As we have been learning about the buildings in our community and thinking about what happens in them, we decided to take a look at some of the work of the artist, L. S. Lowry. It was great to see his paintings on our new Promethean board and we had some interesting discussions comparing the buildings he portrayed with the ones we see in Annan. We thought that the painting of the schoolyard, in particular, was very different to our school playground.
As well as singing along to the song “We Painted Matchstick Men and Matchstick Cats and Dogs”, lots of children were keen to participate in making a street scene similar to Lowry’s work. Some lovely charcoal drawings were also produced to add to our display.
Our recent visit to the police station was another fantastic learning experience for the children. PC Leggat and PC McGoldrick gave us the opportunity to learn about what being a police officer entails and many tried out the uniform which they found surprisingly heavy. They also showed us round the cells and the various areas of the police station used for interviews, CCTV and fingerprinting. Some of the children were brave and closed the door on the cell but most agreed that it would not be very comfy to stay there for long. The police van, on the other hand, had great appeal and we could have stayed there for hours trying out the siren and sitting in the back of the van.
Thank you to everyone at the police station, especially PC Leggat and PC McGoldrick, for making us feel so welcome. As well as learning about your jobs, it is so important that the children see police officers as people who can help them and we feel sure that you will be getting a few waves whenever the children see you out and about in the town from now on.
Along with many schools and nurseries throughout the country, the children celebrated “Mini Pots of Care Day” on Wednesday by decorating pot wrappers for the daffodils they had nurtured over the winter and then taking their pots home to someone they care about.
We were also delighted to be able to present a large cheque to Sheena from Marie Curie Cancer Care, thanks to the generous donations from families and friends. Even after we had written our large presentation cheque, more donations came in and the children have currently raised an amazing £549.35. Thanks to Sheena and Henry the bear for explaining how our money will be used and a huge thank you to all those who contributed to our wonderful total.
As you can see from the photos, we all looked after our daffodils very well. We hope they survived their journey home in the windy weather.
Last week Rory’s Mum came back to Nursery to see what ideas we had gathered for our garden wall design. We all had a lovely time working together making our design boards of ideas. There were magazines available to select more pictures to stick on our boards and the room was full of talk about all the different things we could see in the pictures. Jana found some ideas that she particularly liked and she took photos of them to help her with her design sketches. We made sure that she took a photo of Ruby Rabbit and Stan the Star as everyone is very keen to have our favourite Nursery friends on our garden wall. We are all looking forward to the next stage of our project when we will see Jana’s design suggestions.
Here you can see us hard at work with Rory’s Mum, cutting and sticking our pictures to the boards.
Over the past week or two the children have been bringing in their ideas for the garden wall design. What a fantastic range of suggestions and ways of sharing their ideas we have had! Some children brought an object that they like, such as a giraffe, a dragon and a pink, glittery ball, others have painted a picture or made a model. Some have cut pictures from magazines and others have made large displays of all the things that they like.
We feel sure that Jana will be delighted with all the imaginative and interesting ideas the children have produced. Tomorrow she will be back in Nursery so we will be able to make a scrapbook of our ideas. Please remember to bring any pictures with you tomorrow if you want them included in our plans.
Sometimes in Nursery we play a game called “Who’s in the Box?” but this week we played a guessing game of “What’s in the Box?” because when the afternoon children came to sit on the carpet, a mystery box was sitting waiting for them.
There were lots of ideas about what could be inside – a slide, a train, lots and lots of stickers, an elephant and even a Loch Ness monster. It was very exciting opening the box especially when we found another box inside the big one. Someone even thought it might be a trick. However, once the shiny red metal started to show and a wheel appeared from all the wrapping paper, we realised that it was a new bike for the garden.
Once Miss Kerr had put it together for us, everyone was really pleased with our mystery parcel. It’s certainly been good to have something new to try out in the garden, thanks to extra money raised from last term’s enterprise project. Little did we anticipate what the demand would be for the children’s calendars when we planned to raise money for our Christmas party but it’s certainly brought a smile to everyone’s faces now that we have been able to buy a new bike too.
We had a lovely end to our week with a visit from Lewis who is a former pupil of Hecklegirth. It’s a few years since he was a pupil in our Nursery but it’s always great to welcome him back.
After our recent work on Scotland, Lewis came to talk to us about the playing the accordion and to give us a tune or two. It certainly seems a tricky instrument to master but Lewis has been practising for a few years and he entertained us well. As the Nursery children have been learning about Robert Burns, Lewis was also kind enough to give us a beautiful rendition of the Burns’ song he will sing in a competition at the week-end.
To close our musical afternoon, the children sang their Scottish songs for Lewis who proclaimed, “There’s no doubt that Hecklegirth’s got talent”.
Lewis is certainly a talented young man and we wish him well for his Burns’ competition. We look forward to hearing how it went when he visits next week to perform to the morning children. Thank you Lewis for being a super visitor – we enjoyed your performance very much.
As well as learning about Chinese New Year, this week we have begun an exciting project to design a mural for our garden wall as the current one is looking a little faded. As a local artist, Rory’s Mum has very kindly agreed to help the children plan a design reflecting their ideas. After an initial discussion with the children this week, she and Rory’s Dad will work with staff and the children to make a scrapbook of their ideas. She will then create a design for the garden wall based on the children’s ideas.
Jana uses lots of different tools to paint.
It was so exciting for the children to meet a real artist and talk about where her ideas come from and what tools she uses to paint.
We loved all the pictures that she collects to help her – a row of pandas, a flowery dress, a child playing in the sea, a laughing dog, one huge eye and a road full of bikes. We hope that the children will be able to bring in pictures of things they like, to contribute to our scrapbook. It might be drawings, cuttings from newspapers or magazines, photos, pieces of ribbon or material, even a photos of a pattern on their Mum’s skirt – simply anything that they like.
This is a very exciting project for us and we are delighted that Jana is willing to help us with it. We greatly appreciate the time and effort that she will be putting in to help us with this plan and look forward to lots of ideas from our children and their families. This design will be in the Nursery garden for a long time so it is important that everyone has a say in how it looks.
What a wonderful week we have had with the various activities to celebrate our learning about Scotland. As well as learning about the fiddle and Rory’s Dad’s super storytelling, we enjoyed our Burn’s celebration on Tuesday with Primary 1 and Primary 2/1 followed by a great day on Friday when we were part of the whole school celebration.
We appreciate everyone making a super effort to provide the children with ‘a touch o’ tartan’ on both days. It certainly added to the occasion and they all looked wonderful. We hope that you enjoyed hearing the children sing on Friday and that you were able to take the opportunity to have a look at their work on display. It was great to see so many families join in our celebration with a coffee and a taste of the shortbread made by the children. Thank you for everyone’s support and lovely comments.
Here is a taster of our week in photos. You can see a fuller outline and photos of our learning about Scotland in our ‘Thinking Books’ which are in the book area in Nursery.
Shortbread, Irn Bru, oatcakes and cheese – tasty!
Nessie would love these houses designed at home.
Some of our designs for Nessie’s home.
Our own wee piper!
Some of the models made at home.
A touch o’ tartan for our celebrations.
How big is the Nessie we made with P1 and P2/1?
P1’s monster drawings and writing look good beside our tartan.
As promised, Mrs. Roberts came back to talk to the morning children about the fiddle. Like the afternoon children, they enjoyed singing along while Mrs. Roberts played and as you can see from the photos, some of them enjoyed the opportunity to try out the little fiddle.
If you click on the link below and turn up your volume, you can hear the children enjoying a good old singalong.
