Of course those who ventured out, rather than up, had a rather marvellous time too…

It’s always about friendships and fun whatever the weather here at Jollies!!!! Xxxx

……what better way to brighten our spirits than taking a trip up the stairs to our marvellous multi sensory room

Ellison took her Cheeky Monkeys up to explore and, after independently navigating the stair mountain expertly first, they then set to exploring this exciting sensory space…

They observed the bubbles and colours changing, they flicked switches to turn lights on and off, they balanced on stepping stones, they climbed and slid on the soft play, they explored the sensory floor tiles, they span around and around on our spinning fish and they explored their bodies in space as they were enveloped within our suspended sensory swing… Maybe our giggles will encourage the sunshine to come out and play later……. xxxx

Creativity and fine motor came together to form the perfect blend as masterpieces were created by Cheeky Monkeys using the paint pens… xxx

This little one melted Fiona’s heart this morning with the total joy she could see in her face whilst she was telling Fiona all about her holiday photos that they were looking at together on the tablet.

She talked about each one individually; ‘the crab goes pinch, pinch’, ‘I smashed ****’s sand castle and she was cross’, ‘ice cream was yummy’! ‘Birds with daddy’, ‘It’s a water fountain’.

She was just soooooo excited to talk about them all with Fiona when she shared the photos that her mummy had sent in on the app. Recounting her adventures and smiling widely as she reflected very fondly upon all her recent holiday fun…

We love it when parents/carers work in close partnership with us and we love it when they upload photos of weekend adventures, special family occasions, holiday fun etc.

These all help to strengthen links between home and nursery and they offer a different platform to really get our children excitedly talking about significant people/things/events in their lives with grown ups and each other too… after all who doesn’t like to reflect upon time spent with our nearest and dearest?! Xxxx

That’s what it was for Emma and her children recently when they played outside… cooperation, collaboration, coordination and great listening skills combined to create much excitement!!

Sometimes traditional fun is just THE BEST… which ring games can you remember loving as a child?!? Ring-a-roses? The farmer’s in his den? Hokey Cokey? Or something else? xxxx

(or 20….)

After our very exciting delivery earlier in the week we simply couldn’t resist having some fun with the boxes before they were recycled! We turned them into castles, boats and houses (or whatever else our imaginations decided upon!) as we excitedly decorated them together and we even opened some of them up to draw roads to race our cars around on too xxxx

After spontaneously making a train inside with the chairs Jade took her little Elephants outside so they could continue following their current interest, but on a much larger scale!! They all made a train together with the crates and tyres and climbed happily aboard to embark upon their journey to ‘the seaside’…

Choo-choooing days and role-playing ways spent imagining together here at Jollies xxxx

We’ve had a VERY exciting delivery of wonderful new furniture arrive for Terrific Twos today as 22 boxes came through the front door at Jollies!!!

This has led to switching and swapping around and the cow friends have now moooooooved on over into Exploring Elephants (and their velvet throne inspired reading area has gone into Twos).

The addition of cows and flowers and leaves has totally transformed the reading area and our children were found sharing books together immediately…

The conclusion: we toadstoolly love reading books here at Jollies xxxx

with a little bit of technology thrown into the mix!!!!

Children’s baking was back on the menu for Cheeky Monkeys and Ellison rose to the room’s challenge with her children…

Having opportunities to bake and create helps our children understand the importance of hygiene and washing hands before they touch any food, they realise the importance of doing kind things for others (as they were talking constantly, and very excitedly, about how they were making these for all their friends throughout nursery) and there are numerous organic opportunities to explore mathematical concepts as weighing and pouring are explored and quantities are discussed, as well as the noticing the scientific changes that they observe occurring to the mixture as it magically morphs into cakes and bakes!

This time though, Ellison also brought in her stand mixer, so she could add some technology skills into the mix and so they could all have a little more independence with the mixing process… it was a little bit noisy, but they were all certainly very curious and the end product was very delicious!!!

Exciting measuring and mixing ways leads to yummy baking days spent lovingly creating here at Jollies xxxx

Cheeky Monkeys have loved exploring a range of technology toys experimenting with their cause and effect nature… There have been remote control cars and cats, v-tech toys with buttons to press amongst many others, but their favourite by far appeared to be the bees!!! Xxxx