January | 2026 | Cart Mill Family Centre

This week at Cart Mill we have enjoyed having some of the parents and grandparents in for lunch with the children.

The children were able to show off their independence skills by serving their own lunches and were super helpers clearing up all the plates and dishes for their loved one.

Having lunch with your child at nursery can have lots of benefits:

Emotional security and confidence – Seeing their parent/carer in the nursery can provide your child with security, value and make them feel safe.
Stronger relationships – Shared mealtimes strengthen the parent-child bond in a familiar learning environment
Positive role modelling – Children observe healthy eating habits, table manners and social interaction

UNCRC Article 24 : I have the right to good food and clean water

Welcome back and a happy new year to everyone!
We have started the new year with some new dressing up clothes in the home corner and the children are loving it! There is so much imaginative play and children co-ordinating who will play which role with each other, creating a wonderful language rich environment.

We have been developing our writing skills at the literacy table by tracing letters on the trays. With Helen’s encouragement, our pre-schoolers are encouraged to recognise and copy the letter cards on the table and our younger learners can engage in pre-writing skills by making circular patterns.

The baking area has transformed into the cooking corner and Gail has been making soup with the children. Just what you need in this weather! The children have been learning how to keep themselves safe while using reals tools and are also learning about measuring and new language specific to cooking.

In the story corner, Eilidh and the children have been re-telling familiar stories. The children have enjoyed using the puppets and taking ownership of the story so much that we created a puppet theatre for them to share the stories to an audience. The favourite stories this week have been The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Goldilocks, The Smartest Giant in Town and Jack and the Beanstalk.