Close observation of our children’s movements is vitally important in Early Years play so we can ensure our rooms are set up to facilitate and enable the physical development opportunities they all require.

Young children often have a preference for movement; some crawl, some shuffle on their bottoms, some slide on their tummies, some pull themselves up and cruise and our job is to ensure that we provide so many varied opportunities throughout the nursery day to support and encourage all different types of movement.

This is why we provide physical challenges in the form of soft play, cushions to encourage tummy time, walking aids which little bodies can be pulled up upon and then they can be pushed around to provide the required balance and support for moving about the room and we also think carefully about the placement of toys and resources to encourage movement based upon our children’s individual and differing needs as each child is unique and we want to truly meet their needs as they progress through the ages and stages of physical development and challenge.

We definitely like to move it, move it here at Jollies xxxx

We are loving our visits to the bug hotel across the road

We are so lucky that ‘Woodlesford in Bloom’ do such an amazing job of making our village beautiful for us all to enjoy.

We loved helping them construct the bug hotel and now we are enjoying checking in on the guests who may be visiting.

Kirstan took her children across the road to see what they could spot after they had enjoyed sharing the ‘Bug Hotel’ book together within their room.

Every moment’s a learning one and it was also an ideal time to talk about road safety and how to cross safely as we went on our little adventure to see what we could see… xxxx

What wonderfully special people our children have in their lives here at Jollies… today is all about YOU and celebrating how much you do for them all and to let you know just how much they all LOVE you!!

Wishing you all a very special day together xxxx

….where conversation flows, where anything goes, where confidence grows, where imagination shows, where happiness and excitement courses from our head to our toes!! xxxx

A HUGE thank you to all our children and Team Jollies for getting into the World Book Day spirit today.

We loved seeing everyone dressed up as their favourite book characters, or dressed in pyjamas ready to snuggle and share a story and we loved looking at the books some of our children brought in too.

There have been stories brought to life through ‘tuff trays’ where pesky rabbits have tried to steal the vegetables and Gruffalo Crumble has been created! We have marched and stomped and splashed and squelched our way around the whole outdoor area as we’ve gone on a bear hunt together.

We have explored many story sacks; including the snail and the whale and we had a REAL snail come to visit as Stripy came back in to say hello and he has grown soooooo much!!

Free-Flow even had a REAL ladybird fly in and we had fun asking them what they had heard?!?!

Stickmen have been created, puppets have been played with, stories have been shared and so much fun has been had throughout the nursery

We even tucked into a story-inspired menu as we had Jack’s Magic Bean Stew for lunch, followed by Very Hungry Caterpillar Cake and A Squash and A Squeeze Soup for tea!!

We hope you have all had a fun day and we hope you all now have fun using your World Book Day tokens to get a lovely new book and we wish you all lots of future exciting reading together!!! Xxxx

We are proper foodies here at Jollies… and just love to eat our breakfast, lunch and tea; with two snacks in between…. We basically eat all day here at nursery!!

(….. Oh and did we mention how brilliant we are at being independent too?! Our youngest giraffes are just soooooo grown up!!!!) xxxx

We love it at Jollies each and every day when we can see our invitations to play and our teaching having a real impact upon our children’s minds and bodies through their continued learning and development.

We love to follow their interests and use these as a springboard for future learning as when children are engaged the magic happens!!

It was so lovely to receive the email below from a parent and we are just glad our little adventure fitted the brief as our children’s wishes are our commands and we love to truly bring them the magic!! xxxx

“Hi Tracey,

I just wanted to say a huge thank you to you Emma and Imogen for today.

****** has not stopped talking about his proper adventure. He has been telling ****** all about the bridges, the forest, and the dinosaur hunt.

His imagination is full at the minute, but we don’t take it for granted that your guys go way above and beyond to create magic!

*****’s favourite nursery day is fun Friday, and you guys have not disappointed again!

Have a great weekend everyone

****’

On Friday one of our little ones came in dressed as an explorer and requested ‘a forest’… So Tracey had an idea that Free-Flow could go off and explore the local woods and it soon turned into a proper adventure!!

We went armed with binoculars and a bug book to see what we could spot… We spotted lots of nests in the trees before we even arrived at the woods, and then as soon as we got near them Imogen spotted something amazing…..two DEER!!!! We all quietly watched them in awe before they bounded off into the woods.

We entered the woods through the ‘kissing gate’ and Tracey explained why it was called this. All our children then blew kisses and giggled as they passed through. Then we followed the curvy paths and crossed over so many trip-trap bridges….by which time it had begun to rain

Tracey made us a little shelter to huddle and have our snack under and whilst we were busy munching bananas and breadsticks Emma snuck off to hide lots of dinosaurs for us to search for afterwards!

The rain turned torrential just in time for our long walk back to Jollies (typical!!) but we tried to make the best of the situation by looking for worms (would we be able to find Superworm?!? ) and also doing some fabulous splashing, stomping and singing!!

Once back we all got changed into dry clothes after a quick towel dry and had some yummy lunch followed by a warming hot chocolate to make us all feel snuggly and cosy again… what an adventure we all had!! Xxxx

The other morning in Exploring Elephants the cars seemed to be a HUGE hit, so Jade and Latisha asked their children if they would like to go to the train station; as they also love trains, and they could then see lots of real cars on their way there too!

They all said “YES!!”…. So they all got ready and then headed out to the train station.

They walked beautifully and very sensibly as they listened very carefully to what Jade and Latisha were sharing with them about how to keep safe near the road on their way to the station.

They continued their fab listening throughout their journey; whilst at the train station they could hear birds, but not see them. They saw 8 trains, some of them stopped, but some went whizzing on past and these ones were so very, very fast as they didn’t need to stop!

They even enjoyed some yummy snack whilst they were there too. All that walking requires fuel after all!!

We do love to follow our children’s interests and we do love to explore our wonderful local environment… how lucky we are to have Woodlesford Station literally opposite our nursery xxxx

From Worry Monsters to Colour Monsters… Terrific Twos have been having fun bringing stories to life.

They have made meaningful marks and chatted about exactly what they have been drawing (the grown ups loved scribing their children’s descriptions word for word!!) as they created their very own unique monsters.

They then brought them to life in 3D form by manipulating the dough and adding precious pieces to create their masterpieces. We can confirm they were all definitely mad about monsters!!!!!

Story-sharing ways and creative days spent imagining here at Jollies Xxxx