Responsible Citizens – Page 18 – Hecklegirth Nursery

Top Tips for Buddies

Primary 6 pupils have been visiting Nursery for some time now and good relationships are being built which will help to support those children moving to Primary 1 at Hecklegirth in August. You may have noticed some of the photos of the P6 buddies and Nursery children playing together on our transition board. We thought we would share some of the thoughtful comments of P6 as they were asked to write about top tips in their role as buddies.

First you need to get to know them. You can get to know them by playing a game or two.
Be kind. If you use unkind words they might copy.
Be patient. Little ones take longer to make a decision.
Be loyal. Don’t abandon them, they wouldn’t like that.
Don’t just play, help them play.
You need to be friendly. Have you tried making them laugh? You should as it helps with bonding.
Be responsible and sensible. You have to have a good attitude and good behaviour.
Don’t let them get away with everything. If you do so they might misbehave.
Nursery kids are a lot more sensitive than you or me so always pay attention to what they’re up to.
Always listen to their opinions and decide together what to do.
If you see your buddy by themselves or upset, go over and cheer them up.
Have fun but make sure to still help and teach them a thing or two about going to Primary 1.
“Sugar coat” – sometimes you have to tell a little white lie to protect their feelings.
Be kind. If they make something like a drawing, say something nice.
Every Nursery kid loves a good story but one problem, they can’t read so read it to them.
You must help your buddy to learn or, when they get older, they’ll struggle.
Tell them a bit about you. Tell them your name, age and many more things.
Be kind to them because if you’re bad or mean, they’ll grow up to be bad or mean.

As you can see, the older children have thought carefully about their buddy role and take it seriously. We look forward to more fun times ahead with the buddies.

Clever Girl

Georgia’s family was impressed with her making toast on the fire last week, leaving a post saying “Clever girl”. The children have certainly learned quickly what to do when we have a fire and always behave very safely and sensibly when we make one. The toast tastes delicious too.

Super Concentration

Joshua H’s family likes the photo of him making toast on the fire:

“Joshua loves experimenting with & making food & doing different activities. He’s concentrating so much in this photo, he would of been in his element.”

You are right. Joshua does look as if he is concentrating well. You can’t beat making your own snack outdoors – I’ve not seen the children so enthusiastic about toast for a while.

Toast in the Rain

The afternoon boys and girls have been asking for a little while if we could have another fire but the weather seems to have been against us each time we have planned to do it so we decided last week to experiment with a fire under our outdoor canopy. As you can see, this was a great success and it was lovely to make toast on the fire while the rain trickled down on the canopy roof. It’s amazing how many pieces of toast were made that day and the thick slathering of jam seemed to make it particularly tasty.

Toothtastic Tuesday Part Two

As promised, here are photos of the afternoon children enjoying the Toothtastic Tuesday activities. They listened well and hopefully learned about how to look after their teeth from avoiding sugary foods and drinks to the best way to clean their teeth and what happens at the dentist.
Thank you to all those parents who joined us for these activities and for your valuable feedback. Thank you also to Eileen, Jacqueline and Nikki for their time and effort to provide the children with fun and learning. You should all have an information pack for home in your child’s tray. We hope that this answers some of the questions that your feedback highlighted.

Dentists in Nursery

This week the children enjoyed some fun activities to help them learn about looking after their teeth, healthy diet and what happens when they go to the dentist. Toothtastic Tuesday was organised by Eileen, our Family Learning Co-ordinator, Jacqueline and Nikki from Childsmile and the Nursery staff and it was lovely to have around 20 parents join us on the day to help the children as they moved round the different activities.
The dentist’s role play area was very popular, as you can see from the photos, and Jacqueline helped the children learn why the dentist uses different equipment. We really appreciated her bringing lots of masks and mirrors so that each child could try out the equipment and understand that everyone needs a new dental mirror and mask to avoid getting germs.
There were also puzzles, a drawing activity, an opportunity to use the big teeth models to learn how to brush properly and an activity to measure out the number of spoons of sugar in different foods and drinks. Hopefully the children have learned which drinks and food are healthier for their teeth.
Thank you very much to Eileen, Jacqueline and Nikki for all their help and equipment. Thanks also to those parents who joined us on Toothtastic Tuesday. We think that the children had a fun learning experience.
Here are some photos of the morning children busy at the various activities. We will post photos of the afternoon children in the next few days.

Toothtastic Tuesday

We are looking forward to Toothtastic Tuesday tomorrow at either 11.00 – 11.45 or 12.15 – 1.00. Childsmile staff Jacqueline and Nikki have worked with us and Eileen, our Family Learning Co-ordinator, to arrange some fun activities based on keeping our teeth healthy. Thank you to those parents who have returned the slip to say that they will be joining us. We are looking forward to seeing you there.

Eat Better Feel Better 2017

Early Years Scotland have advised us that Eat Better Feel Better’s latest healthy eating initiative has been launched.

This year’s campaign will focus on helping frustrated parents get greens on plates, and children across Scotland will be challenged to try a new vegetable every day for five days. Go to the website below for more information on the campaign.

https://www.eatbetterfeelbetter.co.uk/

There is also a link to this site on the right hand side of this page under “Useful Links”

New Wood Supplies

As our wood supplies were dwindling in our outdoor area, we were lucky to get a delivery as a kind donation from Mr. Kerr at the end of last term. As you can see from the photos, the children loved being little helpers to carry the wood into the garden and some decided that they wanted it painted so they took on the responsibility of doing that themselves. Of course, as soon as a new pile of wood appeared, it was not long before dens were being built and lots of super imaginative play developed as a result. Well done for more super teamwork boys and girls.