We had two very special visitors on Friday. PC Morag and PC Karen came to the nursery. They brought lots of uniforms and special Police caps for us to try on. We asked lots of questions about locking “baddies” in jail, but we also discovered that the Police are also there to help us if we get lost, or need help across a busy road, and lots of other things. The most exciting thing was being in the Police van and turning on the noisy sirens. It was so much fun. PC Morag and PC Karen are based in the Lochee station, they told us to wave and smile at them if we see them out and about. 👍

We are now on day 9 of our life cycle topic and our new friends are certainly growing. At the end of last week we were very excited to see that at least 80% to 90% of our frog spawn was in the process of turning into tadpoles but we soon realised that the small tank they were in would be to small. Mrs Ross brought in a bigger tank and we carefully transferred our friends into their new home. We have to make sure that the water they have isn’t from the tap as this contains fluoride and could harm our friends so we topped the bigger tank up with some rain water from the garden. We have added some dead plants as apparently this is their favourite food to eat!!! Everyday we check on them and make sure they have enough food to eat. They are getting bigger every day and are now proper tadpoles. Within the next few days we should begin to see their back legs forming which will be very exciting. We will continue to keep posting updates but also feel free to come and have a nosy next time you visit.

Last term one of our topics was the Arctic and Antarctic animals. Our favourite animal in this topic was the polar bear and we were so excited to find out that a baby polar bear had been born in Scotland. We watched a documentary about the baby polar bear and looked at maps to see how far from Dundee the polar bear lived but we wanted to know more and decided that we would write a letter to the keeper. We were very excited to receive our letter yesterday. The keeper had answered all our questions and had also included some pictures of the baby and his mummy Victoria. We have blown up the letter and it is on one of the walls in the nursery if you would like to take a look.

This term we will be looking at life cycles. After much discussion with the children prior to the Easter holidays it was decided that we would all like to look at the life cycle of a frog. During the holidays Mrs Ross went exploring and managed to collect some frog spawn. The children were very interested and intrigued by the strange looking “jelly” and “eyeballs” that were in the fish tank. We discussed that it was frog spawn and the various stages that would follow before the nursery has its own frogs, fingers crossed. We watched a very useful video which explained to us how long the process would take and what the various stages are. We are now on day 3 and are very excited to say that we have lots of nearly formed tadpoles!!! We will keep you all posted with updates on the process or feel free to have a nosy in the tank when dropping off the children.

Mrs Hoskins brought her lovely little rabbit Flossie into the nursery. We thought she was “cute, beautiful and fluffy”. We discovered she is a lop eared rabbit and she likes to eat lots of different fruit and vegetables- just like us! The most amazing thing is that Flossie has more than one stomach she has two! It was great fun meeting Flossie. 🐰

Today in Nursery the children were enjoying using a range of art and craft materials to create some wonderful Spring flowers and Collage Easter eggs. They were all so proud when they had finished and to see them displayed for all their parents and carers to admire.

Each term the morning and afternoon boys and girls take turns to visit the residents at Menziehill House. We sing some songs, and this time we recited the Scottish poem we had learnt for Success Assembly. It was also one of the residents 90th birthday so we all had a sing-a-long and sang happy birthday to her. This is a great opportunity for both the children and the residents to develop good relations. The smiles on everyones face is priceless. We cannot wait to visit again next term.🤗

The nursery children have been exploring the garden and school grounds, and having lots of fun in the snow. There has been lots of learning going on. Learning about the properties of snow and using language such as greater, smaller and heavier when comparing snowballs. We have been talking about pattern and creating our own in the snow using our footprints and other objects. There has been examples of fantastic teamwork going on-helping each other manoevre through the snow, building snowmen and participating in “snow hide and seek”. We love the snow in nursery.

One of our funky fingers activities has been creating pin pictures. This involves cork boards, wooden shapes, pins and hammers. From this activity led onto discussions about real tools and creating bigger models using various materials. As this was an interest it was decided by the children that they would like somewhere to further develop this interest. The area where the coats are hung was seen as being the best area. Mrs Ross’s husband kindly created a workbench for us and real tools have been added. Screwdrivers, nails and measuring tools at the moment with hammers and nails to follow. We have discussed how to be safe in the area and all children are aware that when in this area they must wear Hi Vis jackets and safety goggles. Already it has been a very busy area with lots of ideas on what the children want to try and create with the tools and materials provided. Looking forward to many amazing constructions over the next few weeks.

We have been making our own dough using only water and flour. Firstly we measured out water using a measuring jug. We had to watch to see when the water had reached the fill line. After adding water to our bowl we then used our measuring cups to weigh out two cups of flour. Then we had the fun part of mixing. If our dough was to wet we added more flour. Lots of fun was had by all. At some points it got very sticky!!!! Our new “make your own dough” area will be an area available for all to experiment and create fun dough. Extra ingredients will be added to create a different experience. Making dough is an easy activity and one which can be easily done at home. The experience helps to develop early numeracy skills through weighing and measuring and use of mathematical language.