These two friends were spotted sitting down and doing some singing together. One was the ‘daddy’ and one was the ‘mummy’. They then enjoyed singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to their baby and, of course, to Humpty Dumpty too! They were giggling away as they worked their way happily together through their repertoire of songs as a family!

These moments simply make our hearts melt here at Jollies xxxx

Chloe observed her children closely and realised that they were all LOVING the transport area whilst also being obsessed with solving jigsaws too!! So she thought why not mix the two together and have a go at matching up all the transport pieces to their corresponding insets!!

The children worked together and did this with their friends, so this activity then also encouraged them to share and take turns; which can sometimes be quite a tricky thing for young children to do, but with a few gentle supportive reminders this was soon occurring

Every time they correctly matched a transport piece to its corresponding hole, it made the sound of the vehicle when it was fully inserted and so Chloe’s children then loved trying to recreate each different sound that they could hear themselves.

As well as experimenting with sounds they also developed their vocabulary and we heard words such as, “car” “fire” “neeee nawww” ” beeppppp” and Chloe then carefully encouraged their conversations together.

Fine-motor days combined with listening and sound creating ways spent puzzling it out together here at Jollies… xxxx

After absolutely loving the roadway inside Fiona, Blue and Kirstan’s children were enabled to follow their interests outside, but on an even larger scale!

Together they assembled and explored their very own ‘road’ and it provided a wealth of challenge, as not only was there a roadway to balance upon, but also the roadway encompassed differing heights!

Challenge, challenge all around and all this derived from our children’s very own interests…

It’s why we love the Early Years so much, as we never quite know where each day’s learning will take us to next as we never quite know what our children will suggest, be fascinated by and totally obsessed with.

Creative ideas twisting and turning through our children’s development and learning here at Jollies xxxx

Playing in the transport area before going for a quick ride with your bestie!! xxxx

one HUGE space… sooooooo many possibilities!!

Little bodies get to move on the largest of scales as balance is tested, capabilities are explored, spatial awareness is developed, core strength is improved, movements are honed, decisions are made, challenges are set, imaginations are fired up, collaboration grows and creativity oozes from every role-playing moment!

You’ve just got to being outside and all the marvellously imaginative ways in which you can play with some of your most favourite people…

Every day is different and offers a new way to play and our children’s passions, obsessions and brilliant imaginations drive their play and learning forwards as observant and responsive practitioners ensure the necessary resources are available outside to enable our children to thrive! xxxx

Well… in Beth’s case she became a ‘bus’ as her children ‘drove’ away to go on their ‘holiday!’ The group bounced up and down whilst pretending to go over speed bumps and leaned whilst ‘going around corners’… Such fun is the life of the Early Years Practitioner… welcome to Jollies!! xxxx

Jess and her children enjoyed seeing RED today in preparation for Red Nose Day tomorrow…. They emptied and poured and splashed together and caught balls with the net as they explored their red-themed water tray! Xxxx

The dinosaurs are still stomping, but today it’s through a different terrain… no more painty feet… this morning it’s cereal to eat and crunch and ‘rain’ and pour and generally explore!!

Our children are busy collaborating as they use the dinosaurs imaginatively and add different resources into the tray to facilitate and further their play ideas…

We think it’s safe to say that a totally ROARsome time is currently being had by both dinosaurs and children alike as challenges are set, cause and effect is explored, investigations are made and creative play scenarios organically develop… xxxx

it’s a dinosaur romp!!!!

Stephen carried on following the current interests of his children as their love of all things dinosaurs continued… this involved painting with them this time though!! One little one requested to paint with the dinosaurs, so that’s exactly what they all did!

An invitation to play was quickly set up and some of the dinosaurs made their way into the ‘dinosaur garden’. The children LOVED to ‘stomp, stomp stomp’ in the paint, creating lots of footprints around the garden on the ‘grass’!!

By choosing to incorporate toys/figures that our children adore sometimes those that would perhaps not usually choose to get messy and ‘stuck into’ painting activities can often be enticed and drawn into joining in on all the excitement!

Lots of collaboration, cooperation and sharing was seen, lots of imagination as dinosaurs danced and roared and stomped, lots of lovely discussion occurred as dinosaurs’ names were discussed and lots of dinosaur facts were shared too… xxxx

Independent ways and choosing days spent munching here at Jollies…

(…. and as every moment is a learning one and a chance to develop our skills by using tongs to select our chosen pieces of fruit we were also working upon our fine motor skills and strengthening our fingers whilst having our snack!) xxxx