22 Street Lane Nursery - May 2022 Newsletter

Newsletter May

Play • Discovery • Growth

May Newsletter

Dear Parents and Carers, As always, a very big welcome to all our new families who have joined our 22 Street Lane family this month. We are all looking forward to getting to know you better as we learn more about you and your children. The children have had a very busy month here at 22 Street Lane. As Spring is in the air, we’ve been able to enjoy some lovely weather, and most of the children have had the opportunity to visit Roundhay Park! The children have lots to look forward to during May as we will be celebrating Eid Al Fitr. The children will be taking part in lots of lovely activities and will enjoy a traditional range of foods to celebrate the end of Ramadan. We will also be looking at and exploring different languages from around the world, as well as our Artist of the Month which will be Stephen Lowry - we can’t wait to see some of the children’s masterpieces! We are looking forward to another exciting and fun-filled month! To find out more, please read on...

May Newsletter STAFF NEWS

Sophie Connolly - Maternity Leave We'll be saying a temporary goodbye to Sophie on May 23rd when she begins her maternity leave. Sophie is expecting a baby boy on July 6 th , and we can’t wait to hear the updates on how it goes. We are currently recruiting for a new Chicklets Room leader to cover her position, so we will keep you posted when we have something to announce.

Welcome to Shamiela - Lunchtime Supervisor "Following a career break to raise my children and manage a household, I am now really excited to be part of 22 Street Lane Nursery. I can’t wait to get to know all of the children and staff. I am very dedicated and passionate about children with a wealth of experience and have gained a BA Honours degree in Childhood Studies and a CACHE Level 3. In my spare time, I enjoy going out with my four children. This ranges from swimming, parks, soft play, trampolining and the cinema."

Welcome to Ashleigh - Lunchtime Supervisor "For the last seven years, I have been a stay-at-home mum raising my two girls. I have a passion for working with children and love watching them learn new things. I can’t wait to watch the personalities of the children at 22 Street Lane Nursery come alive!"

May Newsletter NEWS Around the World in 30 Days: Languages During April we explored music from all around the world! The children explored Indian, South African, Spanish and many more countries and their musical traditions. They even had the opportunity to make their own string instruments with cardboard boxes, rubber bands and lots of paint! Throughout May, we will be exploring languages. We will be teaching the older children how to say basic words such as 'Hello, goodbye, please and thank you'. If you have a language that is relevant or spoken in your family, please let us know and we will try and incorporate this too.

Upcoming Nursery Closure Dates: Monday 4nd May – May Day Bank Holiday Thursday 2nd June - Late May Bank Holiday Friday 3rd June - Queen's Platinum Jubilee Wednesday 8th June - Team Training Day Monday 29th August - August Bank Holiday

Please visit our website to place for vote for the next award: https://www.22streetlanenursery.co.uk/employee-recognition-award-vote/ Employee Recognition Award, Spring 2022 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 that Spring’s award goes to… Alexia Caine, Cygnets Team

May Newsletter NEWS

Easter Bonnet Competition and Parade The children had lots of fun celebrating our annual Easter Bonnet Competition, which was tied into our Easter Egg Hunt and Bake Sale in the garden! The children brought in their lovingly decorated bonnets and had so much fun showing them off to their friends. All the children had the chance to take part in some festive Easter-themed messy play activities too!

Supporting the Ukraine Crisis Appeal with our Spring Bake Sale Last month we organised a bake sale at the nursery to help raise money for the British Red Cross' Ukraine Appeal. The children helped out by bringing in some tasty treats that they prepared at home with their parents, and some of the older children joined in on the fun by making some extra biscuits and cupcakes in their rooms! We've managed to raise £288 on our JustGiving page and another £200 in cash, for a total of £488! Thank you to everyone who helped support the event, and if you would like to make another donation, then you can still support the Red Cross' appeal on JustGiving - https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/22streetlaneu kraineappeal

May Newsletter NEWS

Mobile Petting Farm Visits 22 Street Lane! We had some very exciting visitors this month, as we welcomed Brimham Rocks Adventure Mobile Petting Farm to the nursery! The children were so excited to meet a whole host of animals, such as lambs, ducks, rabbits, guinea pigs, chickens and pygmy goats. The guests of honour were Braf the Alpaca, Jeffrey the Donkey and Bullseye the Miniature Shetland Pony, which were all very well looked after by the children. Everyone really enjoyed meeting, feeding and stroking all of the animals - it was a truly fantastic day.

St. George’s Day Celebrations The children learnt about the George Cross and made their own flags using their fine-motor skills to stick different materials down to the paper using glue. They also learnt about traditional medieval armour and gear worn by knights in the Middle Ages. Some of the younger children in Ducklings also had lots of fun making their very own dragons!

May Newsletter NEWS

Artist of the Month: Throughout April we learned about the artist 'Henry Matisse’, the children explored his artwork and had a go at replicating it! For May our Artist of the Month will be English painter L. S. Lowry.

Summer Menu: As the warmer months are quickly approaching, we would like to share our summer menu with everyone! We've tried to include as many of your suggestions as we can. We hope that you like it! If you would like to request any of our recipes, please email Alex at alexandra@22streetlanenursery.co.uk and we would be more than happy to share these with you. https://www.22streetlanenursery.co.uk/healthy-eating/summer-menu/

Nursery Notices Cygnets and Swans Pick Up Times

Just a reminder that Cygnet and Swan parents are now allowed to collect the children from their rooms. Please can we ask that parents exit the room once they have collected their child as it can be disruptive to the other children. Drop off times still remain the same. Phone Calls to the Nursery Please can we ask parents to only ask to speak to the staff in the room if it's an emergency. We are finding that a lot of parents are calling the nursery and wanting to speak to room staff for other reasons and it's taking the staff away from the children. Thank you for your support.

May Newsletter Wishing a joyous Eid to all our families celebrating this week Eid al-Fitr, also called the ‘Festival of Breaking the Fast’, is a religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide that marks the end of the Fast. As we mark the end of Ramadan, we hope that all the parents and children taking part in the celebrations have a wonderful time!

May Newsletter Swans Graduation Ceremony: Friday 8th July

We’ve already started planning for this big day as it’s always such an exciting day in our annual calendar. So make sure to pop this very important date in your diary, as it’s not one to miss. Our Swans Graduation is always a special event and we hope to make this year's ceremony bigger and better than ever before, with tons of fun activities, big performances and yummy food. We’ll be looking back at the time our Swans spent at 22 Street Lane and wishing them lots of luck in Big School!

May Newsletter

Dish of the Month

Chicken Pakora

• 700g boneless chicken, cut into bite- sized pieces • 2 tbsp cornflour • 50g rice flour • 40g gram flour, sieved • 3 dried chillies, crushed or 3 green chillies, finely chopped • ½ tsp chilli powder • ½ tsp curry powder • ½ tsp ground coriander • ½ tsp cumin • 2 small onions, chopped • Small bunch of coriander, finely chopped • Vegetable oil, for frying See our past selections on: 22streetlanenursery.co.uk/dish-of-the-month/ Ingredients

Method

1. Put the chicken in a large bowl, then use your hands to coat the pieces in the cornflour. Mix in the rice flour, followed by the gram flour. Add the chillies, spices, onion, coriander, and 1 tsp salt. 2. Gradually add around 150ml water until the ingredients have become moist and ever so slightly wet. 3. Fill a deep pan no more than a third full with vegetable oil and heat to 180C. 4. Squeeze a small amount of the pakora mixture together before carefully lowering it into the hot oil with a spoon. 5. Fry for 8-10 mins, turning regularly, until cooked through and browned all over. 6. Set aside on a plate lined with kitchen paper while you repeat with the remaining mixture, frying in small batches. 7. Serve hot with mango chutney.

May Newsletter Chicklets Room News

The Chicklets have had a very busy month throughout April, exploring different types of messy play activities and the outdoor environment. This month we have introduced new musical instruments to the children to celebrate 'Around The World In 30 Days'. The children have had the opportunity to play the guitar and bang on the African drum. We have also been making our own musical instruments in the room too, the children have been painting the container and filling them with rice/pasta. We also helped with our Ukraine Bake Sale by baking some extra treats in the room. The Chicklets had made their own banana and cinnamon flapjack and had the chance to mix the ingredients together, and even sampled the flapjack for their snack. We have been making the most of the sunshine this month and spending more time outdoors in the garden during the day. The children have all shown an interest in the large sandpit area and have been using their fine motor skills to scoop the sand into the different containers. We have been going on more trips to Roundhay Park this month too. The Chicklets had the chance to feed the swans and even saw a swan nesting on its eggs. Home Learning Challenge: As the children are really interested in fine motor skills, we would like to set the home learning challenge this month based on this. Can you post a picture of your child completing their favourite fine motor skills activity? Examples are shape sorters or using scoops!

CHICKLETS ROOM

May Newsletter

Ducklings Room News

The Ducklings have had a lovely start to Spring, with lots of investigations into the natural world. We have been looking closely at seeds and wondering how something so small grows into a big plant. Our project on the kitchen balcony began with planting lots of herbs for our chef to use in his cooking. We'll take turns watering them every day, and we're excited to watch them grow. We have looked closely at the roots in a jar, the children were very gentle holding the glass jar as they looked fascinated at the roots moving in the water. Some big changes have been made to the Ducklings Room this month to keep it exciting and engaging for the children. We have extended the size and destination of the Home Corner, adding natural coconut bowls, cups and spoons for exploring and imaginative play. The addition of big, green plants, adds a sense of calm and provides opportunities to embed the importance of caring for nature, indoors and out. New car roads, roundabouts and vintage cars have kept the Ducklings busy in the Small World area and the construction is now in a bigger space for lots more construction resources and building. The Ducklings have been busy making Easter cards, using their fine motor skills to glue and stick lots of feathers to cards. We used marble effect painting to make our own Easter Eggs, which involved mixing together chosen colours in a lock-tight bag, we even talked about the mix of beautiful colours that emerged together. The Ducklings have also enjoyed a fun Easter Egg hunt in the garden, looking high and low to find lots of colourful eggs.

DUCKLINGS ROOM

May Newsletter Goslings Room News

What a wonderful April the Goslings have had! We started off by celebrating Easter, where we decorated Easter Eggs using shaving foam and paint, as well as cotton buds to make marks. The Goslings also enjoyed our very own Easter Egg hunt in the baby garden, which was lots of fun as they enjoyed finding the different coloured eggs and counting them all into the basket. The Goslings have enjoyed trips out into the local community. They started off by visiting Tropical World to see all of the tropical animals such as iguanas, meerkats, spiders and snakes! The Goslings have shown a great interest in animal sounds, so this was a great opportunity to extend this interest further. We also took a trip to Oakwood Library to lend the library some books. We travelled by bus, which was a new opportunity for some of the children. The Goslings particularly enjoyed singing lots of nursery rhymes on our way there, such as 'The Wheels on the Bus'! We've also been looking at different plants from around the world, which involved decorating a cactus using green paint and rice, alongside rose-themed playdough and shaving foam with petals. The children had great fun exploring this! Lastly, as our Goslings often enjoy getting creative with their hand, like when we baked some biscuits and cupcakes for the Bake Sale last month, we have set our May Home Learning Challenge to post pictures of you and your child baking together. You could also even post a recipe, and we can bake it in the nursery!

GOSLINGS ROOM

May Newsletter Cygnets Room News

We started off the month by celebrating Easter. The children loved taking part in the Easter Bonnet Parade, walking around the garden and showing off their fantastic bonnets. The children also enjoyed taking part in an Easter Egg hunt where they worked together with the Swans to find all of the hidden eggs, this was followed by a surprise visit from the Easter Bunny! The Cygnets have been showing a great interest in bugs this month. The children have enjoyed searching for different bugs they can find in the garden, such as spiders, worms, ants and woodlice. To follow on from this interest, we have some caterpillars joining the Cygnets Room. The children will have the opportunity to care for caterpillars by feeding them and watching them turn into beautiful butterflies! We have enjoyed outings to the local charity shop and Oakwood Library. The Cygnets loved looking around the shops to see what they could find and bring back to the nursery. Each child chose a gorgeous bangle to buy before bringing them back to the nursery, which they then added to our dress-up area. We have also been learning how to hold scissors and make snipping motions. The children have then been creating their own pictures from the cuttings, the Cygnets were very proud of themselves! We have also added a new home learning bag into the Cygnets Room, this is based on one of their favourite books, Kitchen Disco! We have lots of exciting activities in the bag revolving around healthy eating and having lots of fun while baking something with their family.

CYGNETS ROOM

Swans Room News May Newsletter

The Swans have been very busy throughout April and have enjoyed learning about lots of exciting new things. The Swans have had great fun taking part in lots of exciting activities this month and have been very interested in drawing and learning all about our Artist of the Month, Henry Matisse. The Swans have enjoyed looking at Matisse’s work and copying the different shapes and colours to create their own pictures. We have also had lots of fun learning all about Easter, and the Swans really enjoyed participating in our Easter Bonnet Parade and Egg Hunt! Later on in the month, we enjoyed learning all about St. George's Day. The children enjoyed lots of fun activities, such as making dragons, learning all about St. George and making flags which the children put in their sandcastle in the Big Garden. The Swans have also been continuing their extracurricular activities, including Forest School, French Classes, Rugby Tots, Ruby Dance, Science Tots and Yoga. Yoga is our new class and the children have really enjoyed taking part and getting to know lots of the new stretches and yoga poses. The Swans have also been practising lots of fine motor skills this month, as we have been threading to make our own pasta bracelets, practising our cutting skills in the playdough and pencil control in the salt trays. The Swans have enjoyed making lots of creative pictures with a range of materials and colours, as well as practising some letters from their name.

SWANS ROOM

May Newsletter

Upcoming Events

Monday 2 nd May May Bank Holiday, Nursery CLOSED Tuesday 3 rd May Eid Al Fitr Celebrations Thursday 2 nd & Friday 3 rd June Spring & Jubilee Bank Holidays, Nursery CLOSED Wednesday 8 th June Team Training Day, Nursery CLOSED W/C Monday 13 th June Father’s Day Tea Party Tuesday 21 st June Chicklets, Goslings and Swans Parents Evening Tuesday 28 th June Ducklings and Cygnets Parents Evening

May 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 when parking on Park Lane that you do not park over the driveways of the residents there. Many of them are Key Workers who need immediate access from their homes when called out. There have been a few vehicles obstructing their driveways recently. HMRC Additional Funding Code (3- & 4-year-olds - 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. 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. 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.

CONTACT US 0333 043 22 22

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