Showcasing King’s Park Day Nursery
King’s Park Day Nursery in Prescot were the winners of our recent Storybook competition, getting over 1,600 likes on their favourite book, Whatever Next by Jill Murphy.
Their prize?
5 copies of their books, a bundle of resources to inspire continued learning AND a full day’s session with Professional Storyteller Jake Evans.
Our Marketing Coordinator, Caitlin, was invited along to the day, as well as the parents from the nursery, to watch the storytelling session and have a tour of King’s Parks’ fantastic facilities. Here is what she had to say:
It’s been great to be involved with such a fantastic nursery and a friendly team. You could see from the competition entry how well they all worked together to achieve something great but to visit the nursery and see this first hand was a lovely experience.
The first thing I noticed about the nursery was the friendly staff, the beautiful rooms/facilities (and brand new Garden!) and most importantly how happy all of the children were.
Joan and Helen made Jake and I feel so welcome, providing us with endless cups of tea and a delicious lunch made by the Nursery Chef. They even had branded cupcakes!
The Children and Staff were so excited for Jake to come along. They had prepared the schedule for the day which included the storytelling sessions for each age group along with rocket painting and a picnic! Which all tied in perfectly to the theme of the ‘Whatever Next’ book. It was so well organised!
Jake got stuck in pretty much straight away performing to some of the younger children in the reading area. Even the youngest of the group (3-18months) enjoyed watching Jake telling stories, making funny noises and pulling funny faces.
As the day went on, we moved into different rooms and age groups. It was brilliant to see how all of the older children joined in with the actions and with making different sound effects you could tell that they were used to story time.
Finally, the children were brought into the beautiful garden area and some of the parents started to arrive. The children had their picnic in the Gazebo with their parents and Jake started to tell some of his weird and wonderful stories. He had everyone clapping and stomping their feet… even the adults!
King’s Park outdoor area has been specially landscaped to create a safe and fun environment for the children to learn and play in. The outdoor area has all kinds of play equipment for the children to freely access. My favourite bit was the story time throne!
Here is what Joan Jobe, Competition Winner had to say:
Thank you Connect, we have all had a lovely day. Jake was fantastic. It can sometimes be difficult to get the parents to visit the nursery in working hours, but I think it went so well because the parents helped us with our competition entry. They felt like they were involved which made them want to come and watch Jake even more. We had a super busy day but it was great for them to be a part of it and to make good use of our brand new outdoor facilities.
Keep your eyes peeled for a guest blog from King’s Park which will explain the benefits of outdoor play.
Take a look at the King’s Park website here: https://www.kingsparknursery.co.uk/
To book a storytelling session at your nursery, contact Jake on his website: https://www.jakeevansstoryteller.com/