Take a look at how much fun our babies are having in their sessions at Learning Land...

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We understand that sensory play for babies has many benefits including support of the three prime areas: language development, physical development and also personal, social and emotional development. We aim to incorporate as much sensory play as possible for our babies for these reasons. Babies love to explore the world around them and we believe it is the best way children learn.

In this activity our children were given a sheet with a sheep on. They were also given some shaving foam as a sensory experience. To differentiate our learning for the ages and stages of our abilities we encouraged the older babies to use white cotton wool to manipulate onto the sheep, where as the younger babies were having fun with some foam. The difference in this differentiated activity was purposefully planned so that our older babies could develop their fine motor skills to place the cotton wool balls onto the sheep.

We value the importance of early reading at Learning Land Nursery - even for our youngest children. By handeling and taking an interest in looking at books, babies can become aware of communication and language by listening to different sounds and words. The babies can also enjoy looking and pointing at different pictures and objects in books.

Each year we encourage the babies to take part in our World Book Day celebrations by attending nursery dressed as their favourite book characters. Here are some adorable photos of our babies enjoying World Book Day 2024!

We understand that sensory play for babies has many benefits including support of the three prime areas: language development, physical development and also personal, social and emotional development. We aim to incorporate as much sensory play as possible for our babies for these reasons. Babies love to explore the world around them and we believe it is the best way children learn.

In this particular activity, we included our babies in the preperation of the materials by allowing them to chose their own coloured sand and helping to mix it together. This is a great way to introduce choice and support personal interest. Once the sand was ready, the children were given the opporunity to sit with their sand and use different materials to explore - especially with their hands and fingers. The intent of this activity was to allow the babies to develop their fine motor skills to develop their strength muscles in their hands.

Our babies have had a special visitor to deliver some Easter treats!

Our Babies have been busy celebrating Valentine's Day. We set up a large tuff spot in our main learning area which included different sensory objects and materials for the babies to explore at their own leisure. The babies also enjoyed some messy play using toilet roll tubes and paints!

Our babies have enjoyed reading 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar' at story time. In our baby room we value that exploration and play is essential to the first steps in learning. Therefore, we have a flexible routine which includes a story time in the free play session, so that babies can have the option to engage with the book or play. In this case, all of our wonderful babies sat and enjoyed the story with their key persons. Look how engaged our babies are!

Early reading is important because...

-it can help children grow to understand patterns of speech and spoken language.

-it can support imagination, curiosity and creativity.

-children begin to learn new language and vocabulary rapidly.

-children are encouraged to look and point which supports their curiosity and new learning skills.

-children begin to learn concepts, for example, what the book is about, in this case the children can begin to be aware of the life cycle of a butterfly and different foods that the caterpillar eats.

-children can easily become engaged and absorbed when a story interets them. This also helps to build and maintain focus for short periods.

•specific consent has been given to post these images on social media•

•specific consent has been given to post these images on social media•

Babies and Bubbles - 08.08.22

The intent of this activity was to:

• Enhance babies visual tracking skills. 
• Develop and support fine motor skills: movement and muscle development.
• Develop their hand eye co-ordination.
• Develop spatial awareness.
• Encourage social interaction between peers and practitioners.
• To encourage speech and language development using sensory exploration.

Providing babies with early sensory exploration helps to develop many transferable skills to apply to other aspects of the prime areas of learning. These include: personal, social and emotional development, communication and language and physical development.

28-07-2022

This week, we have been providing the children with the experiences of sensory exploration using the shaving foam. This enables the children to make marks and enjoy the sensory feelings of playing and exporing with the shaving foam. The children are also able to develop their fine motor skills for their physical development. Very messy, but very fun!!

01-06-2022

This week the babies have done some craft activities to help to celebrate the queen's jubilee. They have created their own hats with help and support from the baby room practitioners. The children have developed their expressive arts and design skills by using paints of their choices to finger paint their own crowns. Don't they all look so cute!

This week the babies had a trip outside to have a look and sit in the big fire engine! The babies loved sitting in the engine and meeting the brave fire fighters. At Learning Land we value the importance of cultural awareness and cultural capital to provide children with experiences they might not have, even at the youngest of ages!

Our babies have been busy doing lots of activities to celebrate red nose day this week. They have taken part in activities such as baking and painting headbands. By particicpating in craft activities children become expressive and confident in their abilities to make marks and connections using different materials.

Our babies have been dressing up as their favourite book characters at nursery to celebrate world book day 2022! Even at the youngest of ages, children should be encouraged to have a love for early reading. The practitioners have spent time with the babies reading their favourite books that they brought into nursery. It is very beneficial for children to be read to, even as babies!

Don't they all look amazing!!