Duck pond

We visited the duck pond today. Although we got a little wet, the children enjoyed themselves feeding the ducks and swans. We saw the ducklings, who have grown quite big now. Bradley fell asleep on the way there and only woke up on our way home, so unfortunately missed it all!

Certificate from Action Medical Research

Duck pond tomorrow!

We're going to visit the duck pond in the morning, weather permitting! If any of you have any bread that you don't want, then please send it our way :-). I'm sure the swans, coots, ducks and ducklings will be very grateful. Thank you x

Snacks included this week will be.....

Toast
Apples
Bananas
Crumpets
Scotch Pancakes
Fruit toast
Tomatoes
Cucumber
Hot dogs
Cheese
Hot Cross Buns
Carrot sticks
Frozen Frubes
Yogurt

Menu - week beginning 12th July

Monday - Chicken fried rice
Tuesday - Pasta bolognaise
Wednesday - Roast turkey dinner
Thursday - Home made pizza
Friday - Beef casserole and mashed potato

Change for Life

Please have a look at the link to the Change for Life website for some ideas to keep our children healthy.

Den building, tents, tunnels

We played outside with blankets, tents and tunnels. The children had great fun crawling through the tunnels and hiding from each other. They played at dinosaurs and chased each other through the tunnels and around the garden. Chris and I were tired just watching them!!

Menu 5th July

Monday - Corned beef hash
Tuesday - Spaghetti bolognaise
Wednesday - Cheesy turkey and ham pasta with vegetables
Thursday - Chicken curry and rice
Friday - Fish fingers, wedges, baked beans/peas

Painting outdoors

Gosh, it was hot today!

The children did some painting outside. It gave us an opportunity to talk about colours, what would happen if we mixed two colours together, shapes and patterns.

We played in the garden for the rest of the day.

Mad Hatters

We all went to Mad Hatters this morning. We've not been for quite a while due to the lovely weather, but we thought we would make the most of the rain!

If you scroll down to the bottom of this page, you will see a little message from Paddington :-)

Strawberry picking

We picked some of our strawberries today and the children were able to eat them.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADAM!!

Adam is 3 today! Hope you have had a lovely day with your mummy. See you tomorrow! xx

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALICE!!!!!! XXX

Happy birthday to our beautiful daughter Alice - 15 today!

We can't believe how fast the time has gone; it doesn't seem that long ago she was a tiny baby. Make the most of the time you get to spend with your children as they are only young for such a short time!

Menu, week beginning 28th June

Monday - Sausage, mash and vegetables
Tuesday - Chicken and pasta in tomato and cheese sauce
Wednesday - Spaghetti bolognaise
Thursday - Fish pie with broccoli and cauliflower
Friday - Chicken casserole and rice

Lots of outdoor play

It's been another beautiful day, albeit a little cloudy this morning.

The children have played outside and have been involved in role-play games such as shops, schools and riding on trains!

Ofsted report May 2010

I have put a link to our report in the link box at the left of the page.

Hope you have all enjoyed reading it!

Teddy Bear week - Thank you.....

....to you all for donating money for Action Medical Research. Altogether, you donated £11 and we will make it up to £15 to send to the charity :-).

The children really enjoyed spending time with the teddies and our new addition (Winston Bear) had a great time with us this weekend watching Green Day at Wembley and seeing the sights of London.

He will be going home with one of the children this weekend.

Water, water everywhere!!

The children have had a great day playing with the water. They have been pouring, using funnels, playing with the water wheels, using little squirty animals and using an old trigger bottle to wet anything and everything! We dressed them in 'sun suits' so it didn't matter how wet they got!

Menu - week beginning 21st June

Monday - Chicken fried rice
Tuesday - Pasta bolognaise
Wednesday - Roast ham dinner
Thursday - Home made pizza
Friday - Beef casserole and mashed potato

Just a quick photo of Charlotte before her prom

Fun in the sun!

We've had a lovely week this week. The weather has been beautiful and the children have spent most of their time in the garden.

We have made cards for Fathers' Day and done some chalking on the patio.

We've had lots of fun with our teddies and one of them really didn't want to go back to his home in our loft, so has asked if he can stay and play. His name is Winston and he is very special! He would like to go home with one of the children each weekend and has a diary which he would love to write in to let us know what he's been up to with that child. He is coming away with William this weekend - we're going to London on Saturday so I'm sure he will write all about it.

We hope you all enjoyed reading our Ofsted report (if you've had chance yet!). I know it's quite long, but we would really appreciate it if you could find time to have a look. Once it is published on the website I will post a link.

We're on holiday tomorrow (Friday) as it's Charlotte's prom. I will post a photo of her when I get chance.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend and see you on Monday.

Teddy Bears' picnic

We had a great time today!

We made teddy bear biscuits which the children and the teddies ate for their picnic. We sang lots of songs, including

'Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear' and 'Teddy Bears' Picnic', as well as 'Old MacDonald' and lots more.

The children played with the teddies outside as well as inside, pushing them in the prams, on the swings and just generally having a fun time!

More of the same tomorrow!

The teddies are waiting..........

They are all lined up ready to greet the children in the morning. They are really excited and looking forward to their picnic!

Don't forget teddies!!

We're having teddy bear picnics on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, so please try and remember your teddies!

Menu - week beginning June 14th

Monday - Corned beef hash
Tuesday - Spaghetti bolognaise
Wednesday - Cheesy turkey and ham pasta
Thursday - Chicken curry and rice
Friday - HOLIDAY

'Are we human or are we hamsters?'

That was what one child was singing today to the tune of the song by Killers. It made us both laugh!!!!! The children certainly do make us laugh ;-).

Goodbye David xxxx

We said 'goodbye' to David today. He is leaving us for pastures new and we hope that he really enjoys his new setting.

Lots of role-play

The children had lots of fun with the role-play toys today. They played with the dolls, making them dinner and drinks and this photo shows them playing at 'hairdressers'.

We also read 'Paddington Bear' as an introduction to 'Bring your Bear' month. We will be including a lot of 'bear' activities during the month and a letter will be going out this week about a special 'Bring your Bear' day, to raise money for Action Medical Research.

Menu week beginning June 7th (sorry it's late)

Wednesday - Spaghetti bolognaise
Thursday - Fish pie with broccoli and cauliflower
Friday - Chicken casserole and rice

Happy holidays and headlice (sorry)

Hope you all have a great week off (if you've managed to get time off that is)!

We've had little visitors I'm afraid so please check your child's hair. We've always found that one of those special 'nit' combs works well, along with conditioner. Going over the hair every day will stop the cycle hopefully, without having to use lotions etc.

I'll have a look for a website and post a link if I find one that's any good.

See you a week on Monday!!!!!!!

Big blankets!

The children have had lots of fun with the large blankets! Completely self-chosen, they have made dens, played at going to sleep and hide-and-seek!

We have been to William's football presentation evening tonight and William was given a trophy, which he is very proud of. He had a great time on Sunday (just gone), where he had a training session with the PNE coaching staff. It was absolutely boiling hot, but he enjoyed it.

Menu - week beginning May 24th

Monday - Chicken stir-fry and rice
Tuesday - Pasta bolognaise
Wednesday - Roast turkey dinner
Thursday - Pizza

Have a great weekend everybody!

Enjoy the sunshine!

See you next week x

Ofsted inspection

Chris and I are really proud to be able to say that we have been given an 'outstanding' grade by Ofsted, who visited earlier today. I actually cried when the inspector told me! As soon as we get the report, we will give you all a copy.

The children were fantastic today; they chatted with the inspectors and, as always, were lovely to be around. Thank you to them for helping to make the day run smoothly.

Thank you to all of you - Ofsted were particularly impressed with the 'partnership' between us and you, the parents, and were thrilled to see your positive comments on various forms etc.

Just one big THANK YOU really!!!!!! We are both very happy :-)

Seed labels

The children made some seed labels for the seeds we planted yesterday. They drew the pictures and wrote what seeds the labels were for.

Lots of outdoor play and seed planting

We have played outside all day today. It's been lovely.

We planted our vegetable seeds this afternoon. We've planted carrots, courgettes, french (magic) beans, salad leaves and some basil. We can't wait for it to grow!

William can swim!

We're really proud of William as he managed to swim a full width of the pool on Saturday without any armbands. Well done William xxxx

Tesco vouchers

The promotion has now finished, so if anyone has any vouchers knocking about anywhere, we would be very grateful for them.

We'll count them and let you know how many we've got at the end of the week. Thank you to everyone who has sent them in - we appreciate it.

Menu week beginning 17th May

Monday - Corned beef hash
Tuesday - Shepherds Pie
Wednesday - Cheesy turkey and ham pasta with mixed vegetables
Thursday - Chicken curry with rice
Friday - Fish fingers, wedges, baked beans/peas

The tadpoles have legs!

Well, at least one does! We lifted all the children up so that they could see into the tank. They were all very excited and are hoping that there might be more with legs when they come next week. We'll see.....

We played with some conkers, peanuts, acorns and pine cones today. The children spread them out onto pieces of paper. It led to counting and sorting. Then they made a 'snake' using the various items. Great fun!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend! William is in a football match on Sunday so we're all looking forward to that. Hope his team win!

Treasure baskets and water play

Little Bradley had a great time exploring a treasure basket full of natural items.

The older children had fun playing with the water this afternoon. We explored items that would sink or float and did lots of pouring. The children particularly enjoyed playing with the water wheel, trickling on the water and then pouring it really fast to make the wheen spin quickly.

Buddleia bushes

We went to a garden centre today to buy some buddleia bushes, which will hopefully attract lots of butterflies to our garden.

The children got their spades this afternoon and helped us to plant them, as well as some grasses that we bought last year.

Menu, week beginning 10th May - week 1

Monday - Sausage, mash and vegetables
Tuesday - chicken and pasta in sauce, peas
Wednesday - Spaghetti bolognaise
Thursday - Fish pie with broccoli and cauliflower
Friday - Chicken casserole and rice

Happy birthday Erin!

Erin celebrated her birthday today. She is now 2! We had a birthday cake and Erin got very excited when we brought the cake towards her. We all sang 'Happy Birthday' and Erin blew the candles out before we were even half way through the song!

Hope you all have a lovely weekend. See you on Monday x

Fairy cakes

We made some fairy cakes this morning. We weighed the ingredients, stirred the mixture and talked about what happens when the buns cook. They were very tasty!

Outdoor play and 'animal sounds'

We welcomed Bradley to our setting yesterday. He had a good day and the children played with him, making him feel part of their games. We did lots of playing outside which the children always enjoy.

Today, amongst other things, we did a 'letters and sounds' activity, called 'animal noises'. We all had a great time using musical instruments to make different animal sounds.

Menu, week beginning 3rd May

Tuesday - Pasta bolognaise
Wednesday - Roast turkey dinner
Thursday - Home made pizza
Friday - Beef casserole and mashed potato

Fishy Friday!

The children made their own fish for our 'fish tank'. They painted them and then stuck on collage materials and sprinkled on glitter. They look fantastic.

Hope you all have a lovely Bank Holiday weekend. See you next week!

Mad Hatters

We went to Mad Hatters this morning. The children had a good time playing. This afternoon we played outside.

Cornflakes!

To give the children a different sensory experience, we put cornflakes in the sand trays. The children used spades, scoops and funnels, pretending to cook with the cornflakes and moving them from place to place.

Here is a photo of our 'pet' board - possibly finished unless we decide to add anything else!

Most popular pet and duck pond visit

We worked together to record which was the most popular pet and the answer is - CATS. We do help with this however in that we have three of our own!!

We visited the duck pond this morning. Whilst we were on the bridge, the older children started to explore which items floated and which sank. Into the water they threw leaves, sticks, catkins, flowers and stones to discover for themselves. This was a completely self-chosen activity which provided an opportunity for 'exploration and investigation', which is an area of learning within the 'Knowledge and Understanding of the World' area of the EYFS.

Children learn best and focus more intently on an activity if they choose it themselves - we as childminders and you as parents are there to provide opportunities and resources to enable them to do this.

We also fed the ducks, although there weren't very many about today, and we collected dandelions and were able to find the first dandelion clocks of the year.

New 'Happy Land' people

We bought some new 'Happy Land' characters from Early Learning over the weekend and the children have enjoyed playing with them today.

We've also played outdoors a lot, throwing and kicking the ball and on the slides, see-saws and scooters.

We started our 'pets' board, sticking on the photos of your pets.

Menu, week beginning 26th April - week 2

Monday - Corned beef hash
Tuesday - Shepherds Pie
Wednesday - Cheesy turkey and ham pasta with vegetables
Thursday - Chicken curry with rice
Friday - Fish fingers, potato wedges, baked beans/vegetables

Happy St. Georges Day

We celebrated St. Georges day by colouring in the flag of St. George and making cross-shaped and flag-shaped biscuits and covering them in a red cross made of icing. Lovely.

Duck pond visit

We had a lovely visit to the duck pond this morning. The leaves are starting to grow on the trees, the swans and grebes have built their nests and the wild flowers looked beautiful - even the dandelions!

We were very pleased to receive a picture message from Sam's mummy, showing us a photo of Sam and lots of gingerbread men that he and his mummy had made together. Hope he's saved us one for tomorrow! We love to receive your photos so please carry on sending them to us.

Thank you for the photos so far

Thanks to those of you who have sent in photos of your pets. We will be able to make a start on the board over the next few days.

We've played outside over the last couple of days, although it has been a lot colder! The children had fun watching the windmills turning really fast yesterday with that strong wind!

We might have a walk to the duck pond tomorrow morning if the children want - we'll see how they feel in the morning.

Pet photos please

As it it National Pet Month in April, we will be talking to the children about our pets, for example who has what pet, how many, what they eat etc.

We are making a display for our playroom and would be very grateful if you would send in a photo/photos of your pet/s so that we can stick them on our display. We plan to allow the older children to work out, in their own way, which is the most popular pet and will support them in doing this.

Menu, week beginning 19th April (week 1)

Monday - Sausage, mash and vegetables
Tuesday - Chicken and pasta in tomato/cheese sauce, peas
Wednesday - Spaghetti bolognaise
Thursday - Fish pie with broccoli and cauliflower
Friday - Chicken casserole and boiled rice

We got to the Easterleigh today!

We took the food that you all kindly donated and they were very grateful.

We looked around and said 'hello' to all the animals. There were lots of cats, dogs and several rabbits. I felt really sorry for them and wondered if I could become a volunteer 'cat stroker'! If we lived on a farm with lots of room (and money) we would bring them all home. As it is, at least we can donate food which does help.

Hope you all have a great weekend and that the weather stays fine and warm.

Easterleigh tomorrow

We are visiting the Easterleigh tomorrow with all the cat and dog food that you've donated.

We had fun in the garden today, the older boys played with the walkie-talkies.

The children made their own pizzas for lunch, using mushrooms, sweet corn, slices sausages, tomatoes and cheese. They smelled delicious!

Another sunny day!

We were going to go to the Easterleigh this morning, but the children got involved with their play in the garden and didn't want to go. The animals will have to wait until Friday!!

Here is a lovely photo of two of the children playing together, pushing the trolleys.


We're looking forward to spending an hour settling-in one of our new children tomorrow morning. All the children are looking forward to meeting him.

Thank you

to you all for completing our evaluation sheets and for your lovely comments. xx

Outdoor play all day

We spent all day outside, playing with the tents, tunnels and large blankets, which the children used to make dens.

We will visit the Easterleigh either tomorrow or Friday, but probably won't get to the Crook O' Lune this week, as its a little too cold for the children to be paddling in the river. That day-out might have to wait until the summer!

If the weather is fine tomorrow, we will go to Cottam Hall park and playing fields.

Brockhole

We had a really good day at Brockhole. We had a picnic by Lake Windermere and then the children played hide-and-seek (one of their favourite games at the moment).

They spent a while watching the boats on the lake and then played at trains on a large tree trunk.

Afterwards, we went on to the adventure playground and had fun climbing, swinging and sliding.

Menu this week

Monday - picnic at Brockhole
Tuesday - Pasta bolognaise
Wednesday - Roast dinner
Thursday - Home made pizza (created by the children)
Friday - Beef casserole and mashed potato

Brockhole tomorrow!

Hope you're all enjoying the sunshine!

Chris and William have been working hard this afternoon swapping the tadpoles from the large outdoor container to the indoor tank. The water was very green and made it difficult for the children to see the tadpoles. They should be able to observe them clearly now.

We're going to Brockhole tomorrow. We'll be taking a picnic for lunch and will be home no later than 4pm. Fingers crossed the weather stays like this!

Bowland Wild Boar Park

We've had a fantastic day at the boar park. The sun shone on us, which was a bonus!

We fed the lambs and stroked the chicks, played on the pedal tractors, in the straw bales and on the park, had a ride on the trailers attached to the real tractor and saw lots of animals.

All the children fell asleep on the way home and if we hadn't been driving, Chris and I would have too!!

Duck pond and outdoor play today

The children played outside making cakes out of bark, sand, water, pebbles and soil. Very tasty!

We went to the duck pond this afternoon and saw the swans and the nesting 'great-crested grebes'.

Tomorrow, as long as the weather is fine, we will be visiting Bowland Wild Boar Park, taking a picnic for lunch. We're really looking forward to it!

Stanley Park

We had a really good time at Stanley Park today.
We played hide and seek in the gardens and the children ran around, hiding behind trees, bushes and walls. We then went to see the ducks for a little while before visiting the Italian Gardens. We all enjoyed putting our hands in the fountain and getting splashed!

Mad Hatters

We went to Mad Hatters this morning. It was quite busy, but the children had a really good time playing. They were extremely hot after all their running around!

After lunch, we played in the garden.

Fingers crossed, we will go to Stanley Park tomorrow, but if it's raining, the children have decided that they would like to make some biscuits. Actually, William is hoping that it will rain so that he can make biscuits!!!! We will definitely make some during the holidays so he's no need to worry.

The children's learning journeys are being sent out this week. We hope you enjoy reading about your child's time with us.

Plans for this week

Tuesday doesn't look good weather-wise, so we'll probably stay at home.

On Wednesday we may visit Stanley Park, especially to play 'hide and seek' as the children enjoy playing this game at the moment.

We will have a day at home on Thursday - the weather forecast is good so the children will probably want to play outdoors for most of the day, perhaps visiting the duck pond if they choose.

On Friday, if the forecast remains the same, we plan to go to Bowland Wild Boar Park (please see our links), but we will confirm it with you towards the end of the week.

We will be visiting the Easterleigh next week, so if you would like to donate any pet food (dog, cat or rabbit) then please could you bring it in to us this week. Thank you.

Menu - week beginning 5th April

Monday - Holiday
Tuesday - Shepherd's pie
Wednesday - Cheesy turkey and ham pasta
Thursday - Chicken curry and rice
Friday - Fish fingers, wedges, baked beans/peas

Thank you!

..to Adam and his family for a lovely chocolate cake and bottle of wine, and to Thomas and his family for William's Easter egg.

Hope everyone has a great Easter....apparently the weather will improve from next Wednesday. Yippeeeee!!!!!!

Easter

Chris is with the children doing jigsaws, so I'm taking this opportunity to quickly post a photo of our Easter creations.

Happy Easter to you all - hope you have a lovely break and we'll see you next Tuesday x.