22 Street Lane Nursery - March 2025 Newsletter

Nursery Newsletter March 2025 Play • Discovery • Growth

March Newsletter

Dear Parents and Carers, Welcome to our March newsletter, and a very big welcome to the new families who have joined us recently. The children had a busy month with a lot to celebrate and many fun-filled days themed around Valentine’s Day, Random Acts of Kindness Day and St. David’s Day! We will be kicking off March by celebrating World Wildlife Day and World Book Day. Later on in the month, we have a lot more events to celebrate including International Women’s Day, Comic Relief, Mother’s Day, the ‘Holi’ Festival of Colour, Global Recycling Day, St. Patrick’s Day and Eid Al Fitr. It’s going to be a busy and fun-filled month! With spring also fast approaching, we look forward to the warmer months and lighter nights, as well as enjoying more outdoor activities. The children have already started to plant various flowers and vegetables and are excited to watch them grow. To find out more, please read on...

March Newsletter STAFF NEWS

Congratulations to Nafeesa! We would like to say a huge congratulations to Nafeesa, who works in our Cygnets Room who has recently gained her Level 3 Early Years Educator qualification. Nafeesa has worked so hard over the past year and is so deserving of this, well done Nafeesa!

Congratulations to Amie! We would like to wish Amie congratulations on passing her driving test. Amie has been trying so hard during her driving lessons, and we are all so pleased for her. Well Done!

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 March. 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.

March Newsletter

NEWS

Country of the Month, March 2025: Ireland Throughout February, the children learnt all about Wales! The children painted daffodils from observation and created the Welsh flag using red, green and white materials. Some of the Swans children also learnt how to say some simple words in Welsh. Throughout March, we will be celebrating Ireland as our Country of the Month. Did You Know: Ireland is known as the Emerald Isle because it is so green and rains for a good chunk of the year. The children will be learning about the Harp, which is the national symbol of Ireland and listening to some traditional Celtic music which features fiddles, tin whistles and harps, and who can resist giving Irish Dancing a go! We will also be celebrating St Patrick’s Day on Monday 17th March and the children will be invited to come into Nursery wearing the colours of the Irish flag.

Happy St. David’s Day! On Friday 28th February we honoured Saint David at the nursery, who is the patron Saint of Wales. This also tied in with our Country of the Month. The children enjoyed some traditional Welsh dishes including: Welsh Cakes, Leek and Potato Soup and a Welsh beef stew - delicious!

March Newsletter NEWS

Diving into National Storytelling Week At the beginning of February, the children celebrated National Storytelling Week. The children participated in various themed activities and tuff trays linked to some of their favourite stories, and our five core books! Lots of the children also brought in some of their stories from home, which were lovely to share with the rest of the group too.

Valentine’s Day Celebrations Love was most definitely in the air on Valentine’s Day! The children spent some time thinking about those special to them and why, as well as taking part in lots of Valentine’s themed activities.

March Newsletter NEWS

Random Acts of Kindness Day In support of ‘Random Acts of Kindness Day’, each room planned lots of activities and discussed why it is important to be kind and how we can be kind to others. These included giving out flowers and homemade biscuits in the local community, litter picking and sending cards around the nursery to staff members and other children.

Children’s Mental Health Week For Children’s Mental Health Week, the children spent some time focusing on talking about their feelings and looked at a range of books linked to emotions including: ‘The Colour Monster’ and ‘I Feel Angry’. The children also went on daily outings to the park and around the local community, enjoyed some yoga sessions in the outdoor garden and some of the children enjoyed their very own Spa Day with a range of relaxing treatments.

March Newsletter NEWS

World Wildlife Day: Monday 3rd March World Wildlife Day is held every year at the start of March and aims to raise awareness of the unique ways our world is brought together by the wildlife living in it. Organised by the United Nations, the day helps people to learn, while spreading the message about areas that are under threat, with tips on what we - as humans - can do to help. We will be teaching the children about important wildlife and endangered species. We will also be continuing to discuss the importance of looking after animals and our environment.

World Book Day: Thursday 6th March We will be celebrating World Book Day and the magic of lots of different stories on Thursday 6th March. The children are invited to dress as their favourite book characters and bring their favourite book along with them to the nursery! Each room will also be arranging their own fun activities to celebrate the day.

International Women’s Day: Friday 7th March Marked annually on 8 March every year, International Women’s Day (IWD) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. We will be celebrating this at Nursery on Friday 7th March, and the children will learn about some of the amazing achievements that Women have made over the years. If you have any resources of books linked to International Women’s Day at home, please feel free to bring these in!

March Newsletter NEWS

Holi Festival: Friday 14th March What is Holi? - Holi is a Hindu festival that celebrates spring, love, and new life. Some families hold religious ceremonies, but for many Holi is more a time for fun. It’s a colourful festival, with dancing, singing and throwing of powder paint and coloured water. Holi is also known as the ‘Festival of Colours’. To mark this occasion, the children are invited to wear bright coloured clothes, the brighter the better.

Global Recycling Day: Tuesday 18th March On this day, we will be learning about the importance of recycling and the ways we can look after our planet! We will also be looking at ways in which we can recycle further at nursery and at home. The children will also do some junk modelling using recycled materials and a range of loose parts.

Red Nose Day: Friday 21st March Red Nose Day is back this March! It’s that time of year when incredible cake-bakers, joke-makers, telly-watchers, Red Nose buyers and laugh-til-you-cryers, do something to fight poverty through humour and fun, for communities here in the UK and around the world. On Friday 21st March we will be supporting Red Nose Day with a red-themed day at the nursery. Children are invited to wear something red or come along with an official ‘Red Nose’ to wear on the day!

March Newsletter NEWS

World Down Syndrome Day: Friday 21st March World Down Syndrome Day is on 21 March every year, and is a special day to help people know more about Down Syndrome. Each year for World Down Syndrome Day, there is a theme for supporters to share, as together, we make one strong voice. This year the message is “Improve Support Systems”. The children will be learning all about the wonderful campaign, and will take part in lots of activities linked to accepting each other’s similarities and differences, which make us all unique. We will be looking at books such as: ‘All Are Welcome’ and’ Completely Toby’.

Eid Al Fitr: Monday 31st March Eid al-Fitr is a religious holiday that occurs at the end of Ramadan. The meaning of Eid al-Fitr, translated from Arabic, means ‘the feast of the breaking of the fast’. Eid al-Fitr officially begins once the religious authorities have confirmed the sighting of the new moon. Approximately 1.8 billion Muslims worldwide will mark Eid as the sun sets and the moon rises on the last day of Ramadan. We will be celebrating Eid al-Fitr with a delicious feast cooked by our chef Oli. We would love to see your Eid celebrations on Tapestry.

March Newsletter

Dish of the Month

Chicken Katsu Curry with Pickled Ginger and Onion (Dairy Free)

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

Ingredients • 1 chicken breast, diced • 300g panko breadcrumbs • 20ml malt vinegar

• 1 red onion • 1 ginger root • Basmati rice to serve • 1 white onion • 1 tablespoon each of curry powder, turmeric spice and cumin spice • 5g fennel seeds • 1 garlic bulb • 5g cumin seeds • 1 tin of low fat coconut milk • 100ml oat milk • The juice of 2 lemons • 100g plain flour

Method 1. Peel and finely dice half a red onion and half of the ginger. Add them to a mixing bowl and add some salt and pepper, 1 bay leaf, the vinegar and the juice of 1 lemon to start the pickling process. Set this aside for later, the longer you can do this for, the better. 2. In a large pan on a low heat, cook the finely diced white onion, garlic and half of the ginger. Sauté until soft. Add all of the spices and cook for a further 5 minutes making sure it doesn’t burn. 3. Add your coconut milk and cook out for a further 15 minutes, making sure it doesn’t boil over. Check the seasoning of the sauce and add salt and pepper and the lemon juice. Leave this to cool then add it to a blender and blend until smooth. 4. Add the diced chicken to the plain flour and coat it, then next add it to the oat milk, then finally the breadcrumbs to coat the chicken. Bake in the oven at 190C until the meat reaches above 75C and is golden and crisp. Serve with basmati rice and any chosen vegetables of your choice. Serve with the drained picked ginger and onion.

March Newsletter

To celebrate Pancake Day the children will be making their very own pancakes and will take part in a ‘flipping competition’! Oli will also cook up some delicious pancakes for the children with a choice of toppings. Yum - we can’t wait! Shrove Tuesday: Tuesday 4th March

March Newsletter

We will be celebrating St Patrick’s Day, which also links to our Country of the Month on Monday 17th March. The children will be creating shamrock designs, trying some traditional Irish foods and having a go at some Irish dancing. All children are welcome to wear green! St. Patrick’s Day: Monday 17th March

March Newsletter Mother’s Day Stay and Play: Monday 17th - Friday 28th March We would like to invite someone special to attend our Mother’s Day Stay and Play which will be held over two sessions for each room from 3pm to 4pm. Due to space in the room, we can only Chicklets Tuesday 18th Wednesday 26th Thursday 20th

10 Spaces 11 Spaces 12 Spaces 11 Spaces 11 Spaces 11 Spaces

Ducklings

Friday 28th Friday 21st

accommodate a limited number of people per session, details of this and the dates for each room can be found in the chart to the right. Spaces will be offered on a first-come, first-served basis. If you’d like to attend, please speak to Shosh or Bec at the Reception Desk, who will be able to book your slot and advise which spaces are remaining.

Goslings

Tuesday 25th

Wednesday 19th 20 Spaces Monday 24th 20 Spaces

Cygnets

Monday 17th Thursday 27th

25 Spaces 25 Spaces

Swans

March Newsletter

Chicklets Room News

The Chicklets have had another busy month in February. We have celebrated Valentine’s Day and Random Acts of Kindness Day. Our Chicklets enjoyed exploring pink and red rice, making potions with red and pink water flowers and visiting our siblings across the nursery to hand out roses to show care and kindness. We have also made scented play dough and made it pretty with our heart-shaped cutters and dried flowers. This helped with our hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills as we manipulated the play dough into different shapes with the rolling pins and stampers. We tried new foods to celebrate Lunar New Year and we enjoyed some messy noodle play. As we have been doing some renovation work in the baby garden, we have been lucky enough to explore the big garden. The Chicklets have found this very exciting and this has helped support our gross motor skills as we have climbed the little hills and explored the bigger mud kitchen. It is lovely to see our Chicklets developing their communication and language skills and saying new words. We are all becoming very chatty! To support this we have been singing and reading lots of stories to encourage the Chicklets to copy simple words. We are looking forward to what March will bring!

CHICKLETS ROOM

March Newsletter

Ducklings Room News

To start off the month, we celebrated National Storytelling Week! This is something our Ducklings absolutely loved, as they all have a huge interest in books and storytelling. We made so many exciting tuff trays such as, ‘The Tiger Who Came To Tea’, ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ and ‘Five Little Ducks’. The Ducklings got stuck in when making the Tiger some tea, feeding the Hungry Caterpillar fruit and helping the ducks swim in the water! Our Ducklings also looked through the books in small groups with their key person, as well as independently. For Mental Health Week, we transformed our room into a relaxing spa. The Ducklings had a choice of a massage, feeding the babies fruit for their afternoon tea (and trying some themselves), having an oat facial, reading a book in the quiet area or creating their own pitta pizzas which we then had for tea! Our Ducklings felt refreshed after the spa; it was such a lovely bonding experience! To finish our exciting month, we had a trip to Tropical World! Our Ducklings saw all types of animals, such as fish, meerkats, snakes, butterflies and so much more. They loved using words/ sounds like ‘wow’, ‘fish’, ‘ssss’ and ‘ooo ooo, ahh ahh’ whilst we explored. To extend the Ducklings’ interest and their learning of the animals, we created a ‘What did you see at Tropical World’ tuff tray. The children looked through the binoculars to see the animals on the flashcards, we spoke about each animal we saw and how much fun we had!

DUCKLINGS ROOM

March Newsletter

Goslings Room News

The Goslings have had so much fun during February. We started off the month supporting our mental health and looked closely at some familiar feelings. The children experienced a lovely bubble spa where they could relax and listen to music, whilst popping some bubbles. We also read lots of stories and used emotion spoons to discuss emotions and give comfort to those around us. During Valentine’s Day, the children took part in lots of activities around the feeling of love. We spoke about relationships and looked at the strong bonds that the children have created. We looked through photos of children with their loved ones and children playing alongside their close friends. The Goslings home learning challenge this month was also based around the feeling of love, the children have been creating collages around everything they love and have been bringing these into the nursery. It has been so lovely to watch the children be proud and show off their creations whilst telling everyone all the things they enjoy. As the Gosling children have really enjoyed mark-making this month, we created some lovely images for the local businesses and drafted a short poem to hand out for Random Acts of Kindness Day. The children visited the shop, the florist, and the vets to hand out the images and wished everyone a good day. We also posted one in the post box and left one at the bus stop to spread some positivity.

GOSLINGS ROOM

March Newsletter

Cygnets Room News

We began by celebrating National Storytelling Week, where the children enjoyed sensory play, making Gruffalo crumble and hosting a ‘Tiger Who Came to Tea’ party. They also got creative, crafting houses for ‘The Three Little Pigs’ and sculpting ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ from blocks and play dough. We explored some of the children’s favourite books, bringing stories to life through role play, including We’re Going on a Bear Hunt! For Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day, our Cygnets enjoyed a relaxing spa experience, arriving in their pyjamas and dressing gowns. They took part in a hair salon, where they brushed, straightened, and dried each other’s hair, and enjoyed a foot spa with orange-scented water and cucumber eye masks. The children also experienced a calming baby massage station, listened to soothing spa music, and practised yoga together. In celebration of Valentine’s Day and World Kindness Day, we talked about the people we love and how we can show kindness. The children created love potions, made handprint-heart Valentine’s cards, and baked heart-shaped cookies to take home. This month’s Country of the Month was Wales. The children explored farm-themed sensory trays, crafted daffodils using tissue paper and real leaves, and made pretend Welsh cakes using play dough and flour.

CYGNETS ROOM

March Newsletter

Swans Room News

We’ve had a fabulous month throughout February in Swans! All the children enjoyed celebrating Valentine’s Day. The children spoke about who they love as well as what they love to do with their friends at circle time. We created some amazing artwork for the people we love as well as made some lovely cards to take home and share with our families. We have recently started some fun Phonics sessions in Swans, which the children have loved joining in with. We focus on a new sound each week, where we learn the jolly phonics song and then play some fun games relating to the sound. The children then get the opportunity to take part in activities relating to that sound, which include practising writing the letter, mark making in messy play and finding objects around the room. A recent interest in the Swans Room has been the story, Jack and the Beanstalk. To follow this interest the children have been planting their own mini beanstalk, and we have loved taking care of these and watching the beanstalk get bigger and bigger! We also made some beanstalk artwork in the creative area, where the children used natural materials to create the beanstalk and then drew the giant up in the clouds. The children also show a big interest in number blocks! So we also have been focusing on a number each day. The children enjoy counting to this number, working out how we can make the number as well as creating the number blocks using the colourful blocks.

SWANS ROOM

March Newsletter

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

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

Monday 17th - Friday 28th

Mother’s Day Stay and Play

Monday 31st

Eid Al Fitr

March 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

March 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 10th

Swans Graduation Ceremony

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

March 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

March 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 warmer months upon us, please can you ensure that your child has appropriate clothing for warm weather including sun cream and a sun hat. We would recommend that you provide sun cream which is factor 50 and at least a 4-star UVA rating. If you could please label your child’s sun cream and hat with their name, it would be helpful. 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.

CONTACT US 0333 043 22 22

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