Effective Contributors – Page 38

“Wear Something Spotty”

Please remember that it’s “Wear Something Spotty” day tomorrow, Friday 18^th November. Our suggested donation is 50p to go towards “Children in Need”. Cakes and sweets will also be on sale for 20p so the children can bring a little extra money if they would like to visit the cake stall during our Nursery session.

Hallowe’en Fun with P1 and P2/1

We all had great fun at our Hallowe’en parties this week. The morning children enjoyed their party with Miss Cameron and P2/1 while Mrs. Lindsay and P1 joined the afternoon children. We dooked for apples, caught marshmallows with our teeth, played lots of fun games and enjoyed party food together. Thanks to everyone for sending the children in their fantastic outfits which helped them to feel part of the fun.

Mmm – it’s quite tasty once you catch it.

The Cannon is Built

After some hard work and a lot of tricky thinking, the cannon is ready for our castle. The photos below tell the story of what we did to get from the children’s idea to the final stage of their plan. It’s been a lot of fun and has provided lots of learning. Thank you very much to Primary 6 for lending us their construction equipment and for their advice on how to use it.

Click on the photos to make them bigger.

It’s a long climb to P6 to borrow their construction equipment.

Hold it still Miss Kerr while we tighten the screws.

The tube problem was solved but it had been very tricky.

There’s nothing better than a cannon you’ve made yourself.

Our Castle

As the children seemed to be continually asking for the castle and knights to be brought out, we thought that we should make our own castle. The children all did a great job of printing the bricks to make the castle walls. They even made the door and the bird cage that some afternoon children wanted. Now the children would like some extra decoration on the walls so thank you to those who are bringing in all the foil, sweetie papers, pompoms etc to make this into a special castle. As you can see they have been busy sticking it on and the castle is beginning to change each Nursery session.

Some of the boys decided at the end of term that they would also like a cannon outside their castle “to keep the baddies out” so Finlay drew the design and explained how cannons work. This week some of the design team have been up to Primary 6 to borrow their construction materials to help us build our cannon. This is still work in progress but Miss Kerr and a small team of morning children are working hard on this project. Jack had a great idea and brought his tools from home to help so hopefully our castle should soon have its own cannon.

Thanks must go to those parents who are supporting us and the children by sending in materials. We all appreciate your efforts.

Happy Hunting

At the end of term we were learning to identify letters and numbers. We talked about what we use them for and where we see them. We decided to be detectives and look round the school for letters, numbers and pictures. It was great fun finding them everywhere and sometimes the children were able to find signs that we hadn’t even thought of. We learned that a “P” and a “1” together means “Primary 1” where lots of us will go next year. Lee found the school motto, “Aim High”, up very high on the wall and Layton worked out that the numbers on a poster must be a phone number because they had a picture of a phone beside them. Learning was literally round every corner.

Autumn Has Arrived

As Summer slowly fades away, we have been learning about the signs of Autumn. We have enjoyed a variety of activities in Nursery and have spent time with our families, collecting things in nature which tell us that Autumn is here.

The children have been excited to show us their finds and most have shown confidence to sit in the Star Seat to talk to everyone about their Autumn “treasure”. We loved one little boy’s description of “going adventuring” to find chestnuts and brambles.

Here are some of the children’s thoughts on how we know it’s Autumn:

Lee: the leaves change colour

Katie: it’s windy and a bit sunny.

Rhiannon: the weather gets dull.

Jaylin: leaves curl and go brown.

Struan: the leaves are red, yellow and orange.

Ryan: leaves fall on the ground.

Mya: flowers go and it’s windy.

Turn up the volume and click below to hear our voices .

Autumn 1 Autumn 3 Autumn 2

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, We Love You

As we were so good at helping Miss Young to tell the story of “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt”, she invited our teddies in to Nursery to try out the cave where Honey, her teddy, was living. The teddies all seemed excited to try out the cave although some needed a little encouragement so we were very brave and went in to the dark cave with them.

Everyone showed good listening and talking skills as each person talked about why their teddy was so special. We thought you might like to hear some of their comments and see some of the very special bears who visited us.

Caleb He’s a boy teddy. He’s wearing a jumper so he doesn’t get cold.

Lee My teddy’s name is Ashleigh. He’s a boy. He always wears his jumper. He feels nice and soft.

Reece He’s got a black nose the same as his fur and tail.

Jordy He likes bouncing on the trampoline with me when it’s sunny. He’s called Daddy Bear. He can bounce very high.

Mya It’s Ruby the teddy. I sleep with him quiet at night in my bunk bed. He’s got nice eyes and a pink tongue.

Sam L. I bought him at Tesco when I was a baby. I cuddle him at night. He disappears when I cuddle him.

Finlay He’s called John Wayne. He usually likes running and jumping out the window but not if it’s wet outside. He likes jumping on the bed.

Miley I bought him from a shop. His name’s Red Ted. I cuddle him lots of times and I have lots of teddies in a bag.

Ryan It’s a boy. He’s a special agent. He helps people when they don’t know what to do.

Mischa He’s called Jake. He’s old. It shrinked when I was wee.

We love our teddies.

What a happy teddy he looks.

The teddies loved visiting Honey’s cave.

Is that a Santa teddy?

Nana gave me it.

My Granny knitted Clarence’s suit.

The House That Hecklegirth Built

At the end of last session the children and their parents held a secret (and very rainy) sponsored walk which resulted in us being presented with a beautiful weather vane and bench for the Nursery garden, as well as a very generous cheque to spend on equipment.

We decided to use this money to buy a playhouse and there was great excitement when it arrived this week. There was no shortage of volunteers to help when Miss Kerr and Miss Boyd set about the task of building our new house. They did have a few teething problems with their apprentices who were keen to carry off doors, walls and even those fiddly screws to different parts of the garden but once the rules of the workplace had been established, we saw some good teamwork by the morning children and they were delighted with their efforts. By the time the children arrived for the afternoon session, the building team had constructed a fantastic playhouse.

Thank you so much again to all those who contributed to provide us with these super additions to our outdoor play area. We hope you are happy with how we have spent your generous donation.

It’s amazing the games you can play with a big box.

Confident Individuals

After less than two weeks in Nursery, most children are growing in confidence in their new environment. We are establishing the rules and the children are developing into confident and happy Nursery pupils, as you can see from the pictures below. Later in the week we will send home a note of the Nursery rules and how we are teaching the children the days of the week, to help keep you informed of our current focus.

We feel sure that you are all very proud of the way your children have settled so well in to Nursery in such a short space of time because we certainly are.