled with vibrant colours. We talked to the children about the different colours that we were using to increase their knowledge on them. The Ducklings have also explored Christmas sensory sessions. Sensory activities facilitate exploration and naturally encourage children to use scientific processes while they play, create, investigate and explore. The sensory activities have allowed the children to refine their thresholds for different sensory information, helping their brain to create stronger connections to process and respond to sensory information. As our country of the month was the USA, to celebrate, the Ducklings took part in making turkey plates for thanksgiving! We spoke about the different colours ‘brown’ and ‘red’ and the children really enjoyed making their turkey plates and showing them to parents on collection!

DUCKLINGS ROOM

January Newsletter

Goslings Room News

To begin the festivities the Goslings helped to decorate our indoor and outdoor tree, the children took it in turns hanging the different sized baubles on it. They then went to create their own Christmas decorations, to do this they used a wide range of colours to make marks on some circles. Next, they helped to create a beautiful salt dough and snow globe decoration to take home to put on their own trees! The Christmas crafts didn’t stop there as the children also created a Reggio inspired Christmas card and calendar using sticks. The Children then used their fingers to make some brilliant marks on them. The Goslings then helped to decorate some bags to take home all the lovely things they made. To do this, the children dipped a cut up apple into white paint and printed it onto the bag to look like snowman! The children also helped to make some reindeer food to take home, they loved scooping the oats into bags ready to take home and sprinkle outside for Santa’s reindeers. As well as Christmas we have also been celebrating Hanukkah. The Children made some fantastic Menorah cards for Hanukkah by printing their hands onto the card and then lighting the candles with yellow fingerprints. The children also decorated the Star of David with yellow paint and by gluing and sticking tissue paper to it. Some children then created their own candles to make for their menorah. They did this by painting recyclable materials and sticking yellow paper at the top like the flame of the candle. We then looked at a menorah together and practiced counting to nine.

GOSLINGS ROOM

January Newsletter

Cygnets Room News

We hope you all have had a lovely Christmas and we look forward to welcoming our Cygnets back to nursery on Thursday 2nd December. We are very excited for 2020, and the exciting things we have planned for all our Cygnets Children. The Cygnets had a very busy month in December, preparing all their crafts to take home for their families, they particularly enjoyed making reindeer food which the children were very excited to leave out on Christmas Eve. We collected a range of items from the kitchen and made our very own eco-friendly food for Rudolph and his friends! We enjoyed making our own healthy gingerbread men where we took in turns with our peers too add the ingredients and mix them altogether before we each cut our own gingerbread piece out. The Children have enjoyed explored our Home Corner/Role Play area as we revamped it and have added lots of real items for the children to explore, we particularly enjoy setting up tea parties where we sit together and make tea and treats for each other. The Cygnets have been very busy this year in the maths/investigation station using their problem-solving skills whilst also exploring shape and number. As we begin the new year, we will be introducing numbers 6-10 to challenge some of our older children through number games, songs and patterns. We will be exploring nature through winter walks and we will be continuing our visits to their care home. If you have any suggestions for our Cygnets Room, we would love to hear them!

CYGNETS ROOM

January Newsletter

Swans Room News

The Swans have been very busy throughout December and have enjoyed learning about lots of exciting things! We started the month by learning about Arctic animals, as the children had been expressing interests in animals that live in cold climates. The children 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 then began celebrating Christmas and the Swans have been super busy throughout the month creating lots of lovely Christmas crafts to take home! The Home Corner has also been transformed into a Santa’s Workshop, and the children have been enjoying role playing making an array of gifts, whilst also writing lots of letters to Santa and posting them into our special post box straight to the North Pole! We then began learning about Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Light, with the Swans designing their own Menorah pictures (a 9 candlestick holder lit every night during Hanukkah), learning how to play the dreidel game, and making their very own potato latkes (a potato dish traditionally made using oil at Hanukkah). The children have really enjoyed learning about Hanukkah, but also the story of the Nativity, learning about different cultures and comparing similarities and differences of how people in different countries celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah. 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 many more. The Swans have had a fantastic and very busy month and are looking forward to lots more fun next month as we start the new year!

SWANS ROOM

January 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.

January 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.

January Newsletter

Upcoming Events Make A Diary Note Thursday 2nd January Nursery RE-OPENS for the New Year!

Friday 24th January Burns Night Celebrations

W/C Monday 27th January Chinese New Year Celebrations All Month During January Winter Wonderland Celebrations Friday 14th February Valentine’s Day Celebrations Tuesday 25th February Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day!)

January Newsletter

2020 Events Calendar *Dates subject to change - Please check the website for the latest calendar

Nursery RE-OPENS for the New Year!

Thursday 2nd

Friday 24th Burns Night Celebrations W/C Monday 27th Chinese New Year Celebrations All Month Winter Wonderland Celebrations

January

Friday 14th

Valentines Day Celebrations Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day!)

February

Tuesday 25th

Friday 2nd

St David’s Day World Book Day

Thursday 5th Monday 9th

March

Holi Colour Festival W/C Monday 16th Mothering Sunday Tea Party Tuesday 17th St Patrick’s Day

Wednesday 8th Easter Bonnet Parade & Egg Hunt Friday 10th Good Friday, Nursery CLOSED Monday 13th Bank Holiday, Nursery CLOSED Tuesday 14th Visakhi Celebrations Thursday 23rd St. George’s Day

April

May Bank Holiday, Nursery CLOSED

Friday 8th

May

W/C Monday 18th Eid Celebrations Monday 25th

Spring Bank Holiday, Nursery CLOSED

January Newsletter

Wednesday 3rd Team Training Day, Nursery CLOSED W/C Monday 15th Father’s Day Picnic Monday 22nd

June

Chicklets, Goslings and Swans Parents Evening Ducklings and Cygnets Parents Evening

Monday 29th

Friday 3rd

Swans Graduation Ceremony

July

W/C Monday 13th Beach Party Week

W/C Monday 10th Carnival Week Monday 31st

August

Bank Holiday, Nursery CLOSED

Friday 18th Friday 25th

Rosh Hashanah Celebrations

September

Macmillan Bake Sale

W/C Monday 5th Grandparent’s Tea Party Week Thursday 29th Halloween Fancy Dress Day Friday 30th

October

Team Training Day, Nursery CLOSED

Thursday 5th Friday 13th Monday 16th Monday 23rd

Bonfire Activities/Remembrance Sunday

Diwali Celebrations

November

Chicklets, Goslings and Swans Parents Evening Ducklings and Cygnets Parents Evening

TBA

Children In Need Day

Friday 11th

Christmas Jumper Day

TBA

Swans Christmas Play/Concert 22SLN Christmas Dinner/Party

December

Tuesday 22nd Thursday 24th

Nursery Closing at 12pm for Christmas

CONTACT US 0333 043 22 22

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