‘Gung Hei Fat Choi’

This week the children have been learning about the customs and traditions around the Chinese New Year.

On Monday, we watched some video clips of two children preparing and celebrating the New Year. The children have had the opportunity to make Chinese Lanterns, Fans and do some Chinese writing.

On Tuesday, at Gym the children took part in a Dragon Dance, which they were extremely excited about. They made the Dragon’s head and had great fun being under a long piece of material, which was the Dragon’s body.

On Wednesday, the children helped to make a Chinese Stir fry for our snack, practising their chopping skills. We also set up a Chinese restaurant. Staff have been supporting the children to take on different roles (Chef/Waiter/Customer). The most ordered dish was chicken and rice at an awfully expensive price of £50!!

Next week, we are going to be learning about Rabbie Burns. We would like to invite parents to stay at drop off time on Wednesday 25^th to listen to Scottish Poetry recited by P6/7 and two Scots Songs, performed by the Nursery Children. There will also be Coffee/Tea and homemade shortbread made by the children. We look forward to seeing you then.

 

On Friday, the children will be taking home a Sheet to record Birds that they see in their Garden. This is part of the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch held over the weekend of the 27^{th of} January. We would like if you could spare 1 hour at the weekend counting and recording the birds that land in you garden. If you live in a flat, you could do this at the local park. Please return the Bird Sheet on Monday 30^th January, where the children will collate the data into a graph. You can then also go onto the RSPB website and send them the vital bird data. Big Garden Birdwatch | The RSPB

It is free, fun and a lovely activity to do with your child. There are also other activities to support your child’s learning on the website. Happy Birdwatching 😊

Reminders

All parents need to sign up online to register for starting p1 or returning to nursery in August.

Primary 1 Registration

w/c 16 to 20^th January

https://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/applyForSchoolPlace

Nursery Registration

w/c 23/01/23 to 03/02/23

http://www.aberdeenshire.gov.uk/schools/information/early-learning-and-childcare-information/

This week staff have been meeting parents to talk about their children’s learning and update their child’s care plan. If you still have not managed to arrange a meeting, please see staff at drop off or pick up to make an appointment.

Children’s Observation Update

Staff are recording children’s observations they are being printed out and kept in Keyworker Folders in the Nursery. We are looking into ways of sharing you child’s observations and will let you know in due course. Meanwhile, the Nursery Floor book will be available for parents to look at every Tuesday and Thursday. The Floor book shows all the learning experiences and activities that the children have been doing in Nursery. We would love to have your feedback in the Floor book. We will have post it notes out for you to write any comments.

Parent Visit

Next week, Evie’s Mum, who is a Doctor, will be coming into talk to the children. If you would like to come in to do an activity with the children, please catch Mrs Keal or Mrs Rae at the gate.

We have an open-door policy at Fettercairn Nursery. If you have any concerns and would like to discuss something in private, we can arrange a private meeting. See Mrs Keal or Mrs Rae.

That just leaves me to say have a lovely week and we look forward to seeing you next Wednesday for our Scottish Parent Session in Nursery on Wednesday 25^th January at 9.15 a.m.

Literacy

We have been learning about rhyming in Nursery through songs, stories and carrying on our own rhyming string.

 

One of our key texts is the Gingerbread man we are making gingerbread men and taking part in a story walk around the Nursery Garden.

Health and Wellbeing

We have had some special visitors in to visit us in Nursery, one of our parents is a Nurse so she came to talk about how she helps people. And we also had 2 Firefighters in to talk about what to do in an emergency. Mrs Dubber followed this up with a circle time discussing what we knew about keeping safe.

We are getting ready for our Graduation ceremony, practising our songs, and making hats.

 

 

TECH

The children have had the opportunity to make hedgehogs and mallets with one of our dads. They learnt how to use the tools safely and were proud of their finished models.

EXA

We have made potions in the mud kitchen, and enjoyed the sand in our Garden

The pre-schoolers have had enjoyed lots of Transition activities with the P1’s and their new teachers.

We have had another busy fortnight in Nursery. Health week was a great success. The children had fun making watermelon and banana smoothies for snack,  as part of our learning about Healthy Eating. The children loved taking part in the different sports activities, with the older children on the Wednesday morning. It was lovely to see so many parents cheering on from the side lines on Sports Day. Mr Clarke came through in the afternoon and presented the medals in Nursery. The children were very proud!

We had a lovely community walk to Fettercairn House on Friday morning, just far enough after a busy week. Barbara  (the school cook) bought all the children an ice pop, which went down extremely well.

Numeracy

We have been learning about symmetry in Nursery, Mrs Keal introduced the concept with a group session on the carpet. We made a Symmetrical Man, using a range of different materials.

The children experimented with paint to make a one fold symmetrical picture.

   

Next, the children will be exploring position and direction. The children will have the chance to program Robot to help support their learning.

Mrs Dubber helped the children make some stain glass butterflies which look beautiful on the Nursery window.

Literacy

Our current focus in Literacy is Rhyming and Syllables.

Health & Wellbeing

This week we have been exploring Similarities and Differences and how we are all unique. Mrs Keal supported the children to collect data to find out the most/least popular Hair colour and Eye colour. The children counted and then took turns recording on the Graphs. We found out that Blond Hair and Blue Eyes were the most popular!

Transition

The Pre schoolers will be joining the p1 class to do some Jubilee Craft and fun play activities in the Active area on Wednesday 25^th May and Tuesday 31^st May at 1.30 p.m.

We will be heading to the park on Wednesday 1^st June to have a Teddy Bears Picnic. We will also be starting to learn some new songs for our upcoming Graduation. Lots of fun and exciting things happening in Nursery.

It was lovely to welcome the children back in after the Easter break.

This term we have started learning about planting and growing.

We discussed the various parts of a plant and what it needs to make it grow. All the children then chose a different seed and we have planted them into pots in the Nursery Garden.

We are also going to plant beans in a clear plastic pot so we can watch the roots and stem develop.

On Friday afternoons one of our parents has volunteered to come and do some gardening with the children. We are planning tidy the area and plant lots of exciting things….

The children have been making wooden hedgehogs in our woodworking area with another one of our parents. Learning how to be safe when using the different tools.

We are looking at repeating patterns in maths, can the children copy, continue, and create their own patterns

We have some caterpillars in Nursery so that will link with learning about lifecycles. We have also been discussing the lifecycle of a frog and the children made their own non-fiction zig zag books

We are continuing with our helicopter stories, in which the children create and then act out their own stories.

We are also having a sponsored bike ride and obstacle course and will be taking part in health week.

Some of the learning, activities and experiences happening in nursery.

This week the children have been learning about the Artist Wassily Kandinsky, who is well known for experimenting with shapes in his paintings. One of his most famous paintings was called ‘Squares with Concentric Circles.’ The children have each been contributing individual pictures that have been put together to make a class abstract piece of Art.

This is our last week exploring Shape. The children have been learning about the properties of shape through a range of experiences and activities.

Predicting and testing shapes outdoors to see if they slide or roll. Shape matching and sorting. Making straw and pipe cleaner shape jewellery was a great fun activity. We had diamond shaped necklaces, triangle shaped dangle earrings and square bracelets. They were all excited to take them home. “My Mummy is going to love all my jewellery; she will want earrings like these ones!!!”

Lots of the children have been pretending to be Firemen this week. They made their own Fire Engine, and the role-play area has been turned into a Fire Station. There have been fires everywhere in nursery!!!

Outdoor Garden News

The Mud Kitchen has moved location and has been popular with the children.

Connie’s Dad has also made us a fantastic ‘Petrol Pump’ for our car area. We can’t thank you enough. The children have had great fun filling up their cars. With some very high petrol prices!!!

       

Next week we will be learning about Easter. The children will be doing lots of craft activities and an Easter Egg Hunt in the Nursery Garden!

We have welcomed 6 new children into Nursery so we have lots of new friends to play with.

The children have enjoyed recalling their Christmas holidays, we have done black pen drawings and the staff have scribed for the children.

We have also enjoyed leaning about our new children through their all about me  bags.

We are looking at the weather, the children have taken a weather diary to fill in at home and we are recording the weather in Nursery. We have frozen dinosaurs and investigate how they melt this has led on to making chocolate crispies and marshmallows on the firepit. Lots of opportunity to discuss solids and liquids!

We are covering Numeracy through games, activities, and roleplay. The children have asked for a café and shop in our roleplay corner. So there will be lots of opportunities for maths and mark making.

Coming up in the next couple of weeks …

• Burn night
• Scottish dancing and Burn s night supper snack.
• Chinese New Year, Chinese writing, Chinese zodiac, and Dragon dancing