Friday 6th March 2026

Elaine Handley

Babies - Candice and Ella

This morning the staff and children are planning a spontaneous outing this morning to the Library, in celebration of World Book Day. They are hoping to source some further reading material to share with the babies, that explore nature and maths to enhance their provision and learning in preparation for the upcoming stay and play. Introducing nature to babies through books fosters their early environmental awareness and curiosity about the world around them.

Within the provision the Babies have curiously explored a meaningful, Autumnal Books, developing our settings approach to seasonally sensitive learning. They have developed invitation for learning by adding supporting materials, such as natural objects and resources like pine cones, leaves and twigs to promote Nature based learning.

Jelly Tots - Lyndsey, Taylor, Helena, Karen and Abbi

The children in the Jelly Tots have enjoyed lots of sensory exploration today. On entering the room the smell of Citrus scents, such as oranges alert the staff and children, helping to wake up their individual senses and stimulate their thinking. The smell of Citrus is uplifting for young children, as they explore through lots of different sensory activities. They have been encouraged to develop their fine motor skills, through manipulating the orange pieces and through scooping and pinching. This supports them to build essential fine motor skills that they will need to grow and develop, by strengthening their hand muscles and enhancing their hand eye co-ordination.

Within the main play room the Tots have enjoyed exploring the mark making area, where they have been provided with small writing books and crayons. They have enjoyed being able to discover early mark making skills, creating lines and circles, encouraging 'Spontaneous Maths Moments', by identify shapes within the indoor and outdoor provision.

Children have then enjoyed singing Round and Round the Garden, the classic fingerplay nursery rhyme, which involves them and the staff tracing circles on the palm, fostering bonding, rhythm and sensory development.

Jelly Beans - Lauren, Courtney, Kerri-Ann, Sasha and Carol.

There has been so much happening today within the Jelly Bean provision, with lots of deep level learning. The children are all showing high levels of involvement and wellbeing as they are all separated within the provision, discovering new ideas and possibilities. Continuing their high interest in books and shared dialogue, they children have enjoyed acting out different books, boosting their early literacy skills and improve their confidence. The staff have developed their love of stories, by adding props to enhance their story telling techniques.

This morning the children have particularly enjoyed sharing the story 'Owl Babies', exploring themes of anxiety, love and separation, providing the children the opportunity to explore emotions. This then led to them developing their own care giving behaviours, such as comforting and feeding their dolls, sharing thoughts a feelings. Some of the other children have enjoyed exploring the loose parts, such as corks and small twigs in the home corner, supporting their spontaneous ideas of making pizzas for their friends and the staff, promoting their creativity and imagination.

A group of children have made an obstacle course using large scale loose parts (Balancing boards and cable drums), which encourages open ended risky play, sparking their interests and curiosity. This allows them to use their own ideas to design, build and test their on physical challenges.

Smarties - Hollimae, Hannah and Jess H

'Baking Orange Loaf Cake'. The children in the Smarties have had a full morning of baking, exploring weights and measurements, as they add the different materials to the bowl. Baking is a fantastic activity that is highly effective, hands on and educational. The children have been encouraged to develop their early numeracy skills, such as measuring and fractions, literacy, listening to instructions for the recipe and physical skills (Fine and gross motor skills/coordination) as they tip, pour and mix. Building on the children's early baking activity, Jess then supported a small group of children to make pink playdough, furthering developing their love of learning, through transitional, schematic play.

The staff have also been sharing ideas on healthy eating and used this activity as an opportunity to develop this further. The staff and children held a brief discussion on what foods they think are good for us and are healthy, promoting the children to foster long term healthy habits.

On entering the room, the children were eager to tell me they had made an orange cake and I shared that Orange is my favourite colour. The children then shared that their favourite smells are chocolate, strawberries and flowers.