Good morning everyone,

We cannot wait to see you all on Monday, I am sure all the children (and parents) are very excited.  Today please take time to speak to your children and discuss how they feel about coming back to nursery.  Discuss how you feel and encourage your child to share their emotions.  Lots of reassurance if they feel worried or unsure.  They may be excited or even have a mixture of emotions.

There will be no change in regards to the running of the nursery day.  We are still altogether as one big nursery, there are no separate “cohorts”.  The staff will be in their areas as usual and the children will be leading their play and will be able to explore the nursery as freely as they wish.

Reminder of staff in the nursery-

Anna Widera- Blue Group

Cathryn Gordon- Purple Group

Chloe Glasgow- Covering all areas

Fathima Hussain- Covering all areas

Jenny Thomson- Red Group

Natalie Melville- Senior Early Years Practitioner (covering all areas)

Natalie Murray- Nursery Teacher (covering all areas)

Nikita Kelly- Orange Group

Rebecca Richardson- Covering all areas & purple group

Have a lovely day and we cant wait to see you all on Monday.

Natalie.

Good morning,

As of Monday we are very excited to welcome all the children back to nursery.  Staff members will be phoning you this week to keep you updated.

Please continue to wear a mask at the gate, especially when you are collecting your child from the gate.  Remember and socially distance from others whilst waiting at the gate.  This is to keep everyone safe.

Purple/Orange group- 0850/1450

Red/Blue group 0900/1500

Try it Thursday-

Try different foods and talk about likes and dislikes.  Try new foods and talk about what it may taste like, use this as a great opportunity for thinking time and questions.  Even use a blindfold for extra fun.

Have a lovely day and we cannot wait to see you all on Monday.

Natalie.

Good morning,

Today can you build a structure, this could be out of plastic cups, bricks, LEGO or cardboard boxes- How tall can you build the tower?

Try and let your child lead the activity and listen to their ideas and thoughts.

Questions to ask?

How many cups are you using? How tall is it now? How can we make it strong/sturdy?

You could add measuring tapes also.

Please send in any pictures, we would love to see your structures.

Natalie.

Good morning everyone,

I hope you are all keeping well and cosie in this freezing weather we have?

Today I have a lovely biscuit recipe from Fathima, she makes these with her own children.  It is lots of fun and there are lots of learning opportunities. If you do not have the ingredients why not share your own recipes with us?  We could share with everyone?  If you are not as adventurous, I love making chocolate crispy cakes they are the best.

Butter Cookies/Biscuits

Pre heat oven to 150 degrees-

1. 250g butter mix until light a creamy
2. 140g icing sugar, mix together
3. 1 tsp vanilla
4. 1 egg, mix and add a tsp at a time
5. 300g plain flower
6. 1 tsp baking powder
7. 50g powder milk (or add a little milk)
8. Mix so the mixture is light
9. If you have piping bags, pipe onto baking tray if not use a spoon
10. add jam on top or chocolate chips
11. Cook for 12-15 minutes

Let us know what baking you have done today or if you have been bakers whilst at home, we would love to see what you have been busy doing.

Natalie.

Good morning everyone, I hope you are all well?

All the staff and I miss you all so much and cannot wait to see you all again very soon.

Today Chloe has made a keep fit video, this will improve gross motor, balancing and listening skills.  It is a great workout to get involved in too.

Today if you go out for a walk, can you practice using your coat zips/buttons.  This is a great way to let the children learn more independence.  If you are not going outside today, have a contest and see who can do/undo their zips/buttons the fastest?

Whatever you do today stay in and keep warm or explore the outdoors have a lovely day.

Natalie.

Good morning everyone, we hope you are keeping safe and are able to enjoy the snow we have.

Please continue to explore the snow ideas from yesterdays post- or if you are staying in today.  Why not build a fort or den together and have a cosie movie morning.  It is important to have down time for you and your child.

Here is another video by Cathryn all children can participate in this activity.  It is a great way to explore the first letter of your name.

I hope you are all well? Take care.

Natalie.

Good morning everyone,

I am sure lots of you all have woken up to lots of snow! How exciting! If you are travelling today please be careful.

I have a video that has been made by Jenny and this is a great way to develop children’s memory and language skills.

Let us know how you and your children got on, it is a fun game.

Also today, can you wrap up warm and get out in the snow.  There are lots of opportunities for learning through play in the snow.

• Painting with a variety of paint brushes/utensils in the snow
• Filling spray bottles with paint and water
• Take out a bucket and spade/pots and spoons and make snow castles/igloos
• Build a snowman
• Explore on your walk and look at what you can see, frozen branches, different tracks (animal tracks) and foot prints
• Bring out construction toys and let your children fill up their diggers with snow

SEESAW-

There has been a delay with SEESAW with the council, as soon as we can have it up and running we will.  Thank you for those of you that have emailed me, I will input your email to add your child once it is active.

I hope you are all keeping well?

Natalie.

Good morning everyone,

I hope you have had a lovely week, we are counting down the days to see you all again.  Here is a lovely video made by Nikita- It is a scavenger hunt focussing on health and wellbeing.

If you have created any pictures or messages to send to friends or everyone in the nursery- please email me at nmelville873@dundeeschools.scot and I will post them on the blog.

Stay safe.

Natalie.

Good morning,

Today Rebecca has created instructions for puffy paint and Anna has made a drawing/cutting activity. Let us know how you got on.

Puffy Paint!

Hi boys and girls we hope you are well? Today some of your friends made puffy paint in nursery and you can make it at home too!

What you will need-

Shaving foam

PVA glue

Food colouring (any colour)

Bowl or dish to mix in

Paint brushes

Step one

Spray some shaving foam into a bowl or dish. Once you have done this pour the PVA glue over the foam and mix. You can add as much or as little as you like depending on how much paint you would like.

Step two

Once this is mixed you can now add your food colouring. Remember to pour this slowly because it comes out the bottle fast! Mix again once this is added.

Step three

Your paint is now ready! If the colours aren’t bright enough you can add more food colouring. Here is some of the colours we made.

Have fun!

Anna’s Creative Cutting and Drawing Activity

We hope you are safe and well.  Take care.

Natalie