The Willow Tree day
A typical day at the Willow Tree begins either with free play or joining in with a teacher led activity; this could be preparing food for snack, cleaning and mending or making something to celebrate the season. The five year old children in the class have ongoing projects, such as making a book and sewing a doll. Working at these daily help them to prepare for the more structured environment of a school classroom.
We then tidy up and put away our toys before washing our hands and sitting in a ring to play some finger games and sing songs and rhymes. Our songs reflect the changing seasons and festivals, teaching the children about the cycle of the year.
We then sit down for a shared snack that the children have helped to prepare. The snack is based on a different grain for each day of the week, and are healthy, dairy free snacks. On Monday we have rice and vegetables, Tuesdays we have vegetable soup, Wednesdays is Millet with golden gravy, Thursdays we have rye honey cake and on Fridays we have flapjacks or porridge. We will always have fruit for snack as well. During snack time there is an opportunity for children to share their news and listen to each other.
After snack time we dress for the garden and spend time playing outside where we have a mud kitchen, a playhouse, a climbing tree, a sandpit and much space for running or building obstacle courses or simply playing with chalks. Occasionally we will go for walks to the community garden or the City Farm for our outside playtime ( Willow Tree St Werburghs), or to Oldbury Court (Willow Tree Fishponds).
We finish the morning with story time, this will be a story that has been learnt by the teacher and is repeated daily for the course of the week so that the children can all hear it and benefit from the messages the stories contain. Stories are chosen with themes that can support the children with social and emotional understanding. Often puppets are used for the telling of a story.
Opening Hours:
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday:
8.30 - 12.30
8.30 - 3.30
8.30 - 3.30
8.30 - 3.30
8.30 - 12.30
St. Werburghs currently closed on Fridays
Children staying for lunch and afternoon care should bring a packed lunch. There is an option for children to have a cooked lunch at Willow Tree Little Kindergarten (Fishponds). After lunch they will have a rest and a story before an afternoon of free play. Please see the parents handbook for a guide to suitable packed lunch items.