Settling in – the importance of establishing a routine
The nursery children settle in to their various different sessions with the help of the adults within in nursery, as well as the children around them, especially if they are already some familiar faces. Following our stay and play sessions at the beginning of September, the children start their sessions, sometimes by staying for a full day if appropriate and sometimes just for a couple of hours. With nursery staff there to guide the children, they learn about the beginning of the day routine of organising their belongings and finding their cost peg in the cloakroom. It doesn’t take long for the children to grow in independence and do these things for themselves, which in turn helps them feel a sense of belonging and contentment in the day-to-day familiarity.
Of course, the best part of the day is playing and exploring nursery! Our ethos of playful learning, means children are free to self-select their activities for the majority of the day, with nursery staff their to play alongside and extend their thinking and ideas.
A few of the children have started off the year, by getting ‘hands on’ with the paint, exploring colour mixing and of course, making hand prints. We celebrated this interest by displaying some of the lovely hand print pictures on the wall for them to see. We also shared a couple of lovely books, which give the children some ideas and inspiration of how to use their hands positively, such as sharing toys and drawing pictures for others.
As ever, the sand, water and play dough areas have also been very busy during the initial couple of weeks at nursery. Not only do the children have the chance to explore these areas, but because the space can accommodate several children, they also get to know one another and start to build relationships in these areas.
