We have been continuing with our Sparkle words of “welcome”, “litter” and “direction” this week. There has been a lot of investigation of “direction”, particularly using the Code-a-pillar and Beebot in groups. Most children are demonstrating that they are beginning to understand the meaning of this word.
Family Learning
Jenni McLauchlan continues to lead our work in parental engagement and family learning. Vicky Wiseman and other staff will be supporting her with this.
Bookbug/Rhymetime will run every Tuesday at 10.45am, Thursday at 11am and Friday at 2.30pm. These sessions are open to anyone with children aged 0-5 years so please tell any extended family, friends and neighbours that they are welcome here!
Play Together on Pedals
Building on the success of last session’s Family Fresh Air Club (weekly outdoor parent and child trips by minibus to different Dundee locations) and Play on Pedals (parents supporting children to use balance bikes to learn to cycle) Jenni is currently working in partnership with Leisure and Communities workers to take parents and children to Camperdown park for joint cycling activities.
Play Along Maths
We will invite parents/carers of all 3-5s children in to take part in Play Along Maths at some point this year. This involves fun, interactive math-related games. Lorraine Taylor’s group has started this week.
We will soon send out a survey to ask parents/carers about other learning opportunities which would interest you. In the meantime, please share any ideas with Jenni.
Support with Toilet training
We will be running a parents’ support group to help with toilet training issues. The initial sessions will be on Tuesday 18th September at 2pm and Wednesday 19th at 10.15am. Weekly support can then be arranged as desired. All welcome.
Macmillan Fundraiser
We will be hosting a Coffee Morning/Afternoon on Friday 28th September at 10.30am and 2.15pm. All parents/carers very welcome. Any donations of cakes/baking or cash will be gratefully received. All proceeds to Macmillan Cancer Care.
Encouraging Independence
We are always striving to support children to be as independent as possible, to help boost their confidence and self-esteem. To help make this as manageable as possible, please can you try to send children to nursery in shoes which they can get their feet into by themselves? We are available to help with laces etc, but Velcro makes life much easier! We are also supporting children to be more responsible for their own coats and other belongings. Please write names on coats/bags so that if they don’t make it back to the correct pegs, we can sort this out easily!
Eat Well Play Well
Jenni and Vicky will be running taster sessions in the foyer on Monday 17th and Monday 24th September. Please feel free to join in. No need to let us know in advance!
Parents as a resource
As part of the “skills for life, learning and work” curriculum, we would like to ask whether any parents/carers/family friends have a particular interest, skill or career that they would be willing to share with the children? For example playing a musical instrument, doing yoga, gardening, woodwork, drawing—the list is absolutely endless—we’d love you to come in and share it with the children! Perhaps you would be willing to come into nursery to talk about the job you do? If you can help, please speak to your child’s keyworker.
Stay and Play
In the past, we have organised “Stay and Play” days where all parents are invited into nursery to join their child in play. We would normally set the dates in advance and many parents found this tricky due to work commitments. This year we have decided to have a more flexible approach. Following the October break, there will be a “Stay and Play” diary in the foyer area. Parents or other family members are welcome to sign up for any day that suits them to come and join in. Just write you and your child’s name in the appropriate day and tell your child’s keyworker. We are hoping that this way will mean that we have more parents in more often and let you experience a typical day for your child.
Allergy Awareness:
Please don’t bring any nuts or nut products into nursery e.g. in packed lunches or bags/coat pockets. Many thanks.
Childsmile:
This is a national initiative to promote dental health in children. We do toothbrushing and Childsmile also visit nursery to provide fluoride varnishing. You will shortly receive consent forms which must be completed if you wish your child’s teeth treated. The next varnishing date is 7th November.
Learning Leaflet
Our Nursery Teacher, Dawn Edward has made up a Learning Leaflet to keep you informed about what your children have been learning and to give ideas of how you can extend this at home and in the community! This will be available in the next few days! As always. we would be interested to hear any feedback you have.
V&A Dundee
We were invited to take a small group of children to the schools event at the V&A Dundee today, so Carol Blair and Vicky Farell took 3 children to view our exciting new museum of design. They all came back full of enthusiasm as you can see from these photos.
Dates for your Diary:
