Little Ones Childcare

At Whipton....Next week at Whipton our book of the week will be ‘The music in me’ by Sophy Henn. Our number of the week will be 4, and our Makaton signs will be Music and Sing. We will be exploring the wonderful world of music, discovering different sounds, rhythms, instruments, and ways we can express ourselves through song and movement.



Our weekly focus will be on developing the children's communication and language skills through music. Throughout the week, we will encourage the children to listen carefully, join in with songs and rhymes, and express their thoughts and feelings through music and performance. We will explore different musical styles and sounds while building confidence in speaking, listening, and performing in front of others.

Our invitation to play will focus on our big stage area, where the children can become singers, musicians, dancers, and performers. They will have opportunities to use instruments, sing favourite songs, put on performances for their friends, and use their imaginations to create their own shows. The children will also make their own musical instruments and shakers using different materials, we will then explore the different sounds and percussion during music time



Last week we absolutely loved exploring music, but with the heatwave in full swing we made sure to keep everyone cool and comfortable. The children spent lots of happy time splashing in the paddling pools, enjoying refreshing ice lollies, and giggling as they sprayed one another with cooling spray bottles.

At Bovey....Next week, we are going to be reading the story ‘what the ladybird heard at the seaside’ and our number of the week is going to be number 5.

During the week, there are going to be opportunities for the children to explore our sensory tuff tray full of sand, water and sea animals which are mentioned in the story outside in the garden. The children are also going to have the opportunity to create their own seaside art work by using paint, shells, stamps and lots more!

Our music and movement sessions are going to be outside where possible. We are going to be exploring the garden like different animals, playing with the parachute, alongside singing nursery rhymes.

Our focus time activities are going to be table top activities where we can recognise shapes and numbers, work on our independence and practise writing letters from our names.



This week, we have been reading the story ‘a spider in my soup’. We have created our imaginary soup, as well as exploring the insects and identifying what they are. This week, we also watched our cocoons turn into butterflies. We observed the butterflies, fed them and released them in our garden. The children loved sharing their ideas about what the butterflies looked like and where they are going to fly to.

!! It is very hot today. We are trying our very best to keep everyone cool and are planning on staying open..... however if you are able to collect your child early, even just a little earlier than normal.... the team would really appreciate it! !! Thank you as always for your continued support... thankfully, next week is looking much more normal temperature wise!

!!! Important update re Thursday 25th June. !!!
With temperatures tomorrow predicted to be as high as today, with the welfare of all our children and staff in mind, we have made the decision to close early again tomorrow. Nursery will be open from 7.45am until 1pm. An email has been sent to all families with this information. I'd like to thank all our families for their continued support. Making decisions such as this is always difficult but please be assured, your child's and our teams welfare is always the most important thing.

Important update re tomorrow ( Wednesday 24th June).
Sadly we have come to the decision that we will need to close the nursery at 1pm tomorrow.
This is partly due to the local schools either closing completely or having an early finish meaning that our staff with children will be unable to work. But also due to the fact that despite our very best efforts, nursery has been incredibly hot over the past few days. With the forecast being even hotter tomorrow, it seems the right thing to do is to close early. I am sorry for the late notice and for any inconvenience caused.

Please note, Budlake's parent's evening will go ahead as planned.

We will update you as soon as a decision has been made for Thursday.

All Little Ones nurseries will be open tomorrow from 7.45am until 1pm.

Many thanks for all your support.

At Honiton....this week our book is room on the broom; a lot of our children know this book well and will enjoy shouting out the familiar phrases. When reading our book, we will use props such as the witch, cat and broom which will be passed around the children as we read our book.

Outside in our exploring tray we will be making potions using segments of lemon, orange and lime to make our water scented, the children will be using scissors to cut up flowers and leaves to add to our potion bottles. We will have a selection of jugs with coloured water in where the children can freely fill up the potion bottles to make their own potion.

Inside we will be using a selection of different resources like links, bricks, beads, and Duplo to measure our broom sticks talking about who’s is bigger, counting as we go, and then having ago at drawing our own broom.

Last week our book was were going on a bear hunt, we had lots of fun reading this book as we went on a bear hunt around the garden, we were also talking lots about the weather saying how when it rains and then its sunny, we might be lucky enough to see a rainbow.

In the garden we had a messy tray with gloop, water and sticks when the children added people and animals and pretended, they were squelching through the mud just like in our story.

At Honiton....this week at Honiton in the baby and toddler room we are going to have a creative week. The babies are going to have a creative table where they can use lots of different materials such as paint and stickers to make collages. In our outdoor area the babies are going to have an oats tray and explore mixing and transporting the oats with spoons and bowls. The toddlers are going to be creating their own flowers by using tissue paper, this supports their fine motor skills and can help them to start recognising different colours by using different coloured tissue paper. We are going to have an easel outside which the toddlers can use to paint to explore colour mixing and build on creativity skills.



Last week we have been learning about construction and the children have been role playing being builders! We made our own towers using building blocks and used crazy foam to help stick them together while wearing hard hats and high vis jackets. We also had diggers and dumper trucks in ‘mud playdough’ to build on our malleable skills and used the diggers to make marks in the playdough.

At Bovey....this week, we are going to be reading the story ‘Zog’. Our number of the week is going to be 4. During the week, we are going to be creating some arts and crafts to celebrate Fathers’ Day. We will also have opportunities to roleplay with our friends in the roleplay area with dragons and dinosaurs as well as storytelling and reading stories in our cosy area. During focus time, the children will have a wide range of activities including practising on the bikes, practising their pencil grip and completing puzzles. During music and movement time, the xhildren will be able to access lots of nursery rhymes songs and joining in with the actions of them and moving their bodies around to music.



Last week, we have read the book ‘Dear Zoo’ and our number of the week has been 3. During the week, the children have had lots of messy play activities with zoo animals. They have also been exploring the water trays and water wall, watching how fast the water comes back down the wall. We have had lots of fun exploring the small world area and comparing shapes and sizes of animals and where we might find certain animals

At Whipton....this week, our book of the week will be ‘We Are Family’, our number of the week will be 3, and our Makaton signs will be Mummy and Daddy. We will be exploring different types of families, celebrating what makes each of us unique, special, and wonderfully ourselves.



Our weekly focus will be on developing the children’s fine motor skills. Throughout the week, we will practise scissor skills, threading, and using tweezers to strengthen little hands and build confidence in preparation for early writing.



Our invitation to play will focus on small world role play, where the children can explore houses, furniture, and people. They will use these resources to create their own stories, act out familiar routines, and talk about their families in a safe, nurturing environment.



Last week, we absolutely loved learning about Commotion in the Ocean. The preschoolers were so proud to learn new sea‑themed Makaton signs — why not ask them to show you at home. We had lots of fun exploring the sandy beach tray, filled with shells and sea creatures, which inspired imaginative play, storytelling, and plenty of sensory exploration

At Budlake....this week our story will be Superworm!

With our malleable materials we will making our very own super worms, we will have worm coloured playdough, googly eyes and tools like rolling pins to help with moulding the playdough, which, will help us to practice and develop our fine motor movements as we roll and squash our playdough. We will also be putting our creativity and imagination to work to make each worm unique. In the garden we will be talking about our understanding of the world learning new language as we look through our insect tray. It will have mud, grass, insects, bugs, leaves and magnifying glasses to help us look for wiggly worms! There will be lots of conversations about what we can see, where they come from and what they look like!

Our focus of the week has been fine motor movements and in our continuous provision we have been accessing resources such as tweezers, sticking and glueing and using pipets in the water to help aid our development in this area.

 

Last week our book was Tractor Ted. Weve loved exploring our sensory farm tray and feeling all the different textures with oats, bran flakes, lentils, pasta and farm animals. We used lots describing words to talk about what we could feel. In the water we had so much fun washing our farm animals with bubbles and cloths. This helped us to learn about self-care and handwashing giving us the confidence and independence when it comes to doing it for ourselves. We have also loved taking care of the dolls in the home corner this week, pretending to feed, change and put them to bed. The bugs and small world toys have really taken our interest too!