March 2025 - Promoting a love of books
At Birchwood Nursery and Preschool, we celebrate the magic of books every day, but World Book Day is always memorable as children have the opportunity to share their favourite book.
This year, the children and staff celebrated their favourite bedtime stories and came to school in their pyjamas. This is always a fun day for us, as we focus on the joy of reading. We expose the children to positive and engaging learning experiences so that they leave Birchwood Preschool and Nursery with a love of books and a desire to read.
February 2025 - Maths is everywhere!
“Without mathematics, there’s nothing you can do. Everything around you is mathematics. Everything around you is numbers.” – Shakuntala Devi
Math is an important part of learning for children in the early years because it provides vital life skills. They will help children problem solve, measure and develop their own spatial awareness, and teach them how to use and understand shapes.
Children notice and explore mathematical dimensions of their world in and outside of our nursery environment. They compare quantities, find patterns, navigate in space, and grapple with real problems such as balancing a tall block building or sharing a bowl of crackers with a friend at snack.
January 2025 - Noisy Jungle
We can touch, feel and hear the sounds of the jungle in this interactive board book. Packed with appealing photographs, fun facts, tactile textures and exciting animal sounds – little ones experience the jungle like never before!
The children are enjoying this non-fiction book as they explore the facts and textures. They have been matching the illustrations with toy animals, talking about different animal groups such as those that live in the jungle and others that live in the sea, small world play as they match animals in family groups, hiding them in playdough, exploring Math concepts when talking about small, medium and big in reference to mummy, daddy and 'me'/baby' and building pens or enclosures for the animals to live in.
December 2024 - Whatever Next!
The moon and back before bath time? Whatever next!
Baby Bear wants to go on one more adventure before bed – a quick trip to the moon. Mrs Bear isn't pleased, and anyway, she says, Baby Bear doesn't have a rocket. Luckily, there's one under the stairs . . .
The children are enjoying our current core text. They are able to retell the story to each other while acting out the storyline using props. This book prompts our thinking about space and shape, counting skills and adventure while we imagine what it might be like to travel to the moon in a cardboard rocket ship.
November 2024 - The Very Busy Spider
In this multi-sensory book, children can feel the pictures as well as see them, while they hear or read the easy rhythmic text. Early one morning a little spider begins to spin her web on a fencepost and she doesn't stop until it is finished . . .
Alongside the visual excitement of Eric Carle's vibrant collages of familiar animals is the tactile experience of feeling the spider's web as it grows from a simple line into a complex and beautiful creation - a perfect story for reading aloud and sharing.
The children have also explored a range of resources and materials, such as play dough, beads and pipe cleaners to create their own spiders and and pictured blocks to help them match the characters and retell the story independently.
November 2024 - Autumn Treasures
Thank you for supporting our Autumn Treasure Collection.
The children were very happy to share their contributions and have enjoyed exploring the natural treasures collectively.
We have explored the collection and talked about where they grow and where we found them. Many children found treasures in the garden and some ventured out to the park.
We also investigated some mathematical concepts. The children have lifted up pumpkins and various leaves and pine cones to feel and compare weight and size.
October 2024 - Bijou
Meet Bijou. Bijou is our preschool pet. He is a Lesser Tenrec and originates from Madagascar. Despite looking like one, he is not related to the hedgehog family. He can climb trees and eats meal worms and exotic fruits! Even though he looks spiky he is very easy to handle.
Interacting with animals supports children’s learning and development, and gives children the opportunity to learn how to be gentle and responsible for others.
Sensory Development
Young children discover their world through seeing, hearing and touching. Stroking and interacting with animals at close proximity teaches children how various textures feel. The various animal noises will help children identify the animals’ unique sounds.
Motor Skill Development
Motor skills are constantly being developed throughout a pre-schooler’s life. Motor skills are simply anything that uses their muscles. Gross motor skills involve large movements such as running or climbing, and fine motor skills are small movements such as holding a brush to groom an animal, or using tweezers to feed them.
Language Development
Spending time with animals is great for learning lots of new words – like whiskers, snout and paws. Children will usually return home at the end of the day and chatter away to their family about the animals.
Empathy
Young children begin to develop the ability to understand and share the feelings of others, and this includes animals too! When a child is asked questions such as, “Do you think Bijou likes being stroked?” and “Do you think the snail is hungry?” these can help children to consider the animals’ feelings.
September 2024 - Dear Zoo
The children have enjoyed listening to the story Dear Zoo. They have been very excited to guess which animal is behind the flaps and open the flaps to see if they were correct. The children can match the animals from the book with toy animals and some are beginning to retell the story themselves, exploring the story props to recreate the book and make up their own stories and games.
The importance of reading for children cannot be underestimated. Reading for pleasure can benefit a child’s education, social and cognitive development, their wellbeing, and their mental health.
September 2024 - Settling in to Preschool
A very warm welcome to all the children and their families for the new term.
The children are settling well in to the new routines. They have the confidence to free-flow inside and outdoors within the setting, and are building relationships with their key person and other staff supporting them.
