We are very excited now that it is almost Christmas!

In December in Nursery we are learning about the story of the first Christmas and about Christmas traditions in our town and in our community.  We are also having the opportunity to enjoy being part of a performance, as well as learning about how to be a good audience.

We  have been very busy getting ready for our nativity play.  We have learned lots of songs and have been enjoying getting dressed up in our costumes. We can’t wait for our mums and dads to come and watch!

We are also going to be singing at the coffee morning in the church hall so we will be sharing our Christmas cheer with the whole community!

Things have been getting very sparkly in nursery too.  We have made Christmas trees, reindeers and lots of other sparkly things. The nursery is looking fabulous!

Here are some pictures of our nativity play!

We have also been very busy this week making decorations for and decorating the school tree for the festival of trees at Clackmannan Church. What do you think of our finished tree?

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 have had a very busy time in nursery over the past few weeks!  Our learning has focused on learning about seasons and festivals.

We have had lots of experiences to help us to understand what autumn is like and how it fits in with the other seasons of the year. As the weather has been quite settled we have been able to get outside a lot.  We have noticed how the shadows are changing as the sun gets lower.

Last week we learned lots about how Hindus celebrate the festival of Diwali. We really enjoyed dressing up in traditional clothes and dancing to traditional music. We had lots of opportunities to experiment with different art materials and to express ourselves!

This week we are exploring Halloween customs and enjoying lots of stories about witches and other ghoulish things.  We have spiders in jelly, carved pumpkins and shaving foam ghosts happening.  We also cannot wait for our party on Friday.

Here are some photographs of all our good work.

We have all settled back into nursery after the holidays and we have been working on learning and remembering nursery rules and routines over the first few weeks.

We have welcomed lots of new boys and girls to our nursery and have been enjoying getting to know them.

We have been working very hard on our learning in maths so far this term.  We are working on learning our colours, numerals and counting objects to match with them. You will see in our photographs that we are making superb progress!

We have also learned the four rules of good listening. They are sitting still, staying quiet, listening to all of the words and looking at the person wh ois talking. We have been playing lots of fun games to help us to improve our listening skills. We have also been practising listening to musical instruments and talking in a ‘big voice’.

Our first theme has been hand washing.  We have been learning why it is important to wash our hands and we have been practising washing our hands.  we have learned lots of songs to help us to remember these things.

Here are some photographs of our learning in nursery.

We have also welcomed two new members of staff to our nursery this term.  Miss McNeill and Mrs McIntosh are our new Early Years Workers.  They will be the group leaders for our 2 year olds but will also work with all of the older children in our nursery at various times.  If you have a 2 year old or know someone who has a 2 year old, who might benefit from a place in our nursery please click on the link below to find out more about eligibility and how to apply for a place.

http://www.clacksweb.org.uk/council/forms/education/applicationforentitlementtofreechildcarefor2yrolds/

Application forms and further information are also available from our nursery.

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.