Woodland Day Nursery

Woodland Olympics 2024 🏅

We have had a wonderful time celebrating the Olympics with our own daily sporting events.

We started the celebrations with creating our own medals and Olympic ring decorations and our own opening ceremony with our Olympic torch.

We have been having lots of fun with different sporting event including egg and spoon, hurdles, dancing, balance beam, bean bag toss and many more. The children loved discussing what event they would like to do the following day and winning the medals.

We ended our Olympic games with a closing ceremony or dancing and music with colourful ribbons and scarves.

Class Of 2024 👩‍🎓

We are immensely proud of our little ones who will be starting school this September. Not only have they developed hugely over the years but they were apart of recent outstanding Ofsted inspection displaying their amazing play skills and exceptional behaviour.

We had a lovely graduation party to celebrate their achievements with a visit from Jamie Jambo, the wonderful magician.

We would like to wish our little ones the best of luck at big school!

Wimbledon 🎾

The children have been showing an interest in tennis and some have said they have been watching it with their families. We decided to play table tennis which the children enjoyed and outdoor tennis. Whilst playing, we talked about the importance of the ball boys and girls and the children were eager to take up that role and collect the balls for their friends.

To continue the Wimbledon experience we decided to go to the local shop to buy strawberries and cream which the children enjoyed for their pudding.

COME ON ENGLAND ⚽️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

There has been lots of discussions between the children about the Euros and an interest in football. Following the win on Wednesday we created flags, in preparation for Sunday's game. The children have loved playing mini football in our tuff tray and playing football in the garden. The children have also enjoyed listening to football related tune and have a boogie.

Five little frogs ...🐸

Our children love singing five little frogs so we created them a invitation to play with tapioca to represent frog spawn. The children enjoyed running their hands through the tapioca and singing the song with the props. There was lots of discussion about the life cycle of frogs whilst they played.

Dinosaur Swap 🦖

Our dinosaur fans had lots of fun exploring the dinosaur swap which was created using coloured gloop. The children got super messy coating themselves and the dinosaurs!

Dinosaur Eggs 🦖

The children enjoyed using the hammers to free the dinosaurs from the dinosaur eggs. The children demonstrated the understanding for safety whilst using the hammers and worked together to get the dinosaurs.

Ice Cream Shop 🍦

The children were talking about their recent trip to the beach and enjoying delicious ice cream, so we decided to create an ice cream shop in the garden.

Some children helped make clean mud in different colours to represent the different flavours. They did this by grating soap and mixing it with shredded toilet paper and water. The children then used the clean mud to make ice creams for their friends and used the grapats as toppings.

Because the children enjoyed this activity so much we decided to treat them with ice cream with toppings for their pudding at tea time.

Enrolling for September 🌼

Recently awarded OUTSTANDING by Ofsted!

2 Year old spaces limited
3 Year old spaces available

Please arrange a viewing to avoid disappointment as spaces are limited and filling up fast. Please contact us through email at [email protected] or phone us on 01202 280430.

Follow the link for our Ofsted report : https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50249212

Woodland Day Nursery Woodland Day Nursery is an Outstanding setting located in Pokesdown. We are open 51 weeks of the year and operate 8am-5:15pm. Woodland is a dedicated day nursery for children aged 2-5 years.
Rated Outstanding by Ofsted in May 2024.

Happy Father's Day 🐻

Thank you to everyone who came along to our Father's day teddy bears picnic event, we hope you all had a wonderful time with your children and enjoyed the delicious treats they made for you.

We would like to wish everyone a lovely Father's Day!

WE ARE OUTSTANDING ⭐️✨

We are proud to announce that we were rated OUTSTANDING in all areas by Ofsted in our recent inspection.

Feedback from Ofsted was ‘Teaching is of the highest quality’ and the inspector stated, ‘How lucky these children are!’

We could not be prouder of our dedicated team who go above and beyond for our Woodlanders.

The report captures what Woodland Day Nursery is truly about, our ethos and all the wonderful experiences we aim to provide to help our children prepare for the future.

Puppet Theater 🤡

Our Woodlanders have shown an interest in the puppets this morning, so we decided to make them a puppet show so that they could do performances for their friends. The children had a great time watching the show and even got themselves some pretend snacks including popcorn and sweets.

They put on a great show, there was lots of giggles from everyone!

Volcano Science Experiment🌋

A while ago the children showed an interest in volcanoes and spent some time researching facts about volcanoes to learn more. This developed into the children painting pictures of active volcanoes and it was suggested to create a volcano for a science experiment.

The children have helped with the lengthy process of creating and painting a paper mache volcano for their experiment.

This week, their volcano was finally ready, the children had a wonderful time experimenting with vinegar and baking soda to make lava. The children had so much fun, we expanded the play later using gloop for the children to explore themselves and the volcano was used for a dinosaur land later in the day.

Butterfly Life Cycle 🦋

We were kindly gifted a butterfly kit from one of our school leavers last year and have recently arranged for the caterpillars to come to nursery.

We have had lots of fun watching the life cycle of the caterpillars and have done lots of activities related including loose parts creations and butterfly paint printing. The children have been fascinated with the process and have enjoyed listening to varies books related to butterflies and caring for them.

Today, we said goodbye to the butterflies and released them in our garden, hopefully they will visit us soon.

Chinese take out 🥡🥢

We understand that some children may not get to experience getting a take away meal . Developing our children's cultural capital, we wanted to give our children a Chinese take out meal experience.

The children were given change to pay for their 'Chinese take out', once paid they were given their take out meal to enjoy. The children had chopsticks to explore and Sarah showed the children how to use the chop sticks correctly. The children had a great experience and enjoyed trying new foods.

This experience was created from the children's interest of previously using our new Chinese tea set with spaghetti.

Clean Mud 🐻‍❄️

Our children have been exploring STEM (Science,Technology, Engineering and Maths) through experimenting creating their own clean mud. Exploring graters to grate the soap and observing the changes as they mix it with the toilet paper and water. The children enjoyed playing with mixture making molds and expanding their interest using the clean mud with the Antarctic set up.

Daisy the cow🐄

Yesterday, Daisy the cow escaped from her farm and was found by the children. The children were very sad to see Daisy leave and created cards for Daisy and farmer Kate.

Today the children were very excited to see a card had been delivered to them, from Kate thanking them for returning Daisy. The card featured Daisy the cow and her friends with the children's pictures. The children were super excited and showed all the teachers their card.

Developing fine motor skills ❤️🧡💛💚💙

A Woodlander took an interest in a spray bottle so we gave the children coloured water, spray bottles and some syringes to use on the windows. The children found the syringes a challenge, but quickly picked up the skill they needed to operate them.

The children enjoyed this activity so much, we have extended this activity this week with different bottles and gave the children different colours to mix.

Bumble Bees 🐝🐝

We have been seeing lots of bees in our garden recently so decided to create a bumble bee set up for the children to explore. The children had lots of fun using the bee for numeral recognition, counting and subitising.

Here at Woodland Day Nursery we introduce subitising through the use of five frames, getting the children to recognise when it is full or empty and to subitise small quantities.🐝

Risky Play 🏃

Here at Woodland Day Nursery we understand the importance of risky play and the benefits it gives children. Risky play develops a child's self-confidence and sense of self, resilience and risk management skills, it allows children to test their limits and perfect their gross motor skills.

Our children love building their own obstacle courses outside so we wanted to introduce risky play inside as well. We have recently introduced stepping stones and planks inside, which the children have been using. During this play, the children tested their own limited, challenging themselves more each time they went round by jumping a little further or making the stepping stones higher. We are also at hand to get the children to think about their safety and to support them if needed.

Costume Making 🪡

Our children enjoy dressing up so we have decided to introduce material and pegs for the children to create their own costumes. Our children have been making bandanas and dresses and transforming into different characters.

Whilst in the sand pit, the children were digging for gold, we used the materials as bandanas to become pirates. The children used their imagination, pretending to read the treasure map and found pretend golden chocolate coins which they share out between them.

BREAKING NEWS -
Daisy the cow escaped from the farm 🐄

The children received news through the radio that farmer Kate had lost her cow and needed help. The children set to work, making posters to put outside the nursery to inform the neighbours about Daisy the cow. The children had a shock when they came back into nursery to see Daisy was in our garden!

The children made sure Daisy had food and a bed whilst we phoned farmer Kate to let her know Daisy was safe. When farmer Kate came to collect Daisy, the children guided Daisy to the front door to say good bye.

The children were very sad to see Daisy leave so decided to draw pictures to send to farmer Kate and we hope to see Daisy soon.

'Leafleaf' the scarecrow 👩‍🌾

Some of the children were playing with our scarecrow in the garden and noticed the scarecrow had a shadow. An adult encouraged the children to draw around the scarecrow's shadow and Leafleaf was created. Some children created their own scarecrows and added features and clothes.

Sand Play 🪣

The children had a wonderful morning exploring sand through transporting, filling and emptying. The children worked from a height using our step to fill the tube and worked together to collect and refill. They used the guttering and buckets to transport the sand from one container to the other. They explored how the sand flowed through different equipment such as the funnels and the sieves.

Obstacle course 🥇

The children created an obstacle course inside using our loose part cones. They practiced their jumping, using different techniques to get over the cones.

Rain, rain go away ....💦☔️

With all the rain we have been having, we were inspired to do some umbrella painting. The children had lots of fun mixing the prime colours to make new colours and singing rain related songs.

Happy Easter 🐥

Thank you for everyone who attended our Easter party, we hope you all had an egg-cellent time!

3 Little Ducks Went Swimming One Day ....... 🦆🦆🦆

The children were super excited to watch our three ducks swimming. The children have been having lots of cuddles with the ducks and we have seen lots of the children's confidence grow with handling them.

Easter Bunnies 🐰

We were very lucky to have a visit from a member of staff rabbits, Bailey and Wilson.
The children had the opportunity to hold them and watch them in their run. The children all commented on how soft and cute they were. The rabbits were very lucky to have a story read to them.

Thank you Georgia for bringing them in !