These friends took great delight in getting all dressed up ready to travel on their ‘steam train’ together whilst sharing an afternoon tea

Imaginative ways and perfect role-playing days spent loving life together here at Jollies xxxx

Emily could not believe the incredible structure these two friends made together recently.

They had decided to play together and they were most definitely engaged in a shared mission!!

They played for ages and they negotiated plans and stayed focused throughout. Their play and exploration led to them emptying out the ‘cars’ and ‘loose parts’ boxes… and in the next moment they had used these boxes to form part of their construction!

After observing from a distance for a while Emily then walked over and asked them what this incredible thing that they were busy creating together was and they shouted excitedly “A garage!” They were beaming THE most enormous smiles and were, quite rightly, so very proud of their creation!

We love it when our children drive their play forward towards shared self-chosen goals and when they spontaneously select the resources they need from around the room and use objects for props within their play imagining them to be something totally different! An upturned box became another level of their ‘garage’ and their project grew and grew and grew!

Sustained shared thinking ways and incredible creative building days spent in friendship together here at Jollies xxx

Terrific Twos were not the only ones to venture outside into our local area last week as Exploring Elephants also had a very busy morning too! They decided together that they were going to do some baking and they wanted to make some rice crispy buns, but when Jade and Blue went to check the cupboards for supplies they soon discovered that they didn’t have one of the main ingredients required…. chocolate!

So they decided they would get some pennies and then all go out together on a trip up to the local shop to buy some ready to then be able to make some buns later that day after their lunch and a snooze

They all got suited and booted and headed on out up to the shop. Using their fabulous listening ears they walked super sensibly to the shop crossing roads sensibly and safely.

They then continued with their brilliant listening as they searched for the items that Jade and Blue described that they would need in the shop. They even had a few pennies left over for an additional treat as well (just for being total SUPER !!)

Once they had paid the very friendly shopkeeper they headed back to Jollies for some yummy dinner and a big sleep before waking up refreshed and ready to make their yummy crispy buns!

Shopping days and chocolatey baking ways spent loving life here at Jollies xxxx

A few more snapshots of our World Book Day fun!!! Thank you everyone for your superb efforts today!!!! xxxx

……..from Team Jollies xxxx

Mickey, Minnie, the Cheshire Cat, a variety of underpant wearing aliens, a leopard who found her spots, Abigail the Giraffe, Norman the slug with the silly shell and many PJ-ed up lovelies all got ready to snuggle and share story, after story, after story…. We love to read here at Jollies and we NEVER need asking twice to dress up so today is just about the perfect day for us all….

Thank you Team Jollies for getting into the snuggly, crazy spirit and thank you to all our children for simply looking FAB-U-LOUS and joining in all the World Book Day fun!!!! Xxxx

Thank you so much Team Jollies for staying on, and mummies and daddies for coming in, after a long day’s work for all of us to celebrate our children’s Jolly learning journeys and their total love of learning…

We hope you all enjoyed looking through memories books and chatting together about all things Jollies!!

Thank you all for working in partnership with us all to support, nurture and celebrate all our wonderful children.

Here’s to our next parental get together and Pimms on the lawn in the summer (in the hopefully!!) Xxxx

From making pancake faces, to flipping pretend ones in pans, to exploring pancake sensory trays, to having Mr Wolf (of Mr Wolf’s pancakes fame!) visit us, to eating the REAL DEAL!!!

Boy did we eat them too…. Savoury first and then sweet ones!! We kept Sian making pancakes (with assistance from sidekick Fiona!) for three solid hours across nursery… thank you, as always, to our very own Pancake Queen and also to ‘Mr Wolf’ (aka Jessica!!) too…

Happy Pancake Day everybody!!! xxxx

What better way to learn subitising skills than playing a game of dominoes with your friends!!!! Xxxx

We simply love to follow our children’s interests here at Jollies as they can lead us to some crazy, amazing places and the very best learning takes place when our children are fully engaged, absorbed and engrossed!

Some of our oldest children are currently OBSESSED with bringing stories to life and creating puppet shows and role-playing. So we had a bit of a re-jig of one of the rooms and switched and swapped resources to create them some more open-ended spaces to develop their scenarios… We know they’ll adore dressing up and turning the spaces available into a princess castle, an ogre’s lair, the Gruffalo’s cave, a superhero tower, an afternoon tea party or the feast at a ball…. We can’t wait to see where our children’s imaginations will take them to next…

(This is also proving an excellent opportunity to work upon looking after things and keeping the room tidy so our friends don’t trip up over clippy-cloppy shoes that have been abandoned in the middle of the floor; as we talked about putting shoes back in the basket and clothes back on the hangers before selecting our next exciting outfits AND this is a wonderful opportunity to develop our independence skills as we dress and undress whilst taking our costumes on and off AND also helping each other to do up buttons or Velcro too… after all, teamwork makes the dream work!!) xxxx

Earlier in the week Terrific Twos went on a lovely walk to the canal…and what a beautiful day they had for it

They took along some birdseed in case they spotted any ducks… and boy did they!! There were LOTS and LOTS of them, so they stopped and fed them all…

They then all took a stroll further along the canal towpath and they saw BIG and small boats and even more ducks…it literally felt like there were hundreds of them!!

Then a few minutes later they spotted something within the trees…..what, oh what, could it be?!? Oh help, oh no….it’s the…… Gruffalo!! He was standing there amongst the trees with Mouse, Owl, Fox, and Snake… There’s no such thing as a Gruffalo…….Oh yes there is down at the canal in Woodlesford!!

What a fun morning and what a totally brilliant way to finish off a great month focusing upon the Gruffalo story!!!

They then finished their visit to the canal with lots of running up and down on the grass between Stephen and Katie before walking back to nursery ready for James’ yummy lunch and a little nap afterwards!

The whole group were brilliant and super sensible throughout and they had their best listening ears turned on throughout the entire walk….Well done everyone and how lucky we are to have this wonderful place to visit literally on our Jolly doorstep xxxx