It has not taken long at the start of a new term for the children in the Sunshine Room to get their suits and boots on to join in the outdoor play. As you can see, they are looking confident to sample the activities in our garden, regardless of the weather. Bikes and puddle jumping seemed to be the most popular when we captured them on the camera recently. Click then click again to make the photos bigger.
Jack Frost was particularly helpful with our learning today as some of the children tried to work out why they could not dig outdoors as normal. The hard, frozen ground prompted them to try out all kind of tools, including the drill, to break through for treasure but they learned that frozen ground is very hard. There was more mystery when the water would not come out of the water butt tap and they wondered if the birds could possibly have drunk all of it over the weekend. Thank you Jack Frost for providing us with the best learning opportunity about winter that we could have had.
For most adults, hours of heavy rain are not likely to put smiles on their faces, but for Nursery children it provides great opportunities for fun experimentation especially when we add some washing-up liquid and a few appropriate resources.
After a recent heavy deluge we had a range of objects out in the garden which produced some valuable discussions about floating and sinking as well as lots of pouring and measuring to develop numeracy skills. The children worked so well together and enjoyed investigating their ideas in a real life context. Great fun was had, for example, by our younger children experimenting to balance their little ducks on a floating piece of wood. What better way to learn some early science?
It may have been a little inconvenient for adults to use a different entrance to Nursery but the children certainly took advantage of conditions that were very exciting for them.
Click then click again for a closer look at our clever little learners.
Just like the afternoon children, those in the morning showed good listening skills when learning about staying safe with fireworks. They were very patient waiting their turn for their sparklers and all followed the rules very well. It’s good to know that you remembered how to stay safe boys and girls.
Sparklers are a great way to learn about staying safe with fire and the children listened so well to all our instructions when we enjoyed them in the Nursery garden last week. Just look at the faces of the afternoon children, all concentrating and listening to our advice as we talked about how to behave and what to do once the sparkler is finished. Some were more cautious than others but everyone was happy to hold a sparkler so well done boys and girls for being confident to try out something that was new to many.
As we have been talking about staying safe for Bonfire Night, we had a fire in the garden last week to support our discussions. Toasting marshmallows also gave us the opportunity to talk about what happened to them as they were heated over the fire and they certainly tasted delicious once our experiment was over. The children used some good vocabulary as they talked about how the marshmallows felt once they were cooked as they found them “sticky”, “stretchy” and “like a spider”.
Brooke’s family has been looking at the photos of the children’s ‘sticky mud game’:
“Brooke loves exploring in mud and getting messy so I can imagine how much fun this would of been for her, looks like a great game they have all created together. Well done everyone.”
It was a super game which kept them engaged for such a long time. Great teamwork!
We love it when the children play co-operatively to plan and carry out their own ideas. These photos show a group of children playing a game of their own creation which they called “The Sticky Mud Game”. They used the resources that they found outdoors and made their own rules, telling me, “You have to get the mud and move it into the puddle. It’s a bit hard but it’s easy if you keep doing it”.
As the children moved mud into the puddle, they then realised that the puddle was filling up so they said, “We need to make the puddle bigger so there’s room for the mud”. Cups and bowls were then used to transport water from another part of the garden to make the puddle bigger.
What super teamwork and creativity they have shown to invent their own game, agree on the rules together and work out how to solve problems they came up against. We love the Sticky Mud Game.
As part of our recent learning about the changing seasons, a group of children visited the nature area to look for signs of Autumn and were very good detectives, collecting lots of natural materials which they then used to produce their own works of art back in the Nursery garden. As you can see, they decided to have a little picnic in the nature area as a reward for all their hard work.
“Autumn Walk to School Week” begins tomorrow Monday 2nd October. The underlying intention of the initiative is to encourage pupils to walk, cycle or scoot to and from school and Nursery where it is safe to do so.
Dumfries and Galloway Council is supporting and promoting this activity throughout the region and we hope that Hecklegirth children actively participate in this healthy lifestyle initiative. Let’s hope that we are lucky with the weather for “Autumn Walk To School Week” and that we see lots of children joining in.
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