We’re getting close to the end of the year now, but November has still been a really busy month full of celebrations!

The month began with Bonfire Night, where displays could be seen going up around the nursery and we enjoyed singing one of our favourite songs; ‘On Bonfire Night’. Our babies in Blue Monkeys enjoyed splat painting to make fireworks, and made rockets using cardboard tubes and fluorescent paint. Pink Monkeys enjoyed talking about the sounds that the fireworks made, and created a lovely bonfire for their display. Red Monkeys got creative and used straws and paint to make some fantastic firework pictures on black card.

On the 11th November, at 11am, we took the time during our day to observe a one minute silence and think about all the people who have helped us. The children all made representations of Poppies to display and Red Monkeys held a short circle time discussion remembering the people we love.

We embraced Children in Need this year by dressing up in our spotty clothing to fund raise for the Charity! The children enjoyed a range of spotty activities and held a bake sale of spotty cakes and biscuits for Children, Parents/Carers and Staff to enjoy!

This month also saw us celebrate the Traditionally American celebration of Thanksgiving! We enjoyed a delicious American Menu, which included Turkey meatballs with Yams, Apple Pie with Cream and Sloppy Joes! We were lucky enough to have an American Grandparent of one of our Toddlers come in to talk to our Pink Monkeys all about Thanksgiving and what we can be thankful for. The children were enthralled as they listened to her discussion and looked at the pictures she handed out. Our Red Monkeys created a lovely Thankful Tree where each child had a leaf to stick on, displaying their thankful thoughts.

We finished the month with St Andrews Day, where we celebrated Scottish Culture and explored activities with the Scottish Flag and it’s colours. We enjoyed some delicious Traditional food and some lovely activities including a Pat Painting Table, blue and white coloured rice, and painting our own Scottish flags whilst enjoying traditional music.

Red Monkeys have also been busy this month taking part in some exciting activities surrounding healthy eating and nutrition. The children have been chopping their fruits for snack, and talking about what happens to our bodies when we eat them. We’ve extended this by using collaging to make pizza’s with their favourite toppings, and printing with vegetables to make ‘vegetable soup’. This extended their Maths development with conversations about shapes as we stuck different shaped toppings onto the pizza and discussed what the vegetables looked like!