Family Learning – Menzieshill Nursery School

Here are our Family Learning Groups for this week!

Our ABC & Beyond book just now is “There’s A Bear On My Chair” by Ross Collins. The whole book is a fantastic rhyming opportunity, with the main rhyme being words which rhyme with ‘bear’.

Children are learning about sharing, and being friends with others, how to solve a problem amicably, and not getting upset when you don’t get what you want! There are opportunities for prediction, for example, “Do you think the mouse will actually get to sit on the chair?”, and “what would YOU do if someone sat in your special seat?” “would you be like the mouse?”

With the very cold weather we’ve had this week, the children have had lots of science opportunities exploring the frost and having fun drawing and pattern making in it. There has been lots of scope for discussion about where it comes from, why has it gone away on some parts of the garden, and how cold it is.

The RSPB Garden Birdwatch takes place this weekend and Mrs T has been helping the children outside, to spot some garden birds who are starting to visit the nursery garden. We would love to erect our Birdbox Camera we had in the former Menzieshill Nursery garden, but we are struggling to find a suitable site.

After the firepit on Wednesday, (macaroni in the morning and hot dogs in the afternoon!) we used the last of the heat on the pit to melt some fat to make bird cakes. The children were confident in their preparation – tearing up the bread, breaking up the apple slices, and stirring those and the sunflower hearts and raisins into the fat in the pan. We used the bird cakes to entice our feathered friends to visit the garden so we could record the different types of birds in our RSPB Birdwatch.

Our Play Along Maths sessions for Mrs Hunter’s group is going well. Children and parents are both enjoying the opportunity to work together.

Some of our Bookbug sessions will run in partnership with Virginie (French tutor) to help support and promote French language. Virginie will be joining our sessions over this term, sharing stories and songs in French.

Speaking of Bookbug, the Scottish Book Trust have launched a fab new Bookbug app, available for Android and IOS systems. Download from your app store for lots of new and familiar songs, rhymes and stories! It’s great!

As always, hope you have a great weekend and follow us on Twitter! @menzieshill_ns

Happy New Year everyone! We hope you all had an enjoyable festive break! This first week back we have been welcoming our new children and families, getting to know each other and supporting the children in building new friendships.

Expressive arts:

In the art area, we have been using hula-hoops with string attached as the inspiration for creative designs. The children were very interested in this and were keen to find ways to attach lots of different resources.

Outdoor Learning: (Please ensure your child has a warm coat with them at nursery, as they will have the opportunity to spend time outside each day.)

We have been trying our weaving on a hoop, outside as well, as the activities we offer inside are also available outdoors. The children have been learning the “up and down”, “over and under” sequence to create the weaving pattern.

We have also re-started out fire-pit snack for the new session, beginning with some cosy tomato soup and toast. Just what we need on a cold winter’s day outside.

We reminded everyone about the very important rules needed for the fire-pit.

Only walk when near the fire-pit.
Once you are in the area, sit down on the benches around the fire-pit.
Don’t come onto the ‘fire square’ unless an adult invites you.

Family Learning:

Our family learning groups are continuing in the new year, with our first Rhyme-time session taking place this week. We welcome all new children and families to join us on:

Wednesdays at 11.30am

Thursdays at 10.45am

Fridays at 2.30pm

The current Play on Pedals sessions have only 2 weeks left, finishing on Friday 18 January, however we are planning to start more in the future. If you are interested, please let Carol, Wendy, Susan, Jenny or Vicky know.

Our new Play Along Maths group begins on Monday 21st January at 2.15pm (pm) and Friday 25 January at 10.30am (am) – this session is for Mrs Hunter’s group, who have had letters with further details.

Look our in your emails for a short PEEP group survey coming shortly. We really appreciate a high response.

As always, keep an eye out for our tweets on our Twitter page, @menzieshill_ns

Our Learning – 25 January 2019

Our Learning – 10 January 2019