Chessel Centre

In the Pearl Room, there is space for 24 children aged nine months to three years old, all year round. In this room, which looks out on to the garden, there are so many opportunities for children to explore and learn.

The Pearl Room is full of adaptable spaces which can be chopped and changed depending on what the children are interested in at that particular time. For example, the nap area can easily be switched from busy play area to calming sleep space with beds, mattresses, and blankets aplenty! There is also a separate creative area where the children can get really stuck into messy, explorative play in a purpose built space.

We take inspiration from a range of childhood education approaches. This is reflected in our environment, which is full of realistic, natural resources and cosy, enclosed areas providing multiple opportunities for communication and collaborative play.

We also have our own sensory room with a bubble tube and projector; this ensures the children have the opportunity to take a break and regulate themselves whenever they need to.

See what the Pearl Room have been up to this month:

June 2024

We celebrated the beginning of the Euros 2024 with some football themed activities out in the garden. The children came to nursery dressed in their football gear and we had a kick about in the garden before we made some England flags to decorate our room with!

We have also been keeping cool by exploring water and ice lots. We froze little toys inside big blocks of ice and used our hands and different tools to break them free again.

Finally we have been practising our fine motor skills by threading cereal hoops onto spaghetti. This is a great challenge as it uses focus and eye coordination; we did try hard to resist eating the cereal but did end up eating quite a bit of it too!

May 2024

Pearl Room have had a busy May!

We ventured up to Jasper Room and played with the soft play and dancing scarves and had some funky music to dance to!

We took part in World Mental Health Week by doing some mindfulness painting. We used slow movements, took deep breaths and listened to some calm relaxing music whilst we made marks on paper. Barnaby the Bear joined the Pearl Room. He loves to go on holiday, so each child is taking it in turns to look after Barnaby for a little while. This month he has already been on trips to Wales, Dorset and Spain! What a lucky little Bear!

April 2024

As always, Pearl Room have had a jam packed month of fun and activities.

In the home corner, we’ve been investigating herbs, using our senses to explore mint, basil and chives. The children talked about what the leaves smelt like and then helped to make dough with flour and salt. They practised their fine motor skills and hand eye coordination using different spoons and safe knives to chop and combine the herbs with the dough.

We have been practising counting 1-10 using coloured counters. They enjoy filling up the number grid with the counters.

We created a hospital in the pearl room and loved pretending to be doctors, nurses and patients. The children used bandages and different equipment like stethoscopes and thermometers, to examine one another and take each others temperatures.