This week in Menzieshill Nursery, our Sparkle Words are “welcome“, “litter” and “direction“. We use Sparkle words to introduce new words to children, to expand their vocabulary. By highlighting these new words and using them in context, we can help children gain a clearer understanding of their meaning.
We have been learning the Makaton sign for “hello”, which also means “welcome“. Here is the sign to help you use it at home.
Perhaps you could use this sign on your way into nursery and we will use it back! This will help us learn what “welcome” means.
The Code-a-pillar is a fantastic toy for learning about direction and cause and effect. By joining each directional segment onto the next, then pressing the Start button, the Code-a-pillar moves across the floor according to the directions given. The children have had opportunities to explore this and talk about “forwards”, “backwards”, “turn left” and “turn right”. These are tricky to grasp, but we are persevering and using the word “direction” often, to keep it fresh. You can use “direction” at home, maybe playing with toy cars, or on the way to the shops, to visit friends and in lots of situations.
We have harvested our potatoes we planted in spring, and cooked them in our snack area! The children described them as “yummy” and “tasty” and we reckon about half of the children were willing to try them!
We’ve been loving moving energetically on our stage this week, taking part in lots of different activities. We enjoy doing exercises like stretching and bending, listening to the instructions but most of all we love to dance to music we hear at home, on the radio etc. This was dancing to George Ezra’s “Shotgun”!
Our sensory explorations in the dough area have continued and we have experimented making dough with different ingredients, including Angel Delight! We found it gave a brilliant smell – “it’s like milkshake!” but the colour didn’t seem to be as pink as we would have liked.
The best fun this week in the dough area has been making slime. This has a completely different texture to playdough and has stimulated some brilliant descriptions from the children. “it’s sticky ‘cos it’s slime”, “it feels sticky”, “stretchy”, “squashy”, “I can hear it clicking”. If you’d like to have a go at any of these recipes at home, watch our for our learning leaflet coming out soon.
Other scientific investigations have been going on in the art and craft area. We have been learning about mixing colours together and finding out what colour they make. We have used paint in recycled soap dispensing bottles with a pump, and this has been a big learning curve for many children. This has enabled discussion about direction also, using words like “down” and “up” in relation to the pump dispenser.
Using this technique, we created some large scale artwork which you can see displayed on the walls when you enter the playroom. We’d love to hear your comments on it.
A couple of points of interest from our Families Workers, Jenny and Vicky. You have hopefully received the email regarding our new Parent and Children Together group, focussing on toileting and independence skills. If this is relevant to your child, please ask any staff member for further details.
Play Together on Pedals continues to be a popular and successful group and we now have adults on bikes too! See the board in the foyer for photos and further information.
Sadly, we have been finding quite a lot of our resources have been handled roughly recently and we have been finding quite a few of them broken and beyond repair. We have been talking with the children about respecting property and how we may not be able to replace things if they are broken. It would be helpful if you were able to reinforce this message at home too. Thanks.
