Is it Spring Yet??
Date: 20th Feb 2024 @ 1:53pm
As we welcomed in the new year, it was evident that Santa’s generosity was first and foremost in the minds of most of our children with them understandably wanting nothing more than to head home and play with their new toys after a busy day in school. Saying that, it wasn’t long before children settled back into the swing of things (thanks to a short first week back) and in true new year tradition, children made cards, hats and calendars as well as writing their new year wishes on our wish wall.
We may not have had a white Christmas, but the snow timed itself perfectly to coincide with our ‘melted snowman’ cookie making, wintery painting activities and snow dough.
Due to popular demand (and a need to warm ourselves up), s’mores and hot chocolate made themselves onto the snack menu much to the delight of our Friday clubbers.
Towards the end of January, we joined ‘lego lovers’ far and wide in celebrating Lego Day. As well as taking part in a number of lego inspired arts and crafts, children took on a number of building challenges in order to win prizes and certificates. Never have I seen the children so quiet for so long!!
Australia Day celebrations completed the month before moving on to February. We started the month by celebrating LGBTQ+ month before focusing on our mental health and wellbeing through a number of activities including some vibrant fabric banner art. We even invested in some fabulous new cushions with motivational quotes to remind us each day how special we all are.
Chinese New Year brought with it a number of Dragon inspired activities such as masks and puppets. Dietary requirements and restrictions meant that we were unable to enjoy a Chinese banquet this year but we made up for it on Shrove Tuesday with pancakes, cream, sticky toppings and marshmallows (with a biscuit alternative for those who couldn’t consume egg and milk – I did look for a gluten/egg/milk free pancake but failed miserably!!)
Valentines' day seemed like a perfect opportunity for a competition where children were invited to write/draw their interpretation of what ‘love is …’ with several prizes up for grabs. We love a competition at Whitby Heath and had over 20 entries to choose from. Not being able to find a winner, all entries were put to the public vote with a little help from facebook!!
As I write this, children have come from a number of local schools to enjoy our ‘In Your Dreams …’ February holiday club and we are already making plans for Easter where we will be taking inspiration from Peter Rabbit and some well-known Roald Dahl characters. Despite the holidays falling after Easter this year, I can assure you that we will still be going on a chocolate egg hunt - all be it Jemima Puddleduck’s eggs rather than those belonging to the Easter Bunny!
