Class Blog for Nursery

Welcome to Storytellers.

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, emphasising the characteristics of effective learning.

This approach fosters a love of learning and provides challenges linked closely to developmentally age-appropriate experience. We strive to create an environment where the children feel confident exploring and discovering new things. We have weekly forest school activities and constant access to a large, safe outdoor space and an all-weather area. Our excellent cook cooks all meals daily on-site.

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, 10 mins from Bodmin town centre.

As a smaller setting, we can only offer ten places per year group, which ensures a very high level of interaction with adults and quality education for your child while they are with us. We are very family-oriented and have strong community connections.

We can offer places to children from the age 2yrs and offer 3yrs funding and 30-hour funding; more information can be found here: www.gov.uk/30-hours-free-childcare

Morning sessions are from 8.50 am - 12 cost £17.70

Lunch is available from 12-1 pm at £5.90 plus meal cost or a home-packed lunch.

The afternoon session would be from 12-3 pm at £ 17.70 plus meal cost or home-packed lunch.

All day session 8.50 am - 3 pm £35.40 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 £35.40

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

We can offer afterschool care from 3.15 - 4.15 pm for £5.80, including snacks.

We also run a parent and toddler group, ' Twiglets', on a Wednesday morning from 9 am to 11 am, 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 is also available on our Twiglets Facebook page.

Following our nursery blog, which we hope to publish weekly, 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.

Kind regards,

Julie Pearce and the Storytellers team.

Love is all around us …

Celebrating Love…

Valentine’s Day in the nursery is the perfect opportunity for our young children to learn the values of kindness, affection, and friendship. While the day focuses on love, it is not just about heart-shaped cards and gifts; it’s about creating an environment where every child can learn the joy of caring for others.

Love and emotional connection are foundational to a child’s early development. Children in nursery are at a critical stage where their social and emotional learning begins to blossom. Valentine’s Day provides an excellent opportunity for us to introduce themes of empathy, sharing, and kindness. Through simple gestures and activities, children can begin to understand that love extends to their friends, family, and even the world around them.

Creating an environment that nurtures love does not have to involve grand gestures. In fact, small and simple activities can leave a big impact on the hearts of young children.

One of the most popular activities during Valentine’s in nurseries is making homemade cards. We created a simple heart-shaped cutout that the children enjoyed personalising them. These creations were made as gifts for their parents,or fellow classmates, teaching them the joy of giving.

Story-time with Love: Reading stories that focus on kindness, friendship, and love is an excellent way to introduce these themes in a meaningful way. Picture books like Guess how much I love you, captures the essence of love in simple, relatable terms our children can understand. Story-time offers a chance to discuss the emotional aspects of a story and reinforce positive behaviour’s.

Today we baked heart-shaped biscuits for Valentine’s Day, a perfect way to focus on emotions, empathy, and sharing. When the children helped prepare the biscuits, they were also learning to express care for others and be able to experience the joy of giving. After all, what better way to celebrate love than by sharing a sweet, homemade treat?

Valentine’s Day in the nursery is more than just a day for exchanging cards and candies. It’s an opportunity to sow the seeds of kindness, empathy, and love in the hearts of our youngest children. Through simple activities, heartfelt gestures, and nurturing relationships, we can help our children understand that love isn’t just about the people closest to us; it’s about showing care and appreciation for everyone. The lessons learned on this special day will stick with them, creating a foundation for future friendships, compassion, and emotional intelligence.

This Valentine’s Day let’s remember that love comes in many forms, and teaching our little ones to give and receive love is one of the most beautiful gifts we can offer them.

Enjoying a special banquet.

Lunar New Year.

January 29th 2025, marks the first day of the Lunar New Year, also known as the Spring Festival.

The Lunar New Year is an international holiday celebrated in many countries throughout Asia and around the world. The holiday goes by different names depending on where you are celebrating, and it symbolises a hopeful transition from the cold winter to the season of renewal.

As we say goodbye to the Year of the Dragon, we welcome the Year of the Snake. People born in the Year of the Snake are seen as charismatic, intelligent, and artistic; they are also often considered cunning and mysterious.

This week, we made colourful dragon pictures; the children created a dragon dance together and took turns leading. We have looked at different traditions surrounding this special time of year and explored mark-making techniques as we made our Chinese name decoration; our decorations were in red to bring us good luck. Lots of fun was had as we improved our fine motor skills and perseverance, using chopsticks to eat at the special banquet that we prepared together. Everyone enjoyed sampling different vegetables and tastes. Opening our fortune cookies proved very exciting as everyone found a hidden message.

Happy Lunar New Year to all who celebrate!

Big Garden Bird Watch ..

Storytellers have joined the RSPB Big Garden bird watch this week to take our learning outside. Bird watching is a fantastic way for the children to learn about and appreciate all kinds of wildlife. Watching birds encourages empathy for living things and sparks discussions about nature’s balance. We try to incorporate this skill into activities such as our forest school. Some of our older nursery children watched, counted the birds they saw, and filled in a chart as they spotted them.

Valuable listening skills – Bird watching can significantly enhance a child’s listening skills by encouraging them to focus on the subtle sounds around them. Birds often communicate through chirps, songs, and calls that children learn to identify, which requires patience and careful listening. Over time, these skills can transfer to other listening tasks, making them more attentive listeners in everyday situations.

Responsibility – Bird watching helps children appreciate nature and learn about caring for the environment. Setting up a bird feeder or bath allows them to take responsibility for feeding birds. This also opens up conversations about natural diets and avoiding artificial ingredients in bird food. The children created their bird feeders by combining mixed seeds and coconut oil, which involved squishing them all together and pressing them into little pots to hang in their gardens at home; this experience can be shared with their families and sparks a talking point.

How can we rescue the penguins?

Today at Storytellers, the children had so much fun rescuing winter animals frozen in ice. They used pipettes and pots to pour warm water over the ice, submerged it in a bowl of warm water, and watched the steam while learning about hot and cold and improving their fine motor skills.

It is a fantastic way to explore science through play.

Scrumptious Lunch

The children enjoyed a delicious Christmas lunch today cooked by our wonderful chef Sam, everyone happily tucked in while wearing their handmade party hats! Great fun was had after lunch as they raced the reindeer, they had received in the crackers.

Twinkly Nativity..

Wow, we could not be prouder of our little school! The children absolutely smashed both their performances and brought some twinkle to our toes !!! Singing, acting, bell ringing, recorders, and a solo …what an incredibly talented bunch of little people we have!

Thanks to everyone for making this possible, as it’s a massive team effort.

Embracing everything Christmas...

Christmas has arrived at Storytellers; the children created their letters to Father Christmas and were lucky to have our wonderful postman collect them! They have been assembling beautiful decorations and enjoying Santa's post office while often dressed in various festive outfits, which always bring a smile to everyone’s faces.