We sing in Nursery every day so we thought we would let everyone hear what we sound like. These are two of our favourite songs. Well done to Eva and Sarah for introducing “Wind the Bobbin Up”. Please leave a comment to tell us what you think of our singing.
The children’s “special books” will be sent home next week, prior to our parental consultations. The personal learning plan is a shared document between children, parents/carers and the Nursery staff to celebrate the children’s learning and development during their time in Nursery. We encourage parents to record any achievements from home that they feel are important for their child. Lately, for example, we have been able to record someone learning to ride their bike without stabilisers, which we all know is a wonderful landmark in every childhood and deserves pride of place in this record of achievements.
We would like to remind parents/carers that these books are on display to browse at any time. The children often look at them during the Nursery session and love to show them to their families. However, we hope that everyone enjoys having their “special book” home for a few days.
This week we found out a little about the artist, Kandinsky. It was quite tricky trying to say his name and some of us just called him “Kandy” which was a bit easier. A few children thought he looked as old as Robert Burns and wondered if they knew each other because both their pictures looked old.
Once we had made our painting in the style of Kandinsky, we talked about our work and compared it to Kandinsky’s painting. Here are some of our ideas.
As part of our learning about Chinese New Year, the children made a dragon and have been enjoying performing a simple dragon parade to Chinese music. If you would like to watch them having fun with this, you can come a little early to pick your child up on Tuesday 15th February at 11.15 or 2.45 when we will be in the hall. We hope you will enjoy having a different insight into our activities.
With the arrival of Chinese New Year, the sounds of “Gung Hay Fat Choy” (“Happy New Year”) have been heard round Nursery as we learn about the traditions, celebrations and story of this special time for Chinese people. Our Chinese feast consisted of noodles, rice, prawn crackers and various sauces for dipping. Great fun was had by all, trying to use chopsticks – who would have thought that snack could be such fun?
Our own Chinese restaurant in the role play area has been very popular and dancing to Chinese music has provided a wonderful calm among the excitement. Some of the children’s ideas about life in China have been delightful: there may not be “purple houses made from butterflies, sparkles and stars with fairies at the bottom” in China, as one child suggested, but what an imaginative picture she painted.
“Gung Hay Fat Choy” to families and friends from all the children and staff at Hecklegirth Nursery.
Our favourite little teddy, Stan the Star, loves visiting the children at home and everyone seems to be very kind to him when he comes to stay. He has had some busy times lately, including a holiday to Blackpool with Dylan.
To celebrate Burn’s Day, the children had fun at home with their families designing a Scottish outfit for Stan the Star. As you can see from the photos, there were some great ideas. The children are very proud of their efforts and demonstrated great talking skills when describing their designs to the rest of the children.
Click on the photos to get a closer view.
As Burn’s Day approaches, we are learning about Robert Burns and Scottish culture. The children have been amazed to learn that Robert Burns has visited Annan and some may even be dragging you to the local chip shop to see the plaque on the wall that tells us this.
To prepare for our Burn’s celebrations, or as one of the children called it “Our Tartan Party”, we have been learning “Ye Cannae Shove Yer Granny Aff the Bus” and “Three Craws” which we will perform next week. The afternoon children will celebrate on Tuesday with P1, P2 and P3/2. The morning children will have their celebration on Wednesday with P4 and P5. If possible, it would be great if the children could wear a little tartan to help us all join in the spirit of the event.
Along with oatcakes, cheese and Irn Bru the children thought that some shortbread would be a tasty addition to our “Burn’s Supper”. Miss Wilson has spoken to the kind ladies in the kitchen and they will be making some for us. However, we are also baking shortbread ourselves: as you can see from the photos, some of the children are demonstrating very good skills. Mrs. Lindsay, Mrs. Hamilton and Miss Wilson were lucky enough to be chosen as “tasters” and they were very impressed with our baking.
On our return to Nursery this week, we all enjoyed a very exciting, “hands-on” visit by Zoolab.
A cockroach called Larry, Maurice the millipede and best friends, Oscar and Daisy the snails were among our visitors. We learned some amazing facts about the lifestyles of these animals and the children were particularly impressed by the fact that snails have more teeth than sharks and Larry the cockroach will actually eat smelly socks.
Many of the children also enjoyed the opportunity to stroke and hold these animals, which was a memorable experience. We have captured some of their impressions in photos and comments below. Click on the photos to get a closer view.
Zak: “The spider was good ‘cause it nearly chased that bug”.
Poppy: “Oscar’s kiss feels cold”. (snail)
Jannat: “He’s tickly”. (cockroach)
Remo: “Oh! Oh! it feels really really slimy”.(snail)
Aidan: “I liked the snake ‘cause it’s slinky”.
Dylan: “It’s a bit scribbly”. (cockroach on his hand)
Sarah: “What number’s his legs? It looks like a lot.” (the millipede)
Phoebe: “I loved the snake. It felt soft”.
We hope that everyone enjoyed our concert performance this week. The children have had fun practising with Primaries 1, 2 and 3/2 and you could clearly see the enjoyment on their faces when they performed for their families and friends.
After the great excitement of the concert, it was lovely to see so many parents and grandparents join us for a relaxing time making Christmas decorations with the children. Our thanks go to Eileen and Jennifer from Family Learning who make these events so welcoming for everyone. It’s always wonderful to see so many families join in activities in the Nursery.
We hope you like our decorations. We certainly had great fun making them.
