We have 3 chickens who have taken up residence at the Red House. Meet Lilly, McQueen and Houdini, all of them individually named by our children. Houdini as you can imagine keeps escaping, and our staff had some input into her name.
The chickens lay fresh eggs and the children are able to learn about their wellbeing and necessary care.
We will be opening our doors for parents and children to have a look around the nursery on 29th June 2013 from 1pm until 4pm.
This will give you the opportunity of asking staff about our setup, the cirriculum we follow and any other questions about the care of your child.
We will have fun activities for the children to get involved in.
You are still welcome to come and have a look around at any time, to see us when we are operating. The Open Day will give you more opportunity to speak with our staff in more detail.
We look forward to seeing you!
There has been lots of interest for new places at the start of this year. All parents are welcome to call us with any questions and welcome to have a look around.
We have some places becoming available as some of our children are ready to move into our Pre School unit, creating space for babies and toddlers. We also have some 3-5 year old funded places available.
Our next Open day will be over a weekend in March / April 2012, however parents are still welcome to have a look around before then when we are open and in full swing.
We look forward to meeting you.
Kind Regards, Sam and team.
We are raising money for Breast Cancer Campaign in October.
On 31st October we have a dress in pink day which is the Breast Cancer colour and throughout the day there will be various fun activities the children will be involved in to help us raise some funds.
Activity for children aged 2 years and above.
Equipment needed: Large bowl, large spoon, rolling pin, house cutter or other cutters and baking tray. We try to get the children counting the utensils and as well as naming them, helping with association and numeracy development.
Ingredients needed:
Mix flour margarine and sugar together, beat the egg and pour in, knead the mixture to make dough. Probably the children’s favourite part feeling dough mixture between their fingers. At the same timed watching and time copying other children and their nursery carers. At this point the nursery are asking the children how it feels encouraging the exploration of texture and feeling as well as developing their communication skills. It is then amusing to observe how they then try to teach each other and suggest they know what they are doing. You’ll probably notice them telling you what to do at home!
Roll out the dough to a thickness of around 2 cm then use your cutter to make the biscuits. The rolling of the dough involves a bit more focus and concentration from the children, however we find it amazing how the attitude of the children changes into a more focussed, artistic approach from the previous step in the messy making of the dough.
Grease a baking tray and place the biscuits on it, put the biscuits in the oven for 12 – 15 minutes on a heat of 350 degrees. The greasing of the tray and placing of the biscuits is something the children do themselves, always very proud and excited at what they have made and you can see this by how they point out to each other which biscuits are theirs. The placing in the oven of course done by the our Red House Carers.
Leave the biscuits to cool. The most frustrating part for our children, as you can guarantee they want to eat them immediately!
Throughout your activity you can talk about different things, shape, smell, weight, colour, texture. This will encourage your child to become engaged and involved in the activity.
This will help to further their development in a variety of ways; they will begin to make comparisons between quantities, show an awareness of similarities in the environment and understand that tools and equipment have to be used safely.
We hope you enjoy seeing how your child has learned to bake with their friends at the Red House.
An alternative activity can be carried out for children under 2 years, as they have a shorter attention span, but with the same fun outcome in seeing how your child has developed with their friends at the Red House.
Play dough – Use play dough in the same way using rolling pins cutters etc. Babies can manipulate the play dough and also use the tools. Some parents have told us their babies pass the play dough to them as way of asking them to be involved. This is all part of what we observe between their friends and carers while they are attending our nursery.
The exercise will help your baby to have a strong exploratory impulse and reach out and hold objects.
Activity for children 2-5 years old.
This is one we know all parents like to get involved in themselves!
Equipment needed: melon, lemon, strawberries, kiwi, orange, cover for eyes, knife (keep this out of reach of the child), bowls, paper and pens.
Show children all the fruits and talk about colour and texture. Chop the fruit up and cover your child’s eyes. Let them taste the fruits and guess by tasting, touching and smelling what each fruit is. At the end of the activity draw a picture of your favourite fruit. Parents tell us their children encourage them to be involved in the activity and often want to cover their eyes up which makes it more of a game. At the Red House we see friends watching each other take turns and asking to be the next one to have a go!
This activity will help children to respond to what they see, hear, smell, touch and feel.
Seek to make sense of what they see, hear, smell, touch and feel.
Talk about personal intentions, describing what they were trying to do.
Activity for children 0-2 years old.
Equipment needed: corn flour, water, food colouring and rice.
Discover mark making by using gloop, mix corn flour and water together to make a sticky mixture. Let babies play with it then add food colouring to change colour and rice to add texture. Babies can touch and make marks with the gloop. This is messy but simple exercise to see how your baby really does want to explore their environment. At The Red House, we see children copying each other’s movements and exploration while at the same time developing their own.
This activity will help babies to respond to what they see, smell touch and feel.
Activity for children 2-5 years old.
Equipment needed: magazines, papers, card, scissors and glue.
Use magazines, papers to cut out pictures and writing to create a collage picture. Glue your cut outs onto the card. Talk about shape and size during this activity. It really is amazing to see the pride children take when creating their collages. If another member of staff passes a room and asks what they are doing we often see a whole table of individuals wanting to show off their work. Friends talk to each other about what they are making and it is fun to see them copying each other for example if one of them makes a triangle they all want to!
This activity will help develop their skills by using one – handed tools and equipment, helps with physical development and creativity.
Understand that tools have to be used safely.
Practise and develop what they can do.
Activity for children 0-2 years old.
Equipment needed: paint, card and a pen.
Paint babies hands and feet and watch them explore them. Babies will reach out to touch their hands and feet. Use a piece of card to print baby’s hands and feet on as a reminder of your activity. This is a popular activity at the Red House and visiting parents often tell us how cute the hand and feet prints are on our collages. We have seen babies crawling to their painted handprints which are blue tacked to the wall, offering their hand up to match the print they have made. This really shows how they are developing and I am sure you will take pleasure from observing this yourselves.
This activity will help your baby to watch and explore hands and feet and works towards their physical development.
Activity for children 0-2 years old.
Equipment needed: small bricks, containers
Play with bricks talking about colours and build towers for babies to knock over. Encourage babies to build towers themselves. Use containers to put bricks in and out.
This activity will help children learn by observation about actions and their effects.
Create interest in pushing and pulling things, and begin to build structures.
In this activity children are starting to build up knowledge and understanding of the world.