This week has seen the last visit of Ross, our football coach, who has brought lots of fun to Nursery and has helped the children to develop their football skills.
As it was a beautiful day, we were able to play on the school field for the first time which was exciting in itself. However, when Ross produced football nets and coloured bibs to put the children in teams, everyone was very keen to get the ball in the net. Great fun was had by all, using the skills they had learned, and some showed that they really knew how to celebrate when they scored a goal. Watch out for the stars of the future!
Recently we enjoyed a book called “When I Grow Up” and we talked about what jobs we might like to do when we are grown up. To help practise all important talking skills some children recorded their ideas using the microphone. We hope that you enjoy the small selection below. To see more of the children’s ideas, look in our “Thinking Books” in the book area of Nursery.
Turn up the volume and click on the + sign to hear their ideas.
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.
World Book Day was great fun as we dressed up as our favourite characters and brought our favourite books to Nursery. To top off a special day we visited Annan Library where we were read some super stories. Thanks to the library staff and to all the parents who came with us on our visit – we really appreciate your help.
As you can see from the photos, everyone had fun taking part. Click on photos to make them bigger.
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.
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.
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.
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 part of our learning about Scottish culture, the afternoon children were invited to Primary 2/1’s classroom last week to learn about the fiddle. Mrs. Roberts told us about the different parts of it and how the sound comes out of it. She played us several Scottish tunes and then gave us a big surprise when she played a tune that we know. We all joined in with “Ye Cannae Shove Yer Granny Aff a Bus” then we managed to record it and listen back on to our singing on the computer which was great fun. If you turn up your volume and click on the link below you can hear the children singing along to Mrs. Roberts playing the fiddle.
Mrs. Roberts even helped some children hold the little fiddle and they were able to make some sounds with it. Maybe one day they will be able to play like Mrs. Roberts.
Thank you so much to Mrs. Roberts as well as Miss Cameron and Primary 2/1. We really enjoyed our visit to your classroom. Hopefully the morning children will be able to enjoy this experience with Primary 1 later in the week.
Two recent visits by Pam Fraser, the Financial Education Officer, have encouraged the children to think about money and what we need it for. They learned about all the different coins and enjoyed a story called “Mrs. Pirate”.
Some interesting conversations developed about what the children would buy if they had money to spend. Those of simple tastes dreamt of lots of sweets while others thought carefully and planned a quad bike, a paddling pool or a Lego castle. After Pam had gone, the helpful children even came up with suggestions for Mrs. Carruthers to spend her birthday money on. The idea of “more stickers for Nursery” and “a new scooter for our garden” did not seem so appealing for her birthday but she liked the suggestions of a “cosy scarf to keep you warm in winter”, “big earrings like you like” and “a very beautiful dress”.
As you can see from the photos below, the children thoroughly enjoyed the coin rubbing activity and were amazed when they produced pictures of the different coins as if by magic. Thank you Pam for helping us learn in a fun way.
