literacy and english – Page 26 – Hecklegirth Nursery

Library Visit

To further develop links with our wider community, we have begun to visit Annan library on a Monday. Each room will visit on alternate weeks to build their literacy skills and become familiar with our local library. We apologise to those in the Sunshine Room who were expecting to go on their first visit today but we really felt that the high winds made this a safety issue for the children. Hopefully we will be able to make a visit soon.
Last week the Rainbow Room made their first visit and the children seemed to thoroughly enjoy the experience. Marion made us very welcome and explained to the children that they could come to the library with their families to borrow books. She read us some super stories which engaged the children and they then had the opportunity to choose books to share with adults and other children. We hope that you love these photos as much as we do – it’s great to see our children so engaged with books.
We would like to thank those parents who came with us on our first visit and those who have kindly volunteered to join us in the future. We really appreciate your support and look forward to lots of parents being part of our visits. Well done also to the children for their super behaviour – Marion was very impressed with you all and is looking forward to our next visit.

Story, Rhyme and Number Bags

Story, rhyme and number bags will be given out from this Tuesday 3rd November to those who would like them. These bags are designed to encourage your child to enjoy reading and numbers. Each story/rhyme bag has a book and a game or puppets connected to the story/rhyme. The number bags contain a game.
If your child attends morning Nursery sessions you can collect a bag at the end of the session from Eileen, our Family Learning Co-ordinator, in the Family Learning room opposite the school hall. Those attending Nursery in the afternoon can collect bags at the start of a session. Bags can be kept at home for a week and exchanged the following Tuesday. If anyone can spare twenty minutes to help Eileen check the bags, it would be much appreciated. We hope that lots of our families will join in with the activity bags “library”.

Read, Write, Count

We would like to share some great ideas from the Scottish government on a site called “Read, Write, Count”. As a parent or carer, you’re the most important teacher in your child’s life. In fact, research shows that when parents help their child with learning outside of school, the children do better with things like reading and counting. This is a site with ideas to make it easy for parents to bring fun and learning into everyday activities. Whether it’s in the supermarket, on the way to school, at bedtime or sitting down for a meal, “Read, Write, Count” has lots of simple ideas that put smiles on children’s faces while giving them the best start in life. We hope that you have fun with your child using some of these great ideas. Click on the link on the right to “Read, Write, Count” under the heading “Useful Reading”.

Captain Furrybeard Visits Nursery

The children in the Sunshine Room have continued to be motivated by their interest in pirates and the learning has been developed in several directions with the help of Mrs. Bell, our student teacher.
Pirate stories have been very popular, with some of the children keen to tell the stories themselves. They also received a letter from Captain Furrybeard who seemed to have left his telescope and hat in our Nursery and needed some help from the children. Maps, flags and telescopes were produced and the children had to think about how to make a new pirate ship for Captain Furrybeard. This, of course, involved measuring Captain Furrybeard to help us work out what size of ship was needed. As you can see, his ship worked out just the right size for him.
We had treasure hidden in the sand tray and there was some counting had to be done to ensure it was all found. Good turn taking skills were also shown as the children played a pirate game. We hope that you enjoy these photos of the children engaged with all the different pirate activities. As you can see, lots of valuable learning has taken place with Captain Furrybeard.
Click then click again to make the photos bigger.

Benji The PlayTalkRead Bus

Benji, the PlayTalkRead bus, will be at Hecklegirth tomorrow, Tuesday 22nd September. This is a great, free early years initiative which is open to parents, carers and children in the area to come along and enjoy some free activities. All local families are welcome between 10.00-1.00 and 2.00-4.00. The bus will be hosting free storytelling and rhythm sessions and a range of play and activity sessions for children and their parents, to promote and raise awareness of the benefits of positive parental engagement with simple free activities which parents can take home, with the aim that they build upon the ideas and activities sessions at home with their children.

We Love Annan

We hope that lots of you enjoyed the fun activities in gorgeous sunshine at Annan’s Day of the Region today. It really was lovely to see so many families and community groups taking part with such enthusiasm. The super pictures that you made of your favourite places and activities in Annan were displayed on the Nursery windows, along with others from Hecklegirth and other local schools and we thought that they looked wonderful. If you didn’t get a chance to see them all today, here is a selection of your ideas and drawings.
Click then click again to make the photos bigger and read some of the ideas you told your families.

Pirates In Hecklegirth Nursery

A big wooden box outdoors has provided the opportunity for great imaginative play recently and this week it has been transformed into a pirate ship. Once they realised that they could fit into the box, the children’s imagination took off and their play developed into the world of pirates.
They decided that they needed a pirate flag and wanted to decorate the ship with “pirate signs”. Then, of course, they had to get the blue paint out to create a sea for their ship to sail on and treasure had to be found which led to treasure maps and lots of talk of “X marks the spot”. The children even used materials in the garden to add planks for the pirates to walk along. We hope that you enjoy these photos of the children showing great creativity and fantastic teamwork.

Skull and crossbones to show we are pirates.

We need to make it look like a pirate ship.

Family Rhyme Time

Friday saw our first Family Learning event of the year and we are delighted that a good number of children and their families chose to take part. Nursery rhymes was the theme and everyone seemed to have good fun with scissors, glue and singing lots of different rhymes. Thank you to Eileen, our Family Learning Co-ordinator, for organising this great activity – everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Here are some of the children busy with their families.

Time for Rhyme

Please remember that tomorrow (Friday) sees our first Family Learning event of the year. Eileen, our Family Learning Co-ordinator, has organised “Time For Rhyme” sessions for you and your child to decorate rhyme bags and make some rhyme ‘props’. These sessions are 9-10 or 10.45-11.45 and 12.15-1.15 or 2-3 in the Family Room across from the school hall. We hope that you all have fun.

Language Programme

For those parents who have been using our English language programme to develop their child’s communication skills, I have now added books eleven and twelve to our blog. They can be found if you click on the link on the right that says “Learning English”. Parents who will be new to Nursery in a few weeks may also find this a helpful tool.
Although initially intended for children with English as an Additional Language, this programme could be useful for any child who needs a little help and encouragement to develop his/her language skills. We hope that these new books are useful to support your child’s learning at home.