One of my favorite nursery days was my first nursery - I sent out invitations to all the children that we were going to the beach that day. I talked to the parents and asked them to bring a towel, and a little bucket, (I had a few extra in case someone forgot). Our nursery has three sections to it that can be closed off to be just one room or two or three. (in the third section are all the toys). I had just one room opened when they arrived. We all got our pails and towels, I had the cooler with the snacks, my sunglasses and a hat and a beach chair. We all piled in the "pretend car" and drove to the beach. I then opened the middle section and had already laid out a long piece of blue plastic (for the water) and scattered real sea shells on the ground and taped up all kinds of pictures I colored of things from the sea. We laid out our towels and I had a cd of ocean sounds that I turned on and we sat on our towels and then we took off our shoes and socks and played in the water and then we collected sea shells. We ate our snack, I had a story book to read "Grandma and Me at the Beach" and our lesson was on nature. I had them each go around the room and find an animal or something on the wall and we talked about what it was. I had several beach balls we played with. I also had a coloring page for them to do. It was really fun and they were all so excited - it was a great way to start off.  You don't have to be as "overboard" as this, but you can do lots of fun things with the children. The nursery is to prepare them for Primary, not just a time to play with toys. (Idea by Fran Curtis / ga04112007)