Effective Contributors – Page 27

Pumpkin Parade

Bethany and Sophie’s families enjoyed our recent photos of the children decorating pumpkins in Nursery and it is certainly true that they worked so hard at this activity and were very creative with their ideas.

Bethany’s Mum: “They both look very busy! Super pumpkin decorators!”

Sophie’s Mum: “Lovely photos as usual, everyone seems to be concentrating hard on such a fun task!”

We were also delighted that so many Nursery families took part in the pumpkin decorating competition which was judged at our school Hallowe’en disco last night. Our children’s contributions looked fantastic and congratulations must go to Sophie from the Sunshine Room who was the winner in the Nursery category. Well done everyone who took part. We hope that those who didn’t make it to the disco will enjoy our photos showing a selection of the pumpkins Nursery children did with their families.

Hallowe’en Pumpkins

It’s been a busy day in Nursery today preparing for Hallowe’en. We had several pumpkins to investigate and decorate ready for our party.
As you can see from the photos, the children were intrigued by what was inside the pumpkins and spent a long time spooning out the flesh and seeds ready for our lanterns. Some drew the faces on the pumpkins for staff to carve and then lots of children contributed to the decoration of them. Never before have we seen so many “jewels” on a pumpkin as the on the one that Rainbow Room morning children created and we especially loved the cheeky tongue and teeth on one of the Sunshine Room’s designs. We think that your pumpkins will look wonderful at our parties tomorrow. Well done everyone.
Click on the photos then click again to make them bigger.

Harvest Celebrations

Thank you to all those children and their families who kindly donated to the collection for our Harvest celebration. Some of the children are shown below with their donations. We feel sure that all the food will be much appreciated by those involved with Kate’s Kitchen. Many thanks to Rev. McGougan for delivering our donations and for joining us in Nursery for a Harvest celebration.
We also really appreciated your fantastic support on Monday when you provided a wonderful audience for the children. It was a lovely opportunity for us all to gather together to celebrate Harvest and we hope that you enjoyed the children’s performance as much as they seemed to. One of our aims is to develop ‘confident individuals’ and many of our children showed themselves to be exactly that in their performance. Well done boys and girls!
Click on the photos to make them bigger.

Den Making Continues

Den making remains popular in the Nursery garden but the children continue to think of new ways to create their dens as they grow in confidence. Last week some of them wanted to paint the posts different colours and they decided to use planks of wood rather than a tarpaulin to make walls and a roof. As you can see, they are working well together and producing some fantastic results.
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Den Making

Den making is becoming popular with the children in the Nursery garden. They are showing good problem solving skills and are working well in teams to make their dens.
Here you can see some children from the Rainbow Room who decided to make a house for the three little pigs so that they could hide from the big bad wolf. As you can see, they had to work as a team to make their frame then persevered well to position the tarpaulin to make their den. When a group of children from the Sunshine Room came to play in the den they turned it into a home for the three bears which is the story they have been focussing on in their room last week.
Problem-solving, teamwork and imaginative play were all developed from a tarpaulin and some wooden poles which just goes to show how enterprising and creative our children are. Well done boys and girls!

Real Life Decision Making

The children have had some big decisions to make recently as we had the wonderful problem of deciding what to buy with a very generous donation from a kind grandparent.
They were given three choices of how to spend the money and, after a discussion about each, all the children voted for their favourite. As you can see from the photos, each child added their vote to the graph and watched carefully to see which option came out the winner. Although it was a close vote, the winning choice was for a bed, table and chairs for the role play area. There was great excitement when the parcels arrived and some of the children did a super job of helping us put our new furniture together. As you can see, they are all delighted with their choice and experienced lots of valuable learning along the way.
Children and staff are extremely grateful for this donation from a very kind and generous grandparent. The children are already having great fun with the additions to our role play area and will continue to do so for many years to come.
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Let’s Think About Our Rules

Now that we are settling into Nursery life, we have been talking about the need to have rules. We read stories about sharing and what happens when we have no rules then the children gave their suggestions about what our rules should be.

Dan: sharing and being nice ’cause it makes people happy.
Oscar: don’t shout ’cause you get sore ears.
Zachary: don’t run or you’ll get hurt.
Riley: no crying.
Freya: no pushing ’cause you might fall in the garden.
Reagyn: no hitting.
Sophie S.: don’t run – you’ll hurt your face.
Amy-Leigh: be nice and play together.
Tom: always wash your hands before snack.
William: be friends.
Ava W.: use your listening ears.

The children did come up with some very good ideas. Our rules are now on display in the Nursery and cloakroom areas. You could ask the children to tell you what they are. I wonder who will remember them?

Hecklegirth Harvest

Last week we lifted the last of our vegetables from the raised beds in the garden. This was the result of a super Family Learning project we did last term. Even although some of the children were not involved at the start of this project, they were still very enthusiastic to see which vegetables they could find in the beds. They worked hard to lift potatoes, courgettes, carrots, onions and beetroot and little groups showed great confidence to take their wheelbarrows to show all the older children in school. Mrs. Alexander was also impressed with their harvest when she met them on their travels round the school.
Well done children for all your hard work and thank you to Eileen, our Family Learning Co-ordinator, for her hard work. Those new to Nursery will be hearing about some of Eileen’s activities later this term and we hope that lots of you will join in with your children.

A Mud Park For Dogs

Last week saw many of the children investigating the digging area in the garden for the first time. This is a place where the children often show super imagination in developing their ideas. This little group transformed a patch of soil and some rainwater into a “mud park for dogs”, using stones, mud and some bits of wood, showing good teamwork and communication skills. Perhaps we have some engineers of the future here?
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Graduation Congratulations

Finlay’s family would like to pass on their congratulations to you all on your performance at our recent graduation:

“A big well done to all the boys and girls on their graduation, you all sang and danced beautifully. Good luck to the boys and girls who will be going into P1 after the summer.”

We wish good luck to those moving on to P1 too. We’re sure you’ll have great fun and will continue to be fantastic learners.