Chessel Centre

The Ruby Room has space for 30 of our older children aged 3 plus, all year round. The children in Ruby Room follow a great schedule which gives them all the opportunities to learn and have fun.

Much like the Stackpool Room and the Raleigh Room at the Southville Centre, the children in the Ruby Room are encouraged by the practitioners to increase their independence in preparation for their journey to school. During group meal times, the children are encouraged to serve their own food and pour their own drinks. Throughout the room, there are plenty of activities and resources for the children to explore, including musical instruments and a creative area.

We follow a play-based approach, where children can take ownership over their learning and experiences; centring the children’s ideas and voices to create enabling environments and activities which scaffold learning. With a focus on providing children with opportunities to be independent learners, we encourage our little ones to develop through self directed play and by reflecting on their own experiences. Weaved throughout the daily routine are opportunities for children to make decisions and develop their skills and autonomy.  Our children thrive with regular chances to take part in show and tell during circle times, sharing their own worlds and unique experiences.

See what the Ruby Room have been up to:

March 2024

This month, we have celebrated three main events: World Book Week, Science Week and Easter! For World Book Week, the children took part in various book-based activities including: making porridge like Magic Porridge Pot; gluing and sticking to make Elmer the patchwork elephant; painting butterflies from The Hungry Caterpillar; animal yoga from Monkey Puzzle; making stick men from Stickman, and decorating biscuits with colours from the Smeds and the Smoos. The children also got read lots of amazing stories all week long.

In celebration of Science Week, the children took part in a couple of different science experiments including a sink and float activity, a silent firework activity and a volcanic eruption!

Finally, during Easter week, the children did some fabulous Easter activities. These included, decorating and making Easter egg shaped biscuits, making Easter bags and then using them for an Easter egg hunt, an Easter egg and spoon race and some rabbit inspired painting!

February 2024

February really was a month of everything WOW! The children have been very busy with exciting activities. Firstly, the children participated in Mental Health Week. During this week, the children took part in various self-love activities. The children explored their feelings by holding different objects and describing how they felt by choosing which box to put it in. This encouraged the children to express their emotions and feel confident to share these with the group. The children also made their own sensory bottles, inspired by the Colour Monster Story.

We really enjoyed getting to celebrate Pancake Day! The children got to decorate their pancakes in whichever way they wanted. They had lots of topping choices and were encouraged to spread their tasty toppings on independently. Also, they practised how to flip a pancake with a frying pan and a cardboard pancake, practising counting as they flipped!

For the final WOW, we celebrated Valentine’s Day. The children made amazing Valentine’s cards, using glitter, tissue paper pieces and pens/ pencils and they decorated Valentine’s style biscuits with different coloured icing.

January 2024

In January, Ruby Room had plenty of WOW moments to start the new year. As Mental Health Awareness Month is coming up, the children have been focusing on activities about positive affirmations. The children did an, ‘I am’ activity, which consists of the children standing in front of a mirror and saying positive things about themselves. For example, some children said I am beautiful, I am strong or I am happy.

Another lovely WOW moment this January saw the children make their own hot chocolates to keep them nice and toasty in the cold weather! They used their fine motor skills to mix the hot chocolate powder into the warm milk.