Welcome to the Toddlers Room.
We hope your child will enjoy their time with us taking part in lots of interesting and exciting things.
Our room is bright and cheerful and zoned into different play areas. On one of our walls we have an ‘art gallery’ where we like to display the children’s pictures and a family involvement board. Please use this to let us know what they have been doing at home eg. Visit to the farm, relatives came to visit etc so that we can talk to them about it or include it in the activities and their play. There is also an outer door which leads directly to our grassed, safely enclosed outdoor play area which we use whenever the weather permits. We have a variety of outdoor toys and also take indoor toys out to play with.
On the window, at the side of the door leading into the room, we display our toy chart and weekly activity sheet so that you can see what toys and activities your child has had the opportunity to play with. At the end of each day you have a daily chart to take home which tells you what your child has had to eat and drink, how much sleep he/she has had and how many nappies your child has used.
The 5 ladies that look after the toddlers throughout the week are:
Liz - enjoys outside and water play, she takes pleasure in sharing books and story time.
Sam - loves to do messy activities (her favourite is corn flour),
Nicola - favourite time of the day is singing and story time.
Helen - is an outdoor girl that also loves to do messy activities and read stories.
Gemma-she likes to sing and join in messy activities.
Every child has 2 members of staff as their key personswho especially watch over them. In the corridor, just above their coat pegs, you will find 3 hot air balloons with photographs of all the toddlers in their key persons’ groups. The key persons compile an individual ‘learning journey’book of observations, photos and artwork recording the child’s development and progression.
Toddler children are developing quickly and through play are learning many new skills. They are now increasingly mobile, learning to control their own bodies and the world has become an adventure of exploration.
We provide interesting toys and fun activities to encourage these skills and further their development. We encourage the children to interact with each other as well as with the ladies and we enjoy singing simple songs and rhymes and having lots of stories to develop language skills. We give the children lots of praise whilst teaching them the importance of the word ‘no’ for actions that are unacceptable, for example biting.
Biting is quite common as toddlers can become very frustrated when they are not able to express their needs and feelings and they haven’t yet grasped the concept of sharing.
At mealtimes your child is becoming more independent. To encourage their social and feeding skills we sit at a table with them. They are encouraged to feed themselves, using a small spoon and fork, but help is at hand if needed. The children wear pelican bibs to protect their clothes, and have beakers with lids on. We provide breakfast cereal for those children in before 8.30am unless they have already eaten breakfast at home. As well as lunch, which is at 12 noon, we have snack times each morning and afternoon. For snacks we offer a variety of different fruit and vegetables for the children to try, along with a drink of milk or water.
After lunch the children have about an hours sleep to recharge their batteries. They sleep in the room on a cot mattress, with their own labeled sheet and blanket which we provide. If the children are not asleep after 30 min of lying down resting they can get up and play or look at books.
The children’s nappiesare checked frequently and changed throughout the day according to their individual need. We provide biodegradable nappies, and record each time your child has a nappy change so you only pay for the number of nappies used. Sometimes children’s bottoms become sore especially if they are teething or on medication etc, so please provide a small tub of cream for us to use (e.g. sudocrem) labeled with your child’s name. Potty training usually takes place when they move into the green room however we do sit them on a potty at nappy changing times just to get them used to it.
Young children, especially under three year olds, can quickly and for no apparent reason develop a high temperature. Febrile seizures (fits) can occur in children when they have a fever (a temperature of 38°C /101°F or above), usually when the fever is in its early stages. The seizure can often happen before you realise your child is ill and can occur as a result of an infection or inflammation. Although not common they are not particularly rare either. For this reason we ask you to provide two named sachets of Calpol for us to administer should your child have a temperature, however following nursery policy we will only give calpol for up to three consecutive days without consent from the doctor. If you think we may need to administer Calpol on a particular day, you can ask us to do this by signing a permission form. It is important that we can always reach you to obtain permission to administer Calpol or let you know if your child becomes too ill to stay at nursery If you are not on your usual phonenumbers you must leave a number for that day or a contact who will be able to reach you if you are in a meeting.
To help us to ensure your child stays comfortable throughout the day we ask you to put a couple of changes of clothes in your nursery bag along withany comforters they usually use e.g. dummy, soft cloth, special soft toy.
We all have your Child’s best interests at heart so if you have any concerns or queries, please talk to us about them. All toddler room staff are available to chat to for advice or support. Similarly if there are any instructions you would like to give us regarding your child or would like us to know anything at all please do not hesitate to say. If you should wish, a suitable time can be arranged for you to discuss in depth your child’s development and any queries or concerns. We want to work in partnership with you, to ensure that your child has a very happy time in the nursery.