22 Street Lane Nursery - October 2024 Newsletter

Nursery Newsletter October 2024 Play • Discovery • Growth

October Newsletter

Dear Parents and Carers, Welcome to our October Newsletter, and as always, a very warm welcome to all the new families who have recently joined us. Autumn has definitely arrived here at 22 Street Lane! We have enjoyed watching all the leaves change colour and getting wrapped up in our cosy coats to explore our ever-changing environment at the nursery. We have lots of activities planned for October based on our Autumn theme, including park walks, where the children can collect some exciting treasures such as pinecones, conkers and different coloured leaves. It is also World Mental Health Day this month, so we will be exploring different ways the children can express their feelings through play, conversations, yoga and circle times, as well as finding new ways to look after our mental health. We will be ending the month with annual Halloween activities, including the Pumpkin Decorating Competition! To find out more, please read on...

October Newsletter STAFF NEWS

Welcome to Holly! A warm welcome to Holly, who has joined our Swans Room as the Deputy Room Leader. “I hold a Level 3 in Early Years Education and a Level 2 in Understanding Children and Young People’s Mental Health. My background includes working with children across a range of settings including nurseries, forest schools and specialist schools supporting children with special educational needs, particularly those with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD). I’m passionate about creating environments where every child can thrive and find working with young people incredibly inspiring and rewarding. Growing up in the Lake District, I particularly enjoy walking and spending time in nature, but I also spend a lot of my free time figure skating.”

Welcome to Maisha! A warm welcome to Maisha, who will be joining us as a member of our Bank Staff Team. “I’m really looking forward to joining the 22 Street Lane team. Working with children has always been my passion, as being able to watch children’s personalities and characters develop, is just so rewarding. In my spare time, I love to read and also bake cakes as I find creative activities really therapeutic.”

Congratulations Emily and Mark! We are so pleased to announce that Emily gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Samuel on Wednesday 4th September, weighing 8lbs exactly. Both Emily and Samuel are doing really well!

October Newsletter

STAFF NEWS

Goodbye, Amy and Manuela! Sadly, we said goodbye to Manuela and Amy at the end of September. Manuela has moved to Manchester to pursue her passion for salsa dancing whilst working at another Nursery setting. Amy recently got married (Congratulations!) and is leaving to pursue a new career in Accounting before moving to France next year. Both Manuela and Amy have been amazing during their time here and will be missed by all the staff and children. We wish them both the best of luck for the future.

Welcome Back, Laura! Laura will be returning from her maternity leave and joining us as a member of our bank staff team.

Congratulations Alex and Tony! We are so pleased to announce that Alex gave birth to a beautiful baby boy called Freddie on Saturday 28th September, at 5:20am, weighing 7.5lbs. Alex and Freddie are both doing well, and Jack is already being the best big brother!

October Newsletter NEWS

Country of the Month, October 2024: Sweden During September, rather than focusing on one Country of the Month, we spent lots of time getting to know all of our new children and families who have joined the Nursery and celebrating everywhere that everyone is from! The children have enjoyed learning all about various countries including Greece, Spain, China, Ireland and many more, whilst also participating in lots of ‘All About Me’ activities and trying out some new classes too. Throughout October, we will be focusing on Sweden, as we have some children visiting Sweden on holiday recently. The children will be learning all about some of the famous landmarks including The Royal Palace, Ericsson Globe, and Kalmar Castle, trying some traditional Swedish food and learning some of the language too. If you have any photos/memories you would like to share of any trips to Sweden, please feel free to post them on Tapestry.

Black History Month: W/C Monday 30th September The children will be learning about Black History Month this October. Black History Month is a time to celebrate the contribution that black people have made over the centuries, to shape the dynamic and diverse country which we have today!

October Newsletter NEWS

World Mental Health Day: Thursday 10th October It’s World Mental Health Day on Thursday 10th October. As a nursery, we value the importance of children feeling safe and secure in our environment in order for them to feel able to express and communicate their emotions with practitioners. During this week we will encourage feeling sharing at circle times, reading stories that help children express and evaluate how they feel, as well as exploring fun ways to boost our mental health such as yoga, wake up shake up, exploring the great outdoors and talking about how to stay healthy!

Macmillan Bake Sale A huge thank you to everyone who donated to our Macmillan Bake sale. We raised an amazing total of £478.15 ! Thank you for your continued support.

Pumpkin Decoration Competition: Tuesday 29th October We will be holding our annual Pumpkin Decoration Competition on Tuesday 29th October. The children are welcome to decorate a pumpkin, the more creative the better! Please note that this is for fun and all pumpkins will be celebrated and displayed at the front of the nursery for everyone to enjoy.

October Newsletter NEWS Halloween Fancy Dress Day: Thursday 31st October On Thursday 31st October, the children are invited to come to the nursery dressed in their favourite Halloween costumes. We will also be making some Halloween-themed masks and enjoying some spooky snacks made by Chef Oli!

Nursery Closure - Staff Training Day The Nursery will be closed on Wednesday 30th October for our staff training day. We have two staff training days per year, and we ensure that these are on different days each year. We thank you for your support.

New Winter Menu We believe that a healthy nutritious diet is vitally important for growing minds and bodies that’s why our Chef Oli, and Kitchen Assistant Kim, take great pride in preparing fresh, nutritious and delicious food each and every day. Our continued strategy is to focus on well-balanced, seasonal and nutritious food that children love to eat. Many of our recipes are super-charged with additional vegetables, seeds and superfoods, our meals are made with a combination of organic ingredients, locally sourced and freshly prepared on-site. Please visit our website to view our Winter Menu: https:// www.22streetlanenursery.co.uk/healthy-eating/winter-menu/

October Newsletter

Rosh Hashanah Celebrations: Wednesday 2nd October

Rosh Hashanah is the ‘Jewish New Year’ and the celebration of Creation. It begins on the evening of Wednesday 2nd October and ends on Friday 4th October, so during that time we will be celebrating the Jewish New Year ‘Rosh Hashanah’. We follow traditions such as dipping apples in honey and trying new fruits. The children will also have the opportunity to taste and make their own Challah bread as well as learn the song “Dip the apples in the honey”!

October Newsletter Halloween Festivities Across All The Rooms!

This Halloween, we’re inviting parents and carers of Chicklet, Duckling and Gosling children to our spooky ‘Messy Stay and Play’ sessions! Please RSVP with the date you’d like to attend on the Tapestry post for your child’s room. Spaces are offered on a first-come first-served basis, with the number of available slots listed below for each room and date.

Chicklets Ducklings Goslings Ducklings Goslings

Monday 21st October Tuesday 22nd October Wednesday 23rd October Thursday 24th October

3pm - 4pm 14 3pm - 4pm 12

3pm - 4pm

13

3pm - 4pm 12 3pm - 4pm 12

Friday 25th October

For the Cygnets and Swans Rooms, we will be hosting a spooky Halloween Disco on Tuesday 22nd October. All those children are invited to come in their costumes for a spooktacular party from 5-6pm! There will be a disco, games, activities and Halloween themed snacks. More details will be shared on Tapestry soon! Please note that Parents/Carers are to drop off their child and collect them after the hour.

October Newsletter

Dish of the Month

Vegan Banana Loaf

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

Ingredients • 75ml vegetable oil • 100g dark brown sugar • 225g plain flour • 3 tsp baking powder • 3 tsp ginger • 3 tsp cinnamon • 3 large ripe bananas • Large spoon of coconut vegan yoghurt

• 50g dried cranberries • 5ml drizzle maple syrup

Method 1. Heat oven to 200C, next mash the bananas in a mixing bowl with a fork and slowly add your oil. 2. Then mix in the brown sugar, vanilla essence, spices and dried fruit. 3. Add your pre-sieved flour and baking powder and mix until the mixture comes together. Add any additional ingredients you like. (I have found the recipe also works well with toasted coconut flakes!) 4. Bake in an oiled tray loaf tin, for around 20-25 minutes, check the loaf with a wooden skewer until the skewer comes out clean. 5. Finish with vegan coconut yoghurt and maple syrup.

October Newsletter

Chicklets Room News

A big warm welcome to all the new Chicklets who have joined us so far this month! We have had a lovely start to the new academic year and have enjoyed meeting all our new chicklets and families. The Chicklets Team have loved learning all about the new children’s interests and forming great bonds with all the children. We can’t wait to watch our journey together develop over the coming months. So far, the chicklets have loved exploring the room and investigating all the new and exciting resources, particularly the ball pit and the climbing frame. This month’s focus in the Chicklets Room has been our physical development as the children challenge themselves with tummy time, sitting, cruising and climbing, and even trying to stand up without support! Our cosy area has also been a big hit at the moment where the chicklets have enjoyed settling down and looking at some of their favourite books from the bookshelf, such as the “that’s not my…” texture books. We have also enjoyed going on walks to Roundhay Park, baking treats for the Macmillan bake sale and painting masterpieces. We look forward to continuing to welcome the new Chicklets and parents to the room this October. We can’t wait to learn all about your interests and help you grow throughout your time here!

CHICKLETS ROOM

October Newsletter

Ducklings Room News

The Ducklings have had a great first month and have begun settling into the room well. We have been on many lovely walks to the park, walking around the lake and seeing the swans, cygnets and ducks! Some of the Ducklings have loved learning to say, ‘Quack Quack’ and ‘Duck’. The Ducklings have also enjoyed sensory sessions and this has supported the Ducklings settling in. Our sensory sessions have included bubbles, lights, and bean bags! Some of the Ducklings had their first session of ‘Shake, Rattle & Boogie’ and enjoyed participating in sessions with Kimberly. The Ducklings have loved exploring all the exciting musical instruments that Kimberly has brought in as well as joining in with the actions to the fun songs and saying Hello to ‘Boogie Bear’. The Ducklings have been doing amazing throughout their first couple of sessions. We have also done many messy play activities in the room. The Ducklings have enjoyed getting their hands messy and exploring the different textures. We have been exploring Autumn/Gruffalo-themed activities based on children’s interests.We spoke about all the different colours we see in Autumn and explored sensory trays with leaves, pinecones and even some pumpkins. We had another special visitor visit us this month, Noodle the Dog! The Ducklings enjoyed singing and signing with Mel and Noodle. We sang some of our favourite nursery rhymes using Makaton and after we got to stroke Noodle and give him some yummy treats.

DUCKLINGS ROOM

October Newsletter

We started off the month welcoming all our new goslings children and we have spent lots of time getting to know their little personalities and watching them flourish. We have focused a lot of our activities on the 5 senses so we can really see what the children’s likes and dislikes are. As we welcome the Autumn season, the children spent lots of time playing with all the new resources it’s given us and we have thoroughly enjoyed the sunshine, listening to the rain and watching the leaves fall. We particularly enjoyed throwing and catching all the leaves, collecting them and kicking them around in the garden space. We also celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival this month by decorating our own lanterns which we displayed throughout our room whilst dancing to some traditional music. This month we have also enjoyed baking in practice for the Macmillan bake sale. We took the opportunity to discuss with the children about healthy food for our bodies and we made banana and raisin oat bars which the children had to use their fine motor skills to pour, measure, scoop and mix all the ingredients together. Over the last few weeks we have enjoyed lots of walks out into the community, we used our sense of smell and touch to explore local flower gardens and our sense of sight and sound to watch the birds and listen to the noises they make. We are so excited to step into October, celebrating Black History Month and Rosh Hashanah this October through materials, languages, music and cuisine. Goslings Room News

GOSLINGS ROOM

October Newsletter

Cygnets Room News

This month we have welcomed the new children and families to the Cygnets Room. We have loved getting to know everyone and can’t wait for the year ahead. The Cygnets are settling in really well and they have enjoyed exploring their new environment. We have made self-portraits in the creative area with a variety of materials such as; natural leaves, flower petals and sticks with the Cygnets showing us their great creativity. This month we have also been celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival. The Cygnets enjoyed making pictures of a full moon and rabbits as well as lanterns with coloured cellophane sheets to decorate. They have also had fun writing Chinese letters in the sand! The children have also loved getting involved in their new classes which are DebuTots, Dance Lab and Rugby Tots. In DebuTots, the Cygnets have been showing off their best imagination skills and in Dance Lab, they have been showing off their best dance moves. While in Rugby Tots, the children have been taking part in lots of exciting games and getting to know Coach James. They have also loved practising some of their gross motor skills, such as kicking, throwing, and catching rugby balls. Finally, we finished off our September celebrating the start of Autumn. We started to collect sticks, leaves and other natural materials to create our own pictures. The Cygnets enjoyed walking around the garden and had a treasure hunt together.

CYGNETS ROOM

October Newsletter

Swans Room News

This month the children have been learning all about each other. We asked all of the children to make a picture of themselves and then write three facts that best describe them. The Swans have really enjoyed talking about their own pictures and also listening to each other’s. The children have also gained lots of confidence by standing up and talking to the rest of the group about their interests, favourite colours and favourite foods. This month we will be celebrating Black History Month. The children will be learning all about different people who have inspired us for example The three-light traffic light system was first invented by Garrett Morgan back in 1923. The Swans will be able to make their own traffic lights and we will have lots of fun playing the traffic light game in the garden on the bikes. The Swans will also be celebrating The Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah is often associated with sweet foods. One of the most beloved traditions is dipping apple slices into honey. Therefore we will be setting up lots of fun baking activities for the children to have a go at cutting and making some simple apple cake recipes with some delicious honey! The children will also be celebrating Halloween. The Swans are invited to a fun disco where they can dress up and enjoy a selection of spooky snacks and healthy treats. We will also be setting up lots of messy play for the children to explore and do some trick-or-treating around the garden.

SWANS ROOM

October Newsletter

2024 Events Calendar *Dates subject to change - Please check the website for the latest calendar

Tuesday 1st

Black History Month

Wednesday 2nd

Rosh Hashanah

W/C Monday 7th

Mental Health Awareness Week

Chicklets, Ducklings and Goslings Halloween Stay & Play Sessions

W/C Monday 21st

October

Tuesday 22nd

Cygnets and Swans Spooky Halloween Disco

Tuesday 29th

Halloween Pumpkin Decoration Competition

Team Training Day, Nursery CLOSED

Wednesday 30th

Thursday 31st

Halloween Fancy Dress Day

October Newsletter

2024 Events Calendar *Dates subject to change - Please check the website for the latest calendar

Friday 1st

Diwali

Tuesday 5th

Bonfire Celebrations

Friday 8th

Remembrance Sunday

Monday 11th

Chicklets, Goslings, Swans Parents Evening

November

Wednesday 13th

World Kindness Day

TBC

World Nursery Rhymes Week

Wednesday 20th

Cygnets and Ducklings Parents Evening

Thursday 28th

Thanksgiving

TBC

Christmas Jumper Day

TBC

Swans Christmas Nativity

December

W/C Monday 16th

Christmas Party Week

Thursday 19th

22SLN Christmas Dinner Day

Christmas Eve, Nursery Closes at 12 noon

Tuesday 24th

January

Nursery RE-OPENS for the New Year!

Thursday 2nd 2025

October Newsletter

*ATTENTION* Important Information - Please Read 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. Thank you for your support. 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. 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.

October Newsletter

*ATTENTION* Important Information - Please Read

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.

CONTACT US 0333 043 22 22

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