family – Page 89 – Hecklegirth Nursery

Ducklings

As promised, Murray’s Mum had more exciting visitors for us after the previous week’s surprise appearance of their lamb. This time it was six gorgeous ducklings that came to say hello one afternoon. They were only a week old but already growing quickly. We had some interesting suggestions of what colour they might be before we saw them but we soon found out that there was a black one and five which looked “browny green” as the children described them. We had a look at the duckling’s webbed feet and learned that they don’t have any teeth but no-one risked their fingers in their beaks, just in case.

Thank you to Murray and his Mum for letting us have a look at their little ducklings. As you can see from the photos, we all thought that they were super visitors.

Spring is Here

What a lovely surprise the afternoon children had last week when Murray brought his lamb in to visit us. Everyone was very excited to meet a lamb close up and enjoyed learning how to feed it from a bottle. Thank you very much to Murray and his family. We are looking forward to meeting the next surprise visitors!

Click on the photos to make them bigger.

Dora the Doggy Visitor

Everyone loved Dora and Dora loved us clapping her.

Last week we had a special visitor in Nursery when Dora the dog came to see the morning children. Dora’s family told us how she was very special because she is a rescue dog and we all certainly agreed that she was wonderful.We learned how to look after a dog and Dora even brought everyone a present from the dog refuge so thank you very much to her and her family for being super visitors.

Mini Pots of Care Day

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.

Christmas Preparations

Nursery continues to be a very busy place as we practise for our concert and delve into the glitter tub to make decorations and cards. The calendars are also almost finished so everyone who placed an order should have them by the end of this week. Thank you so much for you support in this activity: we have been quite amazed by the number of orders but the children have risen to the challenge and patiently fulfilled all requests.

We are pleased to say that the children’s pot pourri bags seemed to be popular at the Christmas Fayre and most of them were sold. It was also lovely to see so many of you attending this very successful event. A magnificent sum of £1000 was raised on the night so thank you to all who contributed.

First Days

What a delightful start we have had to our year, getting to know our new children and their families, as well as welcoming back the familiar, smiling faces. The children are beginning to settle in to the Nursery routine and, as the coming weeks unfold, they should grow in confidence in their new environment. If your child takes a little while to feel comfortable, please give them time to take things at their pace: we, as adults, cope with change in different ways and at different rates and children are exactly the same. If you have any concerns about your child, please speak to staff who can offer you advice based on their experiences.

Most children have had fun and been adventurous in trying out a variety of activities. Once we have blog permission slips returned, we will be able to put photos here to encourage children to show their families and friends at home. In the meantime, we thought you might like to see a few of the first drawings the children have produced this week.

Click on the photos to make them bigger.

Singing, smiles and certificates

We are off to Australia and to Edinburgh to live but we will still be friends.

Singing, smiles and certificates filled our graduation day at Hecklegirth Nursery. The children were so excited to perform for their family and friends and they certainly did us all proud. Happiness seemed to beam from almost every face as they showed what wonderful little stars they are. A slightly nervous practice for some at our school assembly the day previously seemed to build their confidence and both the morning and afternoon children “saved the best for last” to impress their families. The singing and dancing was fantastic! Miss Wilson was also very impressed with the grown-up and confident manner in which each individual child walked onto the stage to shake hands and receive their certificate.

All the staff were touched when we were presented with surprise gifts which were most generous, particularly after the recent secret fundraising event. We would like to thank all the children and their parents for making this year a most enjoyable one. The children have been an absolute delight and their parents so supportive of us. We could not have asked for more.

Click on the photos above for a closer look.

Fun Activity Day

Our Fun Activity Day started with a huge surprise when we were presented with a very generous cheque, as well as a beautiful bench and weather vane for the Nursery garden. We would like to extend huge thanks to everyone who organised, contributed to or took part in the secret sponsored walk to raise this amazing amount of money for our Nursery. We feel quite overwhelmed by this generosity and are considering carefully how to spend your donation wisely.

Despite a mixture of sunshine and showers, the children continued happily round the fun activities and seemed pleased to show off their skills to family and friends. They worked well together in teams and showed good support for each other. Primary 6 did a great job of encouraging and praising the children and Callum, Active Schools Co-ordinator, helped us enormously by managing everyone’s movement round the field.

None of this would have been possible without the enthusiastic participation of the Nursery children who, as always, made us very proud of their excellent behaviour on an exciting day. Well done boys and girls!