We have been feeling the love here at Jollies…

Talk (and play!) has turned to all things love this week here at nursery….

Our children have been immersed in red, pink and love hearts. They’ve scooped and poured red rice, they’ve pressed hearts into play dough, they’ve created ‘love bugs’, they’ve printed and painted, they’ve decorated Valentine’s biscuits, they’ve reflected upon who and what they love. We’ve had some wonderful discussions about our family and friends.

We’ve realised that love truly does make our world go round…

Happy Valentine’s Day to our whole Jolly Family xxxxx

Team Jollies

We hope you are feeling the love today from the tips of your warm snuggly toes…

…. to the relaxing scents that drift from burner to nose

Happy Valentine’s Day you crazy amazing Jolly people and thank you all for being you!!!!

Just break off the wax melt of your choice and take your tea light so you can use your burner whilst having a relaxing bubbly bath tonight xxx

Role-playing is a brilliant source of imaginative play and developing creativity whilst also allowing little ones to reenact lived and familiar experiences.

It is also an opportunity not to be missed by our closely observing practitioners too!

Alice spotted this little one so engrossed in his love and care for his baby and so Alice asked questions, encouraged conversation and this little one proudly ended up showing her that he could point out and name his baby’s body parts. Lots of lovely conversation as facial features were named and pointed to, lots of careful listening and thinking and then lots of lovely role-play development as care routines for their babies were enacted together.

We love to talk, we love to listen, we love to pretend and we just love to love our babies here at Jollies xxxx

A mouse took a stroll through the deep, dark wood….

Bringing stories to life in THE most magical of ways….. it’s just the Jolly way!! xxxx

Lauren had been laid on the floor playing with her children (as we know that there’s far more fun to be had, and better quality learning to be taking place, whilst getting down to our children’s levels to interact, rather than just sitting at a table in a restrictive style!) when these little ones decided it would be much more fun to climb up and sit on top of her rather than sit next to her…

Piling on Lauren seemed be the name of the game from then on…. Oh that and also pulling the craziest of faces whilst doing so too!! Our children had spotted her nearby tablet and they just had to share their crazy ways (and faces!!) with their mummies and daddies in a silly selfie moment.

Strong Jolly bonds and ‘crazy daisy’ moments bring laughter to our days here at Jollies!! xxxx

This little one loved getting snuggly in the story sharing area as she and Emily shared a book together.

Team Jollies love nothing more than sharing a story… and we’ve been known to read book, after book, after book, after book…. What Jolly book worms we truly all are!! Xxxx

As well as having a range of sensory resources within their rooms our children also get to visit our sensory room…. This is a versatile space that can be adapted to suit all our children’s varying needs and interests from our very youngest babies to our soon-to-be schoolies….

Insightful practitioners simply grab the sensory room resource boxes that they need to enhance the space for their children, as the room is basically a blank canvas just waiting to be filled with sensory superbness!! xxxx

How brilliant our totally tuned-in practitioners are here at Jollies at following their children’s interests and fascinations… After all, when learning truly derives from our children and comes from the heart it has to be even more effective, doesn’t it?!?!

With a little bit of imagination every area of learning can be covered and the best bit? …….Our children don’t even realise they are learning as, as far as they are concerned, they are just having an amazing time playing!!

Feeling the love of cars in Free-Flow xxxx

One little one brought in a goody bag for each of her friends and carers to help her celebrate this special day! Thankyou so much for this kind gesture. We have been celebrating all across nursery with various activities, lots of lanterns and a yummy dinner of sweet and sour, rice, spring rolls and prawn crackers.

Exploring Elephants are little home bodies and they were loving creating their own little families with the baby dolls and looking after them with such care. They were always cooking up a feast and cleaning their house within their room.

So when we came across a rotary washing line it just had to be bought!! We knew this would add another dimension to their play. They already obsessively dressed and undressed (mostly undressed ) their baby dolls, so to be able to pretend to wash their clothes in the sink and then wring them out before pegging them on the washing line to dry was just an opportunity not to be missed!

Their play was then even further enhanced when Jade and Latisha added bubbly water to the tray so they could then wash them for real!!

This level of role-play was an excellent opportunity to scaffold and explore some great vocabulary, it encouraged communication, collaboration and turn-taking. It developed sequencing awareness as the washing routine was explored, it really got little fingers working and strengthening too as pegs were manipulated to hang the clothes on the line, as well as testing hand/eye coordination as this action was carried out. As always, there was method in our Jolly madness…. the play was exciting, but the learning opportunities underpinning it all were unreal!!

We think we can safely say our children had a splashing time!!! Xxxx