Class Blog for Nursery

Welcome to Storytellers Nursery

Welcome to our Nursery blog ...

In our spacious inviting nursery we work hard to offer a nurturing and supportive learning environment for the children to thrive and grow. We follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum with an emphasis on promoting the characteristics of effective learning.

This approach fosters a love of learning and provides challenge linked closely to developmentally age appropriate experience. We strive to create an environment where the children feel confident to explore and discover new things. We have weekly forest school activities and have constant access to a large safe outdoors space and all-weather area. All meals are cooked daily on site by our wonderful cook.

As a Nursery, we understand that all children are unique and understand the importance of following their individual interests.

We are set just outside the beautiful village of Blisland which is 10 mins from Bodmin town centre.

As we are a smaller setting we can only offer 10 places per year group but this therefore ensures a very high level of interaction with adults and quality impute for your child while they are with us. We are very family orientated and have strong community connections.

We can offer places to children from the age 2yrs and offer 15 and 30 hour funding, more information can be found here: www.gov.uk/30-hours-free-childcare

Morning sessions are from 9am - 12 cost £16.80

Lunch available from 12-1pm at £5.60 plus meal cost or home packed lunch.

Afternoon session would be from 12-3pm at £16.80 plus meal cost or home packed lunch.

All day session 9am - 3pm £33.60 plus the meal or home packed lunch.

We are offering a fourth session free if you pay for 3. It can be just mornings or a full day. Your equivalent 4th session would be free, saving a max of £28.80

We are very flexible with hours and days so please feel free to ring for more information.

We also run a parent and toddler group, ' Twiglets', on a Wednesday morning 9am -11am, where you can come along to stay and play and meet new people, have a coffee and get a feel for what we are all about; this runs weekly in term time and its free. Bump to 4yrs.

Weekly information also available on our 'Twiglets' Facebook page.

By following our nursery blog which we hope to publish on a weekly basis this will allow us to inform you through words and pictures how we promote your child’s learning in the nursery, it is also a great way for you to discuss with your child at home what they have been doing each week.

Mrs Pearce.

Setting the scene..

Storytellers made the most of their surroundings while visiting Restormel Castle, immersing themselves in magical tales of princesses and knights fighting off naughty dragons within the spectacular castle's grounds.

Enriching our learning adventures.

Storytellers have been learning about castles this week alongside their topic of ‘Traditional Tales’. They thoroughly enjoyed today's trip to Restormel Castle and saw all the different features we have been learning about. We climbed up the steep steps to see the view that soldiers had when looking for enemies. We found out about the worn armour, and we went into the kitchen and dressing room area to see how the king and his family lived. The children loved to see the features of a castle in real life!

Some children had never been to a castle before, and they were impressed by its sheer size. They enjoyed feeling the cold, hard stone and uneven walls and could relate the castle to the different pictures they had seen in the books we had been reading. They looked at specific features, such as the enormous windows, fireplaces, and drawbridge area over the moat, which proved very exciting as they checked for baddies. They all enjoyed exploring the grounds and looking at the information boards.

After lunch, the children were given a selection of medieval characters to play with, which initiated some wonderful conversation as they played with their characters around the castle, bringing their learning to life!

Easter egg hunt..

Storytellers had great fun searching for Easter treats and then happily sharing them in class so everyone had the same amount. Watching them help each other find the eggs and happily share is a pure joy and an essential aspect of their early education, which they are all flourishing in.
Happy Easter from everyone at Storytellers.

Easter celebrations

During the last week of the Spring term, Storytellers read “Poppy and Sam’s Easter Egg Hunt” by Sam Taplin. The story explored the fun themes of hidden Easter egg shapes and encountering various springtime animals. Storytellers then began to explore the real meaning of celebrating Easter, learning that Easter Sunday is not just the day we all enjoy chocolate eggs but is traditionally part of the Easter Story. The children visited Blisland Church to place the Easter garden they had made; they were greeted by The Revd Robin Thwaites, who kindly took the time to speak with the children, starting by explaining when Jesus died, his body was put in a tomb, and a big stone was placed over the entrance so nobody could get in. Two days later, Jesus's friend Mary went to the tomb and discovered that the stone had been rolled away and Jesus's body was gone. At first, Mary was sad, who had taken her friend? But then she heard a voice, she turned around and saw Jesus, he was alive! Mary ran off to tell Jesus's friends he'd come back to life. The children grappled with the child-friendly version of the story and explored the various traditions surrounding Holy Week.

We couldn’t have been prouder of them as they listened intently and were keen to ask questions and contribute to the conversation.

Within our EYFS curriculum, the children learn about special times for family and friends and special times of year for other people. Therefore, throughout the year in Storytellers, we learn how people of different faiths celebrate their special festivals.

Its a Gruffalo!!

The morning didn't go as planned as the fire station crew was called out, so we could not visit. This meant we could spend longer visiting Cardinham Woods exploring the interactive Gruffalo trail with party-themed activities and games, as well as fun facts along the way to learn about life in the forest for the Gruffalo and other creatures. The children followed the trail to help find the missing party items to give the Gruffalo a birthday to remember. They searched for balloons, pinecones, apples, and the Gruffalo himself! The sun shone as the children enjoyed the activity park and tested their balancing skills! All this exercise built up an appetite, so we enjoyed a picnic lunch and well-earned ice cream before heading home.

Visiting the Hugs Foundation.

Storytellers had a wonderful morning visit to the Hugs Foundation. We have been learning how the charity supports animals that have been neglected or abandoned and how they do this. The children explored the area and met some fantastic characters along the way. The pigs were very popular, and helping to throw the food in was great fun, as well as watching the pigs forage around in the mud. Meeting the cheeky goats and giving them a fantastic scratch ensured they enjoyed walking with the children. The children investigated various foods that the animals enjoyed and looked at some wonderful treasures, from horses' teeth to antlers. Meeting the ponies and learning how and why they were rescued was a definite highlight. Thanks to Hazel for showing the children around, providing many learning opportunities and fantastic enrichment for our class topic.

What does a Nurse do ?

Today, the Storytellers had fun learning all about the role of a nurse, which supports this term's topic, 'People who help us'. Sally explained her role and showed the children various equipment she might use; they had fun bandaging their hands and arms and asking questions.

Reading Pets ...

Why do we send home Reading Pets? It goes without saying that reading to your young child on a regular basis can help you forge a stronger relationship with them. When it comes to children, one of the most important things you can do to influence their development positively is to spend time with them. Reading to your child provides a great opportunity to set up a regular, shared event where you can look forward to spending time together. With shared reading, your child will trust and expect you to be there for them. The importance of trust to small children cannot be overstated.

Reading a favourite book to your child helps you bond with them and gives them a sense of intimacy and well-being. This feeling of intimacy helps your child feel close to you, and the feelings of love and attention encourage positive growth and development.

Reading aloud together and having a shared activity gives you and your child something to talk about, which supports the development of reading and writing skills. A children’s book can provide springboards to meaningful discussions about many different topics, which can further develop a child’s critical thinking skills.

At its core, literature is one of the best ways to help children understand something without necessarily having to experience it for themselves. Reading to your child helps to expose them to all types of subjects and concepts, building our children’s understanding of humanity and the world around them.

If you read just one book daily to your child, they will have read 1825 books by their 5^th birthday!

World Book Day..

As we do every day, we have been sharing much-loved stories with the children. For World Book Day this year, we read ‘Elmer and Wilbur’ and created some beautiful pictures depicting a very colourful Elmer. Elmer the Elephant teaches us that everyone is unique and has something that sets them apart and that there's no point in trying to hide or disguise this. We should embrace our differences and always be true to who we are.

Learning to love books, listen to stories, and share ideas is a fantastic way to develop your child’s imagination. Reading to children is an essential part of their education.

We know how many books you have at home – read until they fall apart, maybe, and others that have been read and enjoyed are now collecting dust.

We want our children to share their love of books by swapping one or more with their friends.

We encourage our children to bring the books they no longer want and put them in the “book swap cupboard" outside the nursery. The children can then swap or choose a different book to take home and enjoy.