Exploring Elephants made full use of one area of our lovely Jolly garden… from zooming cars around the track they’d created, peek-a-booing through the tunnel, whizzing down the slides and ramp, climbing up the decking, creating masterpieces on the chalkboard; they found that teamwork makes the dream work and having fellow friends to play and explore with is simply the best!!!! Xxxx

dressing up!!! xxxx

First there was one, then there were more… these were boys with a love of books that was for sure!!!!

Spontaneous story time erupted when Laura shared a story with her Possums friends, but our children proved recently that they certainly don’t need an adult to enjoy a good book!

One little one was sat enjoying his ‘That’s not my…’ book and he was turning the pages carefully and drinking every detail in. Suddenly he had piqued the interest of a couple of his friends nearby and it became a shared story experience as they took it in turns to touch and feel the pages as they smiled at each other. Lots of giggles soon emerged and a nearby grown up organically extended this experience by encouraging further sound effects to be made and added further depth to the story through questions asked and comments made xxxx

Recently in the mud kitchen Fiona was in for a real treat as a couple of her children worked together to make a very healthy meal of mushrooms, pasta, broccoli, peas strawberries and raspberries… (a VERY interesting combo!!)

They worked together really well constantly coming up with new ideas for this lovely meal; negotiating plans and inspiring each other as their cooking role play really took shape

We wonder what will be on the menu in our mud kitchen today when we play outside later?!?! xxxx

Emily set up an oobleck invitation to play today for her children and they have loved exploring its very strange properties!!

We’ve always called it ‘gloop’ here at Jollies, but clearly the technical term is ‘oobleck’ (every day’s a school day!! ) and if you’d like to have a play with this at home too then we’ve popped a link to creating oobleck below… happy exploring together!!!

It may be that you find some children will want to use spoons and utensils to explore the gloop at first, but hopefully as they become acclimatised to such play they’ll move on to dipping fingers in, to eventually covering whole hands and arms (or even hiding aliens in it!! ) xxxx

When Ellison was spotted taking photos by these two cheeky monkeys they suddenly struck a giggly pose…then poked out a cheeky tongue… then they decided it was selfie time!!

Real life technology skills in action as selfie-time commenced in Possums. Technology definitely does not faze our little ones here at Jollies xxxx

Sensory smiles….

When you find yourself exploring the sensory corner with Nat Nat loving all the brightly coloured ribbons and the different textures and sounds around you.

Ribbons tickling the tops of heads produced the biggest giggles!!! Although shaking them in the air all around came a very close second!!

Sensory fun for everyone spent giggling together here at Jollies xxxx

(… that is…when your usual working day involves transforming yourself into a ‘big bird’!!!!)

That’s the life of a Team Jolly member as your children’s interests and the spontaneity of the nursery day can take you literally anywhere and in Imogen’s case it turned her into a gigantic bird!!

A couple of children had been watching the birds out of the window and one little one was absolutely adamant that a big bird was coming into Jollies!

So their wish was Imogen’s command… she disappeared upstairs to the attic and quickly created some feathery wings and a beak before flying back into the room much to her children’s amazement and excitement!! She had also been flying around collecting nesting materials before swooping into the room and in the next moment the perfect nest had been created for the baby birds too.

Lots of bird fact finding and role play later and our children’s imaginations were even more fired up than before.

‘Bringing the magic’ is what early years practice is truly all about… (and a little sprinkle of total craziness helps too of course!!! )

Imogen’s crazy ways and following our children’s interests during days spent enjoying learning together here at Jollies xxxx

Our babies have loved to explore the play dough recently sat at the table… They had lots of different wooden tools to roll out the dough and make marks with too!

They also had some cutters to make different shapes and after careful modelling by practitioners they had soon learnt how to use them and were amazed by the shapes created and the marks they had made in their dough!

Our children were confident when handling tools and they used them effectively to make marks (and consequently then explore texture and pattern!), but many also liked to simply use their hands to make marks too as they enjoyed the sensory feedback the dough provided them with.

They also loved changing the form of the dough by breaking off different pieces and then passing them to the grown ups… After all, we do LOVE to share here at Jollies

Squishing and squashing doughy ways and exciting imprinting days spent exploring here at Jollies!! Xxxx

Tummy time is just as important at two years as it is at two months old, as children are continuing to grow, develop and strengthen their bodies and their fine motor control and providing tummy time and the chance to make marks from a different perspective will most definitely encourage and facilitate this.

So armed with this knowledge, it was time for Jade to follow her children’s interests of wanting to make marks, draw and create, but not at a table top or on an easel, but rather flat on the floor instead…

Her children immediately gathered around and laid on their tummies as they reached and stretched and held their heads up and positioned themselves on elbows and twisted and turned as they chatted to each other and checked out their friends’ drawings/creations too.

This was such a simple activity, but such an incredibly grounding one too, as this time can help develop sensory awareness surrounding the stomach (particularly significant for those who are building up to potty training), it strengthens the core as children look up and around and push themselves up on their hands and elbows, it enhances their ability to track movements and people and focus on the marks (fine motor!) they are making whilst maintaining their tummy drawing position (great early reading skills!), it reduces the desire to fidget as it can encourage focus as the children feel so grounded and secure and know exactly where their body is within space (something that can be hard to feel and achieve when sat upright on a chair).

There are many, many other benefits to time spent laid on tummies too, so why not push the table to one side and get down on the floor as you draw, glue, build and create together as your little one will reap the benefits in the future whilst having lots of fun experimenting and exploring in the present moment too xxxx