Monthly Archives: December 2016
2016 has been an unpredictable year at times for the world however, we would like to extend our thanks to all our Bell House families and staff for making it another happy and successful one for the nursery.
We have said goodbye to some long standing and very dear families this year as their little ones headed for new ventures at school. But equally, we have welcomed wonderful new families with open Bell House arms and are excited to see our existing and new children develop and flourish throughout 2017. Continuing to nurture not just the children, but our relationships with their parents and carers, continues to be an objective of great importance for the year ahead and we thank all parents who took the time to talk to us and provide feedback throughout the year just gone. It is through strong parent partnerships that we are able to contintually ensure we are providing the best service to our families.
Our passion here at Bell House is to provide a safe, caring and inclusive environment where all children are happy, stimulated and relaxed and are able to develop to their absolute full potential and we couldn’t achieve this without our wonderful team of staff here at Bell House. We thank them for helping make our vision a reality and we look forward to continuing our mission in 2017 with even more vigour.
We wish each and every one of you a very happy, healthy and fulfilling New Year!! We hope you enjoy some celebrations tonight and look forward to seeing you in 2017…
We have been hard at work creating, cooking up and tasting a plethora of new and improved dishes for our 2017 nursery menus. These have been redeveloped to bring an even greater variety of meals providing a healthy balanced offering for our little ones. We will continue to publish the menus on the blog at the beginning of the week in a 3-weekly rotation cycle and will also display on the notice board in the nursery reception.
We hope the children enjoy the new menus as much as we did creating them!
Bon appetit!
So the children have skipped off to their Christmas break, as have the team, and all there is left for us to do is to wish you a very …
We hope you all have a truly joyful, fun and memorable Christmas with your little ones (with a few moments to relax at least!) We look forward to seeing those of you who are in when we’re back on the 28th.
Ladybirds
This week we have been engaged in lots and lots of fun activities for Christmas! We’ve enjoyed flour play pretending it was snow, created some lovely hand print Christmas trees, made some paper plate wreaths and have been painting Christmas decorations. We also had a super time going on a lovely Christmas winter walk.
When we are back after Christmas next week, we will be sharing our Christmas stories and continuing to do more festive activities in the run up to New Year. Happy Christmas Ladybirds!
Butterflies
This week we have been busy getting creative and have enjoyed tinsel painting, making finger print reindeer, creating our Christmas snowmen display, pretend snow play and lots of Christmassy, glittery activities. We also made and decorated our delicious Christmas shaped shortbread – yummy!
Next week, after Christmas, we will begin our New Year display as well as making some lovely winter pictures. We will also be going on a winter walk to see all the pretty Christmas decorations. Have a very merry Christmas Butterflies!
Bumblebees
This week we have been busy little elves making Christmas calendars, Santa and reindeer pegs, and reindeer food and having lots of fun with “snow” play! We have also really enjoyed listening and dancing to lots of Christmas music and making our own Christmas door hangers.
Next week we will be getting creative making pretty snowflakes, cute handprint penguins and starting our awesome New Year’s Eve firework pictures. Happy Christmas Bumblebees girls and boys!
Dragonflies
This week we have thrown ourselves even further into Christmas fun and have been making reindeer food, playing lots of fun party games and getting fully stuck into Christmas craft. We had a lovely comfy pyjama day on Friday – such a treat for the last day before Christmas!
Next week the letter is Gg and the number is 13. The colour is dark green and the shape is oval. We look forward to sharing our experiences of Christmas – what we did on Christmas Day, our new presents and who we spent the festivities with. We will also explore New Year’s and make some super craft pictures to celebrate. Have a wonderful Christmas Dragonflies!
Don’t forget that today is a pyjama day at nursery for the last day before Christmas! So come in wearing your comfiest, snuggliest PJs for a day of comfortable festive fun!
We will be open over the Christmas period from 28th – 30th December. If your child’s usual nursery day falls on any that we are open, please do let us know if they will still be joining us over the festive week or if they will be away from nursery.
Many thanks!
Ladybirds
This week we have focussed on our Christmas presents and cards to give to our mummies and daddies. We have also really been enjoying the winter sunshine and had lots of time outside, wrapped up in our coats playing on the slide. The little ones have also loved some table top activites this week including painting with paint and flour and getting lovely and messy! Great creative sensory fun!
It is the last week before Christmas next week so we will be spending a lots of time finishing off our Christmas activities and generally feeling very festive! We will aim to have as much fresh air as we can as well as plenty more messy, sensory and physical experiences.
Butterflies
Candy canes, presents and stockings have been among some of the Christmassy creations we have made this week! The Butterflies have also loved festive sensory play with plenty of tinsel, glitter and tissue paper too! Father Christmas came to visit us this week and all the little ones got a present!
Next week we are really looking forward to some Christmas culinary fun and making Christmas shortbread! We will also be getting creative with some tinsel printing, making Santa’s footprints and also having sensory fun with some Christmas playdoh!
Bumblebees
We have been cracking on with our Christmas decorations this week and making candy canes, wreaths and Christmas stars. We also spent a lot of time practicing for our Christmas concert on Friday which went really well – well done little Bumblebees! A visit from Father Christmas earlier in the week was also a highlight for the children (and staff!)
We will be making magic reindeer food next week (all ready for Christmas Eve of course!) as well as some Santa sleighs and useful calendars for the New Year!
Dragonflies
This week the Dragonflies have been very busy constructing buildings to make a village for Father Christmas and his elves. We especially enjoyed using soft cotton wool balls for the snow and glitter to make it shimmer! We also had fun with our cars and shaving foam this week, driving them through the foam to make tyre marks. We are still working on our little gifts for our parents ready to give next week. A big highlight of the week was a visit from Father Christmas who gave everyone a present!!!
The letter of the week next week Dd is and the number is 12. The colour will be light blue and the shape is a crescent. We will play elves next week and deliver our friends cards around the nursery. We will also have lots of fun with a present hunt around the preschool and see how many we can find as well as more fun Christmas games including “pin the sack on the sleigh!”
The nursery had a wonderful time welcoming Father Christmas to Bell House earlier this week! The children who were in on Monday got to meet the big man himself and received a present each from him. All other nursery children in on different days also received a special little present from him over the course of the week, much to their delight! As little Maggie, aged 4, said “Father Christmas came and sat on a chair and gave presents to everyone!!!”
