We were very lucky to be invited to see 'Squirrel' at Unicorn Theatre today. We took two groups of children & their parents to see the show. It was a beautiful, immersive experience. The children loved the lights and sounds and collecting Squirrels acorns. We even got to say hello to Squirrel.

Our core text this fortnight is 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears'. We will be reading alternative versions of the story and looking at similarities and differences. There will be opportunities for cooking different kinds of porridge, acting out the story and using lots of mathematical language.

The blue sky today meant the children could see all the aeroplanes flying over nursery. There was great excitement. They counted planes as they flew overhead, using binoculars to get a closer look. They recorded the number of planes they saw. There was so much conversation & lots of new vocabulary.

The children explored magnetic letters. They recognised special letters and letters they shared with friends. They arranged letters into words, explaining what they had written. "That's my letter G" "What letter is this?" "Letter O" "Look. It's my name" "It says papa" "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"

The children were so inspired by the story of Munch, the food recycling vehicle, that the following day they wanted to name the Nursery recycling vehicles Munch. It was a good opportunity develop marking skills & scissor skills. The children acted out a story of the vehicles collecting food waste.

The children decorated our snack food waste caddy with the stickers given to them by Veolia. They took the food waste to the compost bin in the garden. "Stinky bin" "The fly went in my face" "Is the maggot a little worm?" "A wasp. A wasp once stung me. Yesterday" "There's a big slug" "I see apples"

We had a special visit from the Education Outreach Team at Southwark Veolia. They read 'Munch and the Funny Tummy', a story about a recycling vehicle called Munch that is fed the wrong kind of recycling and things go wrong! Luckily the recycling crew helped Munch and he was back on the road again.

Today was Christmas lunch day. A very special day when the children and all the staff eat together. The table was set beautifully. We had turkey, vegetarian wellington, roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, vegetables and gravy. The children loved pulling their crackers and wearing their party hats 🎄

We had our end of term sing-along today. Children, families and staff all sang Christmas songs together. As well as singing a song in Yoruba we sang in Spanish and Arabic too. Afterwards we enjoyed German spiced biscuits and mulled apple juice, hook a bauble and making eco-Christmas decorations.

We had two special visitors today. Santa 1 and Santa 2. The children were so thrilled to see Santa they showed him their toys in the nursery before he even got to the grotto. As well as meeting the children in the grotto, Santa had a game of football and an impromptu Santa disco. Two top Santa's ❤️

The children had a magical experience watching How Does Santa Go Down The Chimney at Unicorn Theatre in London Bridge. It was wonderful to see them laugh at the jokes and smile at the beautiful snowy and sparkly special effects. Thank you to Unicorn Theatre for their generosity ❤️

The children practised their cutting skills by wrapping gifts (old empty boxes) to put under the tree in the home corner. "We're making presents" "I cutting" "It's too small. I need bigger paper" "Mummy like chocolates" "I do it" "It's for me" "This is my name" "I want to take it home for mummy"

Thank you so much to our parents and carers who came in both this morning and afternoon to wrap books for the children for Santa's grotto.

The chn 'bought' the classroom Christmas tree from the role play shop. They decided it cost £60. The tree was delivered to the homecorner where they decorated it. "It's £60" "Ouch the tree is spiky" "I got tree my house" "I got decorations on my tree" "I got big, big tree" "I'm the delivery guy"

The children helped build a bug hotel made entirely of reclaimed materials: wooden pallets, old wonky wooden construction blocks, egg boxes and cardboard tubes. They searched the garden for logs, sticks and leaves to stuff in the gaps. "I got sticks" "Will snails live here?" "Is that the bedroom?"

We are winners!! Names thought of by our children were picked as names for three of Veolia's fleet of waste food recycling trucks. Gizmo, TummyTron and Chewball will be collecting food waste from homes in Southwark. Well done to the children ♻️ 🚛 ♻️

Sarah and Claire, our teachers, spoke at the #NurseryWorldConference and shared different ways we support children at The Grove, now and for their futures. They spoke about knowing our community, developing the whole child, building an inclusive curriculum and putting sustainability into action.

The chn studied the work of British artist Frank Bowling. Born in British Guiana in 1934, he moved to London in 1953. He still has a working studio not far from The Grove. The chn watched a video by the Tate on his different techniques and worked together for a week to produce a large-scale artwork.

The chn explored pumpkins and did observational drawing/paintings. “I like the orange pumpkin because it’s orange on the outside and inside” “I like the yellow pumpkin because yellow is my favourite colour” “There’s pumpkins in Tesco” “I do the daddy pumpkin” “I wanna take my house” “I have pumpkin”

The children have been looking for signs of autumn in the Nursery garden. “Let’s find a fungi” “What’s a fungi?” “That’s a mushroom” “Me don’t touch it” “I saw a spider in my home” “Yesterday I saw a spider with ten legs” “I want a pink leaf” “This is a rainbow leaf” "I want to see fox" "Tiny seed"

The children loved trying on different clothes made with traditional African prints. “It fit me” “My mummy buy me skirt” “I like the pink skirt” “I wanna try the pink skirt” “It goes over your head. You look pretty” “I’m an orange ninja” “It’s got triangles on it” “My one has circles” #BHM

One of our parents came into Nursery to talk with the children about his traditional clothes from Nigeria. “My clothes are from Benin City, Edo. My brother in law is a tailor and made them. My wife has the same, but a dress. The clothes can be worn to church. My hat is a party hat, weddings" 1/2

The children enjoyed cornmeal porridge for their morning snack, made by Stacey. Stacey grew up in Jamaica and ate it as a child. The children tried Jamaican bun and cheese, eaten at Easter, for their afternoon snack. “I like the fruit cake” “I call it bun” “Mummy have bun at my house” #BHM 1/2

The chn read books about Black history and learnt about influential Black Britons. "Can I read this book?" "She's got black skin" "My mum has brown skin" "I play football" "He looks like Uncle Drew" "Mummy got long hair" "I can run fast" "I know Africa" "I eat jollof rice" "I like her" [boxer] #BHM

The children explored skin tone paints. They looked in a mirror and noticed their features before painting self-portraits. “I got pink skin” “I’m a black boy” “I’ve got brown skin. My daddy’s got brown skin. Mummy is white” "My hair is black" "I have brown skin on my face" "Yes, brown eyes" #BHM

Our recycling champs love taking classroom waste to the 'big bins' in the store room before everything is collected to go to the borough recycling centre. "I'm a superhero. I'm saving the planet" "This is recycling. It go in the big bin" "Let's carry it together" "Bye rubbish" "I'm recycling"

The children explored seasonal resources at carpet time. Some had to be handled carefully as they were a bit prickly! "It's a bit hairy" "It spiked me" "It's autumn" "Me want acorn" "Squirrels eat acorns" " I like pumpkin. I wanna take it my house" "I take the conker out of the shell for you"

Nursery is feeling very autumnal. We have beautiful seasonal resources for the children to explore alongside our core text 'Aaaarrgghh Spider'.

Siren Films have extended their free to watch offer on our short, but beautiful, film about sustainability at The Grove. Do share with friends and colleagues ...

We have been learning more about recycling during #recyclingweek Families enjoyed watching our beautiful film on sustainability featuring @laurahallain.bsky.social by @sirenfilms.bsky.social We read a range of books/info about looking after our planet. And children have been junk modelling.

The chn have been thinking about recycling waste for #recycleweek They brought recycling in from home to sort into different piles and took them to the nursery recycling bins. They continue to take care of nursery by picking up litter from the garden/classroom floor to recycle or put in the bin.

We are so happy to be able to share this short film about sustainability at The Grove Nursery. Thank you so much to @sirenfilms.bsky.social and @laurahallain.bsky.social for helping to make it happen. It was a privilege to be part of it. #recycleweek

This week is Recycle Week. To celebrate @sirenfilms.bsky.social released a film about sustainability with @laurahallain.bsky.social at @grovenursery.bsky.social I was moved by how Sarah and @eyfsclaire.bsky.social talk about how racial justice is part of it Beautiful. www.sirenfilms.co.uk

Following on from our learning on World Afro Day, one of the children brought in her wash day crown. We read'Ada's Wash Day' and talked about similarities. "Why is she crying?" "I go on my tablet when I get my hair done" "This is my crown" "I got a brush like that" "Aunty Angel braids my hair"

The children were fascinated to watch tree surgeons trim two big olive trees outside the Nursery. It was a great opportunity to chat & introduce lots of new vocabulary: motor, engine, strimmer, chipper, helmet, visor, ear defenders, shovel, canopy, pruning. "What you doing, bro?" "Why he up there?"

The Grove celebrated World Afro Day today. Parents came in to share how they take care of their children's hair - showing tools and products. Our staff talked about their hair too. One of our team, whose child attends our setting, showed the chn how she styles her daughter's hair after wash day 🧵

Thank you so much @sirenfilms.bsky.social and @laurahallain.bsky.social It was such a special experience to take part in this. We are so proud of our children, our families, our community. And we keep on learning together.

The children entered a competition to name one of Veoila's new vehicles that will collect waste food (to be recycled) from homes in the borough of Southwark. The children worked together to think of names and then they voted on the one they liked the best. GOBBLE TRUCK got the most votes 💚🚛

We are very excited to welcome the children back to Nursery today. The garden and classrooms are looking beautiful and we can't wait to play!

Good morning from our beautiful nursery garden. The sunflowers and pumpkins are loving the sunshine. It is our final week before the summer break. We are going to enjoy our last week together.

More children visited the rescue hens at Glengall Wharf Gardens. They fed the hens (seeds and kale), they held the hens gently and they searched for eggs in the coops. They also collected fallen, ripe fruit (apricots and greengages) from the orchard to feed to the hens. Such a rich experience 💛

Lots of scooters and bikes outside of Nursery. We love to see sustainable forms of transport.

The chn ate sweet bun at snack time. They had lots to say about it: "I want to eat all the bread" "I don't have bun. I have toast" "Nanny buys bun" "Would you like some bun?" "The bun has cherries in it" "Mummy buys bun. She make toast" "I wanna eat all the bun" "It's delicious" "I want bread"

The chn were talking about who was their friend and who was allowed in the home-corner. We had a discussion about the home -corner being for everyone. For all of our friends. We gave the home-corner a name: Friends House. The children made a sign and it went up over the entrance. Everyone welcome.

The children conrinue to take part in The Wildlife Trusts #30DaysWild. Week 2: Move like wildlife and get active outdoors. They tried wildlife yoga poses: eg heron, snake & frog. And they made treasure boxes out of old egg cartons, filling them with beautiful & interesting things they found.

The chn have been learning about Windrush. They looked at photos of families aboard Empire Windrush and a map of the world and the journey across the oceans that people made to come to Britain. Gloria, who helps look after our classrooms, talked with them about her journey, as a child, from Guyana.

The chn were thirsty this morning whilst playing in the garden. They picked some lemon mint from the garden to add to the jug of water. It soon turned into role play, with the children setting up a 'lemonade stall' and pouring drinks for each other. A sign was written that said "Have some water"

The children have been taking part in The Wildlife Trusts #30DaysWild! Week 1: Help Wildlife Where You Live The children made: Bird feeders with seeds and vegan suet. A mini wildlife pond for small creatures. Seed bombs to grow a mini meadow. A log pile for the insects.

This morning we picked strawberries growing in The Feel Good Garden. We washed them in the home corner & chopped them up for morning snack. "I can see a strawberry" "This one is really red" "Don't pick that one. It's not red yet" "Something has been eating that one" "Can I wash the strawberries?"

This morning we picked strawberries growing in The Feel Good Garden. We washed them in the home corner & chopped them up for morning snack. "I can see a strawberry" "This one is really red" "Don't pick that one. It's not red yet" "Something has been eating that one" "Can I wash the strawberries?"