Such imagination as these two friends dined together… they chatted, giggled and feasted until their hearts were truly content xxxx

We know our children inside out, we welcome them with open arms and hearts, we meet their every need, we know what we want them to learn next, we observe them closely in order to guide their future fun and learning, we keep them safe throughout the day, we encourage them to explore and discover and risk assess and take measured risks, we’re there to snuggle, reassure and guide them, we share the best stories, we know their little quirks and signs and signals and respond to these to ensure their well-being is constantly high and….. we morph into a train for them to set off on a magical journey upon!!!! xxxx

Water-pistols, Ducks, Balls, Cups and Crocodiles…

It can only be water play… the Jolly way!! xxxx

The day started off in a super exciting way as we all caught the 446 bus to Rothwell. We loved going on the bus as we regularly get very excited as we see these buses from our room’s window and wave, so to actually go on one was fantastic! But…… it got even more exciting as our next ride was on a tractor! The farmer picked us up and we got pulled in a trailer all the way up the lane to the farm.

Cheryl was our lovely guide for the day and under her close supervision we met all the animals; both large and small. We got to stroke bunnies and guinea pigs, we looked through at the meerkats, we gave the lambs their bottles, we met the donkeys, alpacas, emus, chickens, geese, pigs and piglets, calves and the HUGE cows!

The cows made us laugh as they used their VERY long tongues to grab carrots off the fence. We thought our tongues were long when we poked them out, but they weren’t a patch on theirs!!

We listened so carefully to Cheryl and fed them with flat hands with thumbs tucked in so we didn’t get nibbled fingers. We didn’t touch our faces or put our hands in our mouths and we washed our hands after feeding and touching the animals as we needed to keep ourselves clean and we didn’t want poorly germs to make our tummies feel sick.

We had a great packed lunch together in the barn and we also managed to squeeze in snack and an icepop too!

We played on all the play areas; the gigantic beach area, the bouncy castle, the trampolines, the climbing frames, the swings, the ride on tractors to name but a few.

We spent our pennies in the farm’s gift shop after carefully making our choices and then we walked back down the lane to catch the bus back to Jollies.

We sang songs at the bus stop and we talked about our favourite things at the farm and we counted down the minutes until the bus arrived.

What a wonderful day at the farm we’ve all had… It was so lovely to spend this time together before we all begin to depart nursery as our Jolly journeys come to an end…

Free-Flow, Laura, Imogen, Stephen, Natalie, Emma, Eloise, Sian and Tracey are super proud of you all and want to thank you for a lovely day! We think all the Jolly grown ups will sleep well tonight and we have a feeling you all will too!!! (Especially as some of your mummies and daddies told us you were up at 5.00 this morning with excitement!!) xxxx

It started off filled with balls as our children explored rolling the balls down the ramp in our garden… there was much excitement as the differing balls rolled down and the Jolly grown-ups used this opportunity to cleverly extend their children’s vocabulary naturally around colour, length, speed and distance as the balls’ journeys were instinctively compared!

Yet in the next instance the bowl morphed into a means of travelling down the ramp in itself… filled with, not balls, but our intrepid explorers instead!!!!

Rolling and racing and chasing and sliding… it’s what childhood is all about xxxx

Inspired by 75 fabulous years of our NHS our children set about caring for them and making their friends feel much better.

Perhaps we have some future fabulous doctors and nurses here at Jollies…. Xxxx

We blasted off into sensory heaven the other day with a giant space themed painting! We started off with a crinkly emergency blanket for our base, added some slimy paint, some sensory silver balls (that make different sounds when rolled) and a selection of different rollers and cutters to make shapes in the paint. It didn’t take long for us to go from making marks to ‘bathing’ in the paint, making sure to get the paint ALL OVER our bodies; loving the sensory texture and the feedback this gave us… We absolutely loved every minute of this activity, it really was out of this !

and we are DEDICATED to working as hard as we can to further our learning and have the most fun here at Jollies xxx

Peek-a-boo!!

Recently Ellison set up an exciting invitation to play after a box had been emptied and her children had expressed an interest in it…. so materials were added and some characters too.

The challenge was then on to find Peppa Pig and all her friends as these much-loved characters had been hidden under lots of fabric…

Would our children, after seeing them hidden under the material, lk for them? Or would they be out of sight, out of mind once they disappeared from view?!

It was very interesting to observe their differing reactions and most loved watching them being hidden under the material to then excitedly search for them and reveal them again.

Although for some this was not their desired goal… the characters soon seemed to be insignificant, as the object of their mission, and their natural reaction instead was to use the material to hide themselves under!!

Peek-a-BOO….. We see you!!

Looking at the different marks that could be made on the various surfaces outside proved nothing short of fascinating.

Whether it be the huge sweeping arcs of the brush on the wooden fence, the racing, chasing droplets on the mirrors, or the splatting, patting handprints on the blackboard frames it was simply great to experiment and explore with the water xxx