T: 01264 351 535 Dear Parents I hope you had a lovely Easter and enjoyed the Easter nests your child made. We have been focussing on outside play and I hope that you are beginning to notice a few gradual changes to our garden area. I am extremely proud of our bug house, there are even a few residents appearing and I am hoping for many more as Spring arrives. The children have spent quite some time hunting with the magnifying glasses looking for bugs! Babies continued to use their senses by having a wonderful time exploring the treasure baskets. The metal baskets have proven popular due to the sounds the material can make. They are enjoying the freedom of being outdoors and are keen to explore the space including the raised vegetable beds and climbing frame. Following an interest in banging they have investigated painting with potato mashers and have enjoyed the marks created! They visited Pets At Home on a walk and chose 8 more fish to add to our tank. The children are fascinated with the fish and love watching them whilst they are getting ready to go outside. This month, Babies are focusing on physical development and core stability so the children will have many opportunities to climb, bend and jump. The Toddlers are continuing to explore early concepts of Mathematics. They are starting to learn comparison measurements and volume by emptying and filling jugs with both sand and water. This can be easily played at home using a few small containers in the bath. During outdoor play some children have testing their own capabilities on the balancing beams, even trying to extend their own ability by pushing objects along the beams such as the small pushchairs. They are experimenting with their own risk by jumping off at various heights along the beam. The Toddlers have been enjoying a variety of music and thank you for sharing your cd’s from home. The Transition Room have been exploring different textures by playing with gloop (corn flour and water) and also table top painting. This has led to printing copies of their masterpieces. The dinosaurs enjoyed a new habitat of hay and brown paper made by the children, where some wonderful stories and discussions unfolded. The Team focused on extending the children’s creative imagination and vocabulary adding descriptive words such as crunchy. They really enjoyed a walk to the garden centre where they helped water the plants, watched some being potted and then later purchased some bulbs to plant in wellies which were kindly donated. Inspired by the children’s love for gardening, their role play area will become a garden centre! T: 01264 351 535 Kindergarten used Easter as a focus for many of their activities. They enjoyed finding, matching and pairing Easter Eggs, freely creating their own Easter Cards and experimenting with clay to form their Easter gifts. They have continued to enjoy the free flow in the garden, where water play, the mud kitchen and the guttering are always popular. We have been building friendships with our new starters and are keen to explore methods of communication with the children that have English as an additional language. The role play area has become a Doctor’s Surgery, Hospital and Vets. The children have improvised on medical equipment using various items from the home corner and dressing up area. If your child is leaving this summer for school, please tell the Team which school so that we can begin our getting ready for school display board. This month, the Team will be introducing new outdoor play opportunities for the children, including building using bricks sand, trowels and spirit levels. Dates for your Diary  Nursery Photographs: Wednesday 30th April - please see the posters around the Nursery for further details.  We are closed for the Bank Holidays: Monday 5th and Monday 26th May  Stay and Play Sessions: Saturday 10th and Saturday 17th May 9.30am-11.30am or 12.30pm-2.30pm at Yellow Dot Otterbourne. Please speak to me if your family would like to attend. We say a sad farewell to Nikki (Baby Blue Room Manager) and Charlene from Transition and we wish them both well in their new careers. A thank you for their hard work and dedication to Yellow Dot. I am delighted to welcome Jilly, Karen and Paige to the Team. All three join Transition. Also congratulations to Carolyn and Amanda on their promotions. Carolyn to Deputy Manager and Amanda as Room Manager in Baby Blue. In line with our policy, there will be an annual fee increase from the 1st September. The daily sessions will increase by £1.60, this equates to 16p an hour and the half day sessions by 80p. We will send you a revised invoice before September so please ensure you amend any vouchers in time (we will adjust the direct debit). If you would like to move to direct debit please ask me for a form so we can set you up. Early Bird fees remain the same at £1.50 per day. If you would like a full list of our fee charges, please do let me know. Thank you. Yours sincerely Nicky Darby Nursery Manager Please continue to share your current child’s interests: If it’s easier, please email me: [email protected]