We love a secret mission and whilst outside Free-Flow have been excellent explorers and they’ve been on a few!!

This Jolly team had to find the hidden ladybirds, save the princesses, do a hoola and they even had to race to the aeroplane… Oh….and then they had to spot the giant giraffe inside too. It was so much fun………………………………MISSION COMPLETE!!Xxxx

Inspired by the glorious weather that we’d been having at the time (and also linked to her children’s current fascination with all things space themed!) Laura set up a creative learning opportunity whereby her children could develop their fine motor skills to create their very own sunshine masterpiece.

This activity was messy, but yet not messy!! It particularly appealed to those children who do not relish the feel of paint upon their hands and who do not really like to get messy!

Instead of the more traditional way of painting the children’s hands were above the paint on cling film; yet they were still able to mix and move the paint around.

They could use their imagination to explore differing ways to spread the paint around. They found squeezing, splatting, tapping, pushing and pinching the cling film were just some of the many ways to do this!

Masterpieces emerged… yet hands remained remarkably clean… magic!! xxxx

Fiona, as a closely observing practitioner on hand to offer support and assistance as required, wondered how this was going to play out as both girls went up the log steps… they got to the top, said ‘Hi!’ and went back down again!

Physical skill testing days and wonderful friendship ways spent playing here at Jollies xxxx

This morning this little one came into nursery asking to make a pirate ship again after having previously built one with Emma several weeks ago…

This time he had a few specifications, which meant Lauren and Kirstan had to get to work right away creating a fireable canon, a flag and ensuring that a plank and steering wheel were added.. no pressure right?!

Well the room achieved it by working together and they even added in some dressing up too to further aid and extend the imaginative play!

To say he was made up didn’t really begin to describe his sheer excitement and he certainly had his shipmates in ‘ship shape’ and everyone loved joining in the fun that he had inspired.

It makes Sian and I soooooo very proud when our Jolly practitioners just ‘get’ their children so completely and we can see that they would literally do anything they could to make their children’s wishes come true.

Inspiring play in the VERY best way… it’s just another day here at Jollies xxxx

With a shake, rattle and roll beautiful music was made outside as Fiona and her little Possums explored all the instruments together xxxx

we ALL rings!

Fascinating to watch this little one so very focused on getting as many rings hooked on the tree as possible. Great for their hand/eye coordination as they carefully placed them on, but also great for developing their core strength and balance as they naturally reached and stretched to grab more rings to hang!!

Such a simple activity, but one with so many wonderful learning opportunities! Xxxx

We can’t wait to add this weekend’s fabulous find into our ‘Fox’s Socks’ story bag… previously we’ve posted when we’ve found some fabulous fox coasters and a wooden fox to accompany the array of socks and story book within this bag… but now our little ones can have fun popping the different socks on their very own fox to find their favourites.

This story bag is great for encouraging counting, pairing, matching, hiding and seeking and developing an array of positional language as the children hide and find the socks and describe whether they are under, on top of, inside, below, above etc and of course all the while tonnes of collaborative play is taking place, as well as pure imagination as the children make up their own story versions

Welcome to Jollies, Fox, we know you are going to enjoy your adventures with all our clever, imaginative, brilliant children…. Xxxx

Fiona was busy sat updating her children’s memories books when one little one came up to her, sat on her lap, started looking at all her photographs, before picking up the glue stick and, after some careful modelling and demonstration by Fiona, she was soon busy sticking them into her book…

Our older children love to get involved in compiling their memories books when they can, but often our staff team complete them for our younger ones when they find a quieter moment within the busy day, but in this case Fiona was very happy to share this role when this little one expressed an interest in getting stuck in too!! Xxxx

We love it when our children imagine another object to be something else that they’d much prefer it to be.

Imagination shone through here as the block became a phone and then it was cue nearby Jolly grownup to scaffold and extend as a wonderful conversation ensued… they didn’t have a block to hand, but instead they held their imaginary handset as they proceeded to chat happily away together xxxx