Blog Post
Week Commencing 31st October 2022
Wonderland Day Nursery • November 7, 2022
Wonderland Weekly News
WC 31st October 2022
This Week's Menu
This week we are following our Week 2 Autumn/Winter menu
Currently there are no planned changes to this week’s menu. If there are any changes during the week, you will be notified on your child’s individual hand over sheet.
Working in partnership at Wonderland
If you would like a catch up with your child’s key carer at any time or if you have any questions, please do not hesitate in giving a member of the Management Team an email to arrange this. Our doors are always open. Corrin can arrange permanent session changes and Toni is able to book in extra sessions on your behalf. If you have any invoicing queries, please email our Accounts Team on the address below.
Accounts – accounts@wonderlandnursery.co.uk
Babies – Corrin – corrin@wonderlandnursery.co.uk
Toddlers – Hannah H – hannahh@wonderlandnursery.co.uk
2-3’s - Toni – toni@wonderlandnursery.co.uk
3-5’s – Emma E – emmaedwards@wonderlandnursery.co.uk
Extra sessions – toni@wonderlandnursery.co.uk
Changes to your child’s usual booking pattern, if your child is leaving Wonderland - bookings@wonderlandnursery.co.uk
Staff Holiday
Monday 31st October - Emma E
Tuesday 1st November - Sarah T
Wednesday 2nd November - Sarah T
Thursday 3rd November - Sarah T, Leah
Friday 4th November - Karin
Booking extra sessions and requesting changes to your child’s permanent sessions
We are changing the way we would like you to communicate with us regarding increasing, decreasing and requesting changes to your child’s permanent nursery sessions.
If you would like any changes to your child’s permanent nursery sessions, please can you email the following address: bookings@wonderlandnursery.co.uk Corrin our Nursery Manager will look into your request as soon as possible.
If you would like to book extra sessions, please may we ask that these are still sent to Toni our Deputy Manager using the following address: toni@wonderlandnursery.co.uk
Toni will look at the availability and will get back to you at her earliest convenience..
The Cultivo Giving Tree is back – Share some Christmas Joy!
Come into the restaurant and pick a tag, buy and wrap a gift and return it to Cultivo by 8th December!
Elgood Photography
It’s photo day again on Thursday 3rd November!
If your child attends Wonderland for their usual nursery session on a Thursday, no need to panic. They will have their photo taken during their nursery day.
If your child does not attend Wonderland on a Thursday, please email your Age Group Mentor (their email address’ can be found on the second page of the newsletter) to book in a time within our morning ‘drop-in slot’ for your child to still have their photograph taken.
The morning slot will be 9am – 10am.
Please book before Tuesday 1st November (We are aiming to have these back in time for Christmas!)
Free Behaviour Course
Would you like to pick up some tips on how to support your child’s behaviour then have a look at this free course run at our local Family Centre – Chestnut Tree.
Halloween
Zoo Lab - Monday 31st October
Zoo Lab are visiting to help engage with the children and staff in a safe and informative way about a range of insects and animals.
Halloween party tea – Monday 31st October
Our fabulous Kitchen Team will be creating a lovely Halloween Party Tea for the children to enjoy here at Wonderland.
Dressing up and Fancy Dress
We would also like to invite the children to dress up during the week commencing 24th October as well as the following Monday (31st October.) The children do not have to dress up every day, but the option is there throughout this time to ensure all of the children have the opportunity to dress up, no matter what sessions they attend at Wonderland.
Please remember, don’t spend a lot of money on fancy dress clothes, the children are more than welcome to wear their comfy onesies and lovely Autumnal jumpers and t shirts. Home made outfits are fab (but only if you have time!!!) Of course, if your child doesn’t want to dress up, this is okay too! We have lots of role play outfits which we can offer here at Wonderland.
However, please remember nothing too scary or gruesome for fancy dress for little ones!
Icknield center – Christmas Concert
We are so pleased to be able to share with you that this year we are able to invite Parents and Carers of the 2-3’s and 3-5’s children to join us at the Icknield Center in Letchworth on Wednesday 14th December.
More details and times will follow. However, this will take place after 2:30pm on the afternoon of Wednesday 14th December. The 2-3 children will take the stage first and then the 3-5’s children will take to the stage.
If your child attends Wonderland on a Wednesday afternoon they will be transported with the Wonderland Team to the Icknield Center. The children will then be able to go home from the Icknield Center once they have preformed their Christmas Songs and dances.
We will be sending more details out very soon!
Babies and Toddler Christmas Sing-a-long
We are really looking forward to inviting two Parents or Carers into Wonderland for the Babies and Toddler Sing-a-long. This will take place during the nursery day within the Baby Unit and Toddler Room.
Times and dates will be confirmed during next week’s newsletter.
Art project for schools
The children have been working hard to create their very own Christmas design which has been off to the Art Project For Schools Company on Monday 24th October. If your child has been poorly or on holiday during the last few weeks of October, they may have missed the deadline to create a Christmas design this year.
We expect to have the Christmas Designs back during the week commencing 7th November. Once we have these back, we will provide more information regarding how to order your child’s Christmas design as a variety of products, such as Christmas cards, wrapping paper, mugs and tags.
Our Christmas Panto is back! – Pre-school Children only
We are delighted to announce on Tuesday 6th December we have space for 16 children to attend the Cinderella Panto in Stevenage.
The children will walk from Wonderland, to Letchworth Train Station to catch the 9:15am train to Stevenage. The Wonderland children and staff then walk across from Stevenage Train Station to The Gordon Craig Theatre.
The children will have a little snack and treat during the interval and then head back to Wonderland on a train again, to return to Wonderland just in time for their lunch.
The children will be on a 1:2 ratio at all times.
Usually, tickets are allocated on a first come, first serve basis. However, this year we are going to do things a little differently.
Unfortunately, we cannot take everyone. However, if your child usually attends Wonderland on a Wednesday and you think they would enjoy this experience, please email Emma Edwards to let her know by Friday 11th November via email on emmaedwards@wonderlandnursery.co.uk
The children’s names will then be placed in a hat and 16 names will be selected blindfolded until all 16 spaces are full. Emma Edwards will then notify the Parents of the children who have a space on our Christmas Trip.
Welly Walk
The Babies have been...
Exploring textures in a variety of ways, such as exploring their Halloween cauldrons and Halloween sensory gloop trays to find hidden insects. As well as continuing to practice their walking! The Babies have also been exploring their sensory bubble tube and exploring their finger puppets to share nursery rhymes.
Next week the Babies will be……
Continuing to build and knock down a variety of towers, using sensory blocks and sensory reals. Creating firework pictures and showing confidence during new experiences when they meet some insects and other animals during their Zoo Lab visit on Monday 31st October.
The Toddlers have been...
Exploring everything spooky this week with Halloween activities, we have been making iced biscuits and exploring arts and crafts creating pumpkin pictures! The children have even come in dressed up in lovely outfits pretending to be cats, pumpkins, and unicorns! Happy Halloween everyone have a fang-tastic day!
Next week we will be…
The children will be exploring different textures in various tuff trays that contain gloop,crazy foam, jelly and flour. They will be learning new words to add to their vocabulary and trying to distinguish between the types of messy play. The Toddlers will also be continuing their halloween theme by creating witches potions using coloured water and getting in the spirit of halloween with a fun dress up party!
The 2-3's have been...
Celebrating Diwali and Halloween. They have been talking about Diwali and creating pictures. They have been making chocolate covered apples on sticks, exploring spooky monster jelly play and have been making ghost pictures by vegetable printing. They have also been constructing with tools and have been talking about making big and small buildings.
The 2-3’s story of the week has been….
Room on The Broom.
Next week we will be... Creating firework pictures and having a firework inspired disco whilst pretending to be fireworks. They will be exploring the insides of pumpkins and will be enjoying Halloween inspired roleplay games.
Pre-school – The 3-5’s
Our topic is – Autumn, Halloween, Diwali
Our Phonics focus have been… Literacy / Phonics: Aspect 4 – rhythm and rhyme
Next week the children will be exploring rhythm and rhyme in a variety of ways. They will be sharing the story of ‘Funny Bones’ to identify the rhyming words or words that sound the same. As well as playing rhyming bingo with their friends.
Please check your 3-5’s Parents Memo for a way in which to support your child’s Phonics development at home.
Our Mathematical focus has been...
Exploring leaves and noticing what we can see. The children then used paint and crayons to create Autumnal prints using the leaves.
Our STEAM activities this week have been…..
Creating a large scale firework painting during our outdoor learning this week. The children used large trucks and cars to drive through the paint as well as paint brushes to flick the paint across their paper.
Our Topic focus have been…
Exploring the festival of Diwali by creating our very own Diva lamps and Rangoli patterns. As well as creating our very own firework pictures in a variety of ways. Such as using a fork and straw to blow the paint across our paper.
Next week we will be…
Our topic is – Following our children’s individual interests.
Our Phonics focus will be…
Literacy / Phonics: Aspect 2 – General Sound Discrimination – Instrumental
Within this aspect we aim to develop the children’s awareness of sounds and how these can be made by a variety of different instruments. The children will be exploring large pots and pans, with metal and wooden spoons to see what sounds they can make and also exploring a variety of instruments to see if they can make loud and quiet sounds.
Please check your 3-5’s Parents Memo for a way in which to support your child’s Phonics development at home.
Thank you for your continuing support.
We hope you all have a lovely weekend.
The Wonderland Management Team
