There’s all sorts of spookiness afoot at Jollies today!! Enter if you dare………….. xxxx

Many of the invitations to play set out for our children by their Jolly grownups last week had a Hallowe’en inspired focus, because, as this exciting evening draws ever closer, it is very much on our children’s minds and we always strive to follow their interests!!

We frequently overhear them excitedly talking about how they are looking forward to dressing up and going trick or treating with their mummies and daddies as they recall previous experiences (mostly involving HUGE buckets of collected sweets ) from other years.

Throughout the week our children have enjoyed exploring with a wide range of different materials and resources across all rooms.

Stephen decided that to extend his own children’s spooky interests further they could work together to create a HUGE floor painting; which involved orange paint (did we mention our children are currently also pumpkin obsessed too?!), black sugar paper and a variety of paint rollers!

This was extremely exciting, but there was also ‘method behind the madness’ as soooooo much learning was naturally taking place…

Stephen knew that whilst his children were participating in such an activity they would be focusing upon developing their movement skills; as they were busy finding different ways to move in order to create marks on their paper…

They experimented with their body’s movement and placement and they trialled different ways of moving; would they sit and lean forward? Could they lay on their stomach and stretch out their arms to paint? Would they decide to kneel down and lean their body forward whilst balancing carefully?

The aim was to NOT touch the black paper (with anything apart from the roller), but instead to use their bodies to balance and stretch… This then in turn strengthened their muscles and the stability of their cores!!!!

Of course all our children were totally oblivious to all the learning that was taking place and why this activity had been planned for and set up in this way in the first place. Instead they just became totally immersed in excitedly chattering about Hallowe’en and they loved finding out different ways to move in order to successfully make their marks whilst ensuring all the paper was covered in exactly the way they desired it to be!!

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Turns out we know exactly who to call… Free-Flow revealed themselves to be excellent Ghostbusters today… They hunted high and low and raced and chased until they spotted all the ghosts hidden in our outdoor area by Brooke and Imogen!! Xxxx

From witches’ brews, investigating the innards of a pumpkin, dressing up in an array of Hallowe’en costumes, hammering golf tees into a pumpkin, scooping spooky jelly, finding spookiness in superb sensory trays, to bowling with ghost skittles and an ‘eyeball’ we’ve quite simply had it all going on here at Jollies this past week as Hallowe’en fast approaches….

Don’t forget if your little one would like to dress up on Tuesday next week (or any other day if they are not in on Tuesday…) they’d be VERY welcome to join in all the spooky fun!! Xxxx

red, orange, yellow, brown

Our children have been getting into the autumn spirit recently by exploring giant autumnal sensory bins, collecting, painting and printing with fallen leaves and using them to make sticky wreath pictures too.

The various loose autumnal parts have intrigued our children and they have focused well taking their time to observe closely, share their thoughts, discuss their personal experiences and then play with the loose parts in their own self-chosen exploratory ways.

Our skilled practitioners used these play opportunities to extend communication and language for our children and they introduced new words and scaffolded conversations and helped them all describe their observations and experiences.

Quite simply autumn creates awe and wonder and this translates beautifully into imaginative, creative, collaborative, exciting play! xxxx

Sometimes you’ve just got to stop and give your bestie a quick squeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzzeeeee!!!

Friendship is such an important part of nursery life and our children create such strong bonds throughout their nursery lives and these make their days transform from good ones into AMAZING ones!!

There’s always a warm Jolly welcome for all our fabulous friends here at nursery xxxx

Whether inside or out conker rolling has simply been all the rage at Jollies!!

Inside masterpieces were created by tilting a tray up and down, forwards and backwards and left and right and as the conkers rolled amazing marks were made…

Outside, on a HUGER scale, conkers were rolled down drainpipes and they splattered and splashed and rolled quickly and slowly as they made their marks in the paint!

The conclusion? We’re definitely still bonkers about conkers!!!!! xxxx

Our lovely photographer, Kelly, has been here taking weekend family photo shoots and once she’s changed the background ready for the individual photos taking place today we have snaffled it and made use of the background that she’s discarded…

It has been placed over furniture to create a ‘den’, but not just any old den… it’s a mark-making extravaganza of a den!!

Our children are reaching and stretching and using their hand/eye coordination to create some marvellous marks… engaging both their physical and creative skills as they explore and experiment. xxxx

Is what our environments here at Jollies are designed to facilitate… we want our children to be inspired and follow their interests and set their learning journeys off in their own self-chosen wonderful directions!

Throughout the day they are invited to participate in adult-led activities with a specific learning intention too, but we also always want to support their exploration and discovery in an independent way too.

It is in these spaces that adults observe closely and then sensitively intervene to scaffold, support and extend their play, but as far as our children are concerned they are just having a brilliant time playing!! (They can leave the rest of the other stuff to their Jolly grown ups who are always observing, evaluating, assessing and thinking about planning for their future learning and progression).

Whoop whoop to Early Years play xxxx

Exploring Elephants have been exploring their senses recently when Jade set up an invitation to play and investigate with lots of sensory toys/resources on offer.

She brought in fidget toys and noisy tubes for sight, touch and sound. There was a diffuser to stimulate the children’s senses of both smell and sight; as it filled the room with gorgeous vanilla scents, but they could also watch the colours changing.

Then to get those tastebuds working she cut up some orange, kiwi and cucumber slices so they could all have their own slices to taste.

The children were so excited by this activity and they loved investigating all aspects of this sensory play. We saw their interests piqued and their curiosity grow as they got stuck straight in and explored all the sensory toys/resources.

The fidget poppers frequently seemed to be a firm favourite amongst our little ones as they spent quite some time very focused popping each individual one!

They also all loved to taste the fruit and vegetable slices and it was interesting to listen to their comments as they really focused closely and tried to put into words exactly what it was that they were tasting!

Their senses were truly stimulated and this led to a high sense of well-being too as they explored and investigated with focus, confidence, excitement and such enthusiasm xxxx