2010-2011 – Page 3 – Hecklegirth Nursery

Out and About in the Community

As we have been learning about our community and the people who work in it, we recently paid visits to our local sorting office and police station.

On Red Nose Day local fire officers visited Nursery and we had great fun trying out the hose on the fire appliance, as well as learning how to stay safe. The firefighters joined in the fun, borrowing silly hats for Red Nose Day.

The children enjoyed this taster of the world of work and several hope to be postal workers, firefighters or police officers in the future although our discussions have revealed that many also have dreams of becoming a princess or a pirate.

Growing Families

Growing Families is a joint Family Learning and Nursery project about vegetables and how to grow them. To get started we are going to be reading “Oliver’s Vegetables”, making food mats and growing cress. All parents/carers are invited to come and listen to the story with their child, help him/her to make a placemat and decorate a pot to grow cress on Wednesday 16^th March.

Please add your name to the list on the Family Learning notice board to join in the fun. We look forward to as many families as possible taking part. Thanks go, as always, to Eileen Johnstone, our Family Learning Co-ordinator, for organising this activity.

We Love to Sing

We like to practise singing using the microphone.

We sing in Nursery every day so we thought we would let everyone hear what we sound like. These are two of our favourite songs. Well done to Eva and Sarah for introducing “Wind the Bobbin Up”. Please leave a comment to tell us what you think of our singing.

twinkle_twinkle_little_star wind_the_bobbin_up

Visit to Primary 4

This week we were invited to visit Primary 4 to see their work on Annan. In Nursery we have been learning about our local community so it was interesting to see what the older children had found out. The boys and girls in Primary 4 looked after us very well and told us all about their newspapers and wonderful displays. Nursery children were good listeners and showed great confidence in the wider school environment. Thank you very much to Miss Cameron and Primary 4 for making us feel so welcome.

Kandinsky Chat

This week we found out a little about the artist, Kandinsky. It was quite tricky trying to say his name and some of us just called him “Kandy” which was a bit easier. A few children thought he looked as old as Robert Burns and wondered if they knew each other because both their pictures looked old.

Once we had made our painting in the style of Kandinsky, we talked about our work and compared it to Kandinsky’s painting. Here are some of our ideas.

It looks like snow’s coming down and it’s raining with red and blue.
They look like pizza shapes.
It makes me think of rainbows. It’s quite like Kandinsky’s.
They look like colourful holes.
They are kind of different ‘cause we have different colours of paint in Hecklegirth.
You can put other colours on top of colours to make it different.
Everybody’s done lovely colours that I like.
It looks like a rainbow swirl.
It’s the same as his but kind of different colours.
I think thunder’s coming down.
It makes me think they’re lovely.

Thank You

We would like to say a huge thank you to all the children and their families for raising the magnificent sum of £359 for Marie Curie. We greatly appreciate your sponsorship of the care of daffodil bulbs the children had planted. A nurse from Marie Curie visited us in Nursery yesterday to talk to the children about how the money will be used and she was very grateful for our efforts. Well done to all the children who looked after their bulbs. You really are growing up to be responsible citizens and effective contributors.

Our Thoughts on Love

Valentine’s Day has come and gone earlier this week but what do our Nursery children think about love and how we can show someone that we love them?

Zak “Love feels soft.”

Eva “You can kiss people you love. I love my puppy Milly and I kiss and cuddle her.”

Mason “It feels snug as a bug.”

Dylan “Love is looking after someone. My Mummy and Daddy look after me.”

Nairn “I love my Nana. I give her kisses.”

Aedan “People who love each other, play with each other.”

Joanne “My Mummy makes lots and lots of love for me. I love my Mummy.”

Sarah “At night time my Mummy puts my little light on and gives me a big cuddle.”

Mason “My Mummy gives me drinks when I watch Ben 10. She gives me superduper, electronic, automatic robot cuddles.”

Ruby “I give my Mummy and Daddy and my little sister 53 kisses.”

Ellie “Me and my family stay at home and do nice things like play jigsaws. My brother reads me stories. Sometimes the daddy has to go on night shift.”

Maisie “My Mummy and Daddy love me so much and today my Mummy gave me Super Noodles and they were so yummy.”

Alicia “My Mummy loves me. She makes my bed and I help her too.”

Our Dragon Dance

As part of our learning about Chinese New Year, the children made a dragon and have been enjoying performing a simple dragon parade to Chinese music. If you would like to watch them having fun with this, you can come a little early to pick your child up on Tuesday 15^th February at 11.15 or 2.45 when we will be in the hall. We hope you will enjoy having a different insight into our activities.

“Gung Hay Fat Choy”

With the arrival of Chinese New Year, the sounds of “Gung Hay Fat Choy” (“Happy New Year”) have been heard round Nursery as we learn about the traditions, celebrations and story of this special time for Chinese people. Our Chinese feast consisted of noodles, rice, prawn crackers and various sauces for dipping. Great fun was had by all, trying to use chopsticks – who would have thought that snack could be such fun?

Our own Chinese restaurant in the role play area has been very popular and dancing to Chinese music has provided a wonderful calm among the excitement. Some of the children’s ideas about life in China have been delightful: there may not be “purple houses made from butterflies, sparkles and stars with fairies at the bottom” in China, as one child suggested, but what an imaginative picture she painted.

“Gung Hay Fat Choy” to families and friends from all the children and staff at Hecklegirth Nursery.

Stan the Star Celebrates Burn’s Day

Our favourite little teddy, Stan the Star, loves visiting the children at home and everyone seems to be very kind to him when he comes to stay. He has had some busy times lately, including a holiday to Blackpool with Dylan.

To celebrate Burn’s Day, the children had fun at home with their families designing a Scottish outfit for Stan the Star. As you can see from the photos, there were some great ideas. The children are very proud of their efforts and demonstrated great talking skills when describing their designs to the rest of the children.

Click on the photos to get a closer view.