outdoors – Page 27 – Hecklegirth Nursery

Ice Investigators

There is no better way to learn about the signs of winter than to be outdoors on a frosty day which is exactly what the weather brought us this week. The effects of a frosty night brought excitement and great opportunities for the children to learn about winter weather. Hard, frozen ground and puddles of ice became exciting resources to experiment with and the children had lots of discussion about how it felt and what would happen if they took it inside. Cayne said, “If you stamp it, it crunches but it goes to water inside”.
We had a super team of investigators trying to work out why the digging area had become so hard and various tools were used to try to break it up. Ben said, “If you drag ice, it breaks a bit” and there was a lot of discussion about whether the digging area would stay like this forever because the sun was out but the ice was not melting.
Instead of our mud kitchen, the children decided that they would have an ice kitchen and they set about making soup and ‘hot stuff’ because they thought it would warm us up. There was certainly a lot of cooking going on and we had helpers in all corners of the garden searching for pieces of ice to break up for ingredients. James said, “You can saw ice off a puddle to make it better”.
We counted how many pieces of ice we had in a pan and discussed the different sizes and shapes of them – some children noticed that we couldn’t find a circular piece of ice which caused some great discussion. We even found a few frozen numbers and tried to find others. Well done all you super thinkers who were outdoors this week – you helped each other to learn about the effects of winter.

Blast Off!

This group of children worked well together recently when they decided to build their own rocket. They showed super teamwork and creativity in using materials to hand to produce a rocket as part of their imaginative play. Once the rocket was created, they all shouted “5…4…3…2…1… blast off!” as they set off in space for more adventures. Well done all of you for working well as a team. We love your rocket.

Teamwork Makes A Good Fire

The afternoon children had such fun with their camp fire that we offered the morning children the opportunity to make one too. They worked so well together searching the Nursery garden for broken wood, twigs and leaves to add to the pile ready for burning and they too enjoyed gathering round their fire for a chat. We listened carefully for the crackling noises and watched while the wind blew the smoke and helped the fire to burn. Well done boys and girls for being very sensible around the fire.

Camp Fire Chat

Camp fires are a great place for a chat and some of the afternoon children asked today if they could have a fire outdoors like we had earlier in the month when we were learning about staying safe on Bonfire Night. We hunted out everything we needed and quickly had our fire on the go. Some of the children noticed a pile of broken pieces of wood we had been storing to one side and suggested that we add them to our fire which made for a great little blaze. It was lovely to hear the children chatting as they sat by the fire and there was lots of valuable conversation about why we needed to keep our distance as well as great discussion about the wonderful smell and sounds created by our fire.

Outdoor Learning On Fire

After the excitement of Hallowe’en, the children have been talking this week about Bonfire Night. They have been learning why we celebrate it and sharing their personal experiences as well as responding to “Music For The Royal Fireworks” by Handel. No learning about Bonfire Night is complete, of course, without a discussion about staying safe but, rather than simply talking about the dangers of fire and fireworks, we went out into the Nursery garden to make our own little fire. There was lots of discussion about the heat from a fire and what could happen if we touched it although we all agreed that it was lovely to feel the heat from a safe distance. We watched some sparklers being lit and talked about who is allowed to touch fireworks. There was lots of learning happening around this little fire and it even continued into the next day when some of the children decided that the fire must have gone out because it was raining and water puts out fire. Well done boys and girls for sharing your ideas and showing good understanding of the importance of safety around fires and fireworks.

Garden Teamwork

It’s that time of year when we need to clear our gardens and prepare for the winter ahead. Earlier this week a very busy little group of gardeners worked hard to empty the old soil from our raised bed to add into the digging and mud kitchen area of the Nursery garden. Great teamwork was in evidence and the children loved doing such an important job. Well done all those super helpers who joined in.

Parachute Play

The last day of term was one of beautiful Autumn sunshine so it was the perfect opportunity for some parachute games. The children showed good listening skills and great teamwork to ensure lots of fun was had by everyone. I wonder if we will have any more sunny days like this next week when we return to Nursery?

Callum’s Sunflower

Callum paid a visit to Nursery today from Primary 1 to show us photos of the sunflower he had grown from the seed he planted in Nursery last term. As you can see, he has looked after his sunflower very well and has shown great gardening skills to grow his plant to an enormous seven feet two inches which we reckon converts to 2.18 metres.
Well done Callum for showing super growing skills and thank you very much for bringing your photos to show us. I wonder if anyone else has photos of their sunflowers grown from the seed planted in Nursery?
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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.
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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.