22 Street Lane Nursery - January 2025 Newsletter

Nursery Newsletter January 2025 Play • Discovery • Growth

January Newsletter

Dear Parents and Carers, We hope you have all had the most magical Christmas and we would like to wish you a very happy, healthy and peaceful New Year. On behalf of all the staff, we’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for all 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. As always, we extend a very warm welcome to our new families joining us throughout January. To find out more, please read on...

January Newsletter STAFF NEWS

Congratulations Caitlyn! We are so pleased to announce that Caitlyn gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Isobel on Sunday 8th December, weighing 7lb 7oz. Both Caitlyn and Isobel are doing really well!

Welcome to Sanah A warm welcome to Sanah, who will be joining the Cygnets Team as an apprentice practitioner! “Working as a Nursing associate for the past 3 years in a paediatric children’s ward has made me realise that I value being able to teach and help young children learn and grow. I enjoy crocheting blankets and plushies in my free time as well as reading and writing my own books. I am really looking forward to joining the team at 22 Street Lane.”

January Newsletter

NEWS

Country of the Month, January 2025: China In December the children explored how countries all around the world celebrate Christmas. The children learnt how to say ‘Merry Christmas’ in different languages and designed some traditional Christmas cards to hand out around the community! We also looked at animals that live in cold conditions such as Puffins, white-beaked dolphins, Grey Seals, European Rabbits, Humpback whales, Arctic Foxes and the Icelandic dog. The children enjoyed exploring ice play and tuff trays linked to the Arctic.

Throughout January, we will be exploring the country - China, which links to the celebration Lunar New Year. The children will be creating their very own snakes, as 2025 is ‘Year of the Snake’, having a go at writing some of the Chinese alphabet, and we will be going on a trip to the Oriental Supermarket to collect ingredients to make some delicious traditional Chinese dishes. Did you know? The Yangtze River is the longest in Asia. It’s also known as ‘Chang Jiang’ in Chinese, which means ‘long river’ and is also the third longest in the world. One of the most spectacular sights to see whilst taking a river cruise on the Yangtze is the Three Gorges. If anyone has any resources to support our Country of the Month, we would be most grateful.

Holiday Updates on Tapestry We would love to see what your family got up to over this festive period and are asking if parents could post some pictures along with a few comments so that we can share these with the children. Please note that we always welcome weekend pictures, or anything special that your child has done at home.

January Newsletter NEWS

Allotment Update Oli and Kim have lots planned for the allotment throughout 2025 - they have planted rhubarb, onion and garlic already, and in February they will also be planting beetroot, lettuce and carrots. Towards June, they will be looking to start planting pumpkins, squash, cabbage, sprouts, peas and parsnips. We will update you on our progress over the coming months!

A Visit from Santa’s Reindeer The children were very lucky to meet two of Santa’s reindeer, who took the time out of their busy schedule to meet all of the children at 22 Street Nursery. Some of the children even sat in Santa’s sleigh for some lovely photos with their friends. Everyone had a great time!

January Newsletter NEWS

Christmas Festivities Throughout December, the children had lots of fun celebrating Christmas! They took part in lots of Christmas crafts, and messy play, all while learning about the true meaning of Christmas. We enjoyed a visit from some very cheeky elves every day in Cygnets and Swans, Santa’s reindeer, a festive lunch, lots of Christmas parties, Jolabokaflod, and a visit from the big man himself. We took part in Christmas Jumper Day and the Swans children performed a beautiful rendition of the Christmas story.

January Newsletter NEWS

The Swans Took The Stage In Our Christmas Nativity On Thursday 12th December, the Swans children performed their special Christmas Nativity at St. Andrew’s Church. The children had been so excited about the performance and had been learning and practising lots of new songs to tell the story of the Nativity to their parents. We had also been reading the Nativity storybook during these times and the children recognised the different characters and related the pictures to their own parts in the performance. Everyone had a different part to play in the Nativity and learned when it was their turn to stand up and sing their song. The Swans did an incredible job with their dramatic roles, taking the parts seriously and showcasing their fantastic work, adorable smiles, waves and sweet dance moves. We are so very proud of all the hard work that has gone into our Nativity and of the children showing such enthusiasm, determination and resilience. Well done, Swans!

Wrapping Up Warm for Christmas Jumper Day The children enjoyed dressing up in their festive jumpers and outfits for Christmas Jumper Day. It was a wonderful day filled with many festive activities too. Some decorated their own Christmas trees using baubles, ribbons, and natural objects, while others enjoyed creating lots of Christmas crafts and even designed their very own Christmas jumpers, using a range of materials!

January Newsletter

NEWS

Closing Out The Year With Our Christmas Party Week and Christmas Dinner Day The children enjoyed a fun-filled festive week at the Nursery, enjoying a lovely Christmas dinner, as well as having lots of Christmas discos and themed activities! For our annual festive lunch, the children were treated to a lovely spread of traditional food, consisting of roasted turkey with all the trimmings, herbed roasted potatoes, honey-roasted carrots and parsnips, stuffing balls, mini pigs in blankets, sprouts, garden peas with an added extra Yorkshire pudding, all topped off with a cranberry gravy.

New Buggy Park and Cycle Store We are really pleased to inform you that in January we will be having a buggy park and cycle store built in the car park. Local stone has been sourced, and we hope to have the project completed by the end of January. 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!

January Newsletter NEWS

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

Winter Clothing With the cold months ahead, please can you ensure that your child has appropriate clothing labelled with their name to play outside. Children can play out and explore in all weathers, but a warm coat, waterproof trousers, hats, gloves and scarves would be most suitable for Winter. Could we please suggest that your child have 2-piece outdoor waterproofs if they are toilet trained, as it can be tricky for them to get them on and off?

A Festive ‘Thank You’ From The Team! We would like to say a huge thank you to all of the parents who gave us presents and cards, we were overwhelmed by your generosity.

January Newsletter

Burns Night Festivities: Friday 24th January

On Friday 24th January, we will be celebrating Burns Night, which marks the birthday of the Scottish Poet ‘Robert Burns’. The children will be sampling a traditional Burns night supper of Cock-A-Leekie soup, Neeps and Tatties, Sherry Trifle and Oatcakes and cheese. We also will be exploring other Scottish traditions and creating our own tartan patterns too.

January Newsletter Lunar New Year Celebrations: W/C Monday 27th January 2025 is the ‘Year of the Snake’. The children will get the opportunity to look at beautiful Chinese lanterns, learn about why ‘little red envelopes’ are given to children and get to taste some sweet dumplings. Red is the main colour of the festival, so our rooms will feature plenty of red decorations.

January Newsletter

Dish of the Month

Miso Chicken and Sweetcorn Ramen served with Udon Noodles & Smoked Tofu

Ingredients • 1 pack of udon noodles • 1 chicken breast cooked and pulled/shredded • 1 smoked tofu (Tofoo company) • 10ml of hoisin sauce • 1 spring onion • 1 bag of pre-prepared stir-fried vegetables

• 1 sachet of miso paste (around 25g) • 1 good quality vegetable stock cube • 10g Chinese 5-spice • 1 clove of oak-smoked garlic

• 10g of ginger paste • 10ml of soy sauce • 1 pack of bean sprouts • 1 small tin sweetcorn • 5g of crispy onions • 2g of fresh coriander • Soft-boiled egg (optional)

Method 1. In a wok, lightly sauté finely diced garlic and the ginger paste in extra virgin olive oil. 2. Add the stir-fried vegetables to the pan and on medium heat, cook until softened. 3. Lightly coat the tofu in hoisin sauce and olive oil then bake at 190c until golden, dark in colour and crispy. Set aside. (You can marinate the tofu the day before for extra flavour). 4. Add your remaining spices to the vegetables. Then the vegetable stock is made following the packaging’s requirements. Add just enough to submerge the vegetables and cook to a simmer. Add your pre-cooked, shredded chicken breast making sure that it stays moist, (chicken breast can also be marinated in miso to maximise flavour). At this point, lower the heat to a gentle simmer. 5. Add the udon noodles and cook until soft. Then arrange the soup in a deep bowl and finish with freshly picked coriander, and the tofu and top it with an egg if you so wish.

January Newsletter

Chicklets Room News

During December we had a very exciting month exploring lots of messy play activities. We explored Winter Wonderland, various Christmas-themed tuff trays, created some Christmas crafts and visited Santa’s magical reindeers on December 17th. We enjoyed dressing in our beautiful smart outfits for our Christmas photos and our cosy Christmas jumpers for Christmas Jumper Day on December 12th. We have explored scented water play, gingerbread playdough and snow! We have spent lots of time exploring the baby garden and we have all grown in confidence with our physical and gross motor skills and are now spending lots of time walking and climbing. Merry Christmas to all of our lovely Chicklets families. We look forward to welcoming some new friends into the room in January!

CHICKLETS ROOM

January Newsletter

Ducklings Room News

What a wonderful Christmas it has been in our Ducklings Room! To get into the festive spirit, we have planned lots of exciting Christmas-themed activities for our lovely Ducklings, such as a train track-themed tray for the Ducklings to pretend they are leading Santa’s sleigh full of presents. As music is a huge interest in our room and it helps the children develop their language further, the Ducklings loved singing along with the staff members to ‘Jingle Bells’, ‘Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer’ and ‘When Santa Got Stuck Up the Chimney’. Christmas Jumper Day was the 12th of December, our Ducklings got dressed up in their festive jumpers, they all looked fantastic! During the day we had a visit from Kimberley and Boogie Bear. It was such a wonderful session as she sang lots of Christmas songs and the Ducklings used the rattles, coloured tubes and sensory eggs to join in with the festive fun. Noodle the Dog also visited, and Mel did some singing and signing. As always our Ducklings were engaged in the session as they joined in with the actions to our favourite Christmas songs and nursery rhymes! We made a lovely orange and cinnamon loaf in the Ducklings Room; the children used their fine motor skills to grip the wooden spoon to mix all the ingredients together. They also helped to pour the flour and eggs into the bowl before squeezing some yummy orange juice in to give it a magic touch. We look forward to welcoming all our lovely families back after the Christmas break.

DUCKLINGS ROOM

January Newsletter

Goslings Room News

During December the Goslings children have had so much getting into the Christmas spirit. They have enjoyed taking part in lots of activities inspired by the colder weather, going Christmas tree shopping, decorating their own tree and many more. The children took part in lots of different crafts throughout the month to take home to their families and enjoy them over the festive break. We have learnt lots of new songs this month too, the children really enjoy dancing along to Jingle Bells, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and we have even learnt the Makaton sign for ‘Christmas’. We really enjoyed seeing the reindeer that visited the nursery this month, the children were able to get up close and personal and some were even brave enough to stroke them. The children loved having their hot chocolate treat whilst we took part in ‘Jolabokaflod’, which is an Icelandic tradition where people exchange books with their families and friends and enjoy festive treats. In January we are excited to see the children return to Nursery after the new year, we will take part in lots of new activities to welcome the children back and support them in the transition. We will be celebrating Burns Night with a traditional Scottish meal and some Scottish-inspired activities. We will also be celebrating the Lunar New Year, traditionally known as Chinese New Year. We will be taking part in lots of activities, tasting traditional dishes and creating our own snacks. We will listen to traditional music and take part in dragon dancing. We are so excited for all the fun ahead!

GOSLINGS ROOM

January Newsletter

Cygnets Room News

December has been an amazing month in Cygnets, filled with lots of festive fun. The children have loved getting into the Christmas spirit through a variety of exciting activities and crafts. From crafting Santa faces to shaping playdough Christmas trees with colourful baubles and exploring messy snow tuff trays. Our little bakers were busy too, making delicious gingerbread men to take home, and every child proudly made their own salt dough decoration, which they painted to show their families. This month, the Cygnets got creative by learning to play “Jingle Bells” on the keyboard with Chelsie. They also learned a special dance to “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” in their Dance Lab class! Adding to the excitement, we had a very cheeky guest from the North Pole. ‘Elfie’ the Elf kept us all entertained with his mischief, from wrapping the Christmas tree in toilet paper to swinging through the classroom and even “breaking” the TV screen. The children found his antics very funny. The Cygnets were thrilled to meet real-life reindeer, and undoubtedly one of the highlights of the month was the exciting visit from Father Christmas himself! We wish all our Cygnets families a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We can’t wait to welcome the children back in January and hear all about their holiday adventures.

CYGNETS ROOM

January Newsletter

Swans Room News

We’ve had so much fun in Swans throughout December, which has been filled with lots of festive fun. A real Christmas tree was delivered to Swans Room at the beginning of December, and the children had so much fun decorating with all their homemade baubles. In addition to this, the children went on a trip to our local church and decorated one of their trees, with lots of beautiful decorations we made at the nursery. The children have also loved taking part in lots of fun Christmas activities as well as making lots of lovely crafts to take home and share with their families. We had a very special visitor join us in Swans this month, Sparkle the Elf! Sparkle the Elf has visited us in Swans every day and was very cheeky. When the children arrived at nursery in the morning, they loved finding sparkle to see what he had been up to. The children also loved meeting some of Santa’s reindeer and even Santa himself. Since November, the children have been very busy with practicing their nativity. The children then did a fantastic job when it came to performing their nativity to all their families at St. Andrew’s Church. The children wowed everyone with their beautiful singing. To go along with the Nativity the children performed a Christmas dance, which they have been learning in dance lab the past couple of weeks. We would just like to wish all the Swans’ children and their families a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We look forward to hearing all about the children’s Christmas adventures in the New Year!

SWANS ROOM

January Newsletter

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

Thursday 2nd

Nursery reopens

January

Friday 24th

Burns Night Celebrations

W/C Monday 27th

Lunar New Year Celebrations

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

January 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

January 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

January 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

January 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 that you do not let anyone in behind you. Thank you for your support. Birthdays Unfortunately, we do not allow parents to bring in birthday cakes treats to celebrate birthdays. If you would like to bring something in, we can suggest stickers, bubbles and other party bag fillers. If it is your child’s birthday, please tell us so that we can celebrate with a class disco! 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.

January Newsletter

*ATTENTION* Important Information - Please Read Drop Off and Collection Please remember that we open at 7.30am and close at 6.00pm, and anyone who picks up after this will be charged a late fee. 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. Car Park Please can we kindly ask that parents ensure they are only parking in a single car parking bay. As you are aware, we have very limited space, and it is very busy a peak times. 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.

CONTACT US 0333 043 22 22

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