Sheridan Meadows Nursery Room
Our Nursery Staff Members
About our Nursery
In our Nursery we have babies from 6 weeks to 15 months or 2 years maximum. The babies develop and learn from a large range of play and nurturing experiences.
In the Nursery, social and emotional development is a large part of our Nursery program. The babies learn to adjust to a whole new environment, develop relationships and trust with different people (Carers), and learning to interact and getting used to having other babies around.
The staff in our Nursery, work in many ways to help develop these skills, and to make this transition to childcare as easy as possible for the babies.
We have made our Nursery room a very homely, baby orientated and friendly environment. We have artwork done by the children on display, which the children love to look at. We have calming colours on our walls to give a homely and relaxed atmosphere, our furniture and carpets are set out to ensure that the children have access to all toys and areas of the room.
Our staff are very nurturing and caring people. The staff give the babies as much nurturing as required. The staff take the time to develop a relationship with each baby, and will get to know each individual baby, what he or she likes and dislikes. Once the staff member and baby form a relationship/bond, the baby will have trust in the staff. The staff implement the routine which is used at home by the family. This helps the baby to settle, knowing his/her routine has not changed.
The staff bring themselves down to the baby’s level and interact and play with all babies. This helps the babies to become aware of each other, and feel comfortable having other babies around them.
The babies also start to develop communication skills. This is where the babies start to make goo-ing and ga-ing noises. The staff encourage the babies to develop their vocal skills by constantly communicating/talking to the babies. Staff encourage the children/teach the babies new sounds or small words.
The Nursery is where the babies learn their first physical skills for life. Depending on each baby’s developmental abilities, staff provide babies with different experiences such as tummy time, which strengthens muscles and encourages babies to experiment with movement. Toys are placed around the baby to encourage the baby to move. This will eventually lead to crawling. Staff have different play activities to encourage crawling eg; crawling to a staff member and receiving lots of praise, crawling to a toy etc. Babies are then given opportunities such as using special walkers to push and to strengthen leg muscles and gain stability on their feet. Babies also begin to pull themselves up to stand, which is encouraged by staff. Staff will do walking exercises with the babies, and encourage the babies to walk. Within time, the babies will decide when they are confident, and will start walking by themselves.
The babies begin to develop their gross motor skills in ways such as: lifting, moving and playing with blocks. The staff bring themselves to the children’s level and help the babies play/build with the blocks. This also encourages group play and hand-and-eye coordination. The babies are also given time to play in the sand pit. The babies learn to use their muscles to dig in the sand pit.
Babies also have opportunities to start developing fine motor skills, hand-and-eye coordination. Artwork is done on most days, where babies are able to learn to use a paint brush, crayon, or do finger/ hand painting. The babies also learn to hold their own bottle/ drink cup, and feed themselves, which also comes under self-help skills.
In the Nursery, the staff also help the babies to develop their cognitive skills (mind, thinking, brain). Babies start to recognise and remember different people, other babies, particular toys, the routine, different foods, little games, songs, music and items.
