It has been a very busy couple of weeks in nursery!  We have been continuing our learning focussing on our light and dark theme. This has led us in many different directions!

To end our work on changing seasons and on autumn the pre-school children went for a walk in the woods.  We all enjoyed the experience and we noticed lots of seasonal changes there.  We also learned about keeping ourselves safe on the roads and in the woods. We hope to make visits to the woods a more regular part of our learning experiences as the year goes on.

We moved on to learning about festivals and we enjoyed finding out about Diwali, Halloween and Bonfire Night.  This led us on to lots of role play as firefighters and a visit from the fire engine.  We learned about the different jobs firefighters do and we really enjoyed making up and acting out stories of rescues outdoors.

In our listening and talking groups we have been learning to clap the number of syllable in words and to listen for rhymes in stories and songs. We have also started to work on hearing the first sound in words. We are enjoying playing I Spy…to help us to do this.

This week we have started learning the songs for our Nativity Play. We are very excited about this but it is still a work in progress…

Have a look at the photographs of some of our adventures below.

We had a fabulous time at the nursery Commonwealth Games last week at Lornshill Academy.  We all got the bus along and joined in games with the rest of the cluster nurseries.  There were lots of activities to take part in and even a station where we got water and fruit to give us energy. In the nursery we had made our own mascot…Clyde.  We made him from recycled materials.  Do you like him?

Each nursery was given a country to represent, we were St. Kitts and Nevis.  We had to wear green bibs on the day so that everyone knew who we were.

We were all very tired after all that exercise…thank goodness for the juice stop!

Mrs Walker leading the way with the St. Kitts and Nevis flag.

At the end of the Games, we all got our very own gold medal to keep.  They are lovely and shiney.

The sun finally shone in the afternoon and we had a lovely day.

Thank you to all the helpers, you were super.

We cannot believe that is approaching the end of May already.  There is so much still to come and lots to be doing.

After watching our tadpoles grow and begin to change into frogs, we had to give them back to be put into their natural habitat.  The children loved watching the tadpoles and seeing the changes with their own eyes.  They drew many lovely pictures of them and it made us think about other creatures that change in a similar way.  Can you think of anymore?

Our sponsored Bikeathon was a great success.  Thank you very much to all the adults for sponsoring the children and helping us to buy some lovely new equipment for the nursery.  The children had a super time riding the bikes, even although we had to do it indoors due to the rain!

We have been outside a lot recently and have been enjoying watching the changes in our garden.  It really has sprung into life, lots of lovely colours and smells.  Hopefully in the coming weeks we will venture into the sensory garden and see what we can find.  A story around the great Storytelling chair is a must!

Next Friday, all the children will be taking part in their very own Commonwealth Games at Lornshill Academy.  They are all looking forward to this and the ride on the bus. The children will take part in a variety of activities relating to the Commonwealth Games.  In our next blog we will hopefully get some super pictures of the Games for you to have a look at.

We have all been busy in the nursery over the past couple of weeks.  A kind parent brought in some tadpoles and we have been feeding them and watching them grown.  They are funny little things and grown quite a bitin only one week.  When they get even bigger we will need to return them so that they can live in the wild.  Did you know that tadpoles grow into frogs?

We have spent a lot of time outside in the garden this week.  We have been planting flowers and vegetables, hopefully we have get some lovely things to eat.  Have you seen all the hard work that Mrs Galloway has been doing?  Mrs Galloways and the children have decorated our garden.  It is now very bright and colourful with beautiful butterflies, daisies and lady birds decorating the fencing.  The children even planted flowers in welly boots which are looking lovely on the side of the house.  If you haven’t noticed, be sure to take a look next time you are round.  Well done everyone!

We are learning about the Commonwealth Games and have been looking at all the different sports that take place.  We have also decorated the nursery with some of the countries flag, it is looking good.  Next week for Health Week, our nursery are having their very own sponsored bike ride.  That should be lots of fun.

Our children that are going to school in the summer have continued to visit the Early Years classrooms and had lots of fun with the Primary 1 children.  Their favourite part has been playing in the big playground and taking part in some games.

We have a busy term ahead with lots of exciting activities planned.  We will tell you all about them in the coming weeks.

We hope everyone had a lovely Easter Break and are ready for the busy term ahead.

Since coming back to nursery the children have been very busy with two new topics.  The first topic is the Commonwealth Games.  We are learning about all the different countries that are taking part and what their flags look like.  The country that we will be learning most about is St. Kitts and Nevis, we have been paired with them for the Commonwealth Games.

One of the morning children brought in some fabulous pictures of calves on his families farm.  They had just been born and he told us how the calves should be looked after and where they stay.  He also told us about how hay is made into bales and how it is transported around the farm.  One of the girls in the afternoon brought in some amazing pictures of lambs.  She was lucky enough to be able to help feed them.  This was the stimulus for our other new topic which will be all about life around the farm.

There are many exciting activities coming up this term.  The pre school children will be visiting school in the morning and afternoon for a few weeks.  This is to get them used to the primary school and the new routines.  The children are really looking forward to this experience.

Well it is nearly Easter time and we have been busy in the nursery.  It was lovely to see so many familiar faces at the Open Evening on Tuesday, a real blast from the past.  We hope you enjoyed looking round the nursery.

Spring has really sprung in the nursery as well.  We have been busy making cards and creating beautiful Spring pictures.  During singing time we have been learning songs about Spring time.  They have included daffodils, lambs and little spring chickens.

Afternoon pre school children had a lovely time on Monday round at the big school.  They read Goldilocks and the Three Bears with Primary 1 and then worked with a P1 partner to complete a soft and hard task linked to the story.  The nursery children were super, as were the P1’s at keeping them right with routines.

Dressing up has been as popular as ever, with the princesses proving very popular.  Come into the nursery at any time and you are bound to see 2 or 3 princesses dancing round.  We have definitely managed to help the Friendly Dragon save Fairyland with all our reading and Fairytale activities.

We have been continuing to keep busy in the nursery with lots of things happening inside and out.  The weather has been in our favour and the children have been outside taking part in a variety of activities.  Listening walks have proved very successful.  The children have been out in groups using their senses to describe what has been going on.  They had to close their eyes and listen, then tell the ladies what they heard.  We heard lots of different noises from lorries to birds.  Some children have been busy gardening, making sure it is all ready for planting the new seeds and things.

In the nursery we learned about Shrove Tuesday (pancake day) and tried some lovely pancakes.  We also learned about how Shrove Tuesday is celebrated in different countries.  Did you know that in Poland they make special sweet cakes with jam in the middle on this day?  In Sweden they decorate the house with Pussy Willow which they attach colourful feathers to.  In Lithuania they also use Pussy Willow to decorate their house…but without the feathers!  We are looking forward to finding out more about these countries celebrations for Easter.  In the nursery we have a giant world map and you can see where in the world our children come from or have visited.

Fairyland is still coming together with the children enjoying yet more fairytales.  This week we have been reading Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.  The children really enjoyed this story and have made some fabulous collage apples to decorate the nursery…some even have a little bite out of them.  Next week we are going to read Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella.  The girls really love dressing up as the Princesses and marrying their handsome Prince.

The afternoon preschool children have been enjoying their time in Primary 1 on a Monday afternoon playing listening games and taking part in Fairyland activities.  After the Easter holidays the morning preschool children will get an opportunity to pop over to the school, which they are really looking forward to.

We hope you can join us for the open evening on 25th March to see all that work and activites that the children have been creating.

The year is just going so quickly, nearly March already!  We have been very busy in the nursery, helping to save Fairyland and also celebrating Chinese New Year.

Whilst celebrating Chinese New Year, the children have been taking part in a variety of activities and tasting a variety of food.  We have danced with the Chinese Dragon and had a parade round the nursery, listened to Chinese music and tasted noodles and fortune cookies.  The children enjoyed finding out their fortunes with their cookies and had a great time making their own Chinese Dragons.  They were very colourful and were used in our parade.  We have rice in the water tray for the children to play with, it is a sensory activity and is proving very popular.

Our Nursery has really turned into Fairyland and we have been doing at great job helping the Friendly Dragon.  This week we have been reading Goldilocks and the Three Bears and the children have really enjoyed taking part in activities linked with this.  We have been working on sizes and singing songs all about Goldilocks.  The house corner has been transformed into the Three Bears house and the children have been dressing up as the bears and Goldilocks.  You often hear someone shouting for another child to come and play Goldilocks.  In the dough, porridge oats have been added and the children have been making bears, cakes and gingerbread with it.

The children have been building a castle for all the Fairyland characters to live in, it is really looking great!

We hope everyone is able to attend the Open Evening in March.

Since coming back from the Christmas holidays we have been very busy in the nursery.  A special delivery arrived from a very sad dragon, he was needing our help.  The children have been thinking very hard about how we could help the dragon and they decided we needed to turn our nursery into Fairyland.  So far they have built a magic beanstalk, created a huge giant, made their own castle and started writing letters back to the dragon.  The dragon keeps sending us special letters to see how we are getting on trying to save Fairyland.  The children have been enjoying role play based on Jack and the Beanstalk and some have been dressed up as the Giant.  We managed to borrow a pair of the Giant’s shoes to use in the role play area…they are a size 14!  In the water tray we have created Jack’s cow.  The children have been able to milk the cow and fill up the milk cartons.

The dragon asked if we could spread the word about reading Fairytales, if people start believing again there is a chance Fairyland could come back to life.  We have read Jack and the Beanstalk, Goldilocks and the Three Bears and the Gingerbread Man so far.  The firm favourite has been Jack and the Beanstalk.  The children have been measuring the size of the beanstalk, the Giant and Jack.  They compared the sizes to see who/what was the biggest and smallest.  They have also created patterns using Giant shoes and tiny shoes.  We have special magic bean counters who have been sorting out the beans to try and find the magic ones.  They found 5 golden beans hidden in the tray!  We wonder if the dragon put them there!?

If any of the children want to write letters to the dragon at home, they are more than welcome and there is a special dragon mail letter box in the nursery so the letters go straight to him.

The groups are again taking it in turns to attend the coffee morning at the Church Hall.  It is a great experience for the children and they really enjoying walking up, having juice and a cake and getting to play in the park on the way back down.  Helpers for walking are always appreciated.  Thank you to Edith and Karen who help us out regularly.

We look forward to welcoming you into the nursery to see what the children have been doing during the open evening in March.