As spring had sprung and we were outside planting seeds we introduced the children to some more focus activities around the theme of ‘Down in the garden’. Mini beasts, spiders, planting strawberries, life cycle of the butterfly, the Very Hungry caterpillar story which is always a favourite to name but a few.
We had some slimy and furry visitors……. Snails which the children were keen to hold and the guinea pigs Angel and Scruffy.
Our annual May day celebrations again had some ladies tied up in knots much to the children’s amusement.

The children love the story ‘Alien’s love underpants’ so we began a space theme in April.
It’s amazing how many activities you can link to this theme. The children worked on their pencil skills when designing their own pants and drawing aliens. Used their problem solving skills comparing and matching patterns on pants, comparing planet sizes and estimating how many aliens would fit in boxer shorts. We counted aliens and used our number recognition skills too. The children learnt about moon craters and meteorites and explored making their own craters by throwing objects into sand to see the resulting marks. The children worked creatively when making rockets and aliens from junk items.

We also had fun spotting which pair of fancy pants had been stolen from the washing line by the alien and playing in the Tardis.

We enjoyed activities with a spring theme in March and invited our mothers, grandmothers and aunties to join us for some Mothers Day activities. A lovely afternoon was had by all as the children made necklaces for their Mummies and they iced fairy cakes and biscuits together.

The Easter Bonnet Parade was again amazing, no two hats were alike and staff were astounded by the variety and the ammount of work and imagination that had gone into them all.
In the run up to Easter the children experienced all kinds of egg themed activities and chick world made another appearance.

Activities at Daisy Chain are led by the children’s interests so following this when we noticed the children were very keen on the book Stick Man by Julia Donalson and Alex Scheffler (creators of the Gruffalo Story) we decided to plan a selection of activities based on the book.

We played with Stick man figures made by Sarah and Sharon, painted with sticks instead of brushes, made flags to to put in sandcastles, tried our hand at woodwork, made Stick man collages and figures and made Stick men we could eat using twiglets and vegetable sticks on crackers.
Sarah even bought us sticks we could eat for snack time….twiglets and bread sticks.

During January the children and staff enjoyed the snow and explored winter activities.
Then as we found several of the children were interested in vehicles and transport we focused our activities on this theme. Drawing wheels ,counting and sorting vehicles according to the number of wheels, dipping cars in paint and looking at the patterns the tyres made and building bridges for the vehicles to drive over.

The children and staff were full of the Christmas spirit during December.
We made all kinds of festive crafts, oranges studded with cloves, decorated stars, Baby Jesus Boxes, Christmas trees made from shapes and many more.
The play dough went ‘all festive’ with glitter and sequins inside and we were amazed by the magic snow, just add water and watch it grow.

One morning the children were surprised by a visit from Father Christmas who kindly took a break from his hectic schedule to just come and play with the children. Sometimes we forget it can be a bit scary to have to chat with some one you only see for 10 minutes once a year.
The children loved playing with him and listening to stories and even the little one who cried when he first came in was sitting near him for story time at the end of the morning. The children drew him some lovely pictures. Father Christmas said he’d had a great time and could he come back next year?

Our Nativity play in the church was a great success, all the children were stars and sang their Christmas songs in big voices. Their outfits looked great and the ladies were good sports and dressed up too.

We had three outings. We went to All Saint’s Church in Westbury to set up our Daisy Chain Christmas Tree. We take part in the Christmas tree Festival each year ,decorating our tree with Daisies and baubles. This year we were one of over forty trees.

We also were invited to Westbury infant school to watch the dress rehursals of their Nativity plays. We love attending these, it gives us the chance to see how past pupils have grown and developed in confidence and it give our present pupils a chance to see what ‘Big’ school is like for themselves.

The children decorated bells and raised sponsor money towards the party. We’d like to thank the families who supported us in this activity.
The party was enjoyed by all. On arrival we played pass the parcel. We had to have two circles and four presents there were so many children. Then it was time to eat. There was a wonderful spread of party food prepared by staff. Once we were full we settled down to watch the children’s entertainer Dave Hickory. He is excellent at his job and had the children in stitches with laughter (and the staff). He is also a brilliant balloon modeller and made a snow man , a penguin and a caterpillar which he gave to the children as prizes.

Father Christmas made another appearance this time with presents, much to the children’s excitement and then it was time to go home. We return on Monday 4th. January 2010.

We have been busy exploring Autumn topics during the past two months. We made bird seed cakes, looked at hibernating animals , counted, measured and compared autumn leaves and measured Sharon’s tall sunflowers.

We were excited when it was firework night and made some lovely firework pictures.

A new friend Ginger Bear came to live at Daisy Chain. He helps us to be good listeners when it is ‘carpet’ time.
We also brought our Bears to pre-school for Ted’s Big Day out fundraising day.

Everyone returned refreshed after the summer break ready to start the new term.

After a week or two to settle in we noticed that the children were playing lots of games linked to fairy tales so decided to take that as the theme of our focus activities.
We made beanstalks and matched numbers, built castles from bricks, counted magic beans, potato printed gingerbread men, finger painted frog masks, and made fairy tale pictures from magnetic letters amongst other things.

At story time we introduced lots of tales…….Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, The Gingerbread Man, Goldilocks, The Three Little Pigs, Tom Thumb and his Seven League Boots (If you wear them you can go from Westbury to Trowbridge in one step.) and Rapunzel.

The weather was kind to us and we spent lots of time in the garden. We had a building day with all kinds construction toys and cardboard boxes outside and long plaits were provided for Rapunzel.

Here are most of the Daisy Ladies.
L-R Sharon, Pam, Norma, Kirsty, Jacqui, and Sarah. Stacy was on holiday.

July was a busy month as staff prepared leavers reports and updated the children’s Learning Journals for the last time before they moved on to ‘Big School’.
The journals were well received by parents.
We were overwhelmed by the appreciative comments made by parents in the questionnaire and on the review section of our Google maps posting……..

This review was posted on 20th July
‘If I could award more than 5 stars I definitely would. My children’s journey with Daisy Chain started in 2006 when I moved into the area not knowing a soul I knocked on the door and was welcomed by friendly happy staff and asked If I could put my son on the waiting list to start that September. Since then both my children have attended Daisy Chain.
The staff are always approachable, if you have a problem you need to discuss or even a shoulder to cry on they will be there for you.My two children learnt all their basic skills and followed the national curriculum in preparation for big school. Within their learning journey they are allowed to be creative and develop at their own pace. They are nurtured with love and care and have the best intentions for your child.
Daisy Chain is a fun place to go, the children do all sorts of activities from one day to the next such as painting, dressing up, playing with toys,learning how to look after animals that visit the setting, playing outside in the garden, growing plants and making food. Each activity benefits your child’s learning and is all done through fun and play.The children also have a quiet time where they can relax and sit quietly (depending on what story is being read) and read a book with one of the key workers.
It has a really good Ofsted report and I can safely say I am very proud to have sent my son and daughter to Daisy Chain.’

We all enjoyed some Pirate and Mermaid activities, a bubble day and had fun playing ‘Duck, duck goose ‘ and other games with the very energetic work experience students on placement with us.

We were all very proud when Sarah graduated at Bath Abby receiving her Foundation Degree in Early Childhood studies.

Term ended with a party at Jungle Jacks soft play centre for all those going on to school. It was lovely to spend our last two hours with them racing around and have fun. A few tears were shed by parents and staff alike. We wish them all well and will return refreshed on Monday 7th. September.