Research shows that messy play is one of the best ways to learn. By being given the freedom to play with things that make a ‘mess’ children are given no expectations on what they should produce. If they have no expectations of what it is that is to be produced they cannot go wrong. There are no restricting end goals… the possibilities are endless. If they cannot go wrong, they will develop the courage and confidence to be curious, make their own discoveries, problem solve, have a go and keep trying. All characteristics of effective learning that we all want all children to have in order to be a successful life long learner.’ (The Curiosity Approach)

We enjoyed a brilliant Earth Day workshop with Nature Makers – we all loved planting sunflower seeds, creating fantastic art and talking about our planet

Our Panda parents have helped us to celebrate the languages, culture and diversity of our children at Panda by providing resources and coming in to talk to the children. Our little Pandas have really enjoyed sharing some of languages they use at home.

And enjoying a special story at Limpsfield Church

We are delighted to share that we have worked with Public Health at Surrey County Council to achieve the Eat Well Start Well Healthy Award for Early Years Settings.

We work hard to ensure that we provide a nutritionally balanced diet throughout the week, with breakfasts and hot dinners all created from scratch and freshly cooked each day at nursery. Our menus meet all the nutritional requirements set out in the assessment criteria for the Eat Well Start Well Award

This award is open to early years care providers based in Surrey. It recognises settings that ensure that the food they offer provides appropriate amounts of energy and nutrients and encourages children to make healthy choices.

If you would like to find out more about our breakfast and afterschool club, email ali@panda-nursery.co.uk

The children especially like helping to make the playdough, carefully following the instructions

Developing fine motor skills and working on number recognition

We’re loving caring for our strawberry plants and watching them grow

We’ve all enjoyed watching our caterpillars turn into butterflies, and we loved being able to release them

An invitation to play and explore different textures and materials

A great way to support fine motor skills development, needed for a strong pen grip

Making playdough pancakes then eating yummy pancakes for pudding!

Sensory play with rice – giving our little Pandas opportunities for mark making and exploring shapes

Blowing through straws to move the table tennis balls

We’re making the most of the wet weather, enjoying one of our favourite garden activities!

To celebrate World Nursery Rhyme week we are learning some rhymes we don’t usually sing at Panda. Singing Nursery Rhymes helps to lay the foundations of good literacy, encourages movement, communication, joining in, socials skills, imagination and most importantly the children love them!

Our green dinosaur island gave us lots of opportunities for sensory, imaginative play

Lots of opportunities for sensory play and fine motor skills development.

Great post from @bookoolaink. Reinforcing all of the activities our little Pandas enjoy with us, supporting their learning journey to become readers.

We’re very excited that our new Panda book borrowing library is now in place outside the nursery! Enjoy!

Using natural resources to spark our little Panda’s imaginations

We are looking for an enthusiastic Early Years Practitioner (qualified level 3 minimum) to join our fun and friendly team.

A varied role which includes lots of singing, dancing, getting messy, reading, playing, going on adventures in our wonderful woodland setting ethereum tumbling and exploring the world with our curious 2-5 year olds.

Must be available:- 43 weeks of the year- 5 days with varying hours between 8am-6pm. Competitive rates of pay and generous breaks throughout the day.

If you are interested please email ali@panda-nursery.co.uk

buy twitch followers

Lots of lovely healthy packed lunches at nursery with lots of chatter about healthy yummy food.

We’ve been reading lots of stories about going to big school to support our leavers this term.

As part of teaching our children to be healthy we’ve been talking about oral hygiene: cleaning and looking after our teeth. We used the bottom of bottles painted white and cleaned off the playdoh from the pretend teeth!

Mrs Tilling makes the best Baked Oats for the children in breakfast club – she also makes really yummy dinners for our afterschool club.

We hope you enjoyed World Book Day – we had lots of fun at Panda!

Fine motor development, using the tweezers to carefully place the fruit slices in a bowl. Enjoying the refreshing smells of the oranges and lemons as we played and talked about the fruit. (These weren’t for eating this time – we had lots more yummy fruit for snack!)

Lots of winter fun!

Great way to learn about mixing colours

Panda Nursery is looking for an Early Years Practitioner to join our fun team.

Someone who likes to sing, dance, get messy, read lots, play with dinosaurs, paint, go on adventurers in the wonderful woodland we are based in, sail the seas on a pirate ship, explore the world with our curious 2-5 year olds and give them lots of cuddles and support … A little paperwork involved as well.

We are open 43 weeks of the year. Competitive rates of pay and generous breaks throughout the day. Role is initially based over 3/4 days 8:30 – 16:00.

If you are interested email ali@panda-nursery.co.uk or give us a call on 07812 522492

A few pallets and old saucepans = lots of fun on our new music walls. If anyone has any spare pallets please email ali@panda-nursery.co.uk – we love making new things for nursery!

To inspire our little artists and creative minds

Fantasy play, or pretend play, is an integral part of childhood. While too often limited by the narrow confines of a role play area, pretend play can flourish outdoors if children are given the space and materials.

Great article by Marisa Lark Wallin at Community Playthings:

https://www.communityplaythings.co.uk/learning-library/articles/lets-play-outside?source=pal219

Sometimes, life feels like a real challenge. Being a parent juggling work, school, life in general is exhausting. We understand how hard it can be, which is why we offer a quiet Time to Talk for parents who just need that listening ear to offload and talk through things.
 
Put down the long to do list, join us for a cuppa and a cake and have some quiet time to talk to someone who is there to listen, you can talk about anything as part of a group or individually.
 
Our first Time to Talk will be held on Wed 3 July 1pm – 3pm. This session is just for adults: parents, grandparents, friends – anyone who needs time to talk.
 
You can book a place or just drop in, for 10 mins or the whole 2 hours.
If you would like any other info, please email ali@panda-nursery.co.uk

Our Playdough table all set up with home made mint smelling, play dough and natural resources – endless creative opportunities and chances to develop fine motor skills and sensory play .

Recently, local photographer, Kate York came to Panda Nursery to take photos of the children for their annual school photos. We moved away from the the standard ‘staged’ school photo format and we absolutely love the results.

Every Tuesday morning, many of the little Pandas are given a huge treat – a dance class with Miss Tarryn from Surrey Dance School!

We were very excited to receive and unwrap all our new uniform today, all ready for the new starters joining us in September. Really looking forward to meeting all our new little Pandas after the summer holidays.

Can’t wait!

This Sunday afternoon, 12th May, everyone is invited to Messy Church at St Peter’s Limpsfield. This fun couple of hours for children of all ages includes loads of fun, messy and even edible crafts to enjoy, with optional kid’s football on the Glebe Meadow for those who would like to take part. A meal is provided. All ages welcome, 3.30-5.30pm. Have fun. Get MESSY!

Are you, or do you know someone who is passionate about Early Years Education and wants to join our little Pandas on their adventures?  Due to increasing interest and numbers at our newly re-located Panda Nursery, we are looking for top quality, like-minded practitioners to join our ‘Outstanding’ rated team.

Please click to view our latest Social Media Policy. Social media policy 2019

A home from home, lots of cosy spaces, wooden and loose parts to tinker with, toys to explore …                                                                    

In February Panda Nursery joined up with the RSPB’s Bird Watch scheme, a simple bird survey that all children can take part in at school or preschool and enjoy together.

Mikey Dean aka Coach Mikey is an amazing football coach and we are very lucky to have him at Panda teaching our children on a Mondays. Our children absolutely love his action-packed, fun multi-sports session. In addition to his Panda classes, he runs pre-school sessions for children in Hurst Green – click here to find out more: Mikey Dean preschool session. For more info about the classes he runs at Panda – email ali@panda-nursery.co.uk    

You can download our handy dates calendar for this term and next here: Panda Dates – Spring/Summer 2019.

    Remembering those who fought for our freedom, so bravely giving their lives for our independence. So we can play, explore, grow old and love our country.  

Panda Nursery has joined the Operation Encompass scheme which will run jointly between local early years settings, schools, Surrey Police and Surrey County Council. Operation Encompass has been designed to provide early reporting on any domestic incidents that occur outside of ‘normal’ school hours and might have an impact on a child in their setting. Please find further information here.

Come and join us on Saturday 15 September on the glebe field to celebrate 58 years of Panda Nursery and the opening of our brand new home.

We are so grateful to all Panda parents for their lovely gifts. We feel so privileged to be part of your wonderful children’s early years adventurers and we have had so much fun this year. Thank you all for your kind words at our Leaver’s show today and all the presents for our team x    

What an amazing day!  Huge thank you to Portakabin in Lingfield who’s very skilled team delivered our new home today. It was amazing to watch each slice be delivered on a lorry and craned into place. We are so excited!!!

We were very proud to be part of the Limpsfield Flower Festival this year  

You can download our Summer Term 2018 Fridge Calendar from here

Huge thank you to Anna Ephgrave for a very thought provoking and inspiring course about Planning in the Moment at Dorking Nursery and Children’s Centre. We are buzzing with ideas about how to ensure we provide the best environment and supportive staff to encourage, lots of purposeful, exciting play and happy, engaged children. We can’t wait for part 2 of the course! If you want to find out more about Anna’s work and philosophy you can visit http://www.freedomtolearn.co.uk/

 

50 packs of our Panda Nursery Playdoh made for the Limpsfield Fete tomorrow – Sat 16 June on the Glebe Meadow! Come and meet us at the fete and have fun playing with our playdoh – you can even buy some to take home! You can also see the plans for our new building and chat to us about our exciting new home.

Your privacy is important to us, which is why wanted to let you know that we’ve updated our Privacy Policy in line with new data protection laws, which come into effect on 25 May 2018. You can view it online: Panda Privacy Policy We take our data privacy responsibilities very seriously at Panda and we want you to understand and feel confident about how we collect, store and handle your personal data. Our new Privacy Policy explains this, and sets out the rights you have in relation to your personal data.

We’ve watched them grow from eggs, and now our Panda caterpillars have transformed into amazing butterflies. We have loved seeing them change and learning all about how the caterpillars grow into butterflies. Today was a very special day as we released them into the Panda garden. Goodbye our beautiful butterflies – come back and see us soon!

Although the weather was a challenge we had a lovely time playing in the snow at Panda! We really appreciated your patience during the difficult snow week and for supporting us by picking up early on a couple of sessions. Thanks to all of our Panda team for battling in each day to keep the nursery open. Roll on the summer! 

Messy Church at St Peter’s Church in Limpsfield is on Sunday 18 March 3:30 – 5:30 pm. Crafts, activities, sports and worship. Fun for all ages.              

We wanted to share Janet Lansbury’s article with you about supporting creativity and give you a little insight as to why children are not coming home with ‘perfect’ pieces of art pre-planned every session by the staff. Sometimes we support and guide their creations, but we realise the real learning takes place in the process of the creation rather than the end result.   We’ve had so much fun lately painting on cling film windows and building huge masterpieces out of old boxes. The end product doesn’t always make it home because the children can take it on another learning journey (cutting it up, burying it, displaying it, covering it in black paint, gifting it to a friend and so on). We provide the resources, encouragement and support that the children need but then it truly is pure freedom to create and be in ‘their’ moment – that’s when the real magic happens.    Janet Lansbury explains more: http://www.janetlansbury.com/2012/08/are-you-putting-the-kibosh-on-creativity/

Our amazing parents who run the Friends of Panda charity have been busy raising money to provide our children with equipment. We were absolutely delighted to be given a new tablet today for our little Explorers -they have had lots of fun playing on it. Thank you Friends of Panda!

Super Hero and Gun Play?! You don’t allow that at Panda, do you? This has opened many debate at nursery and as a team we have researched the topic, debated it and attended training seminars to come up with the opinion that “Yes we do”, because at Panda we are focused on the process of learning, supporting our children to learn through things they are interested in and recognising the learning we can scaffold on to this type of play. After all, if you say ‘No Guns’ – the children are very good at playing guns but pretending not to. So why not embrace their thoughts and interests and jump on the opportunity to support their learning. We understand this type of play can get out of hand and are always on hand to direct it, rather than ban it. Kate Nutbourne on the Keeping Early Years Unique blog (https://www.keyu.co.uk/) outlines a few facts about the positives of weapon / superhero play and how to manage it:

• Children use this type of play to explore right from wrong
• It’s physically exerting- children need to move
• They are not learning to ‘kill’ or harm but playing together
• It does not lead to a violent child or adult as they grow up
• It is an amazing imaginative play experience- by developing play acting skills
• Children know what is real and what is pretend
• It is confidence boosting- by perhaps taking on a different persona
• It builds a sense of belonging- by being a part of a group
• It develops negotiation and cooperation skills

How we manage gun /superhero play:

• We do not use replica toy guns- these often look very similar to the real thing, and instead we develop cognitive skills by making guns or props with recycling/resources
• A consent rule- only play with those wanting to take part
• No shooting at faces or people (if this upsets them)
• No hurting people or living creature or causing any damage

As outlined above, we are happy to support children to build superhero instruments from our recycling and resources but we do not allow plastic toy guns to be brought into nursery. Reference: Keeping Early Years Unique blog: https://www.keyu.co.uk/ Other interesting articles: https://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/superhero-play-opportunity-or-cause-for-concern/  

We’ve lots of fun planned for this term – please click below for our handy fridge calendar: Fridge Calendar of events – Spring 2018

At Panda we use an App called Studybugs that makes it quick and easy to report your child’s absence due to illness. By using this simple App on your phone or the Studybugs website – you can quickly send us a message letting us know that your child is ill and won’t be attending Panda:

• It is run by the NHS and as you type in your child’s illness it guides you with official guidance from Public Health England, based on the symptoms or illnesses you enter.
• It’s a quick and easy way for your to report absence and let us know sooner that your child will not be attending nursery
• It is a much more efficient way for us to manage absence reporting
• It is helping the NHS and other public health organisations improve children’s health by collecting anonymous data on illnesses going around — to help schools, parents and public health organisations take preventative action as early as possible

You can find out more at: https://studybugs.com/about/parents   YOU CAN SET UP THE APP UP ON YOUR PHONE TODAY: Please log on to https://studybugs.com/about/parents to download the app or find it through your phone in the App Store Once logged into the app you need to add your child and choose the school: Panda Nursery Then you are all set, for when you need to report an absence. Please be aware that you do not get a response from us or the system when you have reported an absence but please don’t worry – it is a very reliable system and we always receive the messages.

Fancy getting fit?  Would like to start running but need help to build up distance and stamina safely? Our own Mrs Merritt and former Panda parent Mrs Kitchen have set up a Oxted Ladies Joggers group Coach Sarah and Coach Fiona of Oxted Ladies Joggers are fully trained (Leadership in Running Fitness, England Athletics and Emergency First Aid at work) and are starting with two beginners running courses, Monday night from oxted school and Thursday morning from the Carpenters Arms in Limpsfield chart.  The aim is to include more courses from January, potentially Improvers, up to 10k, a long distance course and mixed ability runs. Contact admin@oxtedladiesjoggers.co.uk or call 07555 384810 to find out more

Croup is contagious so your child should not attend Panda until the infection has cleared.   What is croup? Croup is an infection of the throat and vocal cords (or larynx). It is caused by several viruses. When children younger than 5 years of age have the infection, it’s called croup. In older children, it is called laryngitis. How does croup spread? Croup is most common in the winter and early spring. The virus spreads the same way as a common cold: • By touching the hands of someone who has the infection. • By touching something that has been touched by someone who has the infection. • By coming in contact with the virus in the air, after an infected person has coughed or sneezed. What are the symptoms? • It often begins like a cold, but then develops into a fever and cough. • The lining of the throat and larynx (voice box) becomes red and swollen. • Your child’s voice gets hoarse and he develops a cough that sounds like a bark. This is often worse at night. • Your child may have difficulty breathing, and it may be rapid and noisy. • Activity that increases the rate of breathing (even crying or excitement) could make your child sound worse. • Your child may become tired because of the extra work it takes to breathe. Antibiotics are not used to treat Croup as it is viral. What can parents do? In most cases, croup sounds worse than it actually is and will clear up on its own within 5 to 7 days. Keep your child as calm and comfortable as possible and offer plenty of fluids. • Take your child outside for a few minutes if it is a cold day. Breathing in the cool air may ease symptoms. • Do not give over-the-counter cough and cold medicines to children younger than 6 years old unless your doctor prescribes them. The only exception is medication used for fever. • If you give medication for fever, read the instructions carefully and do not give more often than listed on the label. • See your doctor if symptoms continue or worsen. Your doctor might prescribe a corticosteroid (a medicine that helps to open the lungs) to help relieve the symptoms. Talk to your doctor or go to the hospital if your child: • Has a fever for more than 72 hours or has a fever and is younger than 6 months.. • Has rapid or difficult breathing, or bluish coloured lips. • Is drooling a lot • Is refusing to swallow because of a very sore throat. • Has a hard time lying down because it is hard to breathe. • Is lethargic (drowsy and listless).

A great article from Community Playthings……. Eat, Sleep, Play, Learn: model for living “Amongst the many uncertainties of the modern world, several indisputable global facts about the health, well-being and learning of young children are beginning to emerge,” write Pam Mundy and Sue Egersdorff, co-directors of International Early Years. In a series of articles, Pam and Sue encourage all who care about children to help them first attain readiness for life, before concentrating on gaining readiness for school. Read the first article.

We’ve got lots of fun planned for this term.  Download our printable calendar here.

This guide from the Department of Education outlines the criteria parents of three and four year olds need to meet to be eligible for 30 hours free childcare: View the 30 hour childcare guide  

From today, working parents can start applying for two new government childcare schemes launching this year – Tax-Free Childcare which begins immediately and 30 hours free childcare which starts in September. This means that working parents of children, who will be aged under 4 on 31 August 2017, can now apply through the new digital childcare service for Tax-Free Childcare and receive a government top-up of £2 for every £8 that they pay into their Tax-Free Childcare account. All parents of disabled children (under 17 years old) will also be able to apply for Tax-Free Childcare from today. In addition, parents of 2-3 year olds, who will be eligible for a 30 hours free childcare place in September, can apply through the childcare service and start arranging a place with their childcare provider. The Childcare Choices website provides information on the government’s childcare schemes and explains how parents can pre-register or apply. It also includes a childcare calculator to show eligible families how much they could receive. Find out more: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/tax-free-childcare-launches-today-for-children-under-four    

Lots of fun planned for this term, download our Summer Term fridge calendar

When should I keep my child at home?  Good attendance at nursery is hugely beneficial to your child and their learning. We don’t mind them coming in with the odd sniffle. However, if your child has a temperature, feels lethargic or seems generally unwell – it’s best to keep them snuggled up at home rather than bring them into our busy nursery environment. Please view our guide: When should I keep my child at home?

We’re pleased to have been able to support Flo’s fight with a Name the Bunny competition, run by Liz Cutler, raising £91.  Thanks to everyone for your support.  Please see the link below for further information: Florence Jackson is only 2 years old and has been battling with cancer since she was 16 months old. She has stage 4 neuroblastoma and needs to travel to the US for life-saving surgery. They are currently raising money to fund this trip and the surgery. You can find out more about Flo’s Fight on: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/Flosfight. www.flosfight.com 

We are now collecting Sainsbury’s Active Kids vouchers and we would really appreciate any you can donate.  A collection box is now in the foyer.  The deadline for us to collect is June 30.

We’ve been on some lovely winter walks lately around the Glebe field and Limpsfield.  We’ve been looking for frosty spider webs and crunchy leaves, we seen some amazing frost patterns and even some signs of Spring! We go outside a lot at Panda, so please remember to leave a pair of welly boots for your child at nursery (with their name on) and send them in with a warm coat, hats and gloves when it’s chilly.

Please follow the link below for a useful guide to coughs, colds, earaches, sore throats and fevers from the Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Cardiff University Having an ill child can be a very scary experience for parents. If you understand more about the illness it can help you to feel more in control. This booklet is for parents (and older children) and deals with common infections in children who are normally healthy. View booklet: When should I worry?  

Surrey County Council have produced a booklet to help answer your questions about starting school, explain the application process and give you information and tips on how you can help your child prepare for school. Click here to view:  https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/people-and-community/family-information-service/publications-for-families/getting-ready-for-school-booklet

Panda Nursery children are surely stars in the making, having performed their Christmas play, “Shine Star Shine”, to rapturous applause on Friday 16 December!  This year’s play, a popular choice amongst nursery and primary schools, was performed to perfection by members of the Adventurers Class View the article by Sophie Martin on the Limpsfield Village Site

The youngsters and staff of the Panda Nursery at St Peters Hall, Limpsfield, all got on board the good ship HMS Outstanding to celebrate the nursery’s Ofsted Report. The nursery was inspected in September and Inspector Ben Parsons found the quality and standard of the early years provision, the effectiveness of the leadership and management, quality of learning, teaching and assessment, personal development, behaviour and welfare, and outcomes for children all Outstanding. Article & Photo by Kevin Black: https://www.facebook.com/groups/oxted/permalink/10153857126065896/ http://www.tandridge-today.co.uk/article.cfm?id=111454&headline=Nursery youngsters get on board the good ship Outstanding as named by Ofsted&sectionIs=news&searchyear=2016  

Local nursery and pre-school, Panda Nursery was recently rated OUTSTANDING by Ofsted!  This is an amazing achievement for this brilliant and long-standing, family-run business, based at St Peter’s Church Hall. Dedicated Panda Director and smart cookie, Ali Thompson, who graduated with a 1st Class (Hons) degree in Management Studies from Brunel University, talks to us about Panda and her plans for the future. Read this article by Sophie Martin in full on the Limpsfield Village site

Why are our children so bored at school, cannot wait, get easily frustrated and have no real friends? Victoria Prooday an occupational therapist has written an interesting article about how children come to school emotionally unavailable for learning because of our modern lifestyle. View full article: http://yourot.com/parenting-club/2016/5/16/why-our-children-are-so-bored-at-school-cant-wait-and-get-so-easily-frustrated

A big thank you to Ann Fraser who ran a Mindfulness session for our team at our September staff meeting. It was really interesting to learn how with very simple, short exercises we could introduce mindfulness into our lives and help to manage stress and improve our well being. We are looking forward to working with Ann to build a Mindfulness programme for nursery children and trialing it at Panda.

          I’m so proud of the Panda Team – they are more than Early Years Practitioners they are super heroes!  Dedicated to achieving our aim of supporting all children to aim high and achieve great things.   Ali x

           

We have a great job in the universe of occupations. What do we do? We are Star Polishers polishing our little stars! This is a poem our wonderful parents read out to us at the end of our Leaver’s show. We agree, we have the best job and are so proud of our school leavers. We wish everyone of them a bucket full of luck on their new adventurer – always aim high and be whoever you want to be! We hope they come back to see us when they are all grown up and are Fireman, Princesses or Spaceman…  xxxx               Thank you also to all parents for the yummy cake which adults and children enjoyed!            

This term we have been growing our own fruit and veg in our allotment patch.  We have also been cooking and enjoying eating it at snack time. We’ve grown strawberries, green beans, potatoes and garlic (which we’ve made into garlic bread!). The children have loved being involved in the whole process from planting, watering, watching them grown and harvesting our crops. We’ve learnt so much about where food comes from and how to help things grow!  

We are very proud to have won the Hesketh Junior Challenge Cup at the Oxted Horticultural Society’s ‘Celebration of Local Gardening’ – with our Sunflower display. We grew sunflowers, made a Panda sign out of sunflower seeds, and made our own sunflower collage.    

Starting school is an exciting time for young children and their parents. It can be a daunting time too. But with a little preparation and encouragement , most children will settle in easily at school.  Download PACEY’s guide for preparing for school    

Huge thank you for all parents and children who joined us to sing at the Limpfield Fair. We were very proud of our little (and big Pandas)!

  We’ve had so much fun at our Sports Days this summer term.  Our little Athletics ran running races, egg & spoon, obstacle and relay races. Our Explorers brought their Daddies to run with them and we even had a Superhero race.  Well done to all our Sporty Tots!

We had a right royal party at nursery on Thursday 9 June to celebrate the Queen’s Party. We ate cucumber sandwiches, union jack cup cakes and drunk squash poured out of tea pots. We also waved our flags to the National Anthem. Happy Birthday to the Queen!

 

At Panda we  have high aspirations for all our little Pandas, supporting our Adventurers to be ‘school ready’. But what does that really mean? At Panda we prefer to talk about life readiness – helping our children to be independent, resilient, confident and ready to face their journey ahead.

The word ‘Panda’ sums up the qualities we are supporting our children to develop:

Passionate about learning and prepared for school
A confident, communicator who can make friends and respect others
Not afraid to take risks and find new challenges
Determined and resilient
An independent little being and creative thinker

Working with local schools we understand these are the skills our children need for the next stage of their learning journey and we support them all to achieve them:

Social and Communication

• Can ask others to play and join in games with friends
• Can share and take turns
• Know how to ask for help from a teacher
• Confident to speak in a small group
• Can communicate with peers and adults

Literacy, Maths and Pre-School skills

• Can hold a pencil properly and has good fine motor skills
• Can do careful counting not just rote counting
• Starting to form some letters or even write their name
• Can recognise name on a peg etc.
• Good gross motor skills
• used to having fun and trying new things

Independence

• Can leave parents at the door 
• Can listen and follow instructions
• Can use the toilet by themselves
• Can find their coat, bag and put own things away
• Can put on own coat and possibly shoes
• Good listening and attention skills
• Passionate and excited about learning

Good luck Limpsfield – we’ve helped to paint the village in red, white and blue for the competition by growing flowers in our spare welly boots!

Explorers:  Activities this term This term we are:

• working on our name recognition and fine motor skills with – puzzles, peg games, art and mark making activities
• learning about caring for people, pets and the environment
• developing our independence with toilet use, washing hands, helping teachers, finding our coats, shoes etc.
• lots of music, movement and singing nursery rhymes
• nature walks to include sorting, collecting and counting
• learning sounds a,b,c, numbers 1-6 and basic shapes
• home corner role play and dressing up
• talking about our family with show and tell, and photo sharing
• using technology: tablets, cameras, toaster, flap book
• getting physical with our sports day practice

Download our full Summer Newsletter

Adventurers & Junior Adventurers:  Activities this term  This term we are Superheroes! We have planned lots of activities which will cover all areas of learning from making masks and capes to fun physical challenges. We are also using the Superhero theme to teach the children the rules and boundaries within our setting. Other activities include:

• Looking at recycling and waste
• Enjoying our outside space – planting bulbs and flowers to support the Limpsfield in Bloom competition and the Oxted & District Horticultural Society’s ‘Celebration of Local Gardening’ competition
• Celebrating the Queen’s Birthday
• Sports Day and Father’s Day events
• Music and Write dance
• Lots of role play including hairdressers, zoo, vets, office, shops and birthday parties
• Learning our sounds y, z, a, b, c, d and e, careful counting and basic mathematical language
• Learning how to hold our pencil correctly and start to form letters
• Working on our independence and school readiness skills
• Preparing the children who are leaving for school with story sacks, circle time discussions and visits from their new teachers
• Science activities on a Friday – from making volcanoes to finding out which things sink & float

Download our full Summer 2016 Newsletter

  A big thank you to Nicole for coming into our Explorers session this  week and giving our children the chance to play Florist, choosing flowers and wrapping them up for mummy. Nicole has over 20 years experience as a florist and is now bringing her expertise to Oxted. You can find out more at her website: http://nicolemma30.wix.com/flowersbynicole or email nicolemma30@hotmail.com

We had a great day at the Childcare Expo in London on Saturday 5th March. Sue Heron, Programme Co-ordinator Tatty Bumpkin gave a brilliant workshop about Multi–Sensory Yoga Inspired Activities. We learnt how Yoga-inspired activities for children not only develop physical skills they also support concentration, self-regulation and pre-writing skills.  We also explored how the poses develop a child’s core muscle groups, their sensory processing skills and their ability to find that ‘just right level of alertness’ for learning. We will definitely be sharing these activities with our children and having lots of yoga fun at nursery!

This book gives a great explanation of what Sensory Play is all about, plus more than 40 recipes for playdoughs, finger paints, slimes, gloops, etc. that you can make yourself at home (or in playgroup) using things you would mainly find in your kitchen cupboards. Written by Amanda Ralph (who used to work for Surrey County Council as an Early Education and Childcare Officer) wrote it to support parents to understand the importance of sensory play, particularly when it comes to the way in which it is essential to the strengthening of hands and fingers, prior to the start of mark-making. Many boys find accessing pencil and drawiing activities difficult, because their hands are not quite ready for such fine movements. The book is available either as an e-book, or paperback on Amazon (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Creative-Sensory-Play-Recipe-Toolkit/dp/151881879X/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1446539212&sr=8-8&keywords=amanda+ralph)

Some of the things we plan to get up to this term:

• Fun games around letter sounds a and b, numbers 1-5 and 2d shapes
• Focusing on making friends and playing together
• Interactive stories and puppet shows
• We’ll be supporting pre-writing skills with lots of large free art and mark making with decorating brushes, sponges, rollers etc. This is to help develop the muscles in the shoulder, elbow and wrist to support writing.
• The children love to help and we’ll be getting them involved in lots of jobs like tidying up, packing the lunches away and helping each other
• Music, movement, lots of singing and learning to make sounds with our instruments
• Nature walks, frost walks, puddle jumping – any excuse to get outside
• Using technology like cd players, photocopiers, toaster and cameras
• We’ll also have fun activities around Mother’s Day, Easter and Chinese New Year

For more detail about what we get up to, you can view our plans on and see the posts on our online journals.

• Learning the sounds n-y, focusing on one a week

 

• Careful counting: learning the numerals and how many objects represent each number, as well as our shapes and colours

 

• Focusing on our independence skills from turn taking, sharing, finding our own coats and putting them on, washing hands. (Find out more about the life skills and British values we support )

 

• Based on the interests of the children we’ll be look at Healthy Eating, Growing, Insects and Weather.

 

• We’ll be supporting pre-writing skills with lots of free art and mark making with large brooms, mops, decorating brushes and rollers. This is to help develop the muscles in the shoulder, elbow and wrist to support writing. We also integrate mark making into lots of different scenarios, like encouraging the children to draw out their house design on a white board then build it or make pirate maps in the role play corner.

 

• Role Play: the children love dressing up and playing in our role play corner. This term we plan to set up a Hospital, Vet, Library/Bookshop, Building site, Birthday party, Post office and Florist. If you work in any of these professions and would like to join in the role play with the children and chat to them about what you do, we’d love to hear from you.

 

• Celebrating diversity: Panda Bear is off to Iceland, Switzerland and Australia.  We will also be celebrating Chinese New Year and Easter.

 

• Every session has an element of music from singing nursery rhymes, dancing to the latest tunes or write dance.

For more detail about what we get up to, you can view our weekly plans and see the posts on our online journals.

The first few years are the most important in your child’s learning and development. As a parent or carer you have the biggest influence during this time and there are a number of ways in which you can help with their early development.  Surrey Early Years are currently running a campaign called: Learn with me which offers lots of fun activities and ideas to get your child off to a great start. View their website for ideas around:  communication, reading, writing, counting, physical development and, personal, social development  

Count with me is part of Surrey Early Years: Learn with me campaign. It’s full of tips and activity ideas to get your child of to a great start. Maths is everywhere, even for babies, and by seven months old babies already have a sense of numbers. But there’s more to maths than counting and these leaflets are full of easy ideas to help you develop your child’s early maths skills. There are five in the series and each one covers a different age range from birth to five years old. They’re full of tips and will give you an understanding of what children like and can do too. View these Maths leaflets on the Surrey Early Years Website

At nursery we follow the EYFS and you too could support these areas of learning. Under Physical Development: Health & Self Care – you could support home learning by encouraging your child to:      

• Dress and undress
• Remove their coat, gloves, hat etc, and hang them up
• Fasten own shoes (velcro)
• Use the toilet properly, flush after use, wash and dry their hands
• Tidy/clear away toys
• Use a tissue properly and put it straight in the bin

 A big thank you to Oxted Rotary for inviting our Director Ali Thompson along for lunch and to speak at their meeting on Tuesday 12 January.  It was great to meet the group , share what we get up to and have the opportunity to show how our children are benefiting from the very kind donation from the Oxted Pram Race with a new messy play table!

How does food affect behaviour?  How can we improve children’s concentration levels through the food they eat? Join us on Friday 29^th January at 2pm for a cuppa with Helen Moynihan and a FREE workshop to find out the answers. Helen Moynihan is based in Oxted and a qualified, Nutritional Therapist. I’m delighted to say she is coming into Panda to run a free 45 minute workshop for parents. The workshop will explore how to improve your child’s energy and concentration levels through the foods that they eat:

• Looking at the basics – protein/carbohydrates/fats
• Exploring blood sugar management for improved energy
• Suggestions for after school snacks and lunch boxes

If you would like to find out more about Helen you can visit her Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/venusnutritionuk or www.venusnutrition.co.uk

1st Rugby are coming into nursery on Friday 15th January at 1:30pm to run an intro session for our children and we are all very excited! They are running fun exercise and activity sessions around the principles of rugby for 2-6 year olds on Saturdays at Hazelwood School. You can find out more at www.1strugby.co

… For all our presents.  Fifty Four Panda children and their parents all visited Godstone Farm on the 15 December for a great day out. We looked at the animals around the farm, played in the soft play, had a picnic lunch together and of course, visited Father Christmas.  In fact it wasn’t just Father Christmas, Mrs Christmas was there too. She read the ‘Night Before Christmas’  to us and we sang a few of our favourite Christmas songs, before we woke up Father Christmas.  Thank you Godstone Farm for such a great day out.

 Panda has sponsored a Christmas tree at St Peter’s Church in Limpsfield, take a look when you are on your way to the Christmas services this year.  Our tree is the first by the door! The children have been busy making decorations and went over to the church on Friday 18 December to  have lots of fun decorating  it and looking at all the other wonderful trees. Merry Christmas Limpsfield!

Michael Jones in this article explains why it’s so important to get children moving and using gross motor skills in mark making to support the development of writing skills.  We love Write Dance and this article from Teach Nursery.com explains the concept.        

Panda Nursery would like to say a big thank you to Sam Gyimah. They were delighted that the Surrey MP and Under-Secretary of State for Childcare and Education, took time out of his busy schedule to pop in and meet the children and staff at Panda Nursery in Limpsfield, on Friday 6 November 2015. He met children from both their Explorer group (2-3 year olds) and Adventurers (3-5 year olds) who gave him a card and firework picture that they had been busy making during the week. Ali Thompson, Director of Panda Nursery said, “we feel privileged to have had the opportunity to talk to him directly about what it’s really like in a nursery, particularly a put-a-way setting. It was great to share views about the funding rate review, introduction of the 30 hours funding and developing nurseries around a qualified, high quality workforce”. Sam Gyimah MP said: “I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Panda Nursery, and meeting all the fantastic staff who provide such a valuable service for local families. It was great to spend time talking with the children, and I was very impressed by their art work. We need more nurseries like Panda in Tandridge.” Panda in the press:

• NurseryWorld
• Oxted County Boarders

We are supporting the BookTrust’s Rhyming Challenge to encourage children to learn nursery rhymes.  We know great rhymers make great readers. Before children learn to read and write they learn to talk and listen, and it’s so important to give them lots of opportunity to practise these skills. Learning rhymes helps to lay the foundation of good literacy skills, supporting vocabulary, curiosity, imagination, eagerness to know about the world around them – all fundamental skills which help children to be ready for school and lifelong learners. Other reasons to learn rhymes (BookTrust 2015): Social skills:  most rhymes include some physical interaction (we dance around a lot at Panda!). This adds to the fun and surprise. It supports turn taking and joining in – essential skills for communicating with peers and the world around them. Ready for School:  rhymes help children develop into emergent readers who have a sense of story and awareness of sounds. They lay a strong foundation for formal education and structured reading. Rhymes can support other concepts like numbers, colours, shapes. Emotional Well-being: an early introduction to rhymes is important for the overall development of a child’s physical, emotional and psychological well-being. It can bring comfort to children and be a brilliant way for carers to communicate with very young children. It also supports children’s imagination through everyday song and dance. Our newsletters show you what nursery rhymes we are focusing on this term and copies of the words are available in our reception so you can sing along at home.    

We all wore fancy dress and were overwhelmed  by all the cakes we had for our cake sale.  Thank you to all the families who helped us support this great cause.

Jenny Nicholls our Panda Supervisor recently attended Early Talk – Enhancing Communication and Language Training run by iCAN.  The course gave her the tools to support parents and carers with children’s language, communication and speech difficulties. We plan to run a coffee morning for parents in the new year around this subject and hope to work towards a nursery accreditation for iCAN – we are very excited!!  

If you are free on Saturday 21 November pop down to St Peter’s Hall for the Limpsfield Christmas Fayre.  Our Panda Adventurers have been invited to sing a few Christmas songs at the Fayre and we are really excited to be entertaining the crowds!

Why choose childcare for a two year old? Because by learning through play they can grow in confidence and improve their social, communication and language skills as well as their physical development. “He’s developed a lot more words”. “Her speech has improved vastly”. “She’s become more confident and happy”. “It’s improved her sharing”. These are a few comments from parents whose two year olds have just started nursery. Watch the short film “Why parents love childcare for their 2 year olds” to hear how delighted they are that their children are getting this opportunity. You’ll find the film at www.surreycc.gov.uk/feet   and on youtube Some parents are eligible for free childcare for their two year olds. They can find out if they meet the criteria for Free Early Education for Two year olds (FEET) at www.surreycc.gov.uk/feet

In line with the sound g we invited all children to bring in pictures of their Grandparents and to tell us and their friends all about them. It was great to see so many children, very proud to stand up and tell us about their Nanny, Grandad’s, Grumps, Grandmas……

We are really excited to invite all parents to come with their children for a Christmas visit to Godstone Farm on Tuesday 15^th December 2015.  We have booked 3 exclusive appointments at the Christmas Grotto for the children to meet Father Christmas. The day will be very informal, we’ll all meet at the Farm.  The Panda team will be there from 10:00 and you can come and join us at the Grotto at the allocated time and then spend the day in the farm. We will all meet together for a picnic lunch at 12:30 in a reserved barn area. If you can’t make it, but would still like your child to attend please email me, as they can come with the Panda team. Email Ali to reserve your place. All siblings welcome.  

Thank you to all parents for your generous contribution to our Harvest Hamper. We were very proud to take our box of goodies over to the church for their Food Bank contributions, when we attended the Harvest Service on Friday 16 Oct. Thanks to Limpsfield School for inviting us. Our little Pandas had front row seats and we were so proud of them for joining in and listening so well to the service.  It was also great to see so many of the children who once came to Panda standing tall and singing so well. Great day for all.  

We love this poem because  it sums up the importance of play for children. It’s why we have lots of fun playing at Panda!…. When I’m building with blocks, please don’t say I’m just playing. I’m learning about balance and shapes. When I’m getting all dressed up, setting the table and caring for babies, please don’t say I’m just playing For you see, I’m learning as I play. I may be a mother or a father someday. When you see me engrossed in a puzzle, I’m not just playing, I’m learning to solve problems and concentrate. I may be have an important role in business one day. When you see me up to my elbows in paint, or moulding and shaping play dough, please don’t let me hear you say – he is just playing. For you see, I’m learning as I play. I’m expressing myself and being creative. One day I may be an artist or an inventor. Text from Blackwell Children’s Centre

Our themes this term include; What’s under the sea, Princess and Pirates and nature. This term we are focusing on:

• Basic numbers and concepts like big, small, sorting and collecting
• Letter sounds, shapes and colours
• Going on nature walks, treasure hunts and bug hunts.
• Music, movement and learning nursery rhymes, including: Humpty Dumpty, Miss Polly had a Dolly and Baa Black Sheep (View more about how we are supporting pre-reading skills on our website)
• Reading lots of books around our themes and including our favourite: Wibbly Pig.

Weekly Plans You can view the full plan for each week on Planning page.  It is also available to read at the signing in/ out desk in our reception.  

Our themes this term include; All about me, Being Healthy, Keeping safe, Nature and animals in hibernation This term we are focusing on:

• Sounds: a – n, one a week.
• Nursery rhymes, including: Humpty Dumpty, Miss Polly had a Dolly and Hickory Dickory Dock. (View more about how we are supporting pre-reading skills on our website)
• Reading lots of books around our themes and including our favourites: Aliens in under pants and Shark in the Park.
• Our Write dance programme will  run on Friday afternoon (read more about how this supports pre-writing skills on our website)
• As well as learning numbers and careful counting, we will have lots of fun with sequences and 3D shapes. We also incorporate using maths into all other areas of learning.
• We have a Kindness Tree this term and when we see a child demonstrating;  good sharing, turn taking, kind hands and being kind to our friends – their name is written on a leaf and added to the tree. We are looking forward to seeing this tree blooming during the Autumn months even though the trees outside might be losing their leaves!

  Weekly Plans You can view the full plan for each week on Planning page.  It is also available to read at the signing in/ out desk in our reception.

Sylva et all (2004) identified particular activities that stretch a child’s mind:

• Singing songs and rhymes
• Reading with and to children
• Playing with letters and numbers
• Going to the library
• Creating opportunities to play with friends
• Painting and drawing
• Going on a visits

…Having lots of fun at home with you! Bookstart Trust

We are delighted to keep our ‘Level 5’ top rating for food hygiene and health & safety after our inspection in July. This is based on our extensive policies, procedures and trained staff implementing them.  Find out more in our policies.

We were delighted to see so many Dads and Grandads at nursery this Thursday. We invited them in to play with us from 9:15 – 10:00 and see what we really get up to. There were amazing towers and junk models built, paper aeroplanes made and Dads even playing in the home corner.  We hope you enjoyed your visit we would love to have you back soon!

Surrey Dance School and the brilliant Miss Tarryn runs Ballet classes at Panda every Thursday 12:30 – 1pm. This term our amazing little Pandas have been princesses, pirates and dancing to swan lake. We have a watching class the last week of every term to let our Mums and Dads see how well our little dancers are doing and how much fun we have. For more information about our Ballet classes email ali@panda-nursery.co.uk

We are so excited that George from Gymnacity is now coming into our nursery every Monday to run 15 mins of fitness fun for us. This week the children jumped as high as they could like Kangaroo’s and frogs, they slithered like snakes,  danced around to ring a ring of roses, and played a team ball game moving between cones. Gymnacity is not only running fun activity sessions for children – but Mums and Dads could take part in their bootcamps too – see www.gymnacity.co.uk for more info.

Supporting pre-reading skills:  Research by Bradley and Bryant has demonstrated that the better children are at detecting rhymes, the quicker and more successful they will be at learning to read (Bradley, 1988c, Bradley & Bryant, 1983, Ellis & Large, 1987). In fact according to Fox in studies of literacy and child development, if children know 8 nursery rhymes by heart by the time they are four years old, they are usually amongst the best readers by the time they are eight. (Fox, M. (2001). Reading Magic. San Diego, CA: Harcourt.) We sing lots of different songs and nursery rhymes at Panda to help children develop these pre-reading skills. Some of our favourites are Jack and Jill and Miss Polly had a Dolly, Humpty Dumpty, Baa Baa Black Sheep, The Grand Old Duke of York, Hickery Dickery Dock, Inchy Winchy Spider and Row, row your boat. You can view the words – if you fancy singing along at home.

Developing Pre-Handwriting Skills. We are so excited to be introducing Write Dance into our Nursery. In Write Dance we use movement to music in a variety of ways so that children can develop the physical skills needed to support their handwriting skills. It is also an excellent way of building confidence in all children – whatever their aptitude for music and dance. We start the session with a story.  These are based around the same characters each time in a different situation. Once we are familiar with the story we can translate the story into movement sequences and visualisation techniques which are set to music based on the story.  Here we have to use balance, co-ordination and imagination. Children learn feelings of relaxation in contrast to the opposite feelings of muscle tension. The final stage is to use those movements to ‘scrimble’.  This is where the mark making/writing comes in.  We use mediums such as shaving foam, large chalks or paint on paper, tables, floor or any space that can be scribbled on (with permission!). The children draw the dance movements on paper, white board or any open space with chalk, paint or shaving foam (messy but great fun). The children learn the sequences and the actions as they go along. They will learn to recognise the music and key words. The children use both hands if they can, in unison and in an alternate motion which really helps their balancing skills. The concept is easier than it sounds.  There are 7 basic movements in Write Dance:

1. Straight lines
2. Rounded shapes
3. Circles
4. Angles
5. Direction
6. Size
7. Crossing the mid line

Write Dance supports the Early Years Foundation Stage in many ways:

1. Promoting confidence and self-esteem
2. Children have fun while learning
3. It ensures that all children have the opportunity to become familiar with movements that support writing and formation of numerals which means they are more willing and confident to write using a range of tools.
4. It develops physical strength particularly in the shoulder muscles and children become more aware of their posture and special awareness.
5. It allows children to be expressive and dynamic with their bodies as they move in time to the music. We can do this indoors or outdoors and they can express themselves safely.

Write Dance is a fun learning experience that encompasses many learning skills without the children even knowing it. The best thing for us as teachers, is that we use the circular movements with paper towels or cloths at the end to clean up the shaving foam or paint and the children love it!

We are very grateful to all parents for the support we have had this term for our theme ‘ People who help us’. We have been delighted to welcome a nurse, a fitness instructor (Gymnacity), a Lollipop man and we are going to visit Limpsfield Post Office to find out all about the important job of a post man. We have also run our own Vets, Doctors, RNLI station, Fire Station and Post Office. What fun we’ve had this term!

We encourage healthy eating at Panda. We have a fruit breaks in the morning session and children bring in their own healthy packed lunch. Due to allergies within our setting – we are a NO NUTS zone we also discourage chocolate in lunch boxes. Visit the Change for Life website or take a look at these ideas for healthy lunch boxes.    

Summer term event dates: •Closed for Bank Holiday: Monday 4 May •Closed because the Hall is being used for the Elections: Thursday 7 May  (including no ballet) •Parent’s Evening:  Wed 10 June: 18:00 – 20:30 See your key person a couple of weeks before to arrange an appointment time. Explorers •Teddy Bear’s picnic with families:  Tuesday 9 June – 12:30 Weather permitting all Explorers and their families are invited to join us for a picnic on the Glebe Field.  Adventurers •Thursday 18 June: 9:15 – 9:45: Bring your Dad or Grandad to nursery •Friday 3 July: 14:15: Sports Day •Friday 10 July: 14:15: Leaver’s Show •Thursday 16 July: 12:30: Ballet watching class

We aim to ensure that all our children do as well as they can in their early years but we know that many children from lower income families need a boost in order for this to happen. For this reason the Government has just introduced extra funding to childcare providers, called the Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP). We would like to use this money to add to what we currently offer, developing our speech and language support and school readiness activities. All our children will benefit as a result. Your child may be eligible for the EYPP if you get any of these benefits:

Income Support

Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance

Income-related Employment and Support Allowance

Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999

The guaranteed element of State Pension Credit

Child Tax Credit, (provided you are not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190)

Working Tax Credit ‘run-on’ – the payment someone may receive for a further four weeks after they stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit

  We may also be able to apply for the funding if your child:

• Has been Iooked after by the local authority for at least one day
• Has been adopted from care
• Has left care through special guardianship

• Is subject to a child arrangement order

If you think that your child could be eligible, or have any questions about this, please speak to Ali Thompson. Any information you share will be completely confidential. This will not affect any benefits you receive.

Explorers – Dates for your diary

• Closed for Bank Holiday: Monday 4 May
• Closed because the Hall is being used for the Elections: Thursday 7 May  (including no ballet)
• Teddy Bear’s picnic with families:  Tuesday 9 June – 12:30
• Weather permitting all Explorers and their families are invited to join us for a picnic on the Glebe Field.
• Parent’s Evening:  Wed 10 June: 18:00 – 20:30 See your key person a couple of weeks before to arrange an appointment time.

Our last day is Friday 17 July and half term break is 25 – 29 May 2015  

• Monday 4 May: Closed for Bank Holiday
• Thursday 7 May: Closed because the hall is being used for the Elections  (including no ballet)
• Wednesday 10 June: 18:00 – 20:30: Parent’s Evening
• Thursday 18 June: 9:15 – 9:45: Bring your Dad or Grandad to nursery
• Friday 3 July: 14:15: Sports Day
• Friday 10 July: 14:15: Leaver’s Show
• Thursday 16 July: 12:30: Ballet watching class

Our last day is Friday 17 July and half term break is 25 – 29 May 2015

Adventurers themes and activities this summer term: Letters: j,k,l,m,n,o Number and shapes are also integrated into each session Independence skills:

• Asking for help
• Finding our own coat and shoes
• Putting our own things away at lunch and snack
• Saying “stop, I don’t like it” when we are not happy with another person’s actions and respecting when someone else is asking us to stopThemes: 
• People who help us (RNLI, Fireman, Dentist, Vets etc.)
• Growing and nature
• Preparing for big school (See the guide for starting school)

Books we are reading:

• Topsy and Tim go to Dentist, Doctors and start school
• There’s a shark in the park
• Harry and the Dinosaurs united and go to school
• Peppa Pig – the biggest muddy puddle
• Aliens love underpants
• Charlie and Lola: I am too absolutely small for school

Not only are we reading these books regularly, but we have developed story sacks with props, and other interesting items to help the children really explore the stories. Nursery Rhymes Research by Bradley and Bryant has demonstrated that the better children are at detecting rhymes, the quicker and more successful they will be at learning to read (Bradley, 1988c, Bradley & Bryant, 1983, Ellis & Large, 1987). We sing lots of different songs and nursery rhymes at Panda to help children develop these pre-reading skills. This half term we are focusing on Jack and Jill and Miss Polly had a Dolly nursery rhymes. See words attached if you fancy singing along at home. Write Dance Write Dance is a fun movement and dance activity that supports the development of the physical skills needed for handwriting. It is driven by music and is all about having fun and building confidence. It initially involves dancing and movement to a story and then drawing the dance moves in shaving foam, with chalks or paint etc. I’m so excited that Mrs Francis is introducing this into our nursery. We are trialling it on Monday afternoons and will roll it out to other sessions if the trial is successful. Watch out for pictures on the children’s online journals! Events we are covering this term: Father’s Day Sports Day Leaver’s Show Cameras, cd players and saucepans If you are having a clear out and have any old digital cameras or cd players (which still work) and are sitting in your cupboards collecting dust, we could give them a good home! We take many pictures for our online journals and play lots of music on our cd players so we often wear them out, we’d really appreciate your donations.  We can also use old saucepans and utensils in our home corner and outside mud kitchen. Show and Tell All children are welcome to bring in show and tell items. We would prefer these to be ‘wow’ moments or interesting things they want to share with the group. It would be great if they were around our letters or themes and not just toys.

  Themes this term for the Explorers:

• Nature and growing;
• Sharing, caring and helping each other;
• Playing together;
• Listening and attention;
• Basic numbers, shapes and colours

  Our activities and routines also support the 7 areas of learning: PSED, Communication and Language, Physical development, Maths, Literacy, Understanding the world and Expressive arts.