Staff

We would like to welcome Mrs Stacey Blair who will be joining us on a Wednesday afternoon, Thursday full day and Friday full day. She will be with us on supply until June. Mrs Blair will be with the Cloud group at the end of the week. Miss Tasker will be the key worker for the Rainbow group and Mrs Moore will be with the Star group.

Houses and Homes

We have now come to the end of our learning about houses and homes. The children at Menstrie have enjoyed creating models of houses and buildings using junk material. They have been out for walks within our local community looking at different houses, comparing sizes of houses, as well as other building of interest e.g. the castle, church, café. We would like to thank all parents and carers who attended the STEM event at Dumyat centre.

Wee Scones Café

As part of our learning at nursery the children have been involved in setting up and running a café within their keygroup.  Each group has visited ‘The Forge Café’ in Menstrie where they have been asking Gordon Pirrie questions about how he runs his own café. They have been incorporating numeracy within the café by counting out pennies using 1-1 correspondance, recognising and forming numbers on the menu and measuring out ingredients for baking activities. The children have been involved in ‘staff meetings’ where they discuss what they would like their group café to look like, what decorations they would like, what food they would like to serve and they have all made their own individual name badges. They have enjoyed having their parents, carers and family members attending the café. We would like to thank everyone for their continued support throughout this experience. We would also like to say a huge thank you to Gordon Pirrie for supporting the children and allowing them to visit the café. We look forward to the Rainbow café and Sun café.

Health Week

Health week begins on Monday 26^th March. We will have a range of activities on offer for the children.

Achievements

We would love to hear about any achievements your child has at home or at clubs which they attend. Please inform your child’s keyworker of any which you would like to share.

Menstrie Den

Ms Williamson and the children have been busy this term visiting our den in the woods. The children have carried out their own risk assessments and have decided what they would like to have in the den. During the summer term we will be looking for parents/carers who would like to join us on visits to the den. Please keep an eye on the board in the foyer for any dates which we will be looking for parent helpers.

Nursery Outing

We will be going on our annual nursery outing to Almond Valley on Friday 22^nd June. We are still looking for parent helpers to join us (there is a notice on the board in the foyer.) Please ensure all permission slips and money is returned to nursery by Friday 20^th April. Thank you.

Dates for the Diary

• Health Week – Monday 26^th March
• Rainbow café – Tuesday 27^th March 1:45pm
• Rainbow café – Thursday 29^th March – 10:30am
• Easter Holidays begin – Friday 30^th March
• Nursery reopens – Monday 16^th April
• Sun café – Tuesday 8^th April – 1:45pm
• Sun café – Thursday 10^th April – 10:30am
• Tuesday 5^th June – Sports day morning session
• Thursday 8^th June – Sports day afternoon session
• Tuesday 12^th June – 3:30pm-4:30pm Transition meeting for new starts in P1
• Friday 22^nd June – Almond Valley
• Tuesday 26^th June – Teddy Bears Picnic
• Thursday 28^th June – Pre school graduation – 1:45pm
• Friday 29^th June – last day of term

As part of STEM week, we have been learning about science. Here are some experiments can you try at home.

Does it dissolve?

You will need:

• Clear plastic cups
• A spoon
• Warm water
• Items such as flour, oil, sugar, sand and coffee

What to do:

• Fill each cup with some warm water
• Add flour (or other substance) to the cups individually
• Stir well
• Check to see if it has dissolved
• If not, why not? Is it lighter or heavier than water?

Make a rain cloud

You will need:

• A clear plastic cup
• Water
• Shaving foam
• A pipette
• blue food colouring

What to do:

• Fill the cup with 3/4 of cold water
• Add 1/4 of shaving foam
• Use the pipette to draw up some blue food colouring
• Carefully drop some blue food colouring onto the shaving foam
• Watch as the blue ‘rain drops’ fall down into the water

Make a rainbow

What you need:

• A packet of skittles
• A plate
• Water

What to do:

• Place the skittles in a circular shape around the edge of the plate
• Carefully put some warm water onto the plate (just enough to touch the skittles and cover the plate)
• Watch as a rainbow forms (you may need to help by swirling the water with your finger) Continue reading →

Today the Giant left us another letter, thanking us for our help with measurement and to say that it was time for him to go home.

We decided to go for a walk in our local community to see if we could find the Giant’s house. The children had lots of fantastic ideas. See our floorbook for more details.

Up until the end of term three, we will be learning:

• about the different types of houses we live in
• about houses in different countries
• about how our families are all different
• about shapes
• to use construction materials to create and copy designs
• how to solve design problems using a variety of resources such as recycled items, playdough, clay and newspaper.
• to work as part of a team
• about animals’ homes
• about electricity in our homes

We will also be using a range of story books to promote further thinking.

Nursery children have enjoyed participating in a range of measurement activities.

• Using a measuring tape to measure and compare the sizes of our footprints
• Measuring and comparing our heights using string
• Drawing around our hands and comparing sizes
• Exploring the world’s shortest person and the world’s tallest person
• Finding out who has the longest and shortest names by counting the letters

One of our children, Maya, had a fantastic idea; we could write a letter back to the Giant asking him how big his hands are. The Rainbow group helped Miss Wright to write a letter and designed some stamps to put on the envelope.

Miss Wright posted this on her way home and we are now awaiting his reply….

On Wednesday morning,  the nursery children enjoyed our snow adventure. We put on our warm clothes and wellies and enjoyed exploring in the field. We made lots of footprints in the snow, made snow angels and even found a snowman.

In the afternoon, we made our own snowman in the garden. Mr Pennie very kindly let us borrow his scarf for the snowman.

We also carried out an experiment by bringing some snow into the nursery. Can you guess what happened? Some children enjoyed painting the snow at the art area.

Today we have a visit from the Giant! He left enormous footprints and a letter asking for our help…

This term our context for learning will be based around measurement and number. Check back soon to find out what we have been learning.

This term pre-school children will be working with Miss Wright on a ‘Sound of the Week’. This will involve children participating in short group activities and children will have the opportunity to develop their knowledge further by exploring a variety of phonics resources.

Sounds will be introduced in the same order as they are taught in Primary 1 and the same terminology will be used. An introduction to phonics will be beneficial as children make their transition from Nursery to Primary 1.

*Please note: only sounds are taught at this stage (for example, a, b, c) as this helps children to learn to read. The letter names (for example, A, B, C) are not taught at the moment.

Week beginning 8.1.18 – m is a stretchy sound, for example, mmmmountain

WB 15.1.18 – a is a bouncy sound, for example, a – a – a – apple

WB 22.1.18 – s is a stretchy sound, for example, sssssnake

Enrolment for Primary 1 will be on Monday 22nd January, 10.30am – 12pm and 1.30pm – 3pm.

Please bring a copy of your child’s birth certificate as well as two items showing proof address (dated within last 3 months).

You must enrol your child at their catchment school.

If you have any queries, please contact the school on 01259 760690.

******* PLEASE NOTE *******

The date of the nativity has changed – the date given in the recent newsletters is no longer the correct date.

The nursery nativity will be held on Tuesday 12th December.

A list of morning and afternoon children is available in the nursery foyer.

On Friday 17th November, nursery children are invited to support Children In Need by wearing pyjamas to nursery.

A box will be available in nursery for any donations.