Our Clever Thinkers have struck up a long distance friendship with a school in Brisbane and were thrilled to recently receive their first letter.

The little ones, our pre-school children ages three and four, made the link with the school as one of our staff has a goddaughter who is a Kindy teacher over there.

We thought it would be great fun for the children to become pen pals and were so excited when the first letter back arrived in the post.

Our Brisbane friends sent us some pictures showing their favourite activities, their lovely classroom and what they love to do in their nursery.

Clever Clogs Bowburn Assistant Manager Jane White said: “In the letter we received there were also some very important news,

“Stick Man had arrived in Australia!

“We think he has got onto an aeroplane to go and see our new friends and they have seen him playing in their playground.

“We’re so happy to have heard from him and we hope he plans on making a return very soon. He’s been all over the place but Australia is definitely the furthest so far.

“We have sent our friends another letter in response to theirs, with the children telling us what they would like to include on it. One child said “I went to see fireworks the other day, did they see any” and another child said

“I think Stick Man has got an aeroplane or helicopter to go on holiday with our friends”.
“We can’t wait to hear back from our new friends Down Under in their next reply.”

Christmas is just around the corner and our children and staff at Clever Clogs Belmont are well and truly in the festive spirit.

Since the start of December – the official Countdown to Christmas – we’ve been holding lots of fun activities for our little ones and the fun doesn’t stop until we do on December 22.
Here’s some of the festive fun you can expect between now and then:
• Stay and Play – our parents will be joining their children for a fun session of Christmas activities including a party tea, Christmas songs and a visit from Santa and his Elves
• Treasure Island – the annual pantomime is taking place at Belmont with children from both nurseries enjoying it.
• Nativity play
• Christmas Jumper Day and Christmas lunch
• Christmas crafts – we’ll be doing lots of festive craft activities over the coming weeks
• Christmas decoration exploration for our Little Hedgehogs – our babies have been exploring some of the different decorations and baubles, feeling the different materials and textures as part of their sensory development
• Christmas tree decoration – we let our Little Owls decorate the Christmas tree with Christmas songs playing along which we all had a dance to

Clever Clogs Belmont Assistant Manager Dawn Sweeney said: “Christmas is our favourite time of the year and the staff are really looking forward to making this year extra special for our little ones.

“The festive fun officially started on December 1st and every day between now and then we’ll be doing fun activities with the children.

“There’ll be lots of fun to be had right up until our last day on December 22 when the staff will be hanging up their Santa suits for a well-earned break before returning on January 2.”