This week.......

We had great fun with water!

Visited the new park near Moor Park swimming pool. 

Played with the zoo animals.

Enjoyed playing with the planks of wood, foam tubes and tools. 

Explored something special that William's grandad has made for us.  It includes a letter box, handles, switches, hooks and bolts. 

Hope you all have a lovely weekend - we'll see some of you at Adam's party on Sunday! 

Suncream

Please remember to apply suncream to your child in the morning before they come to us, even if the weather is cloudy and doesn't look like it's going to be sunny. 

We will then re-apply later on in the morning and again after lunch if necessary. 

Thank you.

Collage and biscuits

The children have been creating pictures this week, using different materials.  These have included old magazines, coloured paper, stickers and straws.  They have done lots of cutting and sticking!

Victoria's creation - love the way she has cut out triangles for the bird's wings and beak!

We baked some biscuits today, using lots of different shapes. 

Off on Friday

Please don't forget that we are off on Friday.  I am going to see Bon Jovi in Manchester and am really looking forward to it! 

Pogo printer

We have just purchased a new pogo printer, which is great!  We can print a photo within a few minutes of taking it and use it for our observations.  You will notice that your child's learning journey will include them and that we have altered our style of observations and 'next steps'.  We will know over the next few weeks/months how things are working out and please give us your feedback too :).

Every Child a Talker

I went on a cluster for ECAT last night.  It was really interesting and we learnt about baby sign.  There are various types of sign language, but the one we learnt and that our area is encouraging, was 'signalong'.  It is different from the Makaton which Mr. Tumble/AKA Justin teaches us!  We are being given manuals containing lots of different signs, so once we receive it, we'll introduce some to the children.  The older children will find it quite fun and it will help the younger children, who can't yet communicate verbally, to tell us what they want. 

This week is week 1

Sorry its late......

Later on this week we....

Played with lots of teddies, some of which used to belong to Charlotte and Alice. The children brought a teddy in from home to play too. 


We had a teddy bears picnic


The children cut up their fruit to make a fruit salad for themselves and teddy.

Chris chopped some branches of the trees in our garden and the children had great fun playing at being 'workmen/women' with them.

Teddy bears

Tomorrow and Thursday will be 'Teddy Bear Picnic' days.  If your child would like to bring in a teddy from home to enjoy the picnic with us, that would be great.  If not, there are lots of teddies here who are looking forward to it ~ especially Winston! 

Last year we collected for Action Medical Research but this year we will just make a donation ourselves as we seem to have asked for quite a lot of donations from parents for various charities already this year. 

Fun in the sun!

We've had lots of fun today and the sun has shined on us all day long!!!!!!! 

Fun in the sand

Ramps for the trucks

We made a card for someone special

Water play - floating and sinking

Handwashing

As the children are still very young, we obviously have to remind them to wash their hands after using the toilet, often supporting them with this.  Please could you remind them at home how important this is and, with us all working together, it will eventually become second nature to the children.  Your support is appreciated.

I've found quite a good website which you might want to have a look at when you've got time.  It's:

http://www.hygiene4health.com/parent-resources.html

Just to remind everyone that we are on holiday week beginning 30th May!

Week beginning 23rd May is week 1

This week...

We have

Played in the sand

blown bubbles

painted some colourful pictures and butterflies

made our own pizzas

the babies loved it too!

visited the duck pond and seen 5 new cygnets

played on the park

chalked on the blackboards

An inspirational quote for you all!

Painting

Yesterday we painted some pictures using lots of different colours.  Chris then made some butterfly shapes and the children painted one side and then pressed together to make a symmetrical pattern.  They look lovely on our wall. 

This week is week 3!

Laptop trouble

I haven't posted recently sorry - we have had problems with our laptop charger, but we now have a new one so all is well!

Tesco vouchers

Thank you to everyone who has given us some Tesco vouchers.  A special thank you to Sam, whose mummy took the trouble to come round and post some through our door on Friday night.  He obviously hasn't forgotten us :)

Tesco have now finished the vouchers for this year, so if you find any lying around we would be very grateful of them. 

We are going to send them off next Thursday, just before our holiday.

Thank you xx

This week

The children have been role-playing a lot this week, especially with the dolls.  They've been pushed around the garden in prams, been on the slide and on the swing.  The children have had fun with the sand, making castles and pies.  They made birthday cake today for Erin. 

We've got some new blackboards outside now and the children have had fun chalking pictures and writing. 

We've had all the dressing-up clothes out today and the girls have been princesses for most of the day and Joel has been 'Fireman Sam'. 

Week beginning 9th May is week 2

This week is week 1

Our Easter holidays so far!

Water play

Making a big sand castle

We made Easter cards

We had fun at Stanley Park

We made Easter rice crispie cakes

And Easter egg biscuits

Happy Mount Park

We were lucky enough to see Sam at Happy Mount Park, with his mummy and sister.  He was having a great time in the water!

Easter

The children have been busy making Easter things this week.  So far, they have made cards, rice crispy cakes with little mini eggs on top and they've decorated egg-shaped biscuits with icing, sprinkles and smarties.  Either tomorrow or next week we will be making a huge egg which the children can paint and decorate however they wish.  It'll be entirely up to them so watch this space for a photo!

Lots of photos for you to make up for a lack of them!

I haven't posted many photos recently, so we've taken loads today. They are all outside and we've got at least one of every child.

I could nearly climb to the top!

It's bigger than me!

How far can you jump?

Can you put the correct amount of items on the number?

Ordering numbers

Is anyone in here?

Monster play!

Week beginning 4th April is week 3

HAPPY MOTHERS' DAY TO ALL YOU LOVELY MUMMIES XXX

Easterleigh animal sanctuary

We're really shocked, saddened and absolutely disgusted to hear the news of the arson attack on the Easterleigh.  Nine cats, 11 hens and 1 rabbit were all killed and there is a lot of damage to one of the buildings. 

As you know, April is National Pet Month and you all donated pet food last year and we took it to the Easterleigh.  We will be doing the same again this year, so if you would like to make a donation of pet food we will be visiting the sanctuary during the Easter holidays.

The roof itself at the sanctuary is going to cost around £15000 to replace so they are looking for people to hold sponsored events and to basically raise some money to be able to pay for repairs.  If you would like to donate any money as well as pet food, then we will take this with us when we visit.  If you know of anyone who would be willing to volunteer to help with the clean up, then the telephone number is 01253 789185.

If anyone is on facebook, here is the link to the Easterleigh's page:
http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/pages/Easterleigh-Animal-Sanctuary/123191704397740

Easterleigh have now set up an account for the "clean up appeal". For those of you who wish to donate funds you can now do so straight into the account.



HSBC - sort code 404002 account number - 21405578.

Week beginning 21st March is week 2

Suncream!!

We played outside for most of the day today and the temperature got up to 18 degrees on our decked area!
We got the children to wear their sun hats and applied sun cream to exposed areas.  We do have suncream from last year, but it would be a good idea to supply us with a new bottle to ensure the children are fully protected. 

Just donated to Comic Relief

Just to let you all know that I have just donated £25 to Comic Relief.  Thank you to all of you for your donations and for buying cakes this week. 

Tesco for Schools vouchers

We are collecting these vouchers at the moment so if you do have any to spare, please consider passing them on to us.  We would really appreciate them.  Thank you to those of you who have already donated.  :)

Bike sale

Blackpool Council's 'Cycle Blackpool' Team are holding a sale of reconditioned bikes next Sunday, 20th March from 11:00am to 3:00pm at Stanley Park Visitor's Centre.  Second hand adult's and children's bikes will be on sale from as little as £7.50.  All of the bikes have been donated by members of the public and reconditioned by Blackpool's Cycling Mechanics in order to encourage more people to get on their bikes in Blackpool.  Various cycling accessories including bike lights and reflective armbands will also be available to buy and Cycle Blackpool maps will be on offer.  For more information visit http://www.cycleblackpool.co.uk/, email cycling@blackpool.gov.uk or call 01253 476261.

New 'grass'

We had the new grass laid yesterday.  The men were working all day and got it finished around 4.30pm.

We have put up William's goals which he got for Christmas, and the children have enjoyed playing football a lot today. 

We've been selling lots of cakes this week too, so thank you to all of you who have bought some.  We will have some more for sale tomorrow!

Duck pond and cakes

We visited the duck pond this afternoon.  We fed the ducks some stale hot cross buns, which they seemed to enjoy!!

After our tea-time snack, the children decorated some fairy cakes for Red Nose Day.  They used a piping bag and piped red (well pink actually as I didn't use enough red food colouring!) buttercream over the buns and then sprinkled some red edible glitter on to them.  They look great.  Alice has already bought 6 for £1 and so had Victoria's mum.  Thank you!  We will be making cakes throughout this week, so please feel free to buy some!

Thomas made a sign for the front door advertising our cakes and Joel and Victoria decorated it with stickers. 

Week beginning 14th March is week 3

Zoos, water painting and blogging!

The children played with the small-world animals this morning and used the wooden blocks to make enclosures for the animals.  One of them was a water enclosure for the penguins. 

Later on we went out to play.  We bought some paintbrushes from B&Q last week, specifically so that the children could 'paint' outdoors with water.  They really enjoyed it - it's nice sometimes to create on a large scale.

We also went on the children's blog this afternoon and looked at every child's page.  The children enjoyed reading about each other and what they'd been doing at home and they all had a chance to post something themselves.  Disney was the theme that they all chose today.  Have a look when you get chance. 

Grass

We're really excited because next week, all being well, we are getting some new artificial grass to replace, and slightly extend, our existing lawn.  It looks just like real grass, but comes with the added benefit of it being usable all year round, rather than just in the drier weather.  The children love to play on the grass, kicking balls, playing in the tents, rolling around etc, so we think it will be a fantastic addition to the garden.  Of course, there will still be a 'natural' area to the garden, where we are hoping to include a little bridge (Erin's mummy's suggestion) and possibly a water feature of some sort - we are just trying to work out whether this would work, or whether just providing the children with a regular supply of water would be better.  It's one to think about...........

We are open to suggestions for the outdoor area, so please, if you have any ideas, let us know.  Our aim is to provide the children with lots of 'open-ended' resources that can be used as and when they wish.  For example, the wooden planks we have recently purchased have been used as car ramps and for construction.  We could do with some more wood actually if anyone has any spare they would like to donate :). 

The children love to be outdoors so it's important that we provide an interesting, exciting and challenging area in which they can play and explore.  Please have a think and let us know if you have an idea. 

Red Nose Day and sunflowers

The children decorated a flyer with lots of Red Nose Day stickers - you will have received said flyers tonight (those of you who we remembered to give book bags too - oops)! 

We also planted our sunflower seeds today and discussed how tall they were going to grow.  The children think they will grow taller than Chris!  We agreed that we would need to water them regularly and look after them really well for them to grow that tall.  Once the seeds have germinated, the children will be bringing them home. 

"I love you"

Victoria said to me, just after tea, "I love you."

Adam then said, "I do too,"  he then went over to Kaiden and patted him on the shoulder saying, "I think Kaiden does too."

Things like this just make me realise why we do this job.  It really doesn't matter what Ofsted say - the most important people in all of this are the children, and if they are happy and feel loved, then we are doing our job well.  Those few words make it all worth while xxx