Thank you to those parents who took the time to complete the nursery audit this week.  We always welcome feedback from families and use it to develop the nursery further.  We will display the feedback in nursery soon.

The feedback suggests that parents are unsure where to find the nursery development plan, policies and the big planning books.  The development plan can be found on the wall adjacent to the key worker display.  It shows the key development for nursery this session.  Please take a moment to read it next time you are in.  Feel free to ask staff for further information.  The nursery policies and key documents can be found underneath the development plan.

The nursery planning books are full of wonderful photographs, drawing and writing examples from recent topics.  They also explain which areas of the curriculum topics are focussing on.  You will find these opposite the nursery sign-in boards.  Again, please ask staff for further information, if required.

Thank you.

We are learning about scientific changes when we participate in experiments.  We used lemonade and polos to make a volcanic reaction.  We experimented with different numbers of polos to determine if it made a difference to the height and the frothiness of our volcanoes.

As mentioned in previous posts, the children are interested in the type of food that is eaten at Christmas.  The main focus for our Christmas topic is food, baby Jesus and decorations.  You can find out more about our Christmas plans in our planning books.  These are opposite the sign-in boards in nursery.

The parent focus groups also expressed an interest in more baking activities and the children have been delighted to participate in baking activities.

On Tuesday the children decorated Christmas biscuits. They loved experimenting with the different colours, tastes and textures they could create.

On Wednesday the children had a ‘Christmas Dinner Taster’ for snack.  They tasted roast potatoes, cranberry sauce, Brussel sprouts and gravy.  They spoke about their likes and dislikes as they the tasted different foods.  They were supported to use a fork and knife correctly.  Please feel free to develop this further at home.

The afternoon children had the option to make Christmas chocolate as a special treat.  They melted chocolate and use a variety of colours and toppings to make it more interesting.  They enjoyed having sneaky tastes when Mrs Duncan wasn’t looking!  The afternoon children taste tested the Christmas chocolate as a reward for trying new Christmas foods.  (The morning children will do this soon).

Friday 14th December – Nursery Christmas Party.  Children are welcome to wear party clothes

Wednesday 19th December – Nursery Christmas Performance and Church visit.  Please remember the earlier drop off time on this day.  All family members are welcome to join us at the church at 10.15 (am children) and 2.15 (pm children.  Please remember that all children should be collected from the church on this day.

Friday 21st December – last day of nursery.  Happy Christmas! 🙂 

Monday 7th January – nursery/school resumes

As part of our dinosaurs topic, the children were eager to learn about volcanoes.  They found out more about them using books and through play activities.  A highlight of the dinosaur topic was making volcanoes in the forest using diet coke and mentoes.  This is an easy science experiment for you to try at home.  Please ask your children more about it.

We will be making our own volcanoes in the nursery garden soon!

The parent focus group suggested that the nursery support a food bank this year instead of a Christmas raffle.

We will be supporting the Cults Kirk Centre with their ‘Reverse Advent Food Bank.’  This involves gifting something to people in need during advent.  The Kirk Centre are supporting Aberdeen Cyrenians and Instant Neighbour.

We are now collecting a variety of non-perishable food and non-food items.  Nursery staff will deliver these to ‘The Hub’ on Wednesday 19^th December.

We welcome donations of:

• Non-perishable food: jars of pasta sauce, cereals, tins, biscuits, Christmas treats, soups
• Toiletries
• Baby items: baby food, wipes, nappies (older sizes: 5, 6)

The nursery staff observe the children to determine their areas of interest.  This is often how a new topic begins.

Recently, the children had been talking about dinosaurs in their play.  These children had the opportunity to plan a dinosaur topic using the talking tub.  The talking tub is designed to give the children prompts when sharing what they already know and what they want to learn.  It also allows staff to find out misconceptions children might have about certain topics.

The children helped to choose activities and play resources that they would like to explore in the nursery.  Their key areas of interest were: bones (human and dinosaur), volcanoes and meat/plant eaters.  Activities in nursery have focused on these areas.  Please see our planning books for more information.

We have been learning about different celebrations.  Recently, we have been focusing on Diwali.  We watched videos and read stories about how children celebrate Diwali in our country.  We found out that fireworks are a big part of their celebrations.  We compared the Diwali festivities to festivals that we celebrate in our own homes.

The morning children had a special visit from Sanat’s mummy.  She shared with us how her family celebrate Diwali.  She read us a story about Rama and Sita and, with Sanat, explained what Diwali was all about.

We also had a special Diwali snack and tasted lots of different foods.

We made candle holders as part of the celebrations.  Happy Diwali Everyone!