A Busy June at Children 1st @ Derby Road

What a busy time we’ve been having here at Derby Road. From watching caterpillars transform into butterflies to fund raising at our Summer Fayre, it’s been an action-packed few weeks.

In spite of all the recent heavy rain, the Summer Fayre was a huge success. We’re very grateful for the support we received from family, friends and staff who helped us to raise almost £1000 for our chosen charity, The Hungry Caterpillar Cafe and Long Eaton Community Space. This amount has been doubled by Children 1st head office as part of our 30th year fundraising initiative, bringing the total to £2000.

Peppa Pig kindly made a guest appearance and two live singers entertained our visitors as they flocked to the stalls.  With the tombola, the raffle, straws in the sand and guess the name of the chicken, plus a fabulous cake stall there was plenty for everyone.  For youngsters there were pony rides and the chance to sit on the big tractor. Thank-you to everyone who came along to help us raise money for such worthy causes.

Caterpillars were very much on our minds as the children were really fascinated to watch a family of caterpillars turn into butterflies. The children have benefitted from the first-hand experience of being able to watch the process of change which took about three weeks. From caterpillar, to cocoon and chrysalis and finally the emergence of 4 beautiful butterflies.

The early years visited the Alexandra Nursing Home as part of Boogie Beats session, integrating the older generation with children by using musical instruments and sharing songs. We walked from the nursery to the nursing home wearing our high visibility jackets and looked at our environment as we walked. We had a snack with the residents before walking back to nursery for our lunch.

We even managed to find time for our Sports Day, held as part of our ‘Healthy Body, Happy Me Week,’ and our yoga sessions continue to take place. We encourage the children to have a rest after lunch time to allow their food to digest and recharge their batteries. We then have a yoga session to wake our muscles up and stretch our bodies, so they are ready for the afternoon.

Our younger children got in on the action playing with nature and natural materials. Their fabulous leaf prints gave them the opportunity to get messy and explore different textures.

What a busy June we have had! Thank-you to everyone who kindly supported our activities. Please share our action-packed month by having a look through the photographs.