"Over The Rainbow"

Looking forward….

The beginning of 2003 has seen us welcoming lots of new children to our Nursery, and Sue and Maria to our staff team. We are now looking forward to the Spring and a chance to develop the garden with our children.

Nursery activities

During the following months, our children will be involved in activities covering the following themes – the Arctic, Colours and Shapes, Life Cycles, Spring and “Myself”.

All the children (babies included!) take part in a daily craft activity linked to the current topic (eg. Arctic – sponge painting iceburgs; making model penguins). These activities are intended to promote each child’s different areas of development. For example, sticking, painting, textured paint and chalking all help to promote the child’s sensory development.

Sensory development is also encouraged through “messy play”, which again occurs on a daily basis. Our children enjoy playing with jelly, cornflour, water, sand, pasta and playdough to name but a few.

Whilst looking at the Arctic, the children even played with ice cubes, as well as discovering all about the animals, homes and clothes in this region.

For our pre-school children, our activities promote the six Early Learning Goals. Alongside our creative and messy activities, the children will be learning through play about numbers, letters, health routines, science, social and physical skills. Such learning will be promoted through the use of our toys in child initiated activities, through adult initiated activities and through our daily routines.

Nursery Education Grant

We are pleased to announce that commencing January 2003, we have been approved to receive the Nursery Education Grant for 3 and 4 year olds. Accordingly, we can now offer two and a half hour daily sessions (school term time only) for your 3 or 4 year old at no cost to yourself. Should you wish to increase the length of the session or access the Nursery provision outside of term time, this can be done upon payment of top up fees (subject to availability).

Under 5's Healthy Eating Award

Rainbow Childcare are taking part in this Award which was started in Bedfordshire in 1998 as part of Bedfordshire Health's Food Strategy and is a local initiative to work with agencies who are involved with food provision.

The Award is managed by dietetic staff from Heartlands Primary Care Trust and dental staff from Bedfordshire and Luton Community NHS Trust, who offer free advice and support to participating establishments.

The aims of the award are:

• To make sure that meals, snacks and drinks provided to children are nutritionally balanced
• To give children the opportunity to try an increasing variety of foods
• To provide a pleasant environment which encourages good eating habits and social interaction
• To encourage good standards of food hygiene
• To inform parents about the Award and encourage them to support the aims of the Award
• To use play and food based activities to learn about food and nutrition
• To improve dental health

Our Community Room

Baby Massage

We are delighted to have welcomed the local Health Visitors into our Nursery, along with a number of new Mums who are taking part in Baby Massage courses every Thursday.

Birthday Parties

The Community Room is available for hire for your child's birthday (up to age 5 only please).

"Jo Jingles"

It is never too early to develop an interest in music and Renu Elston hopes local tots will soon agree. The aim of a Jo Jingles class is to give toddlers a fun introduction to music through the use of songs, nursery rhymes, musical instruments, movement and dance, sound games and stories. Parents or guardians are encouraged to join in with their children at the classes, with the emphasis being very much on fun and informality.

Weekly sessions, lasting 45 minutes are running every Friday (term time only) in our Community Room.

If you are interested in any of these, please contact Leesa Goddard (Nursery Manager) for further information.