Hecklegirth Nursery

Sensory Planter

After our graph work to help us choose which type of plants we wanted to buy, our plants arrived and the children tried to guess which scent each one had which was quite a challenge and produced lots of discussion. They helped to plant them all and have added some of the shells and stones that they decorated to the planter. We are encouraging the children to gently rub the leaves then smell their fingers to help work out which smell each plant has. We hope that you agree that this makes a useful addition to the garden. Why not have a walk round the sensory planter with your child and see if you can find the chocolate mint plant or the curry one? As you can see from the photos, one little boy has already been showing his Mummy what he has been busy with. The children are now thinking about how to look after their new plants and are very keen to help with the watering.

Happy Learning

Two of our families have left comments on our recent posts. Enid’s family liked our first graph:

“What a fun way to learn about graphs, fantastic idea.”

We wanted to make sure that everyone had a chance to give their opinion on the plants we chose and the children were able to see clearly from the graph which choices were most popular so hopefully their first experience of a graph was meaningful for them.

Vinnie seems to be really proud of his recent certificate:

“Vinnie was so happy with his reward he showed it to everyone who came to the house…..even the milk man!”

We love that story Vinnie. I hope the milkman was as impressed as we are with your achievement.

Award Winners

There were some lovely smiles from last week’s award winners when they were presented with their certificates. Congratulations to you both!

Our First Graph

Once we had the planter decorated by our keen painters, we had to decide which type of plants we wanted for our garden. We talked about different scents and colours to help us make our decisions. Some thought a lavender plant would smell nice while others preferred mint or orange and lemon. To make it fair we all voted for which type of plants we would like in our new planter. Everyone contributed to our graph and we learned how to work out the winner from looking at the height of the columns. Super work boys and girls! If you would like to see their graph we have put it on the entrance door to Nursery.

Happy Families

It seems that lots of our families have been enjoying the photos of the outdoor activities we have been doing recently. Noah, Joshua H. and Kobe have all been talking about playing in the Nursery garden to their families.

“Look at that wee face-deep in concentration! Noah really enjoys playing outside at nursery with his friends!”

“Joshua looks so content & hard at work here. I remember this day he come home & said he had been cleaning & playing with water.”

“Good to see the kids outside playing. Kobe says he really enjoys playing in the nursery garden.”

Come sun or rain, most children seem to love outdoor play so it’s lovely to hear that they are talking to their families about it at home. Thank you for leaving comments. It’s great to know that you are looking at our blog and that the children are enjoying our outdoor play activities.

Fun In The Sun

Quinn’s family has been looking at the photo of her painting the planter in the garden:

“Great photos and fantastic to see Quinn outside enjoying herself. Quinn said it was fun painting. Keep up the good work. X”

We hope that you like the finished planter which is sitting near the door. We think that the children have done a super job.

Fairy Garden

As part of our outdoor work with the children, we have begun preparations for a fairy garden. Obviously every little fairy needs a home and we think that they would be very happy in our garden if we made them feel welcome so the children have been cleaning logs and slabs of wood as a starting point. More work will need to be done to prepare for our fairies but we think that the children made a super start with these logs.

Painting and Decorating

As the renovations continued last week in the mud kitchen area, it was decided that we needed to paint one of our big, wooden boxes before we chose some plants for it. It was a messy job that required suits and gloves, despite the warm weather, but there were plenty of willing helpers to make their mark. As you can see, it got the ‘thumbs up’ from some interested onlookers and you may have noticed the children’s newly decorated box in the garden waiting for some plants. We think that they did a great job.

Anyone For Skittles?

Working as a team, sharing and taking turns are all important attributes that the children learn in Nursery and these children showed all these attributes when they created their own skittles type game outdoors. It was wonderful to watch them as they worked so well together at the same time as having great fun.