Once a week one of our rooms takes its turn to make pudding for the whole nursery. This is a great opportunity to reinforce hygiene and safety messages, introduce the concept of weighing and measuring, follow instructions as a recipe is worked through, develop understanding of sequencing; what is done first and what comes next, look at how mixtures change and transform into buns, or how chocolate changes from a solid, to a liquid, back to a solid again; to discuss melting and heating and cooling, to turn-take and share, to develop an awareness of time as our children wait for the oven to bake their treats and then to feel a HUGE sense of pride and achievement as our children taste their goodies at lunchtime and proudly discuss how they’ve all made some delicious treats for themselves and all their Jolly friends too!!

We have anything from tray bakes, fairy cakes, jammy biscuits to crispy buns… it’s up to each room to choose what they’d like to bake and create together… whatever next?! We simply cannot wait to see (and taste!!) xxxx

To start with we’ve opted for a refresh of the garden side… lots of pressure washing, sweeping, weeding, cleaning, sorting and throwing away, refreshing of sand and bark (and lampshades!! ) and adding new and exciting resources into the garden to enhance our areas.

We are very lucky at Jollies to have a HUGE outdoor space and we want it to be as inviting and exciting as it possibly can be for all our children…

Next week we move on to Spring cleaning the playground side… watch this space!!

‘Happy, Happy Weekend’ one and all and we hope the lovey weather continues so you can really enjoy your own gardens at home too with your little ones… xxxx

This other morning this little one was sat in the book corner and was busy looking through the ‘That’s not my…kangaroo’ book. Alice observed that she was VERY excited to see the nearby toy kangaroo that looked just like the pictures in her book!

She seemed to really enjoy the sensory aspect of this book where she could touch and feel all the different textures and it was a super sweet moment when she shared with her friend kangaroo asking if they wanted a turn touching the book too…

Story sharing days and magical reading ways spent playing here at Jollies xxxx

Free-Flow were loving the pirate ships and figures so much, that when they spotted an empty box there could only be one outcome for it… Stephen grabbed some scissors and facilitated their ideas as it was soon transformed into their very own HUGE pirate ship!

They set sail towards future adventures, looking for treasure through their telescopes!!! Ahoy there mateys!!

There’s never a dull moment here at Jollies Xxxx

When the tongue comes out you know our little ones mean business……

Threading ways and fine motor skill developing days spent concentrating here at Jollies

(This is what early writing skills look like in Early Years as you can’t hold a pen if you haven’t got the finger strength and you need the hand/eye coordination to be able to make marks and control your drawing and writing… so there’s method in the madness in every ‘seemingly strange’ thing we do!!! ) xxxx

Last week we posted about how we had bought some lovely new games for our Free-Flow children to play with after our friends at Midland House had given them some money as an Easter gift.

Our children loved their new games so much they wanted to say thank you, so they wrote them a letter and on Friday Free-Flow took a walk over to Midland House to post it through their letterbox.

How lucky we are to have such kind friends. We hope they enjoyed opening their thank you letter from all their friends here at Jollies

Community spirit and friendship makes our Jolly world go round!! Xxxx

From gigantic sandcastle making, trip-trapping across the wooden bridge, ‘horsey-horsey don’t you stop’ riding, peekabooing through the tunnel, to rolling and catching a ball… life outside is varied and amazing and EXHAUSTING!!!

We think our children will definitely sleep well tonight after a VERY busy week…

Happy Weekend Lovely Jolly People xxxx

Just before Easter weekend Free-Flow took a walk over to Midland House to visit our fabulous friends there. We took them a crocheted basket of Eastery treats and we sang some songs with them and had a drink, a biscuit and a natter.

Whilst we were there some of our very kind friends gave us some money and so Free-Flow decided what they would like to spend their pennies on when they came back to nursery…. It turns out they were desperate for the ‘teeth game’ (as one of our friends had brought theirs in from home for show and tell earlier in the week and they’d all loved it!) and also ‘unicorns’….

So with a very specific brief Tracey went on a shopping mission last night and hopefully these lovely group games and activities will fully live up to our children’s exciting expectations…

Thank you, lovely Midland House friends, your kindness means so very much to us all and you are going to bring such fun to our room. xxxx

Having that special someone who is always looking out for you and understands you completely is what Jollies is all about.

Our children have such strong bonds with their key people and this means they know that they are always there for a reassuring glance, a high five, a snuggly cuddle, a simple explanation, a demonstration, a supportive smile, a funny joke, a shared tale and just generally to make their day just that little bit brighter!!

Strong bonds make our Jolly world go round and support the most excellent learning and development possible.

We thank both our children and our staff team from the bottom of our hearts for being so open and receptive and making these bonds possible and so very effective. Also, we are thankful for our parents/carers too as they complete this key person relationship; as only by having a true partnership approach does the magic happen.

Here’s to the next day of fun and the next adventure… let the Jolly learning journeys continue!! xxxx

No, it wasn’t, but it was most definitely Fiona’s!!

Our Jolly children were so lucky yesterday as Fiona brought her lovely bunnies in to see them all. We were still bunny obsessed after our surprise visit from the Easter Bunny last week when he hopped in and delivered us all a chocolate egg, so Fiona thought why not extend this current interest in the most exciting of ways!

Their visit went down a treat and our children loved listening to Fiona’s bunny tales and how she cares for them, what they eat and what they need and do etc… fascinating stuff!!

Such gentle hands were observed as those that wanted to stroked the bunnies. Some just liked to look, but some of our children liked to get more up close and personal Afterwards Jade and Latisha’s children even created their very own fluffy bunnies as they’d enjoyed the visit so much!

Thank you Fiona for coming in and sharing your wonderful bunnies with us all xxxx